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I cant remember ever seeing something like this before.
The Athletic - Sean Shapiro
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"WTF”
That’s the text that Dallas Stars CEO Jim Lites says he gets five times per game from team owner Tom Gaglardi.
It happened again on Thursday night when he was watching the Stars’ 2-0 win against the Nashville Predators.
“He’s pissed,” Lites said on Friday afternoon. “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.”
The public frustration began during Thursday’s morning skate, when Stars coach Jim Montgomery told the team he was “fucking embarrassed” with the team’s practice and where they were in the standings.
For those in the Stars’ offices, that starts with the captain and the player with more job security than anyone else in the franchise.
“I don’t get it,” Lites said. “The good news is the coach got everyone else to go and we found a way and we were able to make up for their lack of playing.”
Frustration has arisen throughout the organization about Benn and Seguin’s play this season. The two are currently ranked 57th and 67th in league scoring, while the Stars are currently clawing for their life in the Western Conference playoff race. Annoyance about the two players’ uncharacteristic scoring issues bubbled to the surface, and Lites requested an interview with a couple of media members on Friday to make the concerns public.
“We are a stars-driven league, and our stars aren’t getting it done,” Lites said. “It’s embarrassing, and no one writes it. Write it!
“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.”
Benn is making $13 million this season ($9.5 million against the cap), the third-highest salary in the NHL this season. He has 30 points in 38 games.
Seguin signed an eight-year contract extension that kicks in next season worth $78.8 million over the life of the deal. He has 32 points in 38 games.
“It’s not about how much money. I don’t resent the money,” Lites said. “It’s about what we expect the money to be. You just can’t win if your best players aren’t your best players. And they aren’t best players.
“I am sick and tired and listening to bloggers and others talking about Brett Ritchie, Julius Honka, or Gavin Bayreuther, or Taylor Fedun, pick a guy,” Lites said. “We’re just too good. The fans deserve more and the owner deserves more. And I share that opinion with the owner, the fans deserve better and Benn and Seguin aren’t getting it done. Until they do we aren’t going to be good enough.”
Benn and Seguin both admitted after practice on Friday that they need to be better.
“Not good enough,” Seguin said. “I’ve got to play better. I’m trying to do a job, and I haven’t had the right results.”
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory; if this team wants to get to the next level that starts with myself,” Benn said. “And that’s exactly what needs to happen, we need to get better.
“It starts with the compete in our game and when we are possessing the puck, I think that’s when we are at our best. I think we can definitely get our possession time up in the offensive zone and we take care of our own end first we are a lot better.”
Lites also gave some insight as to what he and Gaglardi would like to see more of from the Stars’ top players.
“(Benn) the leader of the team, he stirs the drink, but he’s not doing it,” Lites said. “He’s got to get it done.”
Seguin has hit more posts and crossbars combined than any other player in the NHL, but that’s not an acceptable excuse, according to Lites.
“He’s hitting posts, ‘wah-wah.” That’s what I say about hitting posts,” Lites said. “Get a little bit closer to the action, actually go to the spot where you score goals. He doesn’t do that, he never does that anymore. He used to be a pest to play against, people hated playing against Tyler Seguin, they don’t anymore.
“These guys have been great players, but we are 40 games into this season and they aren’t getting it done. We are going to sleepwalk to another 14th place from the bottom and miss the playoffs.”
Before his interview Lites prefaced this whole conversation in two ways. First off, this was all on the record. Second, he said that throughout his career he’s never publicly commented on player performance, but with how bad Benn and Seguin have been this season, he couldn’t sit by and watch the franchise get short-changed by two players.
“I take a lesson from Bob Gainey here. He said you’d be really successful in this league if you never gave a shit about being invited to players’ daughters’ weddings, and that’s what I think,” Lites said. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m a year-to-year guy and I’ll be damned if a guy who has been as good to me as Tom Gaglardi — as good to this franchise — isn’t getting results, and those players aren’t getting it done. I’m telling you, we are gonna run through a GM who does everything he can to make the team better because we aren’t getting results.” WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE
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