After another uninspired and rather dreadful effort last night, Tom Renney laid into his squad. Via Sam Weinman:

“Awful,” Tom Renney said. “Brain-dead hockey.”

“I can tell you I’m not happy with how our team played. I’m not happy with performance from some very key members of our hockey club, who need to be better,” Renney said. “They need to step up and start taking charge of this hockey club and start playing the way they can. If we do that, we won’t have to worry about personnel changes. We’ll strengthen ourselves internally by how we choose to play. Nobody has to worry about their jobs at all. Show up. Play hard. Compete. Battle. Want it bad enough. Have some urgency in your game.”

So what “very key members of our hockey club” is he talking about? Chris Drury took a -3 last night, although one of those goals against came when he was miscast as a point man on the PP. Scott Gomez was completely invisible all night, and won only 2 of 13 faceoffs to boot. Markus Naslund? Wade Redden? You wouldn’t have even realized they were on the ice if John Giannone didn’t tell you.

Lauri Korpikoski used his speed and was all over the place last night. Nigel Dawes was hitting everyone in sight. Marc Staal was superb yet again. Ryan Callahan was Ryan Callahan. The young players were the only ones skating with a sense of urgency last night; everyone else was in coast mode. It’s frustrating to watch.

Remember this though: the Blueshirts still top the Atlantic Division, and have played poorly in December the past two seasons (combined 12-15-2 record), but turned it on after the New Year (43-25-15 after). Hopefully this holds true again this season.

Mike Axisa writes for River Ave. Blues and can be reached here.

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