2014-03-06

Back Story To Champions; It's Not About Winning Sometimes

Without knowing Martin St. Louis I think I know where he's coming from.

A quick recap. St. Louis was surprisingly left off Team Canada's original selection roster for the Olympics. Equally interesting was the fact his GM at Tampa Steve Yzerman was also head of Team Canada. Seems as though Yzerman didn't use his power to get St. Louis onto the team choosing instead to close ranks with the brain trust that included Babcock and Hitchcock.

The snub was made all the more difficult considering an argument could easily be made that a couple of the players taken really were below St. Louis in the depth chart.

St. Louis eventually made his way onto the team after his Lightning line mate Stamkos could not make the roster due to a leg injury. Ironic poetic justice or something.

But the damage was done. And maybe he may be crying over spilled milk, but overlooking St. Louis seemed to have wounded him. One can dismiss this as him letting his ego get the better of him but who could blame him? We hear a lot about how coaches look for 'champions' and 'loyalty' and other intangibles. St. Louis met all the criteria and then some. He's won a Stanley Cup. He's represented Canada at the World Championships. But he had something else no one seemed to mentioned.

In his trophy case, he has two Art Ross trophies as well as having won the MVP in 2004!

Yet, he was behind Benn, Kunitz, Sharp, Carter and Nash? Neither of whom have the pedigree he earned?

I'm just trying to set up how he might have looked at things and if accurate, again, I don't blame him.

There might be something else at play which has little to do with the NHL and more about life as a whole. Life isn't fair. It can be downright nasty and filled with contradictions and controversies. Unfortunately, bias does play a role in our daily lives. It's not uncommon, for someone to say one thing and do another.

I remember watching, if I may digress, American Idol a couple of years back when David Foster was a coach to the aspiring singers. He said that if you weren't 'original' you weren't going to make it. Which made me think about two things. One, originality doesn't really exist. A lot of it is repackaged or stolen since a lot of shit has already been done. Two, what was so original about Foster's own music? Struck me more as gate keeping nonsense and arrogance than anything else. You can be unoriginal and succeed just like a restaurant can serve mediocre food and survive.

Unfair and a lot of crap you hear from people is just bull shit. They'll never tell you how they really succeeded and more often than not it has less to do with talent and hard work and more with plain old luck. Not in all circumstances of course (don't want to sound like an envious left-wing commie or anything) but it happens.

Here's another digression. When my city decided to put together its first elite soccer team I was on the team. Until one day I was cut much to the surprise of parents and the assistant coach. I was the only left-footed player who could play well. Yet, the coach cut me...for an inferior player. All sorts of theories thereafter took place but it angered me - to this day - I was left off a team I belonged on.

Maybe St. Louis, in the twilight of his career at 38. felt he deserved loyalty from Team Canada. Maybe he felt he earned the right to be top 14 after a lifetime of being overlooked due to bias because of his size - which probably played a part in why he was undrafted. He probably said to himself if he worked hard enough and towered above others he'd get the unequivocal respect he believed he deserved.

And despite the success and proving the skeptics wrong, maybe he thought he had to unnecessarily prove himself again. He probably overlooked many snubs in his life but this time, he stood up for himself culminating into a request for the Lightning to trade him.

Yzerman eventually traded him to New York thus closing what probably was a stressful chapter in their professional lives.

Steve Yzerman, for his part, would step down from his duties with Team Canada after winning two gold medals. No stranger to controversial cuts, recall his omission at the Canada Cups in the late 1980s and early 1990s), his resignation and St. Louis's trade were not likely coincidental.

Just two guys coming to conclusions about where they stood. Yzerman realizing he never wants to be in such a position again and St. Louis feeling betrayed for all his service.

You would think winning is a cure to such complex human feelings. Not in this case.

Quite the back story.


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