Dekes For Days
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2018
- 20,369
- 15,467
There was no "abuse", lol. A few players were upset at an emotional point in the season, and made a stupid decision one time; without much planning and without everybody's knowledge. It got blown up by media, and then those players regretted doing it and called themselves out on it, and everybody moved on, except maybe some fringe media members desperately trying to get clicks.Your own players were so badly abused by your fans they literally refused to salute you to show their contempt.
What are you even talking about? He would have made the same amount in Toronto or NYI. However, he had no way of knowing that at the time, or if he'd get an offer at all, and throughout the entire season, NYI had serious concerns about their present and future. It's cool that your organization kinda got their **** together a couple weeks before free agency (which introduces it's own problem of dealing with all new people he didn't know), but you guys are all blasting him for not knowing months before that, and concocting weird self-hating conspiracies, when the truth is he loved both cities and teams and wanted to play for both, but when given all of the information and weighing against each other, there were more benefits and certainties to Toronto for him and his family, and he took his CBA-negotiated right after 9 years of giving a ton to a city and team that underappreciated and underpaid him.And I know if I loved a team and city I would absolutely turn down $15 million to leave them.
Sometimes, in real life, it's more complicated than complete black and white, and you love more than one thing. Him choosing Toronto doesn't instantly mean that he hated NY or he knew all along. There are a million factors to consider. This is his and his family's life, the future and quality of life for his generations to come, and basically the rest of his career legacy. You guys are brushing it off like you're playing NHL 19. He earned the right to hear all sides and choose.
And no, you probably wouldn't turn down $15 million for what is essentially no reason.
And as for that last thing: I run in the "Hockey is the entire purpose of my life" crew in the NY Metro area. These are people who go to well over 100 pro games a year and have been for decades. They know everyone and everything that is going on in multiple organizations and it's all first hand. Example: years ago me and 2 friends went to Philly and my one friend said the other was good friends with Bernie Parent. I was thinking "yeah right". So we run into Bernie and his eyes light up like he's just met his long lost brother and he runs up to my friend almost in tears hugging him. My jaw bounced right off the floor.