HAMILTON, Ont–Not good enough! Not nearly good enough! That was the message that Hamilton Bulldogs coach Don Lever sent to his players yesterday when he put them through an extended “bag skate” at Copps Coliseum. The Bulldogs dropped a 2-1 decision to the Peoria Rivermen on the same ice for their fifth loss in the last six games. “I haven’t seen the ice this bad since Lorne Molleken was the coach,” said one Copps Coliseum worker, as he surveyed how chewed up the ice surface was after the Dogs finished stops and starts followed by more stops and starts. What made yesterday’s punishment practice even more interesting was that the players were wired and their heart rates were shown on a screen taped to the glass behind the players bench. That made it very easy for Lever to see who wasn’t in shape or who wasn’t skating as hard as they could be. “I think we can work a little harder than we do. We were average, but that’s not good enough if you want to win,” said Lever, who admitted he was trying to send a message to his players. “We’re on the smaller side, and when you’re not skating you’re not going to create much. We only gave up four scoring chances in two periods and it was two-zip. But we didn’t do anything offensively, and that was the problem.” Lever said a lot of the stops and starts was to simulate penalty killing and push across the idea of going to the net and stopping there. The Bulldogs could have had two or three goals against Peoria if players had stopped at the net instead of skating by it and then making lazy circles to get back in the play. “That was the first one we’ve had of the year and it was a reality check that we need to work harder,” said Dogs winger Greg Stewart of the punishment practice. “It was pretty disappointing losing our last home game before the Christmas break, but you can’t dwell on it. You just have to work harder and move forward.”
Matt D%27Agostini by Rainypete.
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