Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
- 31,703
- 4,146
Hockey is certainly not beneath that and while the hyper-reporting isn't quite as extreme as, say, it might be in the NFL there are times I think the media has been just as bad in hockey. But there are times they lie or embellish. Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in 1961 were chasing Babe Ruth's home run record but were (ahem) "fueding". Well, not true, they were roomates and voluntarily. A lot of the "war on coaches" that is cool now got me thinking about this stuff. Anyways, here we go.
Mike Babcock purposely sitting Mike Modano at 1499 games - Not true at all, but this is what we are hearing after Babcock's firing. The thing is, it isn't hard to check this. Modano played 40 games that year, his final season. He was not good that year but played the first couple months, had about three months where he didn't play for some reason (injury?) and then played in March and April. He was NOT sitting on 1499 career games and was sat in the final game of the year. He played the final games of the season. Big lie but it is re-told constantly.
April Reimer vs. Elisha Cuthbert - The original feed cut to April Reimer (James' wife) and Elisha Cuthbert (Dion Phaneuf's wife) reacting to the overtime goal in Game 4 of the 2013 series vs. Boston. The goal is scored, April is overwhelmed and the idea was that she looked over at Cuthbert whose husband had pinched at the wrong time to allow a 2-on-1 and shot her a dirty look. I can't blame the original game feed for showing this replay because the commentators didn't say anything but it was later on where I remember Sportsnet making a mountain out of a molehill and making it seem like there were two feuding wives blaming each other for it. Not true at all and even clear to see in the video. April is clearly disappointed at the goal going in, there is a fan sitting next to Cuthbert who says something probably derogatory about Reimer and April reacts right away and shoots HIM the dirty look and then looks at Cuthbert who rolls her eyes as if to say "ignore him". The wives cleared up the misconception but it was clear to me in the video alone that they didn't even need to.
Tom Barrasso's year long media blackout - Barrasso explains that a lie from the newspapers are why he didn't talk to the media all year. He explains this in the video. I don't know what to make of it exactly, but it is obvious Barrasso thought there were lies told.
Team USA's hotel room "trashing" in the 1998 Olympics - Look, I won't lie. I liked this one at the time. The Americans had beaten us in the 1996 World Cup and most of that team was back in 1998 and I was glad to see them eliminated and then do something stupid like trash the hotel room. There were players on the team I couldn't stand at the time, Hull, Suter, Tkachuk, Chelios, Roenick, Guerin and Ron Wilson has always driven me nuts. So my feeling was "Ha! Good on them." In retrospect, if this wasn't lies, it was easily manipulation and exaggeration from the media. The story was blown up in a pre-social media era. I remember reading things like either Mike Richter or Beezer's sister (?) called them up frantically wondering if they were okay because of the things they had read. They were fine. Some damage was done, a fire extinguisher went off or something and perhaps some athletes who were competing the next day got interrupted. Chelios eventually ponied up some money to pay for the damages which weren't much by the sounds of it, or at least not like we thought. It was a big story and they made it sound like they were terrorizing people with the fire extinguisher and such. To be fair the players never told who was involved because as I heard later on they almost felt sorry for the guys who were causing a bit of a scene because it had been blown out of proportion so badly. 21 years later, it is easier to look at this objectively and see it was a Cheshire Cat moment for the media to cause trouble.
Mike Babcock purposely sitting Mike Modano at 1499 games - Not true at all, but this is what we are hearing after Babcock's firing. The thing is, it isn't hard to check this. Modano played 40 games that year, his final season. He was not good that year but played the first couple months, had about three months where he didn't play for some reason (injury?) and then played in March and April. He was NOT sitting on 1499 career games and was sat in the final game of the year. He played the final games of the season. Big lie but it is re-told constantly.
April Reimer vs. Elisha Cuthbert - The original feed cut to April Reimer (James' wife) and Elisha Cuthbert (Dion Phaneuf's wife) reacting to the overtime goal in Game 4 of the 2013 series vs. Boston. The goal is scored, April is overwhelmed and the idea was that she looked over at Cuthbert whose husband had pinched at the wrong time to allow a 2-on-1 and shot her a dirty look. I can't blame the original game feed for showing this replay because the commentators didn't say anything but it was later on where I remember Sportsnet making a mountain out of a molehill and making it seem like there were two feuding wives blaming each other for it. Not true at all and even clear to see in the video. April is clearly disappointed at the goal going in, there is a fan sitting next to Cuthbert who says something probably derogatory about Reimer and April reacts right away and shoots HIM the dirty look and then looks at Cuthbert who rolls her eyes as if to say "ignore him". The wives cleared up the misconception but it was clear to me in the video alone that they didn't even need to.
Tom Barrasso's year long media blackout - Barrasso explains that a lie from the newspapers are why he didn't talk to the media all year. He explains this in the video. I don't know what to make of it exactly, but it is obvious Barrasso thought there were lies told.
Team USA's hotel room "trashing" in the 1998 Olympics - Look, I won't lie. I liked this one at the time. The Americans had beaten us in the 1996 World Cup and most of that team was back in 1998 and I was glad to see them eliminated and then do something stupid like trash the hotel room. There were players on the team I couldn't stand at the time, Hull, Suter, Tkachuk, Chelios, Roenick, Guerin and Ron Wilson has always driven me nuts. So my feeling was "Ha! Good on them." In retrospect, if this wasn't lies, it was easily manipulation and exaggeration from the media. The story was blown up in a pre-social media era. I remember reading things like either Mike Richter or Beezer's sister (?) called them up frantically wondering if they were okay because of the things they had read. They were fine. Some damage was done, a fire extinguisher went off or something and perhaps some athletes who were competing the next day got interrupted. Chelios eventually ponied up some money to pay for the damages which weren't much by the sounds of it, or at least not like we thought. It was a big story and they made it sound like they were terrorizing people with the fire extinguisher and such. To be fair the players never told who was involved because as I heard later on they almost felt sorry for the guys who were causing a bit of a scene because it had been blown out of proportion so badly. 21 years later, it is easier to look at this objectively and see it was a Cheshire Cat moment for the media to cause trouble.
