Anyone who has watched a Ducks practice during the past four seasons would not have been the least bit surprised.

With his team preparing to take on the San Jose Sharks in Sunday night’s second game of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion, Coach Randy Carlyle halted Saturday afternoon’s proceedings to deliver some choice, and colorful, words.

Asked about it afterward in his meeting with reporters, Carlyle came clean.

“I yell everyday,” Carlyle said. “Just the building got quiet.”

Carlyle changed that in a hurry. No one at the Sharks Ice practice rink could possibly have failed to hear the message he sent players — all of whom have been on the receiving end of similar tirades many times before.

“For the same reason I yelled yesterday,” Carlyle said. “Our expectation is that every day we come to the ice surface, we have to accomplish something. We weren’t in our routes and we weren’t moving the puck effectively. You can’t have that in practice. We won’t tolerate it. Our expectations of our group are higher than that.”

Thanks largely to a 35-save performance from goaltender Jonas Hiller in his NHL playoff debut, the Ducks took the early series lead with a 2-0 triumph Thursday. Another victory Sunday would put San Jose in a deep hole with action shifting to Honda Center in Anaheim for Game 3 on Tuesday.

“The process we talk about, and we’re talking about focusing on that, versus the result,” Carlyle said. “Part of our process is making sure we’re committed to improving on a day-to-day basis in practice, making sure we’re rock-solid.

“When we ask you to do a drill, a forechecking drill or a defensive-zone drill, we understand it’s not game-like conditions, but you have to be in proper position, make sure you’re committed to doing it daily. That’s what we’re going to ask.”

[Source: Ducks.FreedomBlogging.com]

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