Shrapnel - 2/2/12

In case you missed it? Last night was kinda frustrating.

Martini Hockey has more video and a recap, there's the usual reports from Puck-Rakers and DBJ shared his thoughts.

Out in the wide world of sports, Backhand Shelf talks to Dr. Mark Recchi, Justin Bourne talks about teams that make him reach for the remote, and trade deadline madness.

At Carry The Flag, there's a fresh prospect review and a well reason argument for why Columbus should build with Jeff Carter.

Carter was also the theme at TMM, with Jeff Little taming the tempest and looking at how rumors are built, a Dispatch piece where Carter claims it is out of his control, and LTL has some "lamb chops."

I think it comes down to this: A lot of the arguments for keeping Carter are looking at a pile of statistics, and those numbers make a compelling argument that say he is the type of player this franchise should be building around.

But statistics say nothing about how a player is interacting with the rest of the room, the attitude he takes towards his coaches, and his willingness to play in good faith. We as fans simply cannot see what happens off the ice on a daily basis, and as much as we'd like to say "off ice shouldn't matter", it does. If Carter could score 40+ when healthy, but he spends much of his time making everyone around him miserable, that's not a good situation for either side.

If you have a co-worker who turns in incredible projects on time and under budget, but spends a great deal of his non-project time antagonizing and harassing the rest of his department or skipping out of other duties, part of management's responsibility is to A) get him to adjust his attitude or, failing that B) determine when you need to move on.

Would attitude issues be less of a problem if the team was winning? Almost certainly. I'm sure that Carter's mindset wasn't improved by the team falling apart, either. But when the team needs to band together, having someone pushing people apart is only going to lead to more failure.

Perhaps Carter's own words are worth judging here - continuing to say that there's nothing he can do about rumors or reports isn't entirely true. Given that the subject of more than a few of the reports comes down to his behavior and willingness to play in Columbus, all Carter really needs to do is come out and make a statement that he's committed to playing here. Yet aside from boilerplate statements from his agent, the silence on that front has been resounding, while remarks like this say quite a bit.

A new Tumblr features the one sad guy in every goal celebration, while in an "only in Minnesota" moment, you have a Zamboni DUI. Speaking of the land of 10,000 lakes, Dustin Byfuglien's lawyer is hopeful to have his suspicion of BWI charges from this summer reduced to "careless boating".

A mini-shannahammer swung yesterday to fine Eric Boulton and Jared Boll $2500 each for illegal hits, but no suspensions will be required.

Derick Brassard talked to the Dispatch about dropping the gloves in San Jose and followed up by speaking out on his twitter account.

Mr. Martini has a hockey movie fan poll with "GOON" on the horizon, a Vancouver columnist wants to see the Canucks trade Cory Schneider, LTL catches up on OSU hockey, Michael Arace wonders if the fan protest sets a new standard for interactions, and Puck Daddy has some of the biggest questions going down the stretch.

Finally, another moment of commentary.

I see that our esteemed colleague at LTL is claiming the fan protest caused the ASG to happen.

Shame on you.

Shame on your ego, shame on your arrogance, and shame on your disrespect.

Your crowing discounts the hard work from people in the City of Columbus, the Blue Jackets organization, and the NHL who have been working on bringing this event to Columbus. We have records that the team started working on all star bids back in 2002. We know the bid for the 2013 game was submitted last July. We know the GCSC, the Jackets, and the NHL met throughout last season to get information together and review what Columbus could offer.

Is your need for validation so ravenous that it's impossible that Columbus fans deserve this honor? That our city is worthy of the respect and consideration the awarding of the game brings? That the NHL might recognize that this is, in fact, a hockey town? That hard work from a lot of people finally paid off after nearly a decade of effort?

Before you call out the Jackets and the NHL for grandstanding, try looking in the mirror.

OK, I'm done. Let's all go watch Liam Neeson versus wolves.