Last Friday, as Daren Millard and I were waiting for the start of our Hockeycentral at Noon radio show, the Fan 590 in Toronto was running a sports update recapping the Maple Leafs’ home-opening 4-3 OT loss to the Canadiens the previous night.
So now I’m juggling two things at the same time: Millard blabbing in one ear while I’m trying to listen to the news with the other.
The update includes clips from a player, but because Millard won’t shut up I can’t make out who the player is.
All I can hear are the quotes: "I thought I played great. I’m really happy with my game,’ and ‘overall this was one of the best games that I’ve played.’"
Now, I’m thinking that someone’s feeling really good about themselves.
Could it be Mike Cammalleri? He made a great play on the game-winning goal in OT. Maybe Carey Price, who stopped 43 shots to preserve the win?
I asked our producer who the player was on the update and to my surprise it was Viktor Stalberg of the Toronto Maple Leafs. To be fair to Stalberg, he also mentioned that he wished the end result could have been better for his team, so that at least was good. But nevertheless, I was still surprised by the words he chose to describe himself.
He used words like "great," ‘happy," and "best," which wouldn’t exactly be my choice of words to describe my game after a loss.
Whenever possible players should refrain from using "I" and "me" during interviews and instead focus on "we" and "us" and then they never go wrong.
But no big deal. It is a rookie error that any seasoned veteran in the dressing room can easily point out.
Now for anyone that watched Stalberg throughout training camp, it’s easy to see how he could have gained his self-confidence. He wasn’t only the most impressive rookie in the Leafs camp, he was the most impressive rookie anywhere.
His six pre-season goals led the entire league. Rushing the puck through the neutral zone at Mach speed quickly became the norm for this guy and everyone knew it, everyone including Anton Volchenkov.
Enter Stalberg's second rookie mistake: Never, never, never skate through the neutral zone with your head down.
Didn’t the Big E teach us anything about vulnerability? Especially with vultures like Volchenkov sitting there waiting to rip one's head off.
Stalberg is now out indefinitely with a concussion and in a very short period of time "great," "happy," and "best" took a turn for the worse.
Rookie mistakes are inevitable; they are all part of the learning curve.
Heck, I’d need about three columns to list all of mine.
Let’s hope Stalberg's rookie error doesn't cost him too much time off, so he can get to his next one.
