Jeff Petry had openly criticized Dominique Ducharme’s system of play after a 5-2 loss against the Penguins on December 14 in Pittsburgh.
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“It’s frustrating, it’s always the same thing,” he said. We don’t play as a team, we don’t play as a group. Looks like there is no structure on the ice. »
Very complimentary of Martin St-Louis since his hiring, Petry has kept a greater restraint by returning to the work of Ducharme.
“There have been changes with the team over the summer,” he recalled. Phil [Danault] was part of it. To lose a player like him, with what he had done for the team in the playoffs, was a big loss. The situation was frustrating, we saw things a little differently. I thought we were doing the same thing again and getting the same results. You want to win, you want to be successful, but you don’t get results. It was getting frustrating for everyone.
“Adjustments were necessary. But I don’t believe there was a single person to blame. There were a multitude of things. »
Petry refused to talk about an ideological war between him and Ducharme.
“There was no personal conflict. I was doing things to improve the team and relaying messages that I heard. The atmosphere in the locker room was heavy. »
A role of father
Away from his family for several months, Petry will now return to Michigan to find his loved ones.
“I’ve only seen them twice in the last two months. My wife warned me: when you come back, you come back. I will follow baseball and hockey practices. I’ll drop them off at school. I will do the taxi. »