by Rookie, AllHabs.net
MONTREAL, QC. — My Twitter feed was chirping last night as the sports channels began to show highlights (for lack of a better word) of last night’s St. Louis Blues game, another disappointing if not disastrous night for netminder Jaroslav Halak.
A late burst of energy by the Detroit Red Wings resulted in a 7-3 loss for the Blues, whose new goalie has been looking shaky as of late. Uncharacteristically poor play was capped yesterday by a swipe which ultimately pelted the puck into Halak’s own net.
The video was a great source of entertainment for those who still remember Halak’s agent making passive-aggressive comments about Carey Price’s performance last season. In fact, every Halak loss has spurred at least one person to say “What’s Allan Walsh saying now?”
This should come as no surprise, since there was chirping even after stellar play from both Price and Halak at the beginning of the season. Radio and television personality Ted Bird chimed in with a somewhat unnecessary review of the first ten games that both goalies played. Bird boiled it down to a simple point: that Price was a fine goaltender, but that Halak was outshining him, and that as a result the comparisons were still relevant.
Personally, I’m sick of hearing comparisons between the two just because they were gunning for the same spot last year. I’ve been trying to avoid all “Price vs. Halak” talk for months now, but it’s easier said than done. It would be a much easier feat to accomplish if the debate hadn’t expanded to attacks on fans of either player.
Yes, some people are that immature. A local sportswriter wrote this week that Price fans hate Halak. And, in the light of the aforementioned article by Ted Bird, many Halak supporters basically said that Price wasn’t playing up to par just because another goaltender, playing for another team, in another division, had played a better ten games.
Are we, as hockey fans, really that immature? I know the old saying that a player is only as good as his last game, but some people have taken that just a little too far. Fans are only as good as their judgment, and right now, some fans aren’t exactly giving Canadiens supporters a good name. Montreal Gazette writer Dave Stubbs said it best on Twitter this morning: “Halak own-goal is indeed funny. But some Habs fans see it as a chance to shred him. Which is wrong… Any Habs fan laughing at Halak is, I’m afraid, an idiot after what he did for [the team] last season.”
Going after other people who support your favourite team is akin to booing your own team. It might be a simple thing for me to say, and I know that at some point we’ve all tried to be that fan who says they were right about a player all along, but we as fans need to support our team. And we’d be doing a pretty lousy job of it if we were still divided over an issue that’s no longer relevant. Let’s save the trash talking for rivals who deserve it.