I’d ask someone to shoot me, but after the test I gave this week I’d probably have students fighting for the chance. Of course, the reason the test was so hard is that I wrote it when I got home from the 7-2 loss to the Springfield Falcons. The reason I would even request such a thing is that the Springfield game is hardly an aberrant event for the Pack this season.

What’s wrong with the Pack this year? Maybe an easier question to answer would be what’s right, because when a team with this much talent is 11-11-3 for 25 points, in 4th place (out of five) in the Eastern Division, 10th place (out of fourteen) in the Eastern Conference, and 21st (out of 27) in the entire AHL, a LOT is wrong with the Pack.

Forget for a moment that our mismatched team is clearly New York’s scraps, with seven defensemen, eleven wings, and one center. Overlook the problem of having too many vets, as the demise of the IHL forces New York to send players to Hartford for punishment instead of Manitoba, where some must sit because of the AHL veteran rule. Ignore the overwrought question of whether or not this team can survive the departure of Derek Armstrong to Europe.

What’s wrong with this team can be summed up in one word: attitude. Coach Paddock told the media after the Falcons game, "Some players think they're better than they are, and other guys, who have moved up because of injuries and are playing more, think they're real players who deserve to play more but forget what their real jobs are."

Paddock’s phrasing aside, this simply says that guys think they are too good to do what they are supposed to do. However, he can’t bench the ones who aren’t doing what they are told because we don’t have anyone else who can fill their spots at the same level of skill. Charlotte, as many have commented this year, is mighty thin. Even the players who are refusing to do what they are told aren’t that good - imagine what is down in Charlotte below them on the depth chart. Therefore, knowing that nothing can really happen to them, the guys go ahead and do whatever they want. Mike Mottau can make lazy passes through the crease, Brad Smyth can refuse to enter his defensive zone, Boyd Kane can stand and watch the game go by, and yet they are always back out for the next shift, because there isn’t anyone else to be had.

It really is doubly bad though, because not only are they not punished for poor play by being benched or shipped off to Charlotte, but also they are not rewarded for good play by being called up to New York. Rico Fata had a career game last week, 5 points against the Aeros. Although he is a wing, Rico has been playing center for the Pack and has been outstanding. Lindros and Messier, both centers, are injured. Somehow, New York still couldn’t see a reason to call him up. Knowing that nothing they do will help them, players such as Barrett Heisten, Jamie Lundmark, and Peter Smrek have actually slid backwards in their play. If Rico’s play and the circumstances didn’t earn him a call-up, then no one has a chance.

So, what has happened is that we have created a team of individuals who don’t care to work together, because they have no belief in a common good. They push and shove during warm-ups (and I don’t mean the normal puppy-dog playfulness we are used to seeing), yell at each other during games, hog the puck if they have it and make no attempt to go get it if they don’t, stand and watch the play, take lazy penalties, and generally skate around as if they were the only ones on the ice. They look as though they believe they are trapped in the “Groundhog Day” of hockey, doomed to keep coming back to the rink and go through the same old s--- each day.

So then, what’s right with this team? They have all the talent needed to put together a good team: scorers in Smyth, Dawe, and Fata; playmakers in Heisten, Grosek, and Mottau; solid defensemen in Virtue, Richter, and Smrek; agitators in Severson and Mehalko; heavies in Scott and Gagnon; solid goaltending in Holmqvist and Labarbera; and tested leadership in Gernander. We have all the pieces.

What we need is something to pull this team together. Paddock has all the personality of wallboard, so it isn’t going to be him. Kenny seems to only really spark this team when he is injured (and then they tend to be sparked, and then go to pieces) and we certainly don’t wish for that. There’s been a distinct lack of antics on-ice, such as those brought by PJ Stock, Derek Armstrong and Dale Purinton, but I believe that may be more an effect than a cause for this suicidal slump the team has fallen into. Bringing back Army would just make this team look backward rather than forward, which is likely to intensify the problem, or at the very least put off the development of a real solution.

Messier took the team out for ‘beverages’ to snap a slump in New York. Can we get some of those beverages sent up here?

Heather

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