Stars head coach calls out his team in brutally honest press conference.

More drama in Dallas.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Stars head coach calls out his team in brutally honest press conference.
Dallas Stars

The Dallas Stars have simply not put up the results they have been expected to produce and as a result of series of comments have come out of that organization suggesting that management as well as the organizations top brass is entirely unhappy with those results.

This of course all started when Dallas Stars CEO Jim Lites made some rather shocking comments when he openly bashed the organizations top 2 stars in in forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. The comments were not kind to either player, and that is putting it very mildly, and it was the start of drama in Dallas that would get carried in the news for several days after the comments were made.

“He’s pissed,” Lites said when describing the feelings of owner Tom Gaglardi back in December in The Athletic. “And you know what it’s about.”

“They are fucking horse-shit, I don’t know how else to put it,” Lites said. “The team was ok. But (Tyler) Seguin and (Jamie) Benn were terrible.”

“These guys are not good enough. They’re not good enough for me, they’re not good enough for the owner, and they’re certainly not good enough for the general manager, who I can’t speak for, but it’s not good enough for the job he’s done,” Lites added. “But we’ve had meeting after meeting after meeting. The accountability on the ice is not there. These guys were signed to big contracts because they were the third- and sixth-leading scorers in the National Hockey League over the past five years. They get their money, we expect them to not be outplayed every game we play in. And if they were as good as they’ve been in the past we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

The comments from Lites made headlines around the country and although the language and tone was rather harsh it was not some rogue outburst from a CEO in the National Hockey League. It would become crystal clear over the days that followed the initial comments from Lites that he not only had full support of ownership when he made the comments, but that he was also expressing the frustrations of general manager Jim Nill

Keeping that in mind many openly wondered how the comments would impact production from the players in the Stars locker room, and if the recent comments from head coach Jim Montgomery are any indicator it appears the message still has not gotten through. Montgomery spoke to the assembled media last night and he pulled no punches in his comments, openly admitting that a culture of mediocrity had formed in the Stars locker room.

"I’m very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance, and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity.”

The frustration on Montgomery's face told the real story however and it was made very clear that Stars head coach is having a difficult time getting through to some of the players in his locker room. Montgomery also openly questioned some of the decisions made by his players on the ice and you have to wonder how much longer this can go own before something finally gives in Dallas.

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