The day started with the Josh Ho-Sang controversy of not being selected to the Hockey Canada evaluation camp. Ho-Sang had some strong words and then boom, you know what happens next right?
Social media and airwaves exploded with thoughts on the kid and his attitude. Imagine if we made definitive judgements about every 18 year old who faced disappointment? Whether you believe Ho-Sang acted appropriately when faced with adversity is irrelevant, why was some one with his talent not even given the chance to be evaluated?
If he does have an attitude that is offensive to the Hockey Canada brain trust is it so bad that it outweighs his talent? If our national, governing body of hockey is to develop players is bringing in Ho-Sang to teach him about being a team player not part of that mandate? What about the fact that the WJHC is a 'hired' gun tournament?
This is not building an NHL team, this is two weeks of getting peak performance from 25 players. Ho-Sang is such a bad seed in the eyes of some that they cannot make two weeks work with him?
The term outweigh was used later in the day with a great tweet from Jeff Hamilton of CBC Manitoba. When discussing the recent news about Burmistrov coming back to the NHL Hamilton opined that 'his (Burmistrov) off-ice stunts outweigh his on-ice talent'. That shook things up a bit for yours truly. The discussion digressed to when 'off-ice' events/issues become relevant to on-ice or contract status. Needless to say no one came to some conclusive resolution on that front, but did we ever try.
Speaking of conclusive resolutions Yahoo's Puck Daddy broke the news of how and why the recently offline Extraskater.com came to be. Daryl Metcalf, the creator went all corporate and took a job with Toronto Maple Leafs. However, the Leafs weren't done and like the Oilers did with Tyler Dellow, they went and hired one of there strongest critics in Cam Charron. While Charron's online presence has been non-existent due to an extended twitter hiatus the blogger cum writer/analyst found himself wooed back into the fold of the centre of the universe.
Charron, a consistent voice on NHLNumbers.com and theLeafsnation.com found his moment when his name was also mentioned in the Leafs new analytics department. The summer of data continued and another talented blogger, plying his trade in the social medium found vindication.
Speaking of vindication, this is what I wrote in September of last year with point number 1 being the most important.
Twitter was rocking yesterday and the person who consistently showed the biggest stones against the new wave of hockey-data got stoned by many. Steve Simmons from the Toronto Sun took another beating from all angles. Even as the day ended and he made his regular appearance on TSN radio he stood tall in his stance against the 'cult of data' throwing shots. It was like the scene in the Monty Python's the Holy Grail where the knight keeps having limbs hacked off and insisting that he can carry on fighting.
Twitter is a strange place too and probably what seemed to be the strangest thing I can say I have seen on Twitter happened yesterday as well. A user posted a Storify link of private messages between herself and Harrison Mooney of Puck Daddy and Pass it to Bulis. Mooney is an exceptional writer and humourist and this event rocked more than a few notable Tweeters. It's a strange thing to see a more private personal side shown of people on Twitter. Twitter is a very much a 'cult of personality' and it is empowering if not corrupting to some.
The best people on Twitter rarely talk down. They engage and do not act above those who follow. Having followers for some is akin to having disciples in the manner they treat them. In reality all we with followers have is a somewhat interested or not audience for our work and thoughts. It's those things we tweet and express that make up an audience's impressions of us, they create our 'personality'. Yesterday was an odd day when a few personalities were blown wide open.
I try not to judge people by what I see in multiple 140 character expressions, and after tomorrow I'll try not to judge people on limited exposes of their more personal and private moments too- I think we're all owed that.
Strange days indeed, but only if we take Twitter as the gospel.