Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – America, We Love You episode, on the Ottawa Senators and them being ‘open for business’ but they aren’t looking to give up.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jeff Marek: “The Ottawa Senators you mentioned Saturday. Steve Staois busy letting people know that Ottawa is open for business.”
Friedman: “Yeah, I think this though, I think it’s a specific kind of open for business and again if you plan, God laughs. We’ve talked about it. (Pierre) Dorian was supposed to be GM all year, he’s not. (D.J.) Smith was supposed to be coach all year, he’s not. The team was supposed to contender for the playoffs, they’re not.
I thought Brady Tkachuk was really good on after hours on Saturday night, basically saying that as far as we’re concerned, we can’t give up. We have to play until we’re officially out, or talking about the (St. Louis) Blues in 2019.”
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Marek: “He’s a Tkachuk. He’s a Tkachuk.”
Friedman: “The Blues. Yes. The Blues, the patron saints of, we don’t give up hope in January. But it’s, a player has to think like this.
I don’t think the Senators are giving up on their young core. I’ve heard they think that’s way, way, way too premature. But they are looking for pros. That was the word I heard ‘pros.’ Players who know how to play. Play the way that you need to win in this league.
They take care of themselves a certain way.
Like Ottawa has (Claude) Giroux and he’s certainly like that but they feel they need more of that. And that’s what they’re looking for. And you know, I, the other thing I heard on Sunday, someone called me back and they said, look they’re, the other thing too is they’re not just necessarily looking for guys now. I think they want to bring some guys in who can help now, but I think they’re willing to consider players who are both short-term and long-term guys, as long as they’re professional, like true pros.
Like that’s what they want. They want to bring more of those players into their organization. And I think this has been a really tough year there. And you know, I think that, like it’s kind of a tough balance. We’ve talked about how the players said that it’s too crazy there and they have to calm it down. Well, like I said last podcast, I think there’s a difference between calming it down and allowing your players to be too comfortable.
And like I said, I think the Senators feel that they are and they want to kinda feel change that little bit. I don’t think they’re in a rush, like I said, I don’t think they’re in a rush to change any of their core players. But I think they definitely want to get a more of a sense of urgency out of their group. You know, the worst thing you can do in sports is get used to losing. And I think they’re a little worried that some of those guys were used to losing.”
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Marek: “Oh yeah, that’s, that’s why rebuilds are so scary. So scary. Even if you pick up all the prospects in the world, but you have a culture of losing and this is what we do. And here’s when we quit. I totally get that Elliotte.”