As most have already seen Puck-rakers had an update blog post about Legein:
"In my opinion, Stefan just wants to take a break. He's tired from all the things he's gone through the last two seasons, all the tournaments, the games, the shoulder injury ... all that stuff. He feels like he needs some time and space."
Woods was adamant that Legein is not suffering from anything other than loss of passion and energy. There are no health issues, he said. There is no family or personal crises. No addictions to anything, either.
"Stefan's pretty upset, actually, at some of the stuff that's been thrown around out there on these many blogs," Woods said. "These are people who don't know what's going on, and they're saying some very inaccurate and hurtful things. It's not right.
"I'm talking about the unsolicited comments on the blogs, not the (newspaper) articles that have been written. This is a 19 year old kid, all right? He has some maturing to do, but he does not deserve this."
I'm as guilty as this as anyone.
I guess at the end of the day everyone was shocked that he would consider this and over reacted including myself. As fans we all get a little tied up wanting our teams to succeed and forget these are just kids sometimes. We all think we know what's best and what's going on.
Would I have handled it differently if I were in his shoes? I hope I would have but I'm sure just about everyone one of us old enough could look back and wish they made some different decisions at that age. Part of life. Part of growing up.
Anyhow. Good luck Legein. Hopefully someday I'll blog about your return to the Jackets.
Okay I'll end my coming of age speech now.
Now lets get back to talking about the Jackets that will be here. 21 days til camp!
-LTL
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Legein update
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Burnout. No problem. Thing is, his agent is a guy who needs to look in the mirror for declaring such silliness as 'retirement' without properly consulting his client. What did they think was going to happen when you make such a statement two weeks before camp and then follow it up with basically nothing?
Legein was subject to the commentary and speculation because he was mishandled by the very guy who is suppose to look out for his best interests. Woods is being extremely naive if he thinks the speculation and commentary is anyone's fault but his own.
Legein IS just a kid and it is this guys' job to manage him and help him make the right choices. Calling up the GM and stating that his client is 'quitting hockey' is a pretty stupid thing to do without really getting to the bottom of it with his client and his client's parents beforehand.
As far as Legein goes, I still say he needs to call Howson up and give him the 411 man to man. He owes it to Howson and the org. to fill him in on his status as he re-energizes.
I have been thinking about this and the burnout thing is very lame. He didn't do anything above and beyond what a boatload of other kids did to this point in their lives. In fact, possibly a bit less.
An example:
Russell goes from jr. to the Memorial Cup Finals--loses, goes into training for training camp, to making the team and playing a full season in the NHL, to off-season, to working himself into a kid who no longer looks like the stick boy! In fact, Russell had to be asked to take a break (after the Mem. Cup) so he wouldn't burn out. Boll did the same thing.
Now, I am not sure, but I don't think the Niagara Ice Dogs went to the finals in the Memorial Cup.
Also, Legein's whole: I want to leave Syracuse so I can go home and train IS a total boatload of crap.
Lindsay Kramer's blog has a quote from one of Stefan's former teammate (in jr.) said that Legein told him that he left the AHL playoffs because he was 'mad that he wasn't playing'. B.S. He didn't want to go home to train. He wanted to go home and hang out.
This kid's head is elsewhere. Thing is, if you are looking for a reason not to play you will find it. He is going to cite 'burnout'. I am going to cite 'bullshit'. He didn't want to put in the work anymore and now is using that as an excuse.
He is only just getting started and has NO IDEA of the demands that will be placed on him to play in the NHL. He is burnt out after his jr. career? Oh boy...this kid is going to have to toughen up BIG TIME if he thinks he is going to come back to the NHL. Things aren't even hard yet and he thinks it is too much and too hard. Yikes.
You hit the nail on the head when you said that this kid wanted to leave Syracuse to hang out 'cause that's all he did - hang out - well, with the exception of a few token visits to the gym.
He wasn't mad that The Crunch didn't play him - he understood that they made it to the playoffs without him and would not jostle their roster to make room for him. He was unhappy with not being played and being made to stay. He figured he could go home and sit around and work out occasionally. He didn't have any personal problems with any of his team mates, nothing like that.
For some reason, he's just dug his heels in and is refusing to make good on the promise he made to CBJ, consequenses be damned. and no one, I mean NO ONE can convince him otherwise. Not his parents, girlfriend, close friends - NO ONE.
I think you're 100% correct when you say he just doesn't want to put in the hard work anymore - he's gotten lazy since his injury.
There was conflict between he and his teammates because he was not abiding by the same rules that the rest of the team was. He was asked to stop and the next day, he blatantly disobeyed again. Was he deliberately doing that so he would get sent home? Maybe. Either way he was creating a distraction and acting like the spoiled little brat that he is.
Now he issues a statement. Instead of clearing the air, he whines about the comments people are making on blogs and the tsn 'your call' section.
The Legein camp has grossly mishandled this situation.
Post a Comment