So much of what we read in modern blogs is about quantifiable data. It’s about possession numbers or underlying numbers that can be tracked with data and tested. Sometimes reading a summary of a player can feel like reading over a 6th grader’s Math homework. It’s very plainly answered and the work is shown like long division. Quantifiable data is extremely important, by the way. I for one am keenly interested in Corsi Percentage and anything else that might help me better understand the game of hockey. I just don’t think that I’m ready to abandon all the traditional talking points just yet.
Take, for instance, “Grit…. Grit is a subject that is effectively laughable to the hardcore Stats guys. How do you measure it? Even trying to measure it will result in your mockery . Some things aren’t meant to be measured though. Some things are unquantifiable, and Grit is one of them. Hockey is more than a series of measurable events. “Being Clutch…, “Being In The Zone…, and “Having Momentum… are all things that Hockey players profess to experiencing, so why are these topics so absurd? Just because I cant measure someone’s grittiness doesn’t mean it isn’t important.
This brings me back to the Oilers. I was at the game on Tuesday and I saw something that really bothered me. It wasn’t the price of beer or the state of the hamburgers at the concessions (both alarming however), it was the lack of confidence, toughness, and fight that the Oil played with. Rest assured that I saw people finish their checks that night including one from Petry that pumped the crowd up. That wasn’t the problem. It was when the play was blown dead, between the game action. The Oilers will not stand up for each other on a level I have never witnessed.
One play in particularly resonated with me. After the whistle Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had something to say to a Blues player and things were getting heated. Seeing their team mate was getting harassed the Blues converged on Nuge. It wasn’t a dog pile by any stretch of the imagination but there were players in every direction around him. This is the response that St Louis gives when 115 pound Ryan Nugent-Hopkins starts to get in the face of one of their own.
The rest of Nuge’s line mates, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen. Nowhere. It seemed like there wasn’t another Oiler for miles. Some were skating back to the bench, others hanging around the blueline looking the other way. The Oilers’ Number 1 Center and one of their smallest players was surrounded by the Blues and he was left to fend for himself. That speaks volumes to me. I cant measure it. I cant show you how it affected the scoresheet in any tangible way, but it was by far the most important exchange that happened on the ice all game.
I don’t think you can teach a player to be grittier than they are. You cant coach David Perron’s abrasive style into Jordan Eberle’s personality, but standing up for each other shouldn’t be optional either. That is something everyone can do, which begs the question: Why don’t they?
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