I would like to tell you that St. Louis skated off victorious, but – spoiler alert that I’ve already spoiled – they did not.  Texas scored on a weird rebound and broken coverage in overtime, making the local fans ecstatic, and leaving the Bandits empty.

I’ll let the photos tell the tale.  First, the mustaches.

Don’t let the Stars player fool you.  He’s still a junior.  Yeah, right.

ACTION!

Again, do they need the body suits?

My favorite part of this is the kid behind the mascot whaling away.  So much carnage. So much fluffy carnage.

Back to the game.

The guy on the ice is number 8, Lucas Whelan.  He blocked a shot in the last seconds of the final period, and had to be helped off the ice.  He couldn’t put any weight on his leg after that.  I was surprised that he came back for overtime.  Yes, hockey players are tough, but this was a brutal block.  I was surprised he didn’t break his ankle.

As I said, the game went to overtime, and the Tornado took advantage of a rebound that didn’t go the way the goalie expected, and some blown coverage.  Here is your game winner.

That was it for the Bandits.  So here is what I would call the agony and ecstasy of a finals.

The winning coaches consoling the losing goalie.

There are no white gloves with this trophy.

Handshakes.

This might surprise you, but in the NAHL, they don’t boo the commissioner like he committed a crime against humanity.

Think that’s rough?  How about watching the winning team hoist the cup?

Most of the Bandits left the ice at this point.  Most of them.

To me, this picture just says it all.

The captain of the Tornado came over to talk with that last player, the captain for the Bandits.

And that does it for the NAHL season.

And that does it for me for live hockey games this year.  It was a great time, seeing so many places, and some new teams.  It’s one of the best parts of hockey for me.  Next season, as things in my life change, I probably won’t get to see as many games on the road.  But you never know, maybe something will make that happen.

The Robertson Cup format is a bit like the Memorial Cup of the CHL.  6 teams (5 division winners and the host city team) are invited, play a round robin, and the top 4 go to the semifinals.  Those were today.

I will say that the first period of the first game (St. Louis Bandits vs. the Amarillo Bulls) was some of the hardest hitting hockey I have ever seen, while the overtime period of the last game (Texas Tornadoes vs. the Fairbanks Ice Dogs) was some of the sloppiest hockey I have ever seen.  And the Tuesday final game should be a good time.

On to the photos:

This is what they are playing for.  No, it’s’ not as pretty as the Stanley Cup (note some of the dents on the top), but it’s what they have, and it’s what they are playing for.

First up, some of the images from the St. Louis vs Amarillo game.  The players for Amarillo had these blonde mohawks that looked…. douchy.  I have no other way of describing it.

I didn’t have a favorite team, but between the mohawks and the fans constantly beating on the glass, I was pulling for St. Louis pretty early.

They used pucks and rings to make the most noise possible.  This guy was double-fisting it.

Scary moment when a big check kept one of the Bulls players on the ice for a while.  He eventually skated to the bench, and played a shift soon after, which drew heckling from the St. Louis bench.

Action.

St. Louis pulled it off, ending the Bulls season.

Lots of sad faces.  Oh well, on to the next game.

I got very few pictures of the second game, as I was talking to a guy who played in the Federal Hockey League.  And you don’t pass up a chance to find out how crazy that is.  But the Tornado pulled off a surprise victory over Fairbanks in overtime.

Sending the Fairbanks, AK fans home sad.

Also, I’m not a fan of this camera.  Back to the other one tomorrow.  And… more tomorrow.

I keep hearing about how four sets of eyes missed the Torres check last night, but this is a misstatement.  Two sets of eyes missed the play, and two had no influence on it.  Like it or not, the job of the linesman is to call the lines, not penalties like this.

Coming out of the lockout, the director of officiating at the time, Stephen Walkom, and the league told the linesmen to stick to calling the lines, and a few other penalties, like too many men on the ice.  They can stop the play for a premature substitution (like a skater getting on the ice before the goalie is off the ice), or consult on the delay of game puck over the glass, but other than that, they don’t have a voice on these penalties.

Part of this is because of the increased speed of the game.  You have to get the lines right, or else you have situations like the Briere goal in game one of the Penguins – Flyers game.  And yes, they don’t always get it right, but they are not being pulled away from the lines by other things that the refs are supposed to be covering.  To err is human, but to be doing someone else’s job is unprofessional.  The linesmen have their job, so they do it.

You may not like it, and I understand that.  I mostly of like it, but in situations like this, some consultation would be helpful.  The linesman next to the Torres hit saw it, and was protecting himself from getting blown into (although he doesn’t seem to be looking right at the hit, like the snapshot from the video above shows).  It would have been good if he could have gotten the ref to call the penalty.  I’m sure they discussed what had happened while Hossa was being attended to.

But a ref can’t call a penalty that they didn’t see with their own two eyes.  They can’t have someone else’s judgement be their influencing factor on this stuff.  So the questions are, where were the refs?  Were they in the right position?  Were they too far away from the play?  The speed of playoff hockey and the way turnovers in the neutral zone have been happening and transitioning may have pushed the refs further back into the ends of the rink than they want to – or should – be.  So where were they?  If I could zoom an image of the rink out to see where they were, I would be able to say if they had the best shot at making the right call.

But just so you know, don’t blame the linesmen.  They have their duties.  The league asked them to stick to those duties.  They are doing their job.  As for the other two guys, it’s hard to say.  They certainly missed this one.

So I’m asking you for your thoughts and conversation. The comments are open. What mainstream media outlets do you like? Which ones do you have respect for? What reporters do you like, and what do you like about them?

On my way down, I got the nice surprise of a game on one of my bucket list teams, the Odessa Jackalopes.  Yes, you heard me.  Bucket list.  Mind you, there are still a lot of teams on my bucket list, but this was one I wasn’t sure I was ever going to see.  Odessa was on shaky ground before when they were part of the CHL, and along with several other team left the C for the financially friendlier confines of the NAHL.  I would consider the N a step down from the C in that the CHL is a minor league while the NAHL is a junior league.  Most of the kids in this league are playing for college scholarships or to be drafted.  Many will not.  The talent level in the CHL is well below the NHL, but in the NAHL, it’s still mired in development.

Still, Texas was, for a long time, the state with the most professional teams in the US.  These days, it’s lost many of those teams to financial issues, some moving like the Jackalopes, and some shutting their doors completely (such as Lubbock).  As the fortunes of the Dallas Stars have faded into the eventual bankruptcy and sale of the team, the rest of hockey in Texas seems to have followed suit. The junior ranks seem to be the right fit for some of these cities, at the least saving hockey from leaving completely in many of them (and wait to see how many more CHL teams leave next season).

So with that, let’s hit the road.  First, the drive:

This is the World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO.  It’s next door to the offices for USA Hockey.

Don’t get the people of Las Vegas, NM wrong.  They don’t tolerate drinking and driving.  They do make it rather convenient, though.

This is not racist.

On my way in to Las Vegas, NM (which is not as exciting as the other Las Vegas), I did see a bright streak across the sky.  I did not see any aliens.  At least, not until I got to Roswell, NM.

It’s telling that the name of a mini-mall is The Landings at Roswell.  Also, the most popular restaurant might be the local IHOP.  And I saw a guy clipping his nails at a Starbucks under his table.  Stay classy.

I did learn one travel tip:  if one of the touted features of a hotel is it’s indoor pool, or has an indoor water park, something else will suffer, and it’s usually the service.  If you don’t have a surly front desk attendant, consider it a lottery win.

On the road from Roswell to Odessa, I passed though the saddest town I have ever seen.  And yes, I have been to Cleveland and Detroit.  This was worse.  I will spare you the poor photos I took, since they don’t really do justice to the sorry state of the place.  If you have a batch of plywood to board up windows, you might make a small fortune in Tatum, NM.  But it did have one bright spot:

Moving on…

Oh…. OK….

But they also put ketchup on a chili burger.  And that ain’t right.

I finally made it to Odessa, and was greeted with a rather… large… sight.

To call a venue a barn is somewhat of a complement.  It implies a certain amount of character.  This place is a shed. 

Whoa.  There are times I go to a venue for the first time and I worry about the sight lines.  I don’t know what I’m getting when I buy a ticket.  This place has plenty of unobstructed seating.  Plenty.  I’ve been in bigger places, but they rarely feel this cavernous.

This is the penalty box.  We will get to the penalties in a moment:

The hallways of the Ector County Coliseum, which would not handle a capacity crowd:

There were plenty of framed jerseys sprinkled around the halls as well.  Here are a few, including a WPHL All Star jersey:

A few action photos:

One of the Corpus Christi players was hit in the side while prone on the ice, and was in considerable pain.  It turns out the Rays don’t bring a trainer on the road with them, so the Jackalopes trainer has to attend to both team’s injuries.  The juniors are a different world from the NHL.

I said we would talk about the penalties.  3:27 into the third period, the ref called an interference penalty on the Jackalopes, and sent Tyler Minx to the box.  The problem was, Minx didn’t commit the penalty, Ryan Doucet did.  Minx argued the point until he got an unsportsmanlike penalty as well.  So this would be four minutes of 5 on 4 play, right?  No, the ref finally realized the mistake he had initially made and send Doucet to the box for the interference.  Now we have two penalties at the same time on two separate players, which meant that it was now two minutes of 5 on 3 play.  Of course, were it not for the initial mistake made by the ref, there wouldn’t have been any unsportsmanlike penalty, as there would have been nothing to get ‘unsportsmanlike’ about.  Still, the penalties were handed out, and as you would expect, the Rays scored… the game winning goal.  Of course.

Minx certainly earned the unsportsmanlike penalty, and should have either shut up and gone to the box, or calmly made his case to the ref.  Instead, he let his mouth get him in trouble and cost his team.  I don’t blame him for being upset.  He’s a defenseman who would probably been on the penalty kill, and he had scored both goals the Jackalopes wound up with for the game.  Instead, he was sitting.  Unjustly.  Oh, the humanity.

What didn’t help was that shortly after, a Jackalope player kicked the puck  into the net and the ref immediately waived the goal off.  It was a good call, but after what had happened earlier, the Jacks fans were none too pleased with the ref.  And they let him know.  They even waived money at him, saying he was bought off.

Moving on, is this the creepiest looking mascot you’ve ever seen?  If not, it might be up there.

Sleep tight. Hopefully you won’t dream of this thing chasing you down on an ATV:

Words are said:

At least they care about the environment:

At Laredo Bucks games, they throw ears of corn on the ice.  At Texas Brahmas games, they throw purple Brahmas, the team mascot.  In Odessa, they throw… carrots.

Holy cow, that’s a lot of photos.  Enough already.  The Rays win it 3-2.

Boxscore

Tomorrow, on the Fort Worth to see a game with James O’Brien.  You know there will be more posting.  Oh yes, there will be more.

(I posted the red band NSFW trailer below. It’s better)

One of the things I’ve been asked a few times is whether or not, in the context of the awful tragedies that unfolded this past summer, if it was tasteless to release a movie that ‘celebrates’ hockey fighting.

The short answer is no, it isn’t tasteless.  And the movie doesn’t necessarily celebrate hockey fighting.

The movie follows someone who stumbles into a ‘career’ as a minor league hockey fighter, and who not only likes his role in the sport, finally finds one place where he is comfortable in life.  He is still a square peg in the round hole of hockey, growing up with little to no ambition to be involved in the sport, beyond going to games with his super fan friend.  His family wants him to do something more with his life, but while his brother is a doctor, he isn’t going to go down that path.  He is invited to a tryout with the local hockey team for his ability to fight.  When he finds hockey, it’s a cultural learning curve for him, and some of the comedy from the film comes from that.  And some of the comedy comes from the fighting.

There’s the one punch knock out.  There’s the fight with his own teammates.  And while, like most movies this side of the latest Mission Impossible, our hero tends to bounce back from the fights and injuries a little too quickly, over time you see the accumulated effects of the fights.  But still, the fighting is mostly… funny.

Yeah, I said it.  There is some slapstick to the fights.  And like all good movies, the context is certainly being manipulated.  When a fight is meant to be funny, you know.  And when one is meant to be dark and upsetting, you feel it.  The movie plays both sides while focusing on how those sides affect our hero.

Then you think of the classic hockey movie to end all hockey movies, Slap Shot.  The comedy came from hockey fighting and violence on the ice.  We are much more forgiving of Slap Shot because of the era it was filmed in, and we take it in that context.  Just like people are taking the idea of Goon in the context of the era it’s being released in.  But make no mistake, Slap Shot would be a crap movie if all the scenes with fighting and violence were taken out.

I feel like I’m defending something that doesn’t have to be defended.  Fans of hockey and casual observers had their attitudes shifted, or at least questioned, after the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Wade Belak and Rick Rypien.  And still, hockey fighting exists.  Sites like hockeyfights.com are still running.  Puck Daddy still posts videos of the fight of the night.  Fighting is still part of the rules of hockey, and still accepted at the professional level.  It seems like everyone likes a good fight, but don’t like to look at it afterwards, like a drunken one night stand.

When I became a hard core fan of the game, I didn’t understand hockey fighting.  I didn’t realize why it existed.  Now I understand why it is part of the sport, even if I think it is less useful or necessary than before.  I think it’s being phased out, which isn’t a bad thing.  There are fewer and fewer reasons to ask the players to police themselves, and fewer players in that role that I want to see make that judgement call.  Players and enforcers are bigger and stronger, and there are more opportunities for injuries in fights than ever before.  Maybe in the past, when players drank beer after the games and workouts consisted of having a walk around the block, getting punched in the head repeatedly by a 1970s era doughboy wasn’t that dangerous.  Today, things are different, from bigger players to more practiced and skilled fighters dropping the gloves.

I can understand the world turning it’s back on hockey fighting while ignoring the long term effects of boxing and cheering on UFC fights.  It’s only a little hypocritical in the larger picture, but that’s fine.  The fans can be more than black and white about the issue.  Hockey fighting can be harsh and awful AND at time necessary and worthy of attention.  The people who fight in hockey can be celebrated AND their chosen skill can be less acceptable than before.  The conversation and attitudes can evolve beyond hockey fighting being simply good or bad.

There is more to the movie Goon than a few hockey fights.  It’s a story that centers around a hockey fighter.  And it is a comedy.  In fact, it’s a damn good comedy.  And if you aren’t so turned off by the subject going in, you might enjoy yourself if you see it.  It has all the elements of a good hockey movie.

And it deserves your time, attention and money much more than the latest Michael Bay blockbuster.  There are plenty of people willing to go to Transformers 10: Turn On Your Headlights.  Goon is a movie for us.  It was made by hockey fans, and you can tell.  See it before you decide what it really is.

UPDATE: This is the red band (NSFW trailer) which is much better than the one above.  I think it better represents the movie and it’s story.  Remember, NSFW language:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m in the middle of a drive from Denver to Minneapolis, where I will be spending the next 6 weeks, and of course, I had to look for hockey along the way. The only game I could find was in Sioux Falls, SD, between the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Omaha Lancers of the USHL.

You would be forgiven for not knowing about the USHL, but if you’ve ever watched the NHL Draft, you have heard it mentioned.  Along with the NAHL, the USHL is an American junior development league.  Most of the players are looking for college scholarships or to be drafted.  It’s the American equivalent to the CHL Canadian junior league, only smaller and less prestigious.  Apparently,  it’s more authentic to ride a bus around the prairies of Canada in the freezing cold than it is to do the same in Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.  And probably a little more challenging.   The US National Team Development Program plays in the USHL, so they have that going for them.

But we aren’t here to talk about practice, we’re here to talk about a game.

The arena is housed in the Sioux Falls Convention Center, and while the outside looks new, the inside looks anything but.  First, the outside. which is attached to the Sheraton hotel.

Once you get inside, that’s when things look a little different.

Whoa. That’s a barn.  Or a shed.  Or a… thing.  It’s hard to describe, but it has similar properties to the rink in Port Huron.  Mostly in the quality of seats, and that the “upper” sections are truly upper.  They are well above the ice.

That seating is about eight to ten feet above the ice.  And it wouldn’t be that bad if the slope of the seats were at a severe enough angle to be able to see the action on the near boards.  But it isn’t, so you are constantly wondering what is going on when the play comes too close.  I recommend that if you go to Sioux Falls, you sit higher up where you seem to gain an advantage, or in the pricey seats along the boards.  And I don’t normally recommend sitting along the boards. See what I mean?

Check out those Omaha Lancers jerseys.  It’s like some weird hybrid of a Montreal Canadiens jersey and a Flyers jersey.  How cool would that look in the right orange with a Flyers logo?

OK, on to the game:

Referee Kevin Curtis (the ref with two first names) was not well liked by the home crowd.  He made one bad penalty call, and one tough goal call that was, in my opinion, the right call.  The crowd disagreed, as the net came off it’s moorings, but as a Stampede player kicked the puck into his own goal, the goal was counted.  The net wasn’t off enough to make a difference, so the right call was made.  For a minor league ref, especially one without the benefit of a ‘War Room’ in Toronto, that is a pretty good night.

Action!

This is something you don’t see in the NHL, but you often see in junior and college hockey.  When a goal is scored, the team congratulates the goalie as well.

Stampede Head Coach Kevin Hartzell did not look pleased the entire game.  He was yelling at his players and trying to direct and motivate them, but looked like a coach with a losing record.  Probably because he does have a losing record this season.

Your final, Lancers 3 Stampede 2.

It’s unfortunate that a controversial goal was the difference maker in the game, but I think the right call was made.  In the end, that’s all you can ask for.  And a little entertainment.  And I was certainly entertained.

It’s good to be back on the road and seeing hockey outside the world of the NHL.  I love it out here, and hope to see more games around the nation before the season is over.  In fact, I have some other things coming up that I will update you on in the next few days.

It’s easy to look at this and say that Clutterbuck should get the book thrown at him, or at least a one game suspension out of it, but I disagree.  No fighter is going to stop while still entangled with his opponent, but the bigger issue here is what the linesman did.  He went in alone to break up the fight.

USA Hockey has put their officiating training manuals online, and the basic manual states about ‘Altercations’ (page 58):

Never enter an altercation by yourself. You are putting yourself in danger of being punched by a player and may also give a player a free shot at the player you are holding onto. Always wait until your partner is there to go in together.

USA Hockey should ask the NHL if they can use this video for training purposes, as this was a textbook example.

What you can’t see in this video is that there is a second ‘altercation’ going on between Keith Ballard and Minnesota’s Kyle Brodziak.  While this had turned into a wrestling match, the Clutterbuck and Lapierre fight was turning into the more serious incident.  You can see a bit of it here:

Choices have to be made, and with two tussles going on, there are only so many linesmen to go around. The difference between the amateur ref and the professional ref is that the pro is trained a little better in handling themselves in breaking up a fight.  Still, USA Hockey is correct in asking two linesmen (or refs at the amateur level) to go in at the same time to break up a fight.

Why doesn’t the referee next to the fight intervene and help out the linesman.  Part of the answer lies in what Dan Hamhuis of the Vancouver Canucks did.  Right after Darren Gibbs gets socked in the jaw, Hamhuis grabbed Clutterbuck’s face and pulled him back a bit (or at the very least, restrained him a little).  It didn’t last long, but this isn’t tag team wrestling.  You need your referees to be able to hand out the penalties and see what is going on.  Had the ref intervened, they would have never caught this.  Whatever Hamhuis’ intentions (I’m SURE he was just trying to keep the linesman from getting hit again), you have to keep your hands out of the field of play while you are on the bench.  He got a misconduct for it, which is the right call.

So while some may look at the punch and say that Clutterbuck (a favorite of fans from all thirty teams) should get a game or two, hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the blame will be spread around a bit.  And as much as a mistake as it was to go in alone, good for Darren Gibbs for doing a tough job.  I’m sure he will be ready to bob and weave a little more next time.

Yep, those were the days. Maybe it’s better to say that these are the days, since there is video of Wayne Simmonds yelling a slur at Sean Avery that rhymes with maggot and is a homophobic slur. Alright, he is alleged to have called Avery a ‘faggot.’ If you want to hear it what that word sounds like, it’s about 5 seconds into the video above. And at 52 seconds. And a bunch of other stuff.

And the Simmonds video? Sure looks like he called someone (Sean Avery, supposedly) a ‘faggot.’ (oh no, I typed it again)

That’s right, looks like. Because while you can see Simmonds say something that looks like ‘faggot,’ you can’t hear what he says. Right now, it’s he said, he said, and I doubt it will be much more than that. The league could make a stink about it, but unless someone else (like the linesman that was right there) corroborates Sean Avery’s story, the league will probably let this go, with maybe a phone call to say, off the record, watch the language.

Am I giving Simmonds a pass? Obviously not. “Faggot” is one of those words that still gives people fits about its usage. For a smart conversation about the word, listen to this conversation with Louis CK about using it in his comedy on Fresh Air. Go to the 11:35 mark for the talk.

Here is Louis CK using the word in his comedy, and talking about what it means to him. NSFW language, but if you didn’t know that by now, you probably don’t know what NSFW means.

My question is whether this would be getting as much attention if not for this past week’s banana throwing incident at a Flyers preseason game. If Wayne Simmonds hadn’t been the target of a racist act, would he be as scrutinized as he is here? With as much as the denizens of the internet love irony and bringing people down a peg, I’m guessing not. While Simmonds did a mature thing in turning the other cheek at a stupid act in London, Ont, it’s foolish of us to expect him to be a saint for it. He is just a man, and one who plays hockey at that.

I think I summed up my feelings last night rather succinctly:

It's hard to get really upset about Simmonds using a word on the ice I've heard fans use in the stands over and over. Just saying.

September 26, 2011 11:24 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@Tapeleg

Tapeleg

Like this:

What does he hope to accomplish by making these very public declarations? Is Doughty going to all of a sudden jump up and say, “Well heck Don Meehan, I really wanted that 25 grand!” and immediately fly to Los Angeles and, like Bobby Ryan before him, negotiate his own cap-friendly deal?

Short answer: No. This isn’t An Offer He Can’t Refuse. As of this writing Doughty’s missed two days of camp, so he’s currently looking at a paltry salary of $6.75 million a year. How horrible.

The only thing Doughty will likely care about at the end of the day is that Lombardi didn’t demur and say, “We’re not going to discuss the details of ongoing negotiations at this time.” By throwing out scraps here and there — what the team has already offered, what the player is looking for, how much each missed day of work will cost him, etc. — the only thing Lombardi can do is piss off his best player, not muscle him into finding a deal he or his representatives find unacceptable.

There’s more to read, and it’s worth your time.  But skip the headline:

What We Learned: Dean Lombardi’s lucky sports fans are idiots

I’m not a regular reader of Lambert, and it’s because of stuff like this.  It’s frustrating to read something like his take on the Doughty contract and see it underscored with name-calling and vitriol.  As smart as his take is, it’s undercut by the confrontational headline (and more in the post itself).

If you were to go to your boss, or your co-workers and tell them that you have a great idea, one that would make the company millions, and they would be pure morons if they didn’t listen and take your advice, you would be considered a fool.  You would have cut your own throat, and I can almost guarantee that you would be ignored.  You could take your idea and do what you wanted with it, but you would do it alone, because you turned off the people you were trying to communicate with, and ultimately influence.

Which is what Lambert does over and over.  And perhaps it’s in the name of style, and it’s a style that he likes.  But what it does is hurt his message.  What is the point of writing a well-considered post like this, only to shoot it dead before it is put on display?

I had an interesting chat with Ryan on twitter (@twolinepass), and he said a few things that I found interesting:

@Tapeleg i think a thing that's very important is for fans to assess their childish behavior with regard to their favorite teams.

September 19, 2011 9:07 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@twolinepass

ryan lambert

Unfortunately, if that’s the goal, it’s presented poorly.  It’s going to be ignored from the get go, as the lead is buried behind a confrontational headline.

@Tapeleg people have irrational reactions to whatever i write anyway so who cares.

September 19, 2011 9:10 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@twolinepass

ryan lambert

I don’t know what’s so irrational about being upset at being called names.  I do think it’s irrational to stop reading Puck Daddy over one writer two tries to get people’s goat (and I don’t completely buy every fan that says they don’t read it).  If you don’t like something, skip that post and move on.  Sure, it’s an editorial decision to have Lambert write for the site, but having several voices on a site generally strengthens a site.  But to blame the readers for reacting poorly to a confrontational style is putting the blame in the wrong place.

So I responded:

@twolinepass Well, hell. In all honesty, I care. And you care. And it isn't irrational to shut down when you're put on the defensive.

September 19, 2011 9:11 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@Tapeleg

Tapeleg

@Tapeleg yeah except i really don't care. sports fans, in general, are idiots. their opinions mean nothing to me

September 19, 2011 9:13 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@twolinepass

ryan lambert

And there lies the rub.  I don’t believe for a moment that Lambert doesn’t care.  As the Shakespeare quote goes, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”  (And no, I’m not calling Lambert a lady)  If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t write his posts, he wouldn’t try to spread his opinion, and he wouldn’t engage with hockey fans.  He would simply shake his head at we, the fans – the idiots – and keep to himself.

None of this is to tear Ryan Lambert a new one.  He has his style.  It’s his voice that informs his writing, and as caustic as that voice can be at times, it also makes him an interesting hockey writer.  Unfortunately, that style can be a huge barrier to entry.  This is more a plea, or a request for consideration – from both sides – that it isn’t necessarily the message that’s the issue, but the way it’s presented.