Ottawa Senators coach loses temper after sour road trip

After returning from a road trip, home cooking didn't taste so nice when Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher stopped practice to make a loud, emphatic point.

Boucher lost his temper during practice in Ottawa on Tuesday, slamming his stick onto the ice repeatedly and cursing at his team.

He was trying to focus on positioning, which the team struggled with over the weekend. They lost 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings and 5-1 to the Anaheim Ducks.

"You always put your foot down as a coach. You do it in different ways. Sometimes you pull back, which I have done this year, sometimes you inject, like I had to do today. It's my job to make sure the standards don't go down and the players realize that, the leaders realize that," Boucher told reporters after practice.

"Our compete level wasn't good enough, and that's just unacceptable. ... That's something we can't accept of ourselves. We're a much harder team to play against than we showed the last game, the last four periods."

It's my job to make sure the standards don't go down and the players realize that.- Guy Boucher, Ottawa Senators head coach

In Boucher's first season as coach, the Senators have had a decent start to the season sitting second in the Atlantic Division at 16-11-2. But the veteran coach is known for unleashing his wrath at times.

For his part, forward Bobby Ryan wasn't fazed.

"I wouldn't look at it as a tongue-lashing, it's an opportunity to get better. And he called some guys on the plays that they made in practise and that's how you get better as a team," he said.

Captain Erik Karlsson agreed.

"I think it's his job to get everybody to be on the same page, and then it's our job to do it and we've got to do it. And he's putting in his effort," he said.

The Sens will look to fix their issues in a rematch with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday evening at the Canadian Tire Centre. Ottawa beat San Jose last week, 4-2.