Colorado Avalanche: Culture Change Needs to Start Now
The Colorado Avalanche have suffered from a losing culture for years, but perhaps things are about to change.
The Colorado Avalanche seem to have a history of hiring French-Canadian veterans who despise losing. Backup goaltender Jean Sebastien Giguere famously ripped some players for being “more worried about their Vegas trip” than winning towards the end of a dismal 2012-13 season.
At Wednesday’s practice, fellow French-Canadian veteran Francois Beauchemin ripped into the team’s lack of effort, capping off a tirade with:
“We play our best hockey and we play hard when we get down. That’s not acceptable.” pic.twitter.com/PiAQHVWSyQ
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) November 30, 2016
While I’ll believe change is happening when I see it, at least the problem is being addressed now, before it’s too late. It seems in the past, with both Joe Sacco and Patrick Roy, this kind of anger didn’t manifest until it was too late.
With Beauchemin’s blow-up and Bednar’s anger permeating the team, I have to hope the culture is about to make the turn it has needed for nearly a decade: the culture of winning at all costs. But there’s still one more group we need on board.
Core needs to be even angrier
Beauchemin is an alternate captain, so it is absolutely his place to show leadership and fire the team up. But his time in the league is dwindling, and his diminishing abilities suggest he won’t be in an Avs sweater after his contract is up.
I want to see the core going on these tirades. I want to see Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon screaming at their teammates on the bench, letting them know that being a passenger is not acceptable.
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Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie should be lighting a fire under the rest of the defense, making sure they play aggressively all the time. When Nikita Zadorov takes a bad penalty, he shouldn’t hear the end of it when he gets back to the bench.
And it almost has to come from the core to see meaningful change. If it has to come from the coach or from the old French dude with one year left on his deal, the team will continue to rely on disciplinarians to temporarily stimulate the team, only to fall back into old habits.
With the coach and vets trying to squash the losing culture early, let’s hope the rest of the team hops on board. Let the hate flow through you, Colorado Avalanche.
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