Dec 23, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle watches his team warm up before the game against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Shanny Breaks His Silence
The President’s silence ended in late January of this year when he met with the players following the firing of head coach Randy Carlyle. He seemed to have issued a stern warning to the players who might be “dogging it” letting them know that he was watching even though he hadn’t been saying much.
“I felt it was a good time to remind them what expectations are, try to galvanize the group,” Shanahan told the media at the time. “We’re not at the end of the season, we’re at the midpoint of the season; they’re still in the hunt here. How they’re going to be defined is really up to them. I also wanted to make it very clear to them that we’re watching, we’re on it. They’re not getting by us. They’re not escaping us. We’re not going to be a group that is afraid to act if we feel we can make ourselves better.” (NHL.COM)
“We’re going to learn a lot more.” he added. “There’s a lot more pressure on them. They know it. Individually some of them have to be better. As a team we have to be better. It’s going to be a big challenge and we’re going to learn a lot of things about our core in the coming weeks. One of the things we expressed to the players today is we’ve seen the good and we’ve seen the bad, and at a certain point you’re going to tell us who you are. This is another opportunity to see what our guys are made of.” (NHL.COM)
With new interim head coach Peter Horacek at the helm, Shanahan expected to see a blunt response from his players. They had been put on notice and now the ball was in their court. They responded by winning only once in their next 12 games. Somewhere in the middle of that horrific losing streak, Shanahan decided that he had seen enough from the core group of his hockey team.
Next: Scorched Earth Approved