Buffaloed
webmaster
'Lots of haters out there' -- How NHLers and prospects are...
“It’s nuts,” Jake Muzzin said. “They’ve almost got to have social media mentors to help them make it through these days. These kids can get murdered out there if they got caught up in reading too much.”
Reference is made to the hate filled reactions on Twitter when Max Camtois failed to convert a penalty shot in overtime of Canada’s 2-1 WJC quarterfinal loss to Finland in Vancouver.
What the Agents tell the players:
Allan Walsh: “I do everything I can to keep players off social media and explain to them that social media is nothing more than a tool for you to brand yourself. You’re branding yourself. It’s all that you’re doing. I had one player in particular – a first-round pick – playing in the American League. It was his first year in the American League and the hate, the vitriol from people in his NHL city was, ‘You’re a bust. You’re a dog. I hope you die.’ It started getting into his head. I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve heard enough. I’ve been watching it. I want you to take all your social media and delete it right off your phone. You’re done.’ No Twitter, no Instagram, no Snapchat. Nothing. Every once and awhile we’ll be talking and he’ll mention how happy he is not having this around in his life anymore.”
Joe Resnick: “I try to tell the guys be careful what you read. You can get so entangled reading this stuff. The problem is there’s so much out there and it’s instantaneous and if a player has a bad game, it’s amplified 500 times because they see it on Twitter. We tell our guys when they speak to social media experts, practice Twitter moderation – because you can get overwhelmed. You know when you have a bad game. It’s your primary sources – the coaching staff and the development guys with your own teams that you have to listen to. If you listen to social media every day, it’ll make you crazy.”
The article mentions how agents have their own social media issues to deal with. Blocking people seems to be their method of choice.
There's a lot more to the article discussing the impact of social media and ways to deal with it from a coaches and players perspective and a communications specialist weighs in.
“It’s nuts,” Jake Muzzin said. “They’ve almost got to have social media mentors to help them make it through these days. These kids can get murdered out there if they got caught up in reading too much.”
Reference is made to the hate filled reactions on Twitter when Max Camtois failed to convert a penalty shot in overtime of Canada’s 2-1 WJC quarterfinal loss to Finland in Vancouver.
What the Agents tell the players:
Allan Walsh: “I do everything I can to keep players off social media and explain to them that social media is nothing more than a tool for you to brand yourself. You’re branding yourself. It’s all that you’re doing. I had one player in particular – a first-round pick – playing in the American League. It was his first year in the American League and the hate, the vitriol from people in his NHL city was, ‘You’re a bust. You’re a dog. I hope you die.’ It started getting into his head. I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve heard enough. I’ve been watching it. I want you to take all your social media and delete it right off your phone. You’re done.’ No Twitter, no Instagram, no Snapchat. Nothing. Every once and awhile we’ll be talking and he’ll mention how happy he is not having this around in his life anymore.”
Joe Resnick: “I try to tell the guys be careful what you read. You can get so entangled reading this stuff. The problem is there’s so much out there and it’s instantaneous and if a player has a bad game, it’s amplified 500 times because they see it on Twitter. We tell our guys when they speak to social media experts, practice Twitter moderation – because you can get overwhelmed. You know when you have a bad game. It’s your primary sources – the coaching staff and the development guys with your own teams that you have to listen to. If you listen to social media every day, it’ll make you crazy.”
The article mentions how agents have their own social media issues to deal with. Blocking people seems to be their method of choice.
There's a lot more to the article discussing the impact of social media and ways to deal with it from a coaches and players perspective and a communications specialist weighs in.
