Does attitude matter?

[SnowblindNYR]

Weird inter sport comparison, Deion Sanders never had to pass the ball to anybody (as a football player, anyway) Even if for the sake of argument the guy was 100% attitude every position he played allowed him to be as self invested as he wanted to be. Even in baseball it’s not like you can do anything but “pass” when the time comes to make defensive plays.

I guess what I mean is that Deion never had to balance being a distributor or making small plays that deny personal glory with any of this supposed attitude so as a sport I don’t think it works.

that said, works fine in soccer mostly and there’s crazy attitude there so… being “that guy” is a live by the sword die by the sword thing and you do it for as long as people will tolerate you. Become bad at the game and you’d better be a good guy to have around or the fall is harder

I just don't think someone being arrogant means he will pass the puck less to his teammates. Was that even close to the issue with Yakupov?

 

[HTFN]

I just don't think someone being arrogant means he will pass the puck less to his teammates. Was that even close to the issue with Yakupov?

That’s not exactly what I meant as a universal thing, it just stands to reason that “arrogance” and “confidence” generally stems from places of pride. With Sanders as an example, whether he was shutting you down or trying to return balls everything is very binary. In football he plays positions where things like “teamwork” as we’re thinking of it here take a bit of a backseat to playmaking and physical abilities.

Take two arrogant or confident receivers and compare how they block or play off and I think you’re getting closer to what the OP wants in a hockey sense, because it’s about whether these “arrogant” players take pride in the things nobody sees. When they do that they generally become seen as “hyper-competitive” instead in that Jordanesque way

 

[tarheelhockey]

There's no blanket rule about this sort of thing. Attitude and ego are not inseparable from dedication and work ethic. Some of the best performers are incredibly arrogant. So are a lot of burnouts. It really depends on what kind of arrogance you're talking about and how it relates to the task at hand.

Pro sports is the intersection of celebrity and competition. There aren't a lot of nice guys out there.

 

[hirawl]

Attitude is controlled arrogance.

 

[Maitz]

It’s a team sports, no place for ego and attitude

 

[flashy]

There's a famous story about I believe it was Nail Yakupov being annoyed that he had to interview with a team picking like 5th. That's shown as evidence of his bad attitude.

But then there's this story from Deion Sanders:

If you're good your attitude doesn't matter same as if you're bad. If you're good it's seen as confidence if you're bad it's seen as arrogance. Maybe this matters for people in the middle?

The issue isnt talent. most top 10-20 guys are incredible with the top 5 being elite.

the issue is whether a player is willing to work on their weaknesses.

For example, Crosby worked on his one-timer and shot to become a scorer and on his faceoffs, now lets look at another 1st in Stamkos, this guy had an OV level shot and then got injured, is he good now? of course, is he what we thought after 60 goals? no.

I say this because the common thing you heard about yakupov was that he liked only working on things he was good at. We saw this problem with a much older prospect in Shremp who was a guy that was slotted to be a top 3 pick at one point.

Think about if its you interviewing for your team and your picking 2nd or 3rd overall and the guy is barely giving you the time of day.
in the event he doesnt get chosen, what reason do you have to jump in and try to steer him right? If a guy already thinks hes above your team, your basically praying u take him and can get something for him

 

[HabsForHire]

Cole Caufield's agent told Montreal it was pointless to interview him

I believe Yakupov did basically the same thing to Toronto when Burke was there and interviewed him

Send us a source for that caufield claim.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Football and basketball are much more 'individual' sports that rely heavily on the heroics of individual players.
That cockiness can be an asset in those sports.


Hockey might have been like that at some point in time, but evolved to adopt the mentality of a 5-man unit, as possession and systems have become such key pieces of team success. Even a player like McDavid can't find team success without the cohesiveness of the team around him.



Hockey players need to fall in line because they need to play more like a unit.

 

[AvroArrow]

Please do not compare Deion Sanders to Nail Yakupov. It's beyond insulting. Also if I remember correctly, the giants were asking him something stupid like memorizing their entire playbook or something at the combine.

 

[Brodeur]

Please do not compare Deion Sanders to Nail Yakupov. It's beyond insulting. Also if I remember correctly, the giants were asking him something stupid like memorizing their entire playbook or something at the combine.

Looked up the Sanders story out of curiosity since it was from a couple years before my time: Deion Sanders recalls the time he savagely snubbed the Giants at the 1989 combine

“I was in the Giants room … they sat me down and gave me a thick book — thicker than a phone book.

I said ‘What is this?’

They said, ‘This is our test we give all the players.’

I said, ‘Excuse me, what pick do you have in the draft?’

They said, ’10th pick.’

I said, ‘I’ll be gone before then; I ain’t got time for this.’ And I left.”

Upon further review, the Giants were selecting 18th.

 

[Shocker]

Looked up the Sanders story out of curiosity since it was from a couple years before my time: Deion Sanders recalls the time he savagely snubbed the Giants at the 1989 combine



Upon further review, the Giants were selecting 18th.

I still didn't mind what he did without the context, but with context the arrogant party here seemed to be the Giants.

 

[McGarnagle]

Looked up the Sanders story out of curiosity since it was from a couple years before my time: Deion Sanders recalls the time he savagely snubbed the Giants at the 1989 combine



Upon further review, the Giants were selecting 18th.

I still didn't mind what he did without the context, but with context the arrogant party here seemed to be the Giants.

When you realize who the Giants' defensive coordinator was in 1989, I can 100% see this incident happening.

 

[McGarnagle]

There's no blanket rule about this sort of thing. Attitude and ego are not inseparable from dedication and work ethic. Some of the best performers are incredibly arrogant. So are a lot of burnouts. It really depends on what kind of arrogance you're talking about and how it relates to the task at hand.

Pro sports is the intersection of celebrity and competition. There aren't a lot of nice guys out there.

My question is where does confidence end and arrogance start?

We praise confidence, you need to be confident in yourself and your skills to succeed. But we hate arrogance. Where's the line exactly?

Interpretations of arrogance are also cultural or differ by personality type. I remember back in the early-mid 2010s when the Patriots and Ravens had a series of playoff matchups, there was actually some article where the Ravens (I think it was Suggs) called out Tom Brady and Bill Belichick for being arrogant. Now I would've interpreted it as the opposite, with the louder, more extroverted braggarts like Suggs, Ray Lewis, Steve Smith, Harbaugh, etc. as being the arrogant ones, and not the cold and distant Brady/Belichick/Edelman. So a lot of it boils down to misunderstandings across personality types.

 

[summer tooth]

Attitude matters a lot, but other things matter as well such as skill level.

 

[BlueAzN]

Of course it matters. What kind of stupid question is this lol. Look at Locker Room Cancer Marner and note how the Leafs fail every playoffs.

 

[Oddbob]

Brian Burke seems to place an irrational amount of his thoughts on people by some dumb interview process. I personally don't get the point of these, as all interviews basically are, are people telling others what they want to hear, which means lying or empty answers for the most part. Lots of dumb inane questions that have nothing to do with anything.

 

[Tanknation]

Cole Caufield's agent told Montreal it was pointless to interview him

I believe Yakupov did basically the same thing to Toronto when Burke was there and interviewed him

Fake news alert. Or source?

 

[Theodore450]

Well considering this is a job, and attitude is important in any job, I think the answer is obvious