Don Cherry continues to be one of the Toronto Maple Leafs harshest critics and the war of words between the Hockey Night In Canada commentator and the organization reached another level as the 78 year old former Jack Adams Trophy winner called into question the public criticism of young forward Nazem Kadri.
Cherry took to Twitter yesterday to question the statements of Marlies coach Dallas Eakins, who stated last week that the 21 year old’s body fat percentage at the start of training camp was “unacceptable”
After putting his larger than normal squad of 34 players through skating and defensive drills in two sessions at the Mastercard Centre this morning, Eakins addressed the hue and cry created by his comments last week.
“I don’t think Naz is affected by media coverage of that.” said Eakins. “Him and I have talked about it…. I was asked a direct question about a player and all I said was that his body fat was unacceptable and now it's turned into ‘Nazem’s overweight’. Well he's not…. his weight is exactly where we want. And it's turned into ‘he's grossly out of shape’….. I never said that.”
When questioned whether the public airing of Kadri’s physical status was done as a way of motivating the talented youngster, Eakins said “I don't think you push player’s buttons in the media, especially in this market we all understand the competition to be first with information….. but using the media to motivate a guy…..absolutely not. My conversations one-on-one with Nazem Kadri, I'm sure they've motivated him.”
The Marlies coach indicated that he tries to monitor everything in the media regarding his team because what is said can affect his player’s confidence and was aware of Cherry’s strong opinion of how the Leafs have mishandled Kadri.
“Everybody has a right to their own opinion….. everyone is entitled to that and I respect that. I'm a massive fan of Don Cherry, when we're playing a night game and Hockey Night in Canada is on, I beg my wife 'Please tape that game' and it's not because I want to watch the game, I want to watch Coach's Corner and I want to watch The Hot Stove. And I always want to see what Don is going to say just like the rest of the nation. The one thing is for sure is Don is an excellent entertainer. He is….....he is great at it.
So his comments yesterday, I can shake my head at them. I know what the truth is…I know what I believe in. And listen, he's a strong willed guy, I'm sure he believes in everything that he had somebody type for him."
In spite of the rather public war being waged between Leafs GM Brian Burke and Cherry in the last year, Eakins laid out the welcome mat for the former Bruins and Colorado Rockies coach to visit his club.
"I would love for Don Cherry to come down and I invite Don to come down here and sit in my office and hey let's talk about where we're at with our players…. I'm open to anybody's thoughts and I know our players would love it if Don Cherry would come down." said Eakins. "I've never ever seen him at one of our games and I've never ever seen him at a practice and he's never come in and knocked on my door. I invite Don to come on down....'you're more than welcome at any time, you've got a lot of fans here'. We'd be honored to have him."
The Marlies continue their training camp the rest of this week, before playing their first match of the preseason against Hamilton in Cobourg, Ontario on Saturday night.
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