Jason Spezza Avoids the Media

It was only a couple of weeks ago when Jason Spezza put on a magnificently rehearsed performance at his charity golf tournament. In it, he attempted to address the drama and uncertainty that stemmed from his exit meeting that he had with Bryan Murray.

“I just want to clear up a lot of the talk going on, at no point did I ever demand a trade to Bryan Murray. At the end of the year, I was pretty emotional and upset. I was upset at losing, I was upset at the response I got (booed at home), I talked to Bryan about — I see it in the newspapers every year, they talk about me, and I said, if you want to move me you can move me . . . if you think it’s best for the team.

I signed here for seven years (in 2007) because I like the city, I like the team, I like my teammates,” Spezza said. “There’s obviously going to be bumps in the road. I think it’s important to have communication between players and management, and that’s what we had. It just became a little more public, and became a little bigger deal than it should have been.” ~ via Ottawa Citizen

I don’t want to make a big issue of this but maybe it’s time that Spezza realizes that the communication between the media and the player is almost as important in this city. If you haven’t heard, after an informal skating session this morning at the Bell Sensplex, Jason refused to talk to a small group of media members. Although it’s not necessarily uncommon for a player to deny the media a request, it wasn’t exactly a well thought out choice of action by Spezza. I realize that because it wasn’t an official Senators workout, Spezza wasn’t obligated to talk to the media. However, regardless of how you feel about them, the media are the lifeline between the player and the casual fan. For a polarizing player like Spezza, he can ill afford to be portrayed as a malcontent and have the common fan root against him.

Spezza’s silence didn’t go unnoticed either. Here are just a few blurbs from the Twittersphere…

SeguinSports JasonSpezza refuses to talk to media after skate today. Sign of things to come?

TSN_Wally Interesting Spezza wouldn’t talk to the media today. I know he doesn’t have to talk but still surprising. Hope not a sign of things to come

I’m hoping that things don’t escalate from this or that too much is read into it but after the way that the Heatley situation unfolded, he should have known better. Common sense says that the media was just doing its job covering a practice. A couple of no comments and some manufactured hockey quote soundbytes would have sufficed.

I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come…