By Markham Hislop, Editor
I have two beefs to air in this blog post. First, will a sports reporter or columnist finally call Jarome Iginla on his bullshit? The man is a walking advertisement for media coaching and I’m sick of it. Second, if it ever happens, the aforementioned reporter or columnist will not be one of the cheerleaders currently on the payroll of the Calgary Herald.
If you read any of my columns from late last season, I made the case that Iginla is not the “best leader in the NHL” and, in fact, may be the worst. I called for him to be stripped of his captaincy precisely because he failed to provide any leadership down the stretch run to the playoffs. It’s too early to say just yet, because Iggy always starts slow, but I am also coming to the conclusion that No. 12 may already have exceeded his best before date and needs to be traded while the Flames can still get some value for him.
Iggy doesn’t have the cajones to tell it like it is. In fact, last year during the usual late season swoon only Robyn Regher had the courage to speak openly about the failure in personal commitment and courage that plagued the Flames. That, my friends, is a leader.
And while Rockin’ Robin was manning up to the media, what did our Iggy do? Continued with the same old platitudes we’ve heard a thousand times. We just didn’t get it done tonight. We know what to do, we just have to go out and do it. We need to put this one behind us and concentrate on the next game.
Bah freakin’ humbug! Platitudes scripted by some anonymous media guru in the bowels of the ‘Dome. If he really meant them, Iggy’s next game would have been different. It rarely ever was.
And now Iggy’s mediocrity has spilled over into this season. Even Brent Sutter is using the word. Mediocre.
And now that Sutter is using it, suddenly the Herald’s pages are ablaze with stories by those lightweights on the sports desk lamenting the mediocre play, lack of work ethic, poor commitment to detail, etc., that characterizes this team.
Memo to the Herald: the Flames’ teams of the past three years had the same problems. It’s why they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs every time.
I remember a column by Bruce Dowbiggin, after the execrable Eastern road trip late in the season, suggesting that getting spanked so handily by some weak cousins was actually a good thing. What? And don’t get me started on George Johnson’s purple prose.
One would think the Herald could fork out for a single reputable columnist who didn’t fawn all over the home team like Urkle around the prom queen.
Thank God for Brent Sutter. Finally, someone associated with the Flames who calls it like it is.
Because one thing is certain – the Flames’ captain and the Herald sports reporters have no intention of doing it.
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Even though I love Iggy, your right he is not the same palyer from a few seasons ago and is not the kind of captain this team needs, I wonder if and when Brent takes the C off Iggys jersey.
And even though I hate to say it ,lets trade him while we can get something for him, I think he is way past his best before date.
He’s just to nice a guy to be a Captain, give it to Reg.
Right on, Markham!
When you’re on your own payroll, as it were, you can stick your neck out.
Someone HAD to do it.
Nice work.
C’mon, Brent. Shake it up, because its not working the way it is!