Neely Talks Seguin on Felger & Mazz: 'Huge Lesson He's Going To Learn From'
BOSTON (CBS) – Boston Bruins president Cam Neely is confident Tyler Seguin will not be missing any more team meetings after being benched Tuesday night.
"This should be the last thing we hear about him missing meetings because of sleeping in or not getting there on time," Neely told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger and Massarotti Thursday afternoon. "I would love to believe Tyler is at least smart enough to know this can't happen again."
Seguin missed the team breakfast and meeting Tuesday morning in Winnipeg after what he said was an alarm clock problem. While time zones beg to differ, Neely says Seguin is telling the truth.
"He missed his wake up call," said Neely. "What he's saying is the truth, he missed his call."
Read: Seguin Benching 'Old News'
"I'm going on what he's saying. Listen, when I was 18-years-old we went from Vancouver to St Louis. At this time there were no cell phones. I had a roommate that was a veteran roommate. I put in for a wake-up call. I'm half asleep when the phone rings, my roommate answers it, and I'm like 'is that the wake up?' 'Nope, nope.' I went back to sleep and missed the team meeting. It was an internal issue; I got fined for it. And I can tell you right now it's the last meeting I missed."
For Seguin, who had a similar situation last season which was handled internally, the Bruins thought it was time to do something about his absences.
"It comes to the point where somebody has to learn a lesson. I'm sure Tyler feels terrible for letting his teammates down, letting fans down that would have loved to have seen him in Winnipeg, and fans that would have loved to see him play here in Boston on TV," said Neely. "But this is a huge lesson that he's going to learn from."
"It's not necessarily making an example of him. It's making him understand there are rules that you have to follow, that everybody has to follow," added Neely. "If you don't, and you break them, maybe the first time you'll get a pass, but if you break them you have to understand the consequences."
Thornton On T&R: 'He Slept In, It Happens'
Neely is not worried about anything Seguin is doing off the ice, and says this incident is just him sleeping in. He has not spoken to Seguin, but said coach Claude Julian has.
"They're fairly one-sided, which they should be," Neely said about those talks, adding Seguin is not upset over the benching.
"I would say more humbled than pissed," he said. "He obviously wishes he was on the ice playing; maybe a combination of embarrassment and humbled."
As for actual hockey, the Bruins will look to start another point streak after their 15-gamer was snapped with the 2-1 loss to the Jets. Before the loss, Boston had a very impressive 4-1 win in Pittsburgh, sending a message to the rest of the NHL that the defending champs are defending champs for a reason.
"It just solidified to our players we can play with anybody. We have a pretty deep team; we were getting offense from everybody, solid defense as a team, great goaltending. It might have sent a little message around the league too, it hasn't all been good bounces and luck," Neely said of the win in Pittsburgh.
"You play a pretty strong team in their building, it's going to show some other teams we're playing darn good hockey."
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