Thought Bubble : Leadership

Hey all. As we continue to wait  impatiently for the first gameday since last saturday, I thought I'd share another piece of my mind with you on a topic that's increasingly warming up in Minnesota. Kaptain Koivu's recent struggles have had many people calling out for the removal of the C from his jersey. Oddly enough, this isn't even the inspiration for this post. I was inspired by a Habs-related conversation... yup... I've been reduced to watching Habs games in this 5 day game-less lull.

Anyhoo, make the jump and let's talk about this.

We cannot hide ourselves from the following: Koivu has been a mere shadow of himself for the past month. Sure, he still finds a way to get a point here and there, but we know he's missing a step. Production-wise, since his 7 game point streak ended on November 5th, the Kaptain has had one multi-point game and hasn't been able to get a single point streak. None. At all. It's easy to blame his linemates for the lack of scoring, but never before has it affected his overall play. It's becoming increasingly difficult to explain his woes. Is it a nagging injury? Is it fatigue? Is it a problem within the team? We have no way of knowing for sure, which has led to a lot of hypotheses from an increasingly frustrated fanbase.

Final panel: RDS's vision of veterans.

Any good veteran, hell, any good player wants one thing: To win. If playing 5 minutes less per game so that a young player can log the big minutes and it helps the team, so be it. If you want those minutes, you earn them, you give your coach a reason to give them to you. You're not supposed to want your player to vanish from the roster for your  personal gain. You're not supposed to like gaining from another person's pain. As much as I hate the Habs, I would never imagine them dumb enough to not want to help a teammate get better so that he can help them win as much as possible. Helping your team is what being a good veteran leader is abll about. Anyway, that's just my take on the whole thing.

Punchline: Only two panels this time... Isn't it sad that I know so much about the Habs, the team I hate more than slamming a car door into my hand? Hell, I might know about as much about them as I do about the Wild! Oh, I'm patiently awaiting any and all Ovechkin fans to come crying here about my cracks against him. I loved OV when he first started, but he's lost a lot of credibility last year. As Bryan would probably say: Bring it on.

Live long and prosper, readers of HW.