Cincinnati Inquirer story Thanks to Cincinnati Sports History
October 30, 1977
Achtung!
Stingers! Commandant Demers speaks. You will play solid, close-checking, position hockey
or heads will roll. That's right, folks, Jacques Demers, the Cincinnati Stingers head
coach who was brought to town to turn the WHA team into a consistent winner, has made it
official. The honeymoon is over.
The Stingers are 1-5 on the
new season, and Friday night's 3-2 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg was the final straw.
Demers would hold back no longer. "Some people on this team have shown they are not
ready to go all the way to win," said Demers. "There are four or five guys who
aren't putting out. They're not giving that little bit extra needed to win." Demers
said he isn't ready to single anyone out just yet, but he added that "if things don't
come around soon, there are going to be changes made."
The coach's outburst doesn't signal a wholesale realignment of the team, at least not yet. But he made it clear he isn't ready to settle for anything less than 100% from his players. "I want to emphasize that this isn't a question of panic," said Demers. "Bit I want to be sure who has a winning attitude and who doesn't. If a player feels uncomfortable playing my way I want him to come to me and say so and we'll go from there." He no longer believes his style of hockey, a chance from what most of the Stingers played last season, has anything to do with the team's slump. Everyone knows the system, that's not an excuse," Demers stated. "This style of hockey is nothing new. It's the same style used by good hockey teams for years. It's just hard-checking positional hockey. I won't take no for an answer any more. We're going to start playing tough, aggressive hockey."
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