Ottawa Sports "Journalism" Dips To New Low

It's not unusual for this cat to get a tad riled up at the local sports media's persistent negativity and berating of the Ottawa Senators players. I'm not exactly sure why, but I tend to take it somewhat personally. As I've stated before on this blog, we came very, very close to losing our hockey team a few years ago, and no matter how bad things get on the ice, I can't imagine a frigid Ottawa winter without these games to look forward to.

Personally, I don't buy into the whole "that's why they make the big bucks" mentality. I want a team here to cheer for, not to vilify. I can't for the life of me understand those who just want to run all of our star players out of town. What is the point in that? Honestly, what do people get out of that?? And yet all morning I listened to furious fans completely rip apart one of the Sens star players. 

It all started when Chris Stevenson published an article in this morning's Ottawa Sun claiming that there was some serious animosity brewing between Dany Heatley and his new coach, Cory Clouston. Stevenson, taking remarks made by both Clouston and Heatley totally out of context, blew the whole exchange completely out of proportion in order to make a story out of absolutely nothing. 

He then followed it up with a guest appearance on Ottawa's angriest sports talk radio show, Over The Edge, during which he and co-host Lee Versage spent a full 3 hours calling Heatley out, putting words in both he and Clouston's mouths. Dozens of venomous callers and emailers took turns tearing the star winger apart - 'literally', as they say on OTE. It was relentless!

It's one thing for reporters and talk show hosts to criticize players day in and day out, but this was different. This was journalism at its worst. This was a total disregard for the truth, coming at a time when things were finally beginning to look up for the Sens. 

Suspect? Absolutely. Complete laziness? You bet! Anyway... for those interested the truth, here's what actually went down: 

Media scrum question:

Cory says he doesn't think your game is where it's usually at or where it should probably be at. He thinks maybe you're pressing too much. Is that fair?

Heatley's response:

No. I don't feel that way right now. I think I'm just trying to shoot the puck. I've had some good chances, like I said, last game, and it's kind of funny. The way I go, if a goal goes in and you play horribly, you guys all say everything is great and if you play well and the puck doesn't go in, you're playing bad, so ... I'm just going to keep trying to shoot the puck and eventually they'll go in.

For starters, Clouston repeatedly said that Heatley is no different than anyone else on the team. "He's not where we want him to be and neither is the whole team in general. He's not different (...) Again, it's only been two or three practices. It's coming." But they weren’t interested in exploring that avenue. As far as the radio boys were concerned, Heatley had been singled out, publicly embarrassed and taken to task by the new coach, resulting in his smug, arrogant rebuttal.

But the smallest bit of common sense could lead a reasonable person to the following conclusion:

The last part of the question was "He thinks maybe you're pressing too much. Is that fair?"  To which Heatley replies "No. I don't feel that way right now. I think I'm just trying to shoot the puck. I've had some good chances, like I said, last game, and it's kind of funny. The way I go, if a goal goes in and you play horribly, you guys all say everything is great and if you play well and the puck doesn't go in, you're playing bad, so... I'm just going to keep trying to shoot the puck and eventually they'll go in."

And there you have it. End of story. He's not saying anything about Clouston's assessment of his adjustment to the new system or anything like that at all... he's merely saying "No, the problem is not that I'm pressing too hard".

But there was no such common sense or reason this morning. Instead, half of Ottawa was sent into a frenzy, demanding that Heatley be traded, benched, demoted or better yet, sent to the minors. Caller after caller, emailer after emailer spread their hate for the big #15: "This guy has absolutely no class...", “I never liked him and never understood why he was named an assistant captain…”, "He's the cancer in the locker room that needs to be removed...", and so on and so forth.

Nothing like stretching the truth for a good story, eh Chris?

**Blogger's note: Apparently The Sun has issued an "update" on the matter. What a classy bunch.