In Red Wings Land
Detroit Red Wings’ draft prep continues at Combine | MLive.com
There’s no real new information about who the Wings might draft in here, but it’s a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the procedure that Detroit brass is going through to be prepared to make their selections when the draft comes around. It’s interesting to note that they’ll interview guys like Nico and Nolan knowing they don’t have a shot, but wanting to learn something about those guys in the process.
Around the League
Scott’s Subban stance highlights hockey’s hypocrisy | Fear the Fin
This one is a real conversation-starter for me, because I see the argument about Scott embracing the ASG selection knowing full-well that it was a goof put on by the fans and that his going despite being told he didn’t belong there by higher-ups was very much a shunning of the conformity culture from which Scott now criticizes Subban. I also see a point that Scott realized the ASG is specifically not designed like that and in his own book, Scott talks highly of his role and the kind of “no showboating” attitude from where he’s coming.
It’s weird because I still like the John Scott that came out of the ASG and I still like the boisterous PK Subban and I don’t necessarily feel like I have to dislike one or the other, though ultimately I do have to take a side here. Personally, I side with Subban, but I’m not sure that Scott’s opinion is necessarily hypocritical (though the potential it’s rooted in deeper problems as laid out in the article are still there). At some point, you have to realize that a guy’s personality can be fun to watch while still recognizing that not everybody is going to like it (by design, even, since a part of that personality is more than one fine for diving and a mouth on the ice that very much fits in with good-in-the-room Steve Ott types).
At some point, we’re going to reach – or perhaps already have reached – a situation where the cult of PK Subban is going to be the prime reason people dislike him, and that’s going to confuse the matter even further… because I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop people from disliking a player solely because they feel they don’t have a choice but to like him; that’s basically half of my stance on why I think Jonathan Toews is an unlikable shitbag.
[Ed Note: Also important to consider that since this article came out, Scott has been on to explain that ESPN used a years-old sound clip without giving that kind of context about when it was said. He did clarify but when given the opportunity to rescind the “garbage” comment, he chose instead to back it up with just a bit more clarification]
