Tag: respect

So I’m working on my Western Conference offseason recap, but I wanted to take a break from that to touch on a controversial topic that has surfaced in the sports world recently. That topic is the respect of the team logo on the dressing room floor.

I read an article by Justin Bourne on The Score that said (rough summation) the members of the media are slightly outraged at the flak that Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has received for planting his dirty boots on the sacred Indian head of the Chicago Blackhawks whilst photographing the Stanley Cup. (View the disgrace for yourself here.) All I could think of when I first read that was, “Are you kidding me?”

First off, I wouldn’t be letting the Biebs anywhere near an Original Six dressing room, let alone the most beautiful trophy in all of sports. There really is no excuse for stepping on the logo; either you’re too ignorant to know you can’t or you just don’t care, and quite frankly, if either are true, you don’t deserve to be in the dressing room in the first place.

Secondly, where do these media members get off thinking they can complain and get to do what they want? Did these people seriously put all that time and effort into becoming a sports writer so they could take a sh*t on teams’ rules and traditions? The reason these people even have something to write about is because this league and its teams exist. The last thing they should be doing is irking the people who essentially make them their earnings.

Hockey, and the sporting world in general, is full of superstition, tradition and strange routine. Take a look at one of the greatest goaltenders to ever play the game and my personal childhood hero, Patrick Roy. The guy was a hot-head and nearly nuts with superstition, but nobody gave him any grief about tapping each post 3 times before every play, not skating over any lines on the ice and writing his kids’ names on his sticks.

Watch every goalie in the league after they get scored on. Every single one of them has their own unique way of shaking it off. Some skate to the side boards and back, others go straight for their water bottles. Some guys shake their heads around like 12 year old girls listening to, well, Justin Bieber. So why are the media making such a big deal out of having to take 3 steps sideways/frontwards/backwards? I have never been in a dressing room full of media and players/staff, but I fully understand that it gets very crowded and difficult to maneuver around; however, the logo is what, 5 feet by 5 feet? How hard can it be to stay away from that 25 square feet of dressing room floor.

The point I’m trying to make is this: Myself, I am a huge fan of this game and being allowed into the dressing room to conduct interviews and get material for articles sounds a lot like a privilege to me. The trust that these NHL organizations is instilling in people should be responded to with respect for their rules and regulations, whether one guy thinks they’re ridiculous or not.

That’s my rant, so thanks for reading and please, let me know what you think in the comment section below and don’t forget to check back soon for the Western Conference Offseason Recap!

Cheers!