San Jose Sharks
Warsofsky Defends Laviolette: ‘Most Coaches Don’t’ Go Into Locker Room After Loss
New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette has been catching a lot of flak over the past week following comments he made after a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 6. San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, on the other hand, thinks that the backlash is unwarranted.
Per Vince Mercogliano of USA Today, Laviolette told media, “I don’t have a message right now. I don’t go into the locker room after the game,” after his team suffered a 5-1 loss on their home ice last Monday. Many were upset by the comments, but according to Warsofsky they shouldn’t be.
“I think for [Laviolette] to get attacked [for] this is absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion,” the San Jose Sharks’ coach said.
According to Warsofsky, coaches normally do not go into the locker room following a loss: “I think if you were to take a poll around the league, there’d be a lot of coaches that don’t go in there.”
The San Jose Sharks bench boss did acknowledge that, in certain cases, it may be necessary though.
While many would assume that it would be customary for a coach to console, or lecture, his team following a difficult loss, it’s clear that isn’t the reality around the NHL. Warsofsky confirmed that former San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn, who he was an assistant for, also took the same approach while reiterating, “Most coaches don’t.”
Warsofsky explained: “This is an emotional sport, this is one of the most competitive games in the world, [these are] the most competitive people there are, as far as hockey players. So there’s a lot of emotion that goes into that. For us as coaches to go in there [after] a tough loss, it makes zero sense.”
Things have been far from ideal for the Rangers this season, within the past 24 hours they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention and had Calvin de Haan speak out on social media regarding his usage since joining the organization. Pierre LeBrun also believes that the Rangers will move on for Laviolette after the season.
The team’s underperformance this season has led to a lot of blame on Laviolette among others, but in this case, it’s undeserved.
The rangers have no one to blame but the under achieving players.
I think that’s an interesting point. I’d like to learn what an NHL head coach actually does. I get the feeling that they’re largely sports psychologists/manipulators who are responsible for getting the best performance out of players.
So with that logic, I think the coach can be held largely responsible for underachieving as a group, even though there’s always alot of responsibility, blame, and credit to go around. Roster construction, player performance, injuries, coaching philosophy, and all sorts of stuff factor into the success of a season, but ultimately the leaders of an org share the credit/blame for it.
This is a good example of the uselessness of “talking sports” outside of breaking down games and statistics. There is so much “if I was a player and this happened I’d be like this” and “the room must be a mess because of this and this, which I think means that”. And it’s all horseshit. There are so many little things that go into these relationships that we have no way of knowing about which make an event that looks one way to an outsider missing all context, when it’s another way entirely. And, as in the case of this… Read more »
Yeah man, but it’s harmless speculation, like talking about our favorite characters in a book series or something. It’s just another way to engage with the storyline that’s unfolding before us. Have fun dude, it’s not that serious!
I only really read the comments here to stay up to date with the light rail situation.
interesting to watch these teams implode in real time (NYR, BOS, maybe CHI…)
Helps put everything in perspective for CA hockey and how promising the pacific division looks in the coming years.