TUESDAY COMMENTARY – THE GOOD, THE GREAT & THE UGLY
Photo: Edmonton Oilers
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 & LTD Radio)
Today it’s an all-hockey edition of the Good, the Great & the Ugly!
First the good: Leave it to TSN’s Darren Dreger to come up with the best term for NHL teams tanking down the stretch in order to nab the #1 pick in the Draft Lottery; “Bad For Bedard”.
It’s not great (nowhere near “Fail For Nail”), but no one could come up with anything better!
The good part is there’s really no concrete proof that any teams are purposely losing games in order to drop in the standings. Chicago, Vancouver and San Jose are bottom feeders who all won on Monday night.
Gary is ultra cautious about preserving the integrity of the game and this is proof of it.
Next the great: It’s quite simply … Connor McDavid.
Hockey’s best player scored the winner Monday night as Edmonton won 3-2 at Buffalo. McDavid actually scored a pair against the Sabres, giving him 12 multi-goal games this year and now a career best 124 points with 17 games remaining.
Promise me you won’t take McDavid’s play for granted because he’s making history before our eyes.
And finally the ugly: When Connor Bedard was named the WHL’s first ever exceptional player four years ago and he first appeared on The RP Show at age 14, I actually felt sorry for him. But I couldn’t put my finger on why.
This week, I found out why.
The Regina Pats star is the talk of all of hockey and for good reason; he’s actually earned it with his stellar, record-breaking play.
And with that come the haters.
It was bad enough that Bedard was held pointless against the Blades on Sunday and was a career worst minus-5. The naysayers had a heyday with that one.
But then a video started making the rounds on social media from someone trying to make Bedard out to be a racist, and an elitist.
Clearly, he’s not. And anyone who watched the video can tell this was an entirely made up, contrived and staged attempt to bring someone down.
Sure Bedard’s going to go on to make millions in the NHL. That’s the part you see.
What you don’t see is the ugliness that goes with it, and how truly ugly some people can be with their jealousy.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, iHeartRadio, YouTube Live and WQEE Radio)
I will say this. If I personally was in earshot of anyone saying anything towards that young boy I’d gladly take the assault charge, and with my background know it would get expunged through the RAMP mediation process. I’d break a person’s cheekbone then “apologize” as it was due to a number of mitigating factors none of which are my fault as society pushed me that way…..it’s how you also get parole. First of all, this kid has made time for everyone including the adult scumbags that make him sign everything they shove in his face. The kids at the… Read more »