Mac seems to have the type of leadership that would get me to shut down out of spite.
There's no such thing as one size fits all. We all know Sid is f***ing weird, but he is also at least partially chill in that his weirdness is doing the same thing over and over again rather than demanding perfection out of everyone around him. Phil Kessel will always be a hero of mine for giving that 'you must hate yourself to win' mentality the finger. I'd like to think Sid isn't so demanding of everyone around him in part because of some of the guys he's won with...and I think it's entirely possible that part of Mac's personality here is that pressure to win himself. Dude is too good to not even be the best player from his hometown.
Let's be clear here, I'm under no expectation that I'd be friends with everyone on the team I root for, never mind one I'd play for. The problem is that when you set a hard line and start making demands and throwing out 'tough love' for mistakes. Adding unnecessary pressure to a high-pressure job is more often going to result in the boiler blowing out than a more efficient burn.
I think players being more aware of what diet and exercise is a good thing in general, and I want to hear about guys on my team being hard workers and whatnot. I just also know how I react around people who get zealous about that kind of thing. It's too easy for me to imagine fractures in a locker room like that. We succeeded with Phil because we let Phil be Phil, not because we badgered him into being a completely different player. You can't just let
everyone be Phil Kessel and doing their own thing, but you also can't demand that everyone be in the other extreme either. Every team is going to have players of different backgrounds, different personalities, different bodies, different strengths, different weaknesses. Good leaders strike a balance. Bad leaders demand fealty.
Generally speaking this is the kind of conversation that makes you realize just how pointless leadership awards are. Truly the 'best' leaders are the ones that can alter their styles on an individualized basis and understand boundaries...stuff that's a lot harder to find out about than these kinds of antics. Also coming to the realization that Herb Brooks would have been the worst possible coach for someone like me