Sons In Retirement

Posted onNovember 28, 2011 - 9:19 am by Admin | 0 Comments

If it was any other sport, if it was in any other country, it wouldn't be news. As it happens, the sport is unfortunately hockey, and Stefan Legein is unfortunately Canadian, more than enough of a factual basis to send media outlets into a frenzy when it first hit that the 19-year-old hockey player decided to, well, stop playing hockey.

Blue Jackets Feeling the Blues

The Columbus Blue Jackets, the National Hockey League team that holds Legein's rights, are, in their view surely, getting gypped out of a quality prospect. General manager Scott Howson, who was named to his position just days prior to Legein being drafted last year, is probably fuming, one has to suspect. But, in the end, short of showing up at Legein's doorstep with a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates, there's little Howson can do to get his player back in blue. He may truly be at his wit's end trying to come up with something, though. However, one thing Howson can take solace in is that he's most definitely not alone in his cluelessness.

No offense intended towards Blue Jackets star Rick Nash, but, in a reactionary interview, he conveyed his lack of empathy towards Legein by saying that Legein was a guy, who, if he had a good training camp, would have had an inside chance at making the team. Legein is the quintessential Canadian hockey player. He hits, he plays hard, and he never takes a shift off. Taken in the second round, he even has some offensive upside, scoring 75 points (including 43 goals) in 64 games in 2006-2007 playing in the Ontario Hockey League. Indeed, Nash's inability to understand how a young player with so much promise could just throw it all away is shared by all Canadians.

A Canadian Game

Canadians are brought up to worship hockey stars, to dream of playing in game seven of the Stanley Cup Final, and to score the winning goal in the process. Hockey is part of Canadian culture, and for someone who has an outside chance to do all of the above and then say he won't even bother to try, well, that is a somewhat confusing concept to wrap one's head around. In fact, some might take it as a slap in the face. But, really, should it not be considered admirable? That Legein is making such a huge statement, that he's presumably trusting his gut in such an instance, and that he most definitely paced a few dozen miles trying to make the right decision? Foregoing millions of dollars in salary over a potentially long career is not an easy one to make, to be sure.


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