One hundred percent agreed. One hundred percent. If Subban were a white guy they’re instead say he was “fiesty” and “truculent” and "leadership material. If you don’t see racism in the sports pages you just aren’t looking very hard. Black athletes have been criticized for alleged attitude problems that white athletes exhibiting the same behaviour are praised for for as long as I have been watching sports.
Read the complaints about him; it’s absolutely incredible bullshit. It’s not “Subban blew off a practice” or “Subban ripped a teammate” or “Subban doesn’t listen to his coach” or “Subban took a cheap shot.” It’s stuff like this, which are actual quotes:
“he brings so much confidence to his game that it comes off as disrespect.”
“Veterans don’t like a player doing spin-a-ramas around them making them look foolish in the chase.”
Richards: “It’s just frustrating to see a young guy like that come in here and so much as think that he’s better than a lot of people.”
Let em translate this hockeyspeak into English:
He’s a nigger!
He’s a nigger!
He’s a nigger!
Note that nobody can actually point to anything Subban has done wrong (and Subban, to his enormous credit, has handled this bullshit with class.) All Subban has done is come up to the NHL and play absolutely sensational hockey.
The reason Richards called out Subban is that his team got its balls smashed in, Subban’s an excellent player on the team that did the smashing, and Subban happens to be black, so of course he’s arrogant, right?
P.K. Subban’s my new favourite player. I loved his in the playoffs and he’s playing great and that a 21-year-old kid can handle this nonsense with such grace just makes me love him more.
Subban himself has said that nothing directly related to that has ever been said to him on the ice, and brushed off the suggestion when a reporter asked if he thought it was a factor. Still, one has to think there might be something there, even if it isn’t explicit, and Subban has enough class not to fall into that trap and/or call someone out on it.
I also love the patheticness of Pronger trying to steal the game puck like a temperamental 3 year old.
Been away for a few days (router problems) Couple of notes:
Round and round goes the coaching carousel on Long Island, as Scott Gordon is the latest casualty. Jack Capuano is the new head coach in the interim.
Also, there was a controversy about some leaked e-mails from the office of Colin Campbell, some of which pertain to games involving his son Gregory, who plays for Florida.
Haven’t been on in a bit, mainly because I haven’t been watching many games. Between games getting bumped to Fox Sports Plus and lacking digital channels and the fact that I suffer withdrawal when I go more than eight hours without Fallout: New Vegas, there just hasn’t been the time. It also took me a bit of searching to find the free NHL game radio broadcasts so I could at least listen to the games.
That said, Detroit has been on a bit of a tear. Their defense is improving, and someone must’ve told them that hockey games last for three periods. Last night in particular they hung on against the no longer up and coming St. Louis Blues until they finally exploded in the third. They’re staying healthy (for now). They seem rested. All four lines are scoring after a bit of line jiggering. As a natural pessimist, I’m wondering if they can keep it up. But for right now I’ll just sit back and enjoy the feeling of not having anything to bitch about.
That will of course change the next time I have to watch any hockey game on stupid Versus for jerks.
Well, the win streak is over for the Habs, as they get spanked 3-0 by Nashville. Montreal’s only 6-4-1 on home ice so far, compared to 6-2 on the road.
And it was 1984 (the year, not the movie) all over again in Philly, as the Bolts beat the Flyers 8-7. Martin St. Louis had five helpers tonight.
Interesting night tonight. A crazy game between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia, with the Lightening winning 8-7. Stamkos with a hat trick and both teams making goalie change. Tampa needs to get more national exposure since Stamkos is the most exciting player to watch in the NHL this year.
Yet another New Jersey loss. They had a players only meeting after the game tonight. More rumors of a coaching change. Brodeur gets pulled tonight as well. I know it is only the middle of November, but New Jersey needs to turn it around soon.
Well Nothing to complain about with my Wings. Balanced line scoring, Nobody looking to crappy on D lately, And Lidstrom back in Norris form.Plus more players than positions which is a nice change from last year .Not playing all that great all the time , but they are finding ways to win em, and that’s what counts this time of year, we will see how it’s going in February. And it sure was nice of Halak to get to spot them a goal to help their confidence yesterday.
And of course the guy everybody expected to be Team MVP, Danny Cleary.
Lots of bad habits showing up tonight, just in terms of blind passes, missed receptions, defensive errors (forgetting about players stationed in front of your goalie…looking at you, Spacek!), etc. Price wasn’t bad, other than perhaps on that last goal, but he had nothing left for the third period. Really, though, Habs had a ton of PP opportunities they didn’t cash in on, and shots on goal, etc were about the same. After the first, I assumed whoever scored first would win, and that’s what happened.
It’s good to get humbled this way. Now they can destroy Toronto without being too worried about the win streak
Does anyone know why the flagship radio station of the New York Islanders is a college radio station WRHU from Hofstra University? It seems strange that in such a large metropolitan area that an NHL team would be carried on a non profit college station.
Canes fall to the Preds in the shootout. If they could win some faceoffs, the Canes could be dangerous. On the bright side, Rinne is my fantasy goalie.
::realizes dogbutler is probably talking about a different type of fantasy::
…
::doesn’t care::
I’m curious about the perception that fans of other teams have against other referees in the league. When I hear that either Chris Lee or Stéphane Auger are the refs for Habs games, I tend to cringe, since my opinion of both of them is that the tend to be inconsistent at best, and downright biased and vindictive at worst. Does anyone else have this impression, either about these refs or others?
A couple of years ago the Ottawa Sun figured out that Ottawa averages one fewer power play per game for and one more power play against in games refereed by Bill McCreary, so…
My dad couldn’t stand when Don Koharski or Andy Van Hellemond were refereeing Toronto games.
I doubt there’s anything to it. (The generic) You always remember when the ref rips you off, but you hardly ever remember when the ref gifts you one. To flip mnemosyne’s question around, are there any refs, who when you hear they’re working your team’s game, make you go “Yes! He’ll try to swing it our way for sure.” or something to that effect?
Balanced line scoring, Nobody looking to crappy on D lately, And Lidstrom back in Norris form.Plus more players than positions which is a nice change from last year .Not playing all that great all the time , but they are finding ways to win em, and that’s what counts this time of year, we will see how it’s going in February. And it sure was nice of Halak to get to spot them a goal to help their confidence yesterday.
