Yesterday, I mused that Gainey may just know better than RDS on the status of his own players. I pretty well slated the media for getting so antsy, and in the end sacrificing credibility for headline-chasing.
Well, Schneider was on the ice today (thanks RDS for some useful info). Whether or not he plays tonight is irrelevant to the argument, given his diagnosis was no more ice time this season. It is, however, quite relevant to us fans as the dilemma goes from who shoots? (among 50 mph inaccurate choices) to who shoots? (proven PP goalscorers with accurate hard slappers).
This is great news.
RDS not off the hook with me
I know I wrote a bit about RDS and their general standards of journalism yesterday. I've addressed it again above. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I am so astounded.
It's because on top of the injury story which they broke and got wrong, this morning I watched a video of Jacques Demers – one which I had (and still have) trouble believing could ever be made. Jacques was speaking on the topic of team ownership (presumably because his expertise knows no bounds) and making about as much sense or progress as you or I would have on the topic. The part Jacques could add to with some credibility was how reports and speculation about changing owners can affect a team and gave rise to the title of the clip: Gillett devrait donner l'heure juste.
Or, in other words, Gillett should be honest and get this over with in the open because all the speculation will distract the players and spoil the season.
A bit rich coming from the primary source of wild speculation isn't it?
RDS's irresponsible reporting is harmless enough until it does affect the players. Before they went buck-wild on the topic, I don't think anyone could have been distracted, the reports were so vague and disperse – bloggers like me who look for any scrap to discuss were barely noticing. But their recent rash, which included 4 written pieces and as many video clips, may cause me to withdraw my earlier statement from March:
"I tend to believe this is quite minor compared to all the other distractions."
What's more they can't even present a balanced story. Whereas Pat Hickey (second kudos in as many days, well done real reporters) reported on the 10 suitors for the Canadiens having submitted their intentions and details to BMO by mentioning all. RDS simply refuses to publish anything other than the number ten while listing the homegrown options alone. If you read only RDS, you could be forgiven for not knowing that both the Molsons, the Bronfmans and the American Roustan Capital (who Hickey says own several hockey-related enterprises) were involved at all.
Many a thesis has been written on how rolling news has caused massive shifts in society and indeed how countries are run across the world. I could write a thesis on how RDS will ultimately affect how any Canadiens team is built and run over the time they hold almost exclusive TV broadcasting rights to the team with an agenda is at times transparent and petty. Their latest activities make me feel ill as manipulation and maneuvering take supreme precedence over accuracy and good reporting.
Now all that is off my chest (you see I didn't want to throw away all the bitterness even after I learned of #24's return), I can say I am at peace.
How are you all feeling about this latest Schneider news?
For me, even the possibility of Schneider coming back is better news than I had been led to expect for the next 3 months on this team...
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