How hypocritical is this?

Did our buddy “Gare” have this to say when people were talking down Cherepanov at the time?  Or did he wait to show that he’s so much better than everyone else now that Cherepanov is gone?

This article is in SUCH poor taste that it make me want to vomit.

‘People said bad things about a hockey player, and now he’s dead, and look what a wonderful person I am for defending him now that he’s gone.”

Just pathetic…

Posted by Garth on 10/14/08 at 10:53 AM ET

I don’t find this hypocritical at all.  The comments made by the players were wrong then, and are wrong now.  And with Cherepanov’s untimely and tragic death, I don’t think it’s inappropriate to bring this fact up. 

It’s just another occasion to discuss the Don Cherry School of Xenophobic Douchebaggery.  And, as sad as it is that this is the reason he’s bringing it up, I don’t think raising the curtain on crap like this is ever inappropriate.

Posted by mudshark from Divetown, Colorado on 10/14/08 at 11:26 AM ET

On top of that, some of the early media coverage said Cherepanov wasn’t going to come over ever (including Darren Dregger). However, that was far from the truth as Jaromir Jagr was preparing Cherepanov for the NHL and being a New York Ranger, and Jagr was pretty much coaching Cherepanov (Cherepanov said in his last blog post from days ago that Jagr was like his 4th coach).

Posted by bcrt on 10/14/08 at 11:39 AM ET

I think it’s wrong to bring up criticisms of a player which were probably exaggerated and at least somewhat unfounded and use them in the context of a players death. I fully agree with Garth. This article is in extremely poor taste and to vilify his critics in this way is flat out wrong.

Brandon Sutter and Jarmo Kekkalainen aren’t any more right or wrong today than they were two days ago. They didn’t deny him a chance to live a full happy life. If Kekkalainen as a talent evaluator allows biases to affect his job performance than more enlightened teams will take advantage. He shouldn’t be criticized in the wake of a tragic death that had nothing to do with whether Cherepanov was tough enough for the NHL. Brandon Sutter was speaking as a teenager trained to intimidate opponents and talk tough.

Right from the start, Joyce is wrong when he says “They’ll get it wrong again today, 18 months later, when they’ll talk about an athlete who didn’t live to see his 20th birthday or his first NHL game.” Maybe a few people will get it wrong, like the unnamed “newspaper guy”, but most people have the sense and class to observe this as a tragedy rather than an excuse to pile on.

The people who have criticized him didn’t know he was going to die yesterday. So don’t bring up those comments in that context.

Posted by Dave from NJ on 10/14/08 at 11:48 AM ET

An edit to my previous comment...I just realized the quoted portion referred to a comment made at the draft...which makes the topic of the article even worse.

The point is we’ll never know whether Cherepanov would excel in the NHL, he’ll sadly never get the chance. Now is not the time to tell off his critics.

Posted by Dave from NJ on 10/14/08 at 11:53 AM ET

I don’t see the point of this article. Is he mad at the teams for not drafting him higher (like Pierre McGuire at the draft)? The Canadians who got physical with him? Scouts who pointed out his perceived flaws? I don’t see xenophobic stereotypes in any of the quotes. I guess in a tragedy people look for someone to blame, but for the author to throw fair quotes back in the speakers’ faces is in bad taste. The real tragedy is that a young player never had a chance to live up to his potential.

Posted by Eric from NC on 10/14/08 at 12:13 PM ET

Brandon Sutter’s hit was a selfish play in the first place. he’s skating backwards in the offensive zone covering a breakout like a moron, gets accidentally slew-footed by Cherry and then takes it personal and goes and labels him on purpose. it was a hit with an agenda, of self-redress. Sutter should have sat out a game because of that hit and then he has the 170 pound balls to talk junk later? easy to do playing a checking role. start playing more offense and holding the puck, kid, so you can get lit up a couple times too instead of just scoring on opportunistic junk plays in your “checking role.” you wuss.

Posted by Death Metal Gary from MKE on 10/14/08 at 12:54 PM ET

The thing is, as Joyce points out, stuff like this was said on draft day and before he ever played with Jagr.

How is it zenophobic to call a guy soft when he’s injured by a hit?  How does Joyce know that the kid DIDN’T stay in Russia longer because of what happened at the “summit series”?  The comments are NOT xenophobic and are NOT slander.  Sorry.

I mean hell, he quotes someone as saying that Cherepanov had “no interest in playing defense” and then he goes on later to show what a great player the kid is by showing some amazing offensive plays.

It’s slander to say the kid wasn’t interested in defense, yet you don’t even show any evidence to back up YOUR slanderous remarks?

I’m sorry...It’s obviously awful that this kid died like he did, but this article is disgusting, self-serving and insulting.

Again, I ask, where was Joyce when people were saying these things?  It’s very safe to bring this up and look like you’re doing some sort of tribute to the player, but how about having some backbone at the time?

I mean hell, it would be one thing if you had people saying “who cares if he died, he was a selfish, soft player and a loser as a person” but these were legitimate concerns that teams/scouts had about him, and you’re using them, after his untimely death, to show how you’re so much better than everyone else?

Absolutely disgusting.

Posted by Garth on 10/14/08 at 01:16 PM ET

I’ll just set a few facts straight here.

Where was I? Glad you asked. I was at the under-18s in Finland in 2007. I wrote: “More than any other player in this tournament or this the draft he’s capable
of taking over a shift and finishing a play with flair, stuff his peers can’t imagine.” I can only presume that you didn’t look at the linked clips for evidence or consider that Cherepanov scored 18 goals in the Russian league compared to Ovechkin’s 13 and Malkin’s 3 at the same stage.

I also wrote in my book that scouts who did talk to him came away surprised--that he was very approachable and open and engaging when all that they heard is that he had a bad attitude. (page 286)

As I wrote in my book immediately after the 2007 draft, Cherepanov was a Top 5 player in almost any other circumstances and the only reasons he fell were A. no agreement with the Russian federation, and B. supposed character issues. Media types who had never seen him play carved him based on scouts’ scuttlebutt. (I didn’t name them in the story, professional courtesy, but any quick search of Cherepanov’s name and, say, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette should help you along the way, but it extends to the Montreal Gazette and beyond.).

Sutter’s hit on Cherepanov was viewed on youtube 50,000+ times but those amazing goals a fraction of that. I wrote the piece to correct an undeserved reputation, based on Sutter’s hit and trash talk and second-hand scuttlebutt.

Posted by Gare Joyce from Toronto on 10/15/08 at 09:29 AM ET

It’s good of you to come by and clear some things up.

Like the fact that one of (if not THE) main reasons he went undrafted was because of the lack of a transfer agreement, rather than simply labeling it xenophobia.

And it’s good that you felt the need to “correct” this after his death, as I’m sure that -in the wake of what we can all agree is a preventable tragedy- a lot of people are talking about him as being a soft player and a troublemaker with a bad attitude.  I definitely know that, since his death, ALL I’ve heard are people bashing the kid and saying that if he was a good Canadian boy he would have survived, rather than being a soft, little Russian with a bad attitude.  I’m sure that you bringing it up and acting all self righteous (as if you’re the only person in the world who saw any potential in him) has really helped to correct his reputation.

Oh, and wow, a giant hit is viewed more than a goal!  In your next column are you going to dissect why “2 Girls, 1 Cup” has gotten a bad rap?

Thanks for doing your part to drudge up negative attitudes expressed a year and a half ago about someone who has died a tragic and untimely death.

Well done, sir!

Posted by Garth on 10/15/08 at 10:57 AM ET