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Slava Voynov

Looking over some rosters that will definitely be out of it come the trade deadline and yikes. I see absolutely nothing of any value.
 
Reclamation Project said:
Looking over some rosters that will definitely be out of it come the trade deadline and yikes. I see absolutely nothing of any value.
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Yep, really shows how hard a top 1-4 defenseman is to find and why franchises that have been successful lately have been rolling the best out. Hard to find one on a bottom feeder. Guys like Sekera and Petry were top-pairing on their previous clubs and were #2-#4 depending on how you look at it after their trades and those were rare examples of getting 'top' guys at the deadline
 
This whole Kane and his several brushes with the law pisses me off the more I think about it, especially when it comes to the how the NHL treated the Voynov incident:

Kane vs the cabbie:
Both men were charged with felony robbery and misdemeanor counts of theft of services and criminal mischief. Patrick Kane pleaded not guilty in City Court on Sunday, WIVB-TV reported. It was not immediately clear when James Kane will appear in court.
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Anyone remember how the NHL treated this? Did they suspend him right after the booking papers were complete or just looked the other way?
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Different climate now. The court of public opinion still doesn't enforce everything though. It's an a la carte choice.
 
Herby said:
Ray Rice changed everything forever.
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I don't disagree with you but that's pretty stupid. It takes a woman getting punched in the face on camera for professional sports leagues to hold players accountable? I mean that's pretty pathetic if you ask me. And it's also quite disingenuous as well. They are basically demonstrating they are doing it on the basis of PR. It's hard to take any of their morality seriously because of it.

The NHL is going to look mighty foolish if Kane ends up getting arrested and worse if he gets convicted. I really don't know what the right course of action is at this point but like Brad Doty said, they did paint themselves into a corner a bit after the Voynov reaction.

BTW, anyone else feel the Kings saying they were going to terminate Voynov's contract posturing a bit?
 
Buddy The Elf said:
I don't disagree with you but that's pretty stupid. It takes a woman getting punched in the face on camera for professional sports leagues to hold players accountable? I mean that's pretty pathetic if you ask me. And it's also quite disingenuous as well. They are basically demonstrating they are doing it on the basis of PR. It's hard to take any of their morality seriously because of it.

The NHL is going to look mighty foolish if Kane ends up getting arrested and worse if he gets convicted. I really don't know what the right course of action is at this point but like Brad Doty said, they did paint themselves into a corner a bit after the Voynov reaction.

BTW, anyone else feel the Kings saying they were going to terminate Voynov's contract posturing a bit?
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To be fair, the report date for physicals etc. was the 17th, and when he doesn't show up, it could be considered a material breach, and thus would make their termination stronger if appealed. To me this only goes to show they do understand timing when it comes to termination, even though in the MR matter they seem to want us to believe that timing had nothing to do with things.
 
Buddy The Elf said:
I don't disagree with you but that's pretty stupid. It takes a woman getting punched in the face on camera for professional sports leagues to hold players accountable? I mean that's pretty pathetic if you ask me. And it's also quite disingenuous as well. They are basically demonstrating they are doing it on the basis of PR. It's hard to take any of their morality seriously because of it.
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Of course they're doing it on the basis of PR. They're running a business, not the criminal justice system. Ray Rice didn't change the morality landscape, it changed the potential damage to the sporting brand landscape.
 
mouser said:
Of course they're doing it on the basis of PR. They're running a business, not the criminal justice system. Ray Rice didn't change the morality landscape, it changed the potential damage to the sporting brand landscape.
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They don't need to run a criminal justice system. How about ethics and integrity? Having players getting in trouble should be grounds for doing something simply because you actually care about the people involved in your organization. Basically, all they care about is the perception people have of them and that the money doesn't stop flowing in. Running a business and having a bit of morality aren't two things that have to be mutually exclusive. At least, not always...
 
The NFL is a money printing machine now, that is pretty much all the PA/NFL (Owners) care about now. Ray Rice changed nothing, He sued and got reinstated, also got back pay from his former team.

If Ray Rice was 25 and not 28 (years of age), he would be on an NFL team, and not a free agent.
 
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damacles1156 said:
The NFL is a money printing machine now, that is pretty much all the PA/NFL (Owners) care about now. Ray Rice changed nothing, He sued and got reinstated, also got back pay from his former team.

If Ray Rice was 25 and not 28 (years of age), he would be on an NFL team, and not a free agent.
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Don't agree on the latter. He's a victim of collusion at this point. He's toxic.

He was definitely fading as a player, but Chris Johnson was on the streets a month ago and will start this weekend and he's trash.
 
"I want you to know it's over"

"Well.....bbyyyye"

Signed a huge contract and immediately became average at best. Terrible lapses at the blue line. I was disappointed daily and was assuming there was something missing in effort and concentration. I'll take his cap money and use it to buy a fa at years end instead of giving away draft picks.
 
no name said:
"I want you to know it's over"

"Well.....bbyyyye"

Signed a huge contract and immediately became average at best. Terrible lapses at the blue line. I was disappointed daily and was assuming there was something missing in effort and concentration. I'll take his cap money and use it to buy a fa at years end instead of giving away draft picks.
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Yes I remember all the complaints from posters on this board about Voynov to the point where I think I was the only one defending him. Now everyone is pining about his loss.

Just simply ****ing amazing.
 
Ron said:
Yes I remember all the complaints from posters on this board about Voynov to the point where I think I was the only one defending him. Now everyone is pining about his loss.

Just simply ****ing amazing.
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Really? I don't recall a lot of complaints about Voynov prior to his suspension. Of course, it's been almost a year so maybe my memory is a little foggy.

As to why he was "sucking", well it seems obvious doesn't it? You don't just suddenly wake up one day when the sun is shining and the birds are cooing and say to yourself "Today.. today I'm going to beat my wife!"
 
We will miss him for sure, his skating, shot and outlet pass are all well above average for an NHL d-man, the fact that he is a RH shot makes it sting even more. But knowing what we know it was a no brainer situation. I personally would have had a difficult time cheering for Slava Voynov.
 
Voynov was certainly struggling at times, no doubt about it, but as Herby said, he was WELL above average for a D-man. Great #3, and it was those inconsistencies (and Doughty/Muzzin obviously) that kept him from being a true top pairing guy. Shame he tanked himself and those around him by being an awful human being.
 
Brad Doty said:
Voynov was certainly struggling at times, no doubt about it, but as Herby said, he was WELL above average for a D-man. Great #3, and it was those inconsistencies (and Doughty/Muzzin obviously) that kept him from being a true top pairing guy. Shame he tanked himself and those around him by being an awful human being.
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This still bothers me. I work with criminal drug addicts, the "scum of the earth" by layman's standards, and it has taught me one thing: very, very few people are truly "bad." People do bad things. Western cultures are absolutely obsessed with the good guy/bad guy dichotomy, and we're equally as obsessed with these revenge porn fantasies, where the "bad guy" gets his due. Maybe it's an oversaturation of narrative entertainment - everyone needs to have their role - I don't really know. But I constantly see this adage, that Voynov is an "awful human being," and it really bothers me.

Voynov did an awful thing. That's obvious. We don't live in his mind. We can't understand why he made the decisions that he did. I've shared this anecdote before, but I worked with a guy (late 20s now) who was heavily addicted to heroin 7-8 years ago. He was living with his girlfriend at the time, also addicted. Their relationship was about as toxic as one can imagine. A lot of fighting. A lot of infidelity. When he found out she was cheating, he got blackout drunk, slapped her around, choked her, did a lot of horrible things. He was never prosecuted for this. And I've never worked with an individual more burdened with guilt and shame. It affected his life for many, many years in ways very few can imagine. He paid (and is continuing to pay) more of a debt with his own guilt than he ever could in jail. For those of you who have made mistakes grievous enough to remember years later, perhaps you can relate. "Haunted" doesn't even begin to describe it.

The shocking part of all this is that he and his girlfriend eventually got back together and got clean. They both now have 7+ years clean, they're married, and they have children. I've counseled them for many of those years, and nothing even remotely close to the DV incident has taken place. In fact, in counseling her, she has "moved on" from said incident better than he has, and she was the one victimized.

But according to the pitchfork crowd, this doesn't compute. A wife beater is forever a wife beater. A relationship this toxic could never be repaired. But the reality of therapy and true rehabilitation is that even the most awful events can be forgiven, and the most broken relationships mended. That's the entire point of therapy. It's as if people just don't understand this at times. The bad guys are bad, and they're bad forever, and that's the narrative we stick to.

Point of all this is that these kinds of situations aren't always black and white. One should never allow their emotions to manifest in violence. We've evolved past that point as a species. That's a given. But DV is so absurdly complicated, both psychologically and relationally, that whenever I see someone just slap Voynov with the "awful human being" label it sort of disgusts me. That doesn't help anyone. That doesn't provoke any kind of meaningful discourse on the topic. It's just saying words to fit your understanding of the situation. Human beings aren't as simple as "bad and good." Human beings are complex, and the same individual may react in a thousand different ways to the exact same stimulus once you start rearranging variables. Maybe Voynov restrains himself if he quite literally makes a stop light on the way home that night. Is he still an awful human being then? Have you ever had violent thoughts? Does that make you an awful human being? Do you have an understanding of how thin the line is between thinking violent thoughts and acting on them?

You have to force yourself to establish a perspective on these things, and that's difficult for a lot of people to do. My aforementioned client wasn't a chronically violent person. He wasn't a predator. He made a very bad decision. He's a pillar in his community now, a good father, a good husband, and in talking to him you would have never imagined he was capable of such a thing.

But if that's all you knew about him, I'm sure he would be an awful human being, too.
 
Well said Ritchie. I think back to the scene in He Got Game where Denzel and his wife are fighting and he accidentally pushes her and she hits her head and dies - kills her. Prison was nothing for him, his prison was knowing that he took the love of his life and mother of his son.
 
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