A Question of Attitude

Something I've been meaning to discuss for a while is the attitude of the team and the way it affects their play on a nightly basis.

An anonymous commenter asked this question earlier today:

"how tough is Terry in practice with this team? Do u think it's because the players don't wanna be here that's why they don't wanna work hard?"

The answer? Honestly, not very tough at all. It's been weeks since a practice ran over an hour, months since I've seen him skate them hard, and quite some time since I've seen him yell at anyone in a way that could be taken too badly.

That isn't to say he takes practice lightly, but as I've noted on here before, he is sincerely afraid of having players get injured in practice considering how many of them are already out of commission.

Ruskowski yells when he needs to, but never anything insulting or profane, and honestly really only does so when players talk over him while he is giving instructions, which obviously should not happen.

Hard work is all he wants from these guys, and when he gets it, he reacts well to it regardless of whether the team won or lost. He said he liked the effort in Sunday's loss, so he let the guys watch TV and do whatever else they felt like doing on the bus ride home.

The only things he was really unhappy about this weekend were the unnecessary penalties and the second period of Saturday's loss.

When I asked him if there was anything he thinks he can really do to make those penalties stop, he said he's considering fining players when they take the really stupid ones that cost the team.

The idea of fining brings up the concept of money, which is one I believe is at the core of some of attitude problems you might see at this level.

Athletes who play at a minor-league level have to love what they do, it's just a necessity.

Yes, these guys get all their expenses paid, but they still make way less money than most people do, and that puts them in a position that might cause some of them to not take things seriously enough.

There are guys like Jeff Bes, who decided to stay in the CHL and play as well as they could knowing they will one day retire as one of the best in the league all-time; guys like Darryl Smith, who still have a chance to move up and play like they hope a scout is watching; guys like Justin Styffe, who skate and check and play as hard as they can because they truly love what they are doing no matter who looks down on their talent; and then there are some other types.

Now, I'm not saying those are the only three players on the team who are 100 percent into what they're doing - or that they are 100 percent every night - just using those guys as examples, but I think it's pretty clear not everyone on this team, or in this league, gives the game their all.

My first season covering this team, I may have just been too busy getting accustomed to everything to notice any attitude problems, but I didn't really see many that I recall.

Last season was a different story, and I truly didn't believe the team could get all that far considering the way some guys behaved, or misbehaved I should say, in practice and on the ice during games.

I'm not saying that practice should be a completely serious event; these guys play a sport for a living, and they're lucky to do so and have every right to have fun with it.

But there is a line between joking around at your job and thinking your job is a joke and not taking it seriously enough to succeed.

Ruskowski knows at this point that some of the players on his roster are a liability, always just a second away from taking a costly penalty or making the wrong move in a set play because they didn't pay close enough attention to practice, but he can't really do much when he needs to bring in more players, not get rid of any.

So, the guys who talk over him in practice and put the team down a man by taking penalties when they are already shorthanded in every way get to stick around and, sometimes, make him look bad.

Obviously, he is the person who brought them in here in the first place, but when you consider how many players on the current roster are not ones he hand-picked for training camp and the fact that some of them are playing way more than they should be because of injuries, it's difficult to say if he should be blamed.

All of that aside, there is no reason any player should not want to be here. They are given a lot better care than some less financially stable teams can provide, they get to go golfing and swimming and do all the things they can't do during the winter back home, and they are treated like royalty by the fans, including the girls who most of the single ones end up dating.

So, do I think it's because of Ruskowski or because they don't want to be here that some players fail to work hard? No. But do I think that the work ethic is lacking? Most definitely.

Hopefully that answers your question(s).

UPDATE: Sorry to leave you with just this and the injury post, but apparently editing the whole section, writing a spring sports notebook and taking about two dozen scores via phone call is more time-consuming than I had hoped. I have to be up early for practice tomorrow, so I'd like to be home before midnight, and I'm going to have to hold off on that quotes post until tomorrow. I will have time tomorrow, though, for sure.

One quick note on the always-popular subject of getting Jean-Philippe Levasseur back: As previously mentioned, he should be staying with the Springfield Falcons for the rest of the regular season, as further implied by them releasing Andrew Penner after Levasseur gave up six goals in an 8-2 loss on Saturday. Of course, Penner did allow six of his own in a 6-0 loss on Sunday, and he was there on a tryout, not a loan like Levasseur.

It is fair to guess Levasseur would come back for the playoffs, but that can only happen if the Bucks make it and if they are still around after April 11 - the final day of the Falcons' regular season schedule and three weeks after the Bucks' regular season ends.

Speaking of goalies, it should be interesting to see how Penner's return affects Kyle Gajewski in Colorado. He has yet to register any playing time with the Eagles, who have not added Penner back to their roster.

Back in Springfield, Levasseur's new net companion is Bryan Pitton, who has spent most of the season with the ECHL's Stockton Thunder and was briefly called up to the Edmonton Oilers but did not play. He could get the start when the Falcons take on the Worcester Sharks tomorrow night.