Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher watches his team during training camp on Sept. 23, 2016.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Guy Boucher says he doesn't mind bruising a few egos if it stops the bad habits that have been creeping into the Ottawa Senators' play lately.
Practising for the first time since a disappointing four-game road trip that saw them win just once, the Senators head coach was critical of every error and had no problem voicing his displeasure.
Not only did Boucher stop drills if he didn't like what he saw, he pointed fingers at those making the mistakes.
Asked if he was worried about players taking exception to the criticism, he said if anyone takes issue with being singled out then the team has much bigger problems.
"If we're that fragile, we don't deserve to be in the playoffs," said Boucher. "I believe we're a team that can acquire a much better work ethic than we had last game because we had it before."
The Senators (16-11-2) host the San Jose Sharks (16-11-1) Wednesday and Boucher knows his team can't afford to let things slide, which was one of the reasons he was so frustrated by mistakes during practice.
Players expected a tough practice considering the result of the road trip and, as for Boucher's outburst, most saw no issue with it.
"You make mistakes and you need to be professional to take that criticism and get better," said veteran Chris Kelly. "That's all he's trying to do is make us a better team, better players. It's nothing personal and I think we need to realize that."
Practice focused mainly on battle and compete drills as Boucher was frustrated by his team's effort in a 5-1 loss to Anaheim on Sunday.
"Our compete level wasn't good enough and that's just unacceptable," said Boucher. "You can make some mistakes. There is another team that's playing well and wants to win, it's the NHL, you're not alone on the ice, but when our compete level isn't there and we're not first on puck on purpose that's something we can't accept of ourselves.
"We're a much harder team to play against than we showed the last game and the last four periods and that's not something you just ask for. When you see it slip away you've got to get back in practice and do it and when you do it in practice, you do it in games."
With 15 games in November and 13 in December, practice time has been difficult to come by as Boucher tries to find the balance between rest and work for his players.
"It's a more difficult gauge than usual to be honest with you," said Boucher. "We have to figure it out because we don't want our team to drift and (Tuesday) we were in big need of practising some specifics."
Mike Condon will get the start Wednesday with Andrew Hammond as his backup. At this point it doesn't appear Craig Anderson, whose wife is undergoing treatment for throat cancer in New York, will be re-joining the team before the Christmas break as Boucher said he expects Anderson to be gone "for a while."
Chris Wideman, who took a puck to the nose Sunday afternoon, will be a game-time decision. Wideman practised Tuesday wearing a full visor. Should Wideman not play, Andreas Englund will replace him.
Wednesday night the Senators will honour Chris Neil, who played his 1,000th NHL game last Saturday. Neil is just the third player in franchise history to reach the milestone, joining Chris Phillips (1,179) and Daniel Alfredsson (1,178).