Date Posted: June 22, 2011
Print Edition: June 10, 2011
By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
June 4 was a glorious day in Vancouver. This wasn’t just because of a win in game two – this is the day that Canuck fans everywhere saw Manny Malhotra sporting a helmet once more, rather than some Versace sunglasses.
The Canucks have played an awful lot since that fateful March 16 Avalanche game, but Malhotra’s contributions have been missed. While not the type to tally offensively, Malhotra had a 61.7 per cent faceoff average for the regular season – this places him second in the league, and among the stars Vancouverites should all be praising.
Given his immense contributions to the team, the initial words on his injury were gut-wrenching: they said he wouldn’t come back, even if the Canucks made it all the way through the playoffs. Two months later, and he’s back – but this is a good opportunity to consider how the coaching staff dealt with his injury.
Was it right to express such negativity on the outcome of his injury? If there was a shred of hope, why was that not related? Mike Gillis explained “Well, there was a number of reasons we did that. One is privacy issues. He had a severe injury, and it seemed like, notwithstanding us urging people to please respect his privacy, a number of people chose not to, so we wanted to take that pressure away.” Pretty words, but where was this stance during the string of defensive injuries this season? Watching Malhotra step on the ice on his first game back, the fans at Rogers Arena may as well have been chanting quack-quack-quack – because really, this is a Disney movie straight out of Hollywood north. Does Gillis have some directing aspirations that we don’t know about?
An interesting juxtaposition to this is Sidney Crosby’s head injury from the January 1 game. When he was finally appraised – a week later – doctors called his injury a mild concussion, and estimated his recovery time at less than a month. However, the Canadian wunderkind hasn’t played since then. Given this, perhaps Gillis was trying to avoid the wrath of Vancouver if he ended up being wrong.
Another side of this to consider is the wealth of knowledge available through social media. Before Malhotra’s first surgery, his brother in law – who just so happens to be basketball superstar Steve Nash – tweeted “I need my brother in law, Manny Malhotra of the Vancouver Canucks, to have a successful eye surgery tomorrow saving his eye and vision.” Let’s ignore the fact that Nash is a professional athlete and should be trained to keep his mouth shut around the media. The attention the Canucks were so clearly trying to divert from the ailing centre was re-directed in 140 characters or less.
So which route is best? Being broken-hearted, like Crosby, or feeling like you’re a cartoon character with Malhotra? Social media isn’t going anywhere, but the frustration surrounding player injuries could easily be solved with a little consistency. Across the board, keep it tight-lipped or make as much information available as possible. Yes, this opens up the personal lives of the players, but they aren’t accountants at a mild-mannered firm. They’re media figures, at the mercy of their fans. How about some consistency, NHL?
