As much as teenagers can be young and dumb with full ass plums, I'm not sure Andrei Svechnikov's decision to lure the gloves off a grizzled grown man who still plays the game like he's in desperate need of a cocaine fix can be classified as nothing more than a "rookie mistake". There are first year players who've been benched for putting blind, cross-ice passes onto a platter for opposing players that would resent the idea that their birth year leaves them liable to poke an absolute bear of a physical freak. Therefore, it feels like there was something more to that fight than youthful ignorance.
Now, far be it for me to assume that "something" is some sort of regional blood-feud that dates back generations. However, if the threat strongly implied through the use of a universally understood horror movie reference is any indication then said indication provides better reasoning for a super-skilled 19-year old to go blow-for-blow with Alexander Ovechkin than any other I can think of. Seems pretty far fetched for Russian mob ties to rope two professional athletes into an unfair fight on American ice, but the illogical obligations of gang-like affiliations make for a more logical motive than the inherent idiocy of adolescence alone. I'm certainly not suggesting that polarizing opinions on Putin were ultimately responsible for an unnecessary fight that resulted in an unfortunate knockout whose ramifications could theoretically be felt throughout the rest of a suddenly competitive series. Just saying I'd understand that more than I understand a boy being frustrated enough to believe it behooved him to man (a whole hell of a lot of levels) up in actively and inexplicably escalating an oddly timed confrontation between fellow countrymen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|