Normally I despise negativity. But watching the last 2 periods of tonight's game has me feeling exactly that way. Normally I can see UAA lose and still find positive things to say. And while there were some good things to say about UAA and tonights game I'm going to focus instead for once on the negative and rant about 2 things that are inexcusable.
The first is when teammates don't step up to defend another teammate. I admit up front that I didn't see Stastny run Lawson. I talked to several people at the game about the hit and I'd honestly say there wasn't any sort of agreement about the severity of it. He was penalized so the assumption has to be therefore that he intended to run Lawson. Then with 3 seconds left in the game a DU player threw a wicked elbow right to a UAA players head. I didn't get numbers and it doesn't matter. The DU player that threw the elbow might as well have been escorted along the red carpet as much as the UAA players teammates cared. Weak. Really fucking weak. I apologize in advance if someone on UAA's team actually reminded Statsny what goalie he chose to run but it sure wasn't obvious to me if someone did. Also weak.
The second is listening to the head coach of your team define his squad as not talented. I don't care if it is the truth (and I'll argue all day with anyone that would say so); saying negative things about the team to the press is crossing the line. I heard another coach define his team as not having any talent. His name was Dean Talafous. While it's true that UAA's path to success is through hard work, discipline and more hard work the same can be said for most of the other teams in the WCHA but I don't hear their coaches defining or labeling their teams with that sort of negative hoo haw. It's wrong. I can't feature that sort of negativity to the press from the coach of the team I support. I wouldn't have mentioned this if it was the first time I'd heard him characterize the Seawolves that way. Will can certainly defeat skill but will is absent without belief and a coaches job (in my book) is to make his team believe in themselves.
3 comments:
Good entry, DTP. I agree with you... But I do have one comment on the negativity thing. Last season, Russell publicly said that his goaltenders couldn't stop a beachball. Though it was true, it wasn't a very nice thing to say. However, in the second half of the season, right after the comment, Ellsworth really stepped up to the plate... Letting in one goal all weekend @ DU, helping his team sweep UMN @ UMN, and UMD in Duluth...
Maybe sometimes a little negativity is needed. Not sure if it was necessary to say that his entire team isn't talented...
But anyway, hopefully your guys will step up and defend one another a little better in the future. I agree with you in that at least something should've been done.
Good luck to your team tonight, DTP.
Even though you way not care, the name is Stastny not Statsny.
I hope Lawson gets well soon. He is a very talented goalie.
Telling the media you have no talent would be considered over the line. In Dave's case he is obviously competetive and would like to see his team compete harder certainly, does he have the horses to do this? I don't know as 99% of the upperclassmen have been absent this year.
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