Honestly I lost you with "honest, candid interview" Its the worst pile of **** I've listened to since the last time Lucic or Chiarelli were interviewed. Must be no accident they like each other. Both discharge verbal rubbish everytime they meet a microphone.
But how is an obscure interview with a Boston podcast taking responsibility in Edmonton. it isn't even directed to Edmonton and no Edmontonian outside of here would even hear about it. Still wondering what in there that you are commenting about. Lucic speaks mostly of his boston experiences and that's pretty much it.
Lucic seriously blaming the weather, SAD, cold Edmonton temps as reasons for his subperformance? That was absolutely bizarre. Its really the worst player quotes since Andrew Ference or Klefbom which is saying a lot.
What are you hearing as valid in his latest comments? Where does Lucic take responsibility?
Some players should probably just state as little as possible. Even Lucic's season exit interview was hopeless. The best Milan could state is I'll let my play on the ice answer. But that would be a lie too.
Honestly, how can I even have a conversation with you about this when you completely ignore 95% of his interview, basically all the stuff that would reflect positively. I'm trying to be respectful here but you refuse to meet me halfway because you have these thoughts in your head and refuse to hear the other side (not the first time we've gone through this rodeo).
In any event, I'll do the work even though it was all quoted a few pages back.
Right after he talked about the dark winters (btw, he said it's not so much the cold and snow), he immediately followed it up with "it's been great ever since I've been there, the organization treats you like gold", "they did an unbelievable job with the new arena, the dressing room is second to none" etc. etc. about the accomodations. I don't see anything wrong with what he's saying here. Is it wrong to say that Edmonton winters can be harsh? I'm sure the winter was made worse by the team failure and constant chirping from the media and fanbase. I'm sure a lot of players felt the same way.
To continue....
“My first year there you go in and I’m excited, I just signed a new deal as a UFA, get a chance to play with the best player in the world for hockey and, you know, we end up being one win away from going to the Western Conference final. And it was almost like too much came at us too fast last year with the Vegas odds pegging us as the second best team to win the Cup. So many guys came off a career year. So, there was just a lot of, it was almost like we were set up for failure. There was so much expectation that it was like we were set up for failure and there was maybe too much expecting things to happen versus making them happen.
“So for us I think for us, I think a lot of guys are excited to come back. I know I’m excited to come back and go back and have that ‘prove people wrong’ kind of mentality and get back and be an elite team all over again and for myself personally be an elite player once again.”
Besides him saying that wants to be an elite (come on Looch) player again, what's the problem with what he said? Those sound like legit reasons for team failure last season, very reasonable take.
Then....
“I think it was definitely more of a mental thing. It was almost like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for our team and for me personally and it was the snowball effect or the quicksand effect. It was like the harder you tried, the more you sunk in the quicksand.
“For me it’s just mentally having fun going to the rink again and mentally looking forward to the challenges we face as a team and as an athlete every single day, where I think my mindset got very negative last year. So I was almost my own worst enemy, where this year I’m just going in with a happy, healthier mindset. I think that’ll help me get back to the player I am and I think when you’re playing with the best player in the world, you know, it gives you a vote of confidence to try and step up and not let him down. I think we’re all feeling that and we all had fun in the 2016-17 season so we want to get back to being that team and winning on a nightly basis.
“If anything getting into this year, just more focused on being mentally healthy and mentally happy and, like you said, I’m a proud person and I’ve been doing everything I can to make sure that I bounce back and be the best player I can be for Oilers this upcoming season.”
The bolded in particular. The dude freely admitted to being his own worst enemy and that he was too negative yet it's still not good enough. You said that he hardly talked about Edmonton when in reality, he went into length about everything Edmonton and what went wrong last season with team and individual.
With all due respect, I don't think it matters what he says or does because you'll somehow turn it into a negative. How is anybody to think any differently when you turn that interview into a major negative calling it verbal rubbish.
I can understand why don't like his game and his antics (perfectly legit criticisms) but when you throw out these harsh words about him after that interview, I just don't understand.