If you've been under a rock, you totally missed out on when Tomas Hertl opened a can of whoop ass on the New York Rangers and scored four goals – the last being an absolute beauty of a goal. The 19 year old Swedish rookie pulled out some amazing shit. If you missed it, here it is:
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AUpneTRZh8&w=640&h=480]
Now mainstream media jerkoffs like Damien Cox are putting the kid out to slaughter because he was "showing off" and "showing poor sportsmanship".
If Hertl had done it in a shootout, I'd have absolutely no problem with it. But he wouldn't, we all know that.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) October 10, 2013
But Cox just doesn't stop there:
I didn't realize until today that running up the score and kicking the other guys when they're down is so applauded. New boys club, I guess.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) October 10, 2013
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So what's Cox' problem with the goal? That Hertl didn't just dump the puck and skate away because the Rangers completely imploded? Did he just want him to skate straight and shoot the puck into the goalie's glove?
I didn't know that sports was also in the business of being nice. This isn't a kid's skate at HockeyTown – this is the NHL. It's the same arugment when the Patriots were runing the score up on scrubs in 2007. If you don't like what's happening, stop someone.
I know that's weird for me to say, but I played sports up through college and I've been on the losing end of some curbstompings, but you deal with it. Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates also came out and openly stated his displeasure with Hertl:
“I’m upset. I was just talking to George [McPhee] and he said all the kids do that nowadays, which I understand. But would he have done it on his first goal?” Oates said. “He hasn’t scored yet tonight and he gets a breakaway, is he going to do that on his breakaway? We’ll see."
Why should it matter the score or time of the game to do something like this? I can't stress enough that this is the NHL, not some Squirts game. I'm also a little puzzled how Adam Oates is upset with something like this when he has one of the biggest showboaters in the NHL tallies on the board for his club.
Where was everyone on March 16, 2013 when Patrick Kane – up 7-1 on Dallas at the time – whipped out this bad boy
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjcG91CtlGM&w=640&h=360]
I did a quick google search for "Patrick Kane spinorama disrespectful" and nothing. Nothing from Cox, nothing from head coaches across the league.
Zero.
Ziltch.
Nada.
It's your typical "We see people having fun and we hate it" bullshit argument that I use when the Red Sox win a playoff series and party like it's 1999. Part of me also believes that if Sidney Crosby or (insert high profile NHLer) pulled this off – it would be a commercial everywhere and people like Cox and Dupont would be telling us how great of a feat it is.
I'm happy for the kid and I see no issue with it.
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