| 04 January 2012
Okay, so Canada lost last night against the Russians, preventing them from going to the finals in the World Juniors tournament and instead making them go for Bronze. Considering Canada more or less played like Tim Tebow that game (not showing up until the last 15 minutes), there's a good reason that they lost. Some people would just accept the fact that they lost and get over it. Eric Francis on the other hand, seems a bit bitter. Instead of praising Russia's captain Evgeny Kuznetsov for a dominant performance last night, he instead goes on attacking Kuznetsov talking about how he was too pre-occupied with being a one man show and how he's a bad teammate. All in all, the article is incredibly embarassing to read. But what really bugs me is how ambiguous it is. Take out Evgeny Kuznetsov and instead replace it with another team's top player. Take Petr Mrazek, the Czech goalie who was remembered for his enthusiasm as well as his superb play. Instead of focusing on his performance, he'd probably be talking about how classless Mrazek is because he's too busy showboating. Or maybe if Jon Merrill made a difference against the Canadians, talk about how the defenseman will get to underachieve for years alongside Ilya Kovalchuk in New Jersey.
Of course, what really bothers me is what Francis wouldn't have said anything like this if say... Sidney Crosby had done what Kuznetsov did. Would we be hearing about how Crosby's a bad teammate because he wanted to win? Would we be hearing about how he's a punk? No, we'd be hearing about how he had a valiant effort and how he was the decisive factor in the victory. Francis didn't bother to praise Kuznetsov one bit. He keeps glossing over every little action as if it was a dirty play, like Brett Connolly's FALCON PUNCH on a russian defender.
What happened with this article was Francis thought everyone would agree on him because the loss was fresh in everyone's mind and Kuznetsov was the catalyst for it. Unfortunately, everyone was already over the loss and he looked like a butthurt moron.
