I wrote a post on March 25th entitled: Hemsky Frustrated; Gets Berated By Fans For Being Vocal. The general purpose of said post was essentially to get people to realize how ridiculous they were being about the whole Journal article thing. Turns out that a lot of Oiler fans have taken the issue personally, and not with me but with Ales Hemsky himself.
Now, these people have not explicitly stated that they now have an issue with Hemmer, but from the kinds of things that they say and/or write one can certainly draw this conclusion, and with relative ease.
I'm not going to single people out. I don't want to pull people out of the pack for a number of reasons:
- First: I don't want this to become a personal thing against me, and if I were to pick on a few individual people then feelings could be hurt, tempers fanned etc.
- Second: Taking a few people's quotes out of a body of people who have said the same thing or agreed with the speakers would be unfair.
- Third: I don't have permission to use people's quotes, nor do I want to seek out permission. People are less than inclined to allow quotes when the writer wants to criticize them.
I'm sick and tired of hearing people call Ales Hemsky selfish. Until the article came out I was under the impression that every one thought that Hemmer was clearly one of, if not the most unselfish player on the team. The fact is that Hemsky was frustrated, and riddle me this, "What do you do when you're frustrated?" Well, if you're healthy in the head you probably talk about it. It's not selfish, it's not immature, it's healthy. That said, was the Edmonton Journal the best outlet for that frustrated energy? I think we can all agree it wasn't. This makes the outburst ill-advised, not selfish.
I read a post on the OMB that talked about how many times the article said me, my, we, or the team etc. Okay, first let me help you off that horse because you aren't a very good rider. Second, the article was about him, what pronouns would you use when you're talking about yourself? Not to mention that that analysis strategy is incredibly superficial. If you want to analyze based on pronoun usage you are also required to analyse the context within which each pronoun is used. And of the I/me/my pronouns this is what I got out of the context:
In regards to his own play: 14
In terms of the team's success: 3
Talking about his own benefit: 18
Speaking about coaching strategy: 7
So that makes it 18/42 uses that are only about Hemsky, which is not even half. That said, this kind of analysis can be subjective, and I support any one else's efforts towards analyzing the article themselves with their own categories if necessary.
Another thing that bugs me is when people seem to place some sort of blame on Hemsky for lack of powerplay production. Here's the thing, Hemsky is not the only guy on the ice, and when a goal is scored on the PP it is rare that Hemsky didn't have a hand in it. Hemsky is responsible for the majority of PP production, but this doesn't mean that he is responsible for the lack there-of. How so you ask? I shall answer this with more questions: Does Hemsky coach the powerplay? When the Oilers practice does the coaching staff leave the ice? "See ya later Ales, be back in a few hours for the game." Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what happens. If anything is the issue it is the focus on the point-shot, and that is a coaching strategy not Hemsky's decision.
Anything related to the following schemas drives me insane: "Hemsky should've had that if he wants to be our go-to guy" "That's the kind of play Hemsky should have if he wants to be our star player" "Hemsky should've done _____ if he wants to be our go-to guy". Yeah, because all go-to guys make alll plays perfectly. It seems like any time Hemsky makes a single mistake some of the fans are on him like a pride of lions stalking a gazelle on the Serengeti.
I get it, they think that the article was a bad idea, they think it makes Hemsky look selfish, or that his real colours are starting to show. Bad timing or not when was a good time to bring it up? After the season ends when you're damn near ready to kill someone? Hemsky is a quiet person from what I've heard, and quiet people don't speak up about things unless they're already unbearable for said person. But I digress . . .
Call me a fan, call me biased, call me whatever you want but there's one thing you won't get to call me, and that's disloyal.
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2 comments:
Didn't you know? Fans are not just experts on their chosen team, they hold honourary degrees in sports psychology, clinical psychology, sociology, and literary criticism!
It's bad enough when the journalists have some ammo; don't give guns to thousands of crazed fans. All of a sudden, instead of having nebulous concepts like MacT's coaching and supposed locker room rifts to tilt at, Hemsky's comments gave the fans and media something solid on which to pin their frustrations.
Quiet guys can be weird; I should know as I've been one all my life (I only play an obnoxious, prattling fool on the Internet). There's a lot going on behind those eyes and the line between being a quiet guy and a loud-mouthed fool can be very thin at times. Regardless of the personal necessity of his comments that you're alluding to, I think Hemsky's learned a valuable lesson this season: he needs to control his frustration and funnel that emotion into his play on the ice. His slick hands won't help him in the political arena.
I was impressed with MacT's handling of the situation, deflecting as much attention away from Hemsky as possible; the same sort of attention that has, in the past, run good players out of town. Now that we've moved on to the latest flavour of the weak in TXT-Gate, I don't see there being any permanent damage to Hemsky's image. What doesn't get him run out of town can only make him stronger, right?
I agree, while I'm not a quiet guy, I certainly am a quiet girl, and I know exactly what you're talking about in regards to the 'a lot going on behind those eyes'. That said, when one lives a life as public as Hemsky does (the Oilers are Edmonton's celebrities) one really needs to find some other way to vent frustrations. Whether that be a family member, friend (most likely unrelated to the team) or someone else it needs to be someone other than a newspaper reporter and it needs to be someone he can trust not to leak his vent sessions to said newspaper reporter.
I, too, was very impressed with the way MacTavish handled the whole situation. I thought it was very professional of him not to take everything personally, can't say I'd do the same, but hey, that's why my career probably won't involve the spotlight. I'm too emotional.
And I love that title, TXT-Gate; hilarious!
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