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Did we lose the war against “assistant” captain?

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ijuka said:
How could "alternate" captain possibly be correct? That doesn't even begin to make any sense grammatically. Maybe "alternative" captain, but "alternate?" Or is this another American English thing?
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It's probably the same people as those who talk about "compete level" instead of competitiveness.

It's always been assistant in Europe. Alternate sounds demented.

Also I suppose if they're all on the same line, then the team is forbidden from talking to the refs 80% of time since none of them are on the ice. Not to mention that the only way to always have one on the ice would be one per defensive pairing & making sure they come in for eachother all the time. Makes *perfect* sense.
 
wolfgaze said:
I wasn't aware anyone made the argument that there are players who cannot be leaders? When organizations give the 'C' and 'A's' to certain players - are there not expectations associated with those roles that are not placed upon, let's say 1st and 2nd year players? Of course there are. Which is why it makes sense that a players can 'assist' with the leadership duties in the same way that it makes sense that assistant coaches 'assist' with the coaching duties. I don't know why this is controversial.



So the alternate captain roles given to intentionally selected players by the organization have 'nothing to do with leadership'? Let's just agree not to discuss this topic with one another. Cool?
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You’re bending over backwards to ignore the fact that the “C” and “A” have clearly spelled-out (literally) meanings.

Other leadership roles, which may or may not correlate directly to the guys wearing the letters, are circumstantial and up to the teams involved. They do not change the words that the letters stand for.

You can say till you’re blue in the face that the “A” somehow stands for “assistant” but you are objectively incorrect in that claim. It doesn’t mean that, as a matter of plain fact.
 
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I'm going to be saying "alternate captain" like that Japanese soldier who kept fighting WWII for 40 years

Terry Yake said:
reddit is down the hall and to the left
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Yes this is a place for serious hockey discussion like "hey let's read this guy's lips and get mad about what we think he's saying"
 
The answer is alternate captain, it is even in the NHL rule book as such. See Rule 6, page 7.
I think we can end the debate.



Rule 6 – Captain and Alternate Captains


Captain - One Captain shall be appointed by each team, and he
alone shall have the privilege of discussing with the Referee any
questions relating to interpretation of rules which may arise during the
progress of a game. He shall wear the letter “C,” approximately three
inches (3'') in height and in contrasting color, in a conspicuous
position on the front of his sweater. No co-Captains are permitted.
Either one Captain and no more than two Alternate Captains, or no
Captain and no more than three Alternate Captains are permitted (see


6.2).

Only the Captain, when invited to do so by the Referee, shall have
the privilege of discussing any point relating to the interpretation of
rules. Any Captain, Alternate Captain or any player who comes off the
bench and makes any protest or intervention with the officials for any
purpose shall be assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike
conduct under Rule 39 – Abuse of Officials. Should this protest
continue, he may be assessed a misconduct penalty, and if it further
continues, a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed.
A complaint about a penalty is NOT a matter “relating to the
interpretation of the rules” and a minor penalty shall be imposed
against any Captain, Alternate Captain or any other player making

6.2 7.1 such a complaint.
It is the policy of the National Hockey League that each respective
team must submit the name of the Captain and Alternate Captains in
the game line-up submission.
No playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be
permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.
Alternate Captains – If the Captain is not on the ice, an Alternate
Captain on the ice shall be accorded the privileges of the Captain.
Alternate Captains shall wear the letter “A” approximately three inches
(3'') in height and in contrasting color, in a conspicuous position on the
front of their sweaters.
Only when the Captain is not in uniform (or if there is no Captain),
the Coach shall have the right to designate three Alternate Captains.
This must be done prior to the start of the game.
 
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Assistant is just a word people are more comfortable using when talking about someone who's in an ancillary role. Executive assistant, administrative assistant, etc. The role of an alternate captain is different since they will become the captain when the captain is out, whereas an executive assistant is not literally doing CEO jobs when the CEO is sick. But a support role is more often called an "assistant", since it's rare in non-sport environments to have a standby person that steps into a new role. I can really only think of health and safety where you have alternate emergency contacts if you can't reach the primary. But then they are usually called secondary, not alternate.

I think our brains are just wired to associate the word 'assistant' with captain rather than 'alternate' which, despite being correct, feels clunky.
 
I started following hockey in 1997 as an adult and immediately learned it was alternate captain. You jabronis.
 
It's assistant because it matches the right translation of the word used in my language.
 
Grew up in Canada so I'm an expert... regardless of if the word was associate or alternate or any other A word, it was mostly regarded to as "the assistant captains" around here growing up...so Ottawa in the 90s and 2000s.
 
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