Stars captain Benn fires back at squirt hockey criticism

Jamie Benn hit back at accusations by upper management that he is not pulling his weight with the Dallas Stars this season, saying he's more concerned about what his teammates and coaches think. Stars chief executive Jim Lites ripped into the team captain on Friday describing his play as "terrible" and claiming Benn is making mistakes that would get a youth hockey player benched. "I don't play for him (Lites)," Benn said at practice on Saturday. "I play for every player in this room and the coaching staff. "I come to the rink and, like I said, I'm proud to be a Dallas Star and proud to go out there every night and battle with these guys in games. I've really put my teammates first." Lites said he has the backing of team owner Tom Gaglardi when he directed his tirade at the team's high-priced Canadian stars Benn and Tyler Seguin. Lites told sports website The Atlantic that Benn and Seguin were "fucking horseshit, I don't know how else to put it. "It's pissed me off. What nobody says is what is completely obvious to me: We are getting terrible play from our top two players. "He (Benn) makes plays in the neutral zone that if my kid had done it in squirts, he'd be benched," said Lites, who started his hockey management career in the 1980s with the Detroit Red Wings while working for his father-in-law Mike Ilitch. Seguin leads the Stars with 32 points on 11 goals and 21 assists this season. Benn, the Stars' captain since 2013, is close behind with 30 points on a team-leading 15 goals and 15 assists. Seguin's 21 assists is tops on the team. Benn won an Olympic gold medal with Canada at the 2014 Sochi Games, while Seguin won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and was a member of Canada's gold medal winning team at the 2015 World Hockey Championships. Seguin said he was taken aback by the criticism because he has not spoken to Lites since the end of last season. "I obviously didn't know how he felt," Seguin said Saturday. "So it came as a bit of a surprise. But I said it yesterday in practice that I understand I need to be better." Former Olympic gold medallist Jamie Benn has had to defend himself against criticism that he is making the type of mistakes that would get a 10-year hockey player benched