a difficult player to coach and had to withstand criti

Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan can sense the frustration in Leaf Land. Speaking to TSN’s The Drive with Dave Naylor, Shanahan addressed a hectic week that saw the team fire head coach Randy Carlyle. “Our fans are angry. Our fans are frustrated. We’ve not been a very good team for many, many years. So that frustration and that anger is well earned,” Shanahan said. “The players understand that the only way out of this is to go out and play better hockey and to have success.” One player that has been a lightning rod for criticism since Carlyle’s firing is winger Phil Kessel, who has been fielding questions and comments on multiple fronts. Shanahan addressed the Kessel concerns, calling the 27-year-old “one of the most dangerous, talented players in the NHL.” “I think if you talk to Phil he’s going to be the first one to admit that he’s frustrated we’re not winning. He knows that he’s not happy when he’s not scoring. He wants this team to win.” But the President would not let the perennial All-Star off the hook for his part in the team’s current 10th-place showing in the Eastern Conference. “We need more from Phil, Phil knows that,” Shanahan added. “I think that the frustrating part for Phil is that he has been such a consistent performer as far as output of goals year, after year, after year. That comes with the territory of being a star player. When your team doesn’t win, it really doesn’t matter what your individual success is. People are going to want more.” The often media-shy Kessel has received his share of questions in the wake of Carlyle’s Tuesday dismissal. The Leafs’ top goal-scorer and point-getter every season since his 2009 arrival in Toronto was asked Tuesday if he believed he was a difficult player to coach and had to withstand criticism from his previous coach, Ron Wilson. “You can’t rely on Phil. It’s just the way it is,” Wilson – who coached Kessel for parts of three seasons - told TSN Radio on Tuesday. “He comes and goes, and he gets emotional. He lets that affect his game and his relationship with other players.” Shanahan was less than appreciative of the former coach’s comments. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Ron Wilson,” he told TSN Drive. “I don’t think that those comments are necessary. I think that he probably wouldn’t have appreciated it while he was a coach and it’s not something that helps us. He has a good relationship with Dave Nonis, so if he has advice or anything he wants to give, he could certainly make the call.” As for his core group, Shanahan admitted that praise and criticism come in equal measure depending on the results on the ice. “When you have success, your top players, your leaders, your core players get more credit than they deserve. When you don’t have success you will get more blame, maybe, than you deserve. They understand that this is about results and they understand that there is a lot of pressure on them to get those results.” But Shanahan would admit that there is still work to be done both on and off the ice. “They haven’t gotten the job done yet,” he said of his players, adding of his own performance: “I certainly wasn’t brought in here and I haven’t built the infrastructure of a management team that came to Toronto to simply have a good team that contends for the playoffs each and every year. Like a lot of teams in the NHL, it’s our goal to be a great team.” “I know our fans are frustrated and they’d like for this to happen overnight , but that’s just simply not the way it works here.” Shanahan addressed the Toronto media earlier on Friday, touching on several topics including the time-line for hiring a permanent replacement for Carlyle, the performance of both his players and his management team. He gave interim head coach Peter Horachek his backing for the duration of the 2014-15 season, saying: “Were going to wait until the off-season now. Ive been pleased with just the early reports from Peter,” he added. Peter will be one of the people that we will consider at the end of the year but were going to wait until the end of the year. As for how the team will respond, Shanahan told the media on Wednesday that the coaching change puts the onus back on the players to make the second half of the year a success. How theyre going to be defined is really up to them at this point,” he told reporters. “I also wanted to make it very clear to them that were watching and that were on it. Whether weve seen some good things or bad things theyre not getting by us, theyre not escaping us. Were not going to be a group that is afraid to act if we feel were going to be able to make ourselves better. DOnta Foreman Womens Jersey . For the Blue Jays the time was Wednesday and the ace was R.A. Dickey. He stepped up. "I feel some responsibility as a stopper from time to time," said Dickey. Arian Foster Youth Jersey . Espanyol midfielder Sanchez intercepted Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizozs clearance and, having spotted a gap, risked using his less-favoured left foot to fire a beautifully precise long-range shot that bounced in from high up the near post in the 24th minute. http://www.texansrookiestore.com/Texans-Max-Scharping-Jersey/ . A-Rod is also disqualified from any post-season play. So at the tender age of 38, he will miss all of next season. As a result of missing the coming season, hes also out $25 million (which coincidentally is my hourly rate). Andre Johnson Youth Jersey . "Youre next." Hardly. Iguodala tormented his former team with a game better than any he ever played in eight seasons with the 76ers. Justin Reid Youth Jersey .Brazil midfielder Ricardo Goulart scored the winner in the 50th minute to give the defending champion a four-point advantage in the standings over second-place Sao Paulo, which beat rival Palmeiras 2-0.Ames, IA (SportsNetwork.com) - Jameel McKay tied his career-high of 15 points and also had seven rebounds and three blocks off the bench as No. 9 Iowa State held off Kansas State 77-71 on Monday night. Georges Niang scored 14 points with six rebounds and four assists and Monte Morris and Abdel Nader each netted 11 for the Cyclones (14-3, 4-1 Big 12), who were coming off an 88-81 win over Kansas on Saturday. Nino Williams had 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting and eight boards, while Marcus Foster and Thomas Gipson chipped in 16 and 15 points, respectively, for the Wildcats (11-8, 4-2), who had their four-game winning streak come to an end. Our games gave a good effort against a really good team, Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber said. They just out-toughed us for balls. With the game tied with 2:48 to play, Naz Long made two free throws for a 71-69 Iowa State lead. Morris made a huge jumper to give the Cyclones a four- point lead with 37 tics left. I thought we had great urgency those last four or five minutes of the game, Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg. Monte made a really nice move and hit a good floater in the lanne there.dddddddddddd Long added two free throws after being fouled off an inbounds pass and Niangs free throws with nine seconds to play sealed the win. McKays 3-point play during a 6-2 run gave the Cyclones a 36-29 lead with three minutes remaining in the first half, but Foster scored seven straight points before Williams jumper gave the Wildcats a 38-36 edge with over a minute to play. After Morris pulled down his own miss on the next possession, Niang drained a 3 and the Cyclones owned a 39-38 advantage at halftime. The Wildcats stormed ahead with a 10-1 spurt that included four free throws from Gipson to take a 54-49 lead, but Nader hit two jumpers and McKay nailed a right wing trey as the Cyclones went back in front with under 10 minutes to play. Game Notes The Cyclones extended their home winning streak to 17 games, including nine straight victories against conference foes ... Iowa State started off a seasons 4-1 in Big 12 play for the first time since 1999-00 ... Kansas State has lost six of its last eight meetings against Iowa State. ' ' '