That is near meaningless. Using public opinion as some sort of an arbiter of what is the correct position is frankly a poor position from which to argue. Brittney Spears/Bieber and others of their ilk are usually far more popular versus more worthy artists. Popular opinion is clearly in the wrong there as such. Pubic opinions regarding the equities markets are often sampled by many professional traders so that they may do the opposite if public opinion is heavily slanted to one side - because the public is usually wrong.
What we know; many HF posters wanted Burmistrov to play ahead of Jokinen, yet a professional hockey organization chose to do the opposite. Jokinen wasn't paid well by Chevy to play behind a 21 y/o. He was more likely brought in to solidify an organizational weakness down the middle - a weakness they likely identified and considered Burmistrov to be a part of. Noel was clearly simply playing the veteran where his GM wanted him to play. Vets are chosen over younger kids because they on balance can be more trusted. While HF posters may have believed Burmistrov to be a better choice, the professionals obviously didn't.
To reiterate, the Jets state they want character players that want to play here. Recent examples of Burmistrov's character include his laughing it up on the bench while the Jets were being drubbed by New Jersey (that directly preceded his benching you may recall); another example includes his trashing of both his coach and a teammate upon his exit. He also asked to be traded. To summarize, that isn't the sort of a player that a team that wants to build a winning culture would wish to retain, in my own view, though the mileage of most here clearly varies.
Did we ever get confirmation of this? The only real quote i ever remember is him saying he was relieved he wasn't traded after the deadline.
I think his character issues are overblown. I think jets management was probably way more ok with him returning to the KHL then a lot of posters on here are.
---- unrelated to the above quote -----
the main thing I think that Garret and Truck are arguing is that some people seem to be holding spite/grudge above whats most effective for the organization.
More talent = a better organization.
whether that's talent that comes back from Russia or talent that we acquire by trading an equally talented Russian, it's all the same.
It's in every jets fans best interest for Burmi to perform well and come back. Also, other then rewriting history, Burmi looks like NHL player by any metric.
The good riddance to bad rubbish attitude about him is just illogical at it's core. I'ts like hoping for josh morrisey to bust, just because he's not the guy you wanted drafted.
i want the team to succeed. the team is more likely to succeed if A) burmi develops and come back to play for us as a useful player or B)burmi developes and were able to trade him for one, as opposed to C) burmi fails miserably and never come back from Russia cus he's flaky russian whiner.
