What do you mean, We?


One of the big reasons I want to see bloggers get their place in the press box with the Avalanche is so we can stop reporting on the reporting, and start really generating our own.  In Colorado, we wind up with fodder like Dater Watch.  I don’t care for it, but here I am, doing it myself.

I’ve talked about what bugs me about Dater’s approach to the team and reporting before, but today’s wrap up of the woes and the end of the playoff push (or lack of push in the end) neatly sums up what I don’t like and fail to understand about his writing about the Avalanche, and it does it in one word:

We.

From the All Things Avs blog:

We’ll give the Avalanche players, coaches and management one last moral-victory, we-tried-hard-but excuse. Really, arguably, they didn’t deserve another one this year. They had a very good chance to make the playoffs down the stretch, but let’s face it: they blew it. All they really had to do, in hindsight, was take care of business against the worst team in the league, Columbus, at home. But the Avs lost twice to the Jackets in the final 20 games, including Thursday’s dismal 5-2 loss.

And in the last paragraph:

We’ll buy into the excuses one more time, and look for better things next season. But the clock is ticking…

It’s not the negativity.  It’s not the accountability question.  I agree with him for the most part – even if I tire of the same tone post after post.

Who is “We?”  Who is this we he is lumping himself in with?  That’s the part I don’t get.

Dater tends to stand on one side of the fence, wagging his finger at the fans for not showing up, for not being excited, for being jerks, for anything the fans do, then climbs over the fence and stands next to the fans to yell at the team.  Dater is or isn’t a fan of the Avalanche, but I can’t actually tell which one he is.  When he is a blogger, he is acting like a fan, but when he is reporting as a beat writer, he acts like a reporter.  And never the two shall mix?

Blogs are nothing more than a publishing platform.  They aren’t one style of writing or another.  Much like mp3s, that the music industry tried to paint as evil when they didn’t have control over them, are simply a file format.  There is nothing inherently anything about them.  That the Denver Post uses the same blogging software I do may be ironic, it isn’t an indicator of any similarities in tone or style.  To say “well, this is a blog, so…” should be meaningless.  Dater can blog from his parents basement just like everyone else (and as I said on twitter, if you bring up a blogger in their parents basement to win an argument, you might as well have played the Hitler card, because you just lost).  That you are allowed switch hats when you switch platforms, all under the banner of the Denver Post, is ridiculous.

So the two questions I have are, who is the “we” Dater is including himself in, and what are the consequences he alludes to?  What happens if this “one more time” doesn’t pan out?  Is there something Dater will do?  Is he going to pull out pictures of the Avalanche in compromising positions from a manilla folder?  Do they even make manilla folders anymore?

And let’s say things don’t go well next season.  Will Adrian Dater get mad at the fans for not showing up for what he calls:

– A tired game-night atmosphere that employs horrible music, uses horrible lighting, has really lame stops-in-play and between-periods entertainment and insults today’s tech-savvy, modern fan with 1999 scoreboard technology.
The Avs can hide their heads in the sand all they want and their corporate lackeys can pretend like it doesn’t exist, but the team continues to have a BIG problem with the local fan when it comes to going to games and really feeling entertained. The bad attendance of the last few years doesn’t ALL have to do with the product on the ice.

Because I totally agree with him on this.  TOTALLY.  But as a paying customer, all I can do is not go to the games and vote with my wallet.  And that is a problem as well for Dater, mad that we as fans don’t show up to support the team.  That I would rather watch the game on a big screen TV than go to a game for the exact same in-game entertainment year after year is a problem as much as going is.  We can’t seem to do anything right.

I don’t know who ‘we’ are, but I can tell you, I don’t hear a clock ticking.  No matter what the Avalanche do in the off season, they will be around, they will play games, and they will make the decisions.  The actual “We” are going to be along for the ride.

 


6 responses to “What do you mean, We?”

  1. James, shouldn’t you be working or something. I’ve said this before and ill say it again we need Ice girls. Someone kill that stupid dog. If Howler didn’t work why the fuck did they think Bernie would? Also Bro, ya didn’t say anything about Mike Chambers who is practically the same thing as dater i swear to go he has to send whatever he is going to blog about to Dater before it can be posted. Wouldn’t want to have a change of style now would we.

    • My brother ladies and gentleman. I’m not sold on the ice girls idea but I agree with him on the mascot. Keep Bernie for the kids but quit making him a part of the show. But James I am with you 100%. Great article.

      • I also want to throw this out there. Who the hell lets Mark Kiszla write about the Avs? The guy is a moron and has the worst input on the Avs and Rockies. He should only be able to write about the Nuggnuts since basketball really isn’t a sport, and the Broncos since everyone in this town is an expert on them. Anyone agree?

        • They should have Mark Rycroft do more stuff on the Avs also. Fuck Kyle Keefe I could give two shits about him bowling with an Avs player and finding out his favorite food. At least Rycroft has good and bad things to say about the Avs even though he works for altitude and they’re not supposed to say anything bad about the Avs.

  2. Dater is a big time delta bravo and if he was offered a job at his hometown Boston Herald he would be gone faster than duchene going fishing at the end of the last game. I too love Mark Rycroft. And yes to ice girls even if the quality of girls isn’t as high as in other cities.

    Next year no more excuses and if there’s a bad start again then Sucko better get the ax right away. I wish the avs would go in a different direction, but it looks like joe sucko will be back and looking clueless as ever. He has no more excuses. He has ran off every player in his doghouse.

    • Here is my question who would we hire to coach the Avs if we fire Sacco? Do we go in house and let Deadmarsh step in? Bring back Konowalchuk? Bob Hartley? I just don’t see anybody I really want to be our coach. To bad we didn’t hire Ken Hitchcock that’s who i really wanted. Wait I got it bring back Marc Crawford!!! just kidding fuck that guy.