I was writing this as a comment…
…but it grew a mind of its own.
You know what we’re thinking the main problem is with these guys?
They don’t like each other. They don’t like each other and they don’t respect each other. No one gives a shit about the man standing next to them so why the hell would they want to win for them?
The Max “I’m a lonely boy” Mayorov article in the paper this morning only proves this. He needs his daddy to come over (and Jesus Christ, how familiar does that sound?) because he can’t find anyone here to invite him to play video games and share in borsch. The guy is 20 years old, he’s living by himself, and is one of the most invisible, lost players out there. And yet no one on the team seems to care.
I’m still fully convinced had this organization had some balls and made another certain young Russian live with someone, regardless of his wishes, then perhaps things would have ended differently. But they didn’t and now he’s gone back home, where he’s continuing to play the same way that was causing problems here. *cough* If this team isn’t careful, Mayorov is going to go the same way. And hell, maybe it should happen. But it’s sad this organization isn’t doing more to get their young players used to living here. Even my high school marching band knew enough to match veteran members with younger ones. Big brothers/big sisters were paired up each season and we depended on each other to stay organized and to make each other better.
I really don’t think there’s enough leadership on this team to make a difference. Fritchmon and Fritsche can’t do this on their own. You all are well aware I was leery of MacKenzie being made captain. I still find it amusing that when I asked for justification all those months ago as to why he deserved the “C” no one answered me. Yea, he scored tonight. Yay! But he needs to do more than that.
Yea, it sucks that Yates apparently isn’t doing his job. But someone on this team has to join these assholes together. Usually it’s the captain that does it. I know Smith last year was organizing things for the team to do a a whole. There was none of this that group goes here and this group goes there bull shit, or at least if there was it happened less often than it appears to be happening this year. This team needs to do more things–like when Fritsche took them all to dinner–as a whole. Konopka, of course, excelled in this area and, not surprisingly, that was one of the closest teams we’ve seen in Syracuse. They certainly played like they were. We need that now, more than ever.
Maybe it’s good these guys are going to get away for the holidays. I just hope they come back with better attidues. I’m sick of this shit.
