This x 1000
Great Post Krutov. The stuff that gets pushed around here has been repeated by Sekeras Friedman Drance and a ton of lower level pundits who read stuff online for content relating to fan opinion and the marketplace. Kevin Epp has made direct reference to this re: his clients Virtanen and OEL and it's kinda sad when you look at how many good people and players are gravitating away from the influences and BS they have to endure when they can comfortably do the same jobs elsewhere. Shocking no Canadian team has won since 92 i know?
It's disrespectful to think that players who in many cases get completely underpaid and ripped off relating to the contributions they make on a ELC and as RFA's should "fall into line" and be a bargain contracts when they finally get to force a team to pay market value for their services.
Furthermore it's ugly and completely unnecessary to put these labels on players (contract vs production) to the point of labelling them in a derogatory sense and people making them feel like bad players and teammates in public or in social media because of it. Especially when the reality is wear and tear and injury is often the root cause of player decline or a young cheaper stud has come along and maybe pushed them down the depth chart or out of a PP spot and the production drop is somewhat out of their control or is due to the price they have paid previously.
About 5 or 6 yrs ago watching playoff hockey i was flipping between a game in Nashville with an American broadcast crew and CBC and the panel of experts from the Canadian based network. The theme was by the Canadian crew to critique and point out the mistakes that were being made by players, refs, coaches and goalies in the series. Such a negative and snobby way of looking at the game. It would illicit negative conversation and became a theme of finger pointing in social media
In the Nashville series the intermissions were about highlighting the smart and creative plays made by coaches players and goalies to produce chances, key defensive plays, or goals in the game. A refreshing and positive informative take on the game and players in general and made me feel better about what i was watching especially knowing they were trying to attract more people to the game.
Last few yrs the HNIC network has gone through a lot of restructure and changes and the analysis and feedback has taken a turn for the positive. Nice to see that they made these changes for the better
I think people around here need to have some perspective that hockey is a rather meaningless game providing fandom and entertainment you can choose to be part of or not. Some people need to take a step back and stop using their anonymity to project so much hate derogatory speech and negativity on this franchise and it's employees
Well thought out sincere criticism is healthy i'm not implying it's not and this site is here for just that. Projecting a shitty attitude, feeling like you are owed something, or are a better superior person and derogatory speech really sucks when it has vitriol and seriousness behind it.
Anyway...i hope what you said has at least a few people re think what they post or at least how they frame it. Well done for sticking your nose out on many narratives around here whether i agree or not. Glad you posted what you did have felt the same way for a long time.
