Maple Leaf Outsider

Hello, and welcome to a new feature that will be posted whenever I'm working on other features that are much better, but take much longer to write.

In "Things I Never Want To Hear Again" or "Tinwtha", I'll be taking things I've heard pretty consistently in and around the Barilkosphere over the years and telling you why I disagree with them.

First up, Tyler Kennedy vs. Luke Schenn.



Now, from the reaction this fight garnered you'd think that Luke Schenn literally beat Tyler Kennedy to death with Kennedy's own fists in the most impressive display of "stop hitting yourself" ever seen.

Here are two quotes I've pulled from what is probably the most established Leafs blog in the universe that I feel are indicative of the general attitude towards this fight.

Schenn absolutely crushed him, tossed him around like a rag doll… brought back memories of Chara vs McCabe.
-Comment from Winkle on Pension Plan Puppets

Speaking of Wendel, when Schenn sat on Kennedy and pounded away did everyone have flashbacks to Wendel Clark? Yeah, me too.
-Excerpt from Maple Leafs 5 vs. Penguins 4: LUKE SCHENN! by PPP at Pension Plan Puppets

Now, I will admit is it was nice to see Luke Schenn actually win a fight - even if it was against a guy listed at 5'8 and 183 pounds.  But to say that he "crushed him", well, that's just a little hyperbolic for me.

For example - this is crushing someone




And how exactly does Schenn, in that fight, remind anyone of Wendel?  Wendel, in most of his fights, was the little guy.  Wendel was 5'11, under 200 pounds and he fought anyone who wanted to dance.  If anything, Kennedy is doing the Wendel thing in this fight - going after a much bigger player who nailed one of his star teammates.  In this clip the star player was Wendel himself, but I think the point is still valid.



Now, I don't want anyone to think I'm hating on Schenn here.  I like Schenn, I think he's going to be a very, very good player for a very long time.  But let's be honest with ourselves - that wasn't much of a fight, let alone a beat-down, no matter how much some of us might wish otherwise.

I also don't want anyone to feel singled out or that I'm trying to take a shot at them, PPP in particular.  I guess I'm just trying to point out that when PPP, one of the best known Leafs bloggers, holds and promotes the "Schenn Crushed Kennedy" opinion it's a clear signal that its a petty well-regarded idea among Barilkosphere faithful.

So, next time you sing the praises of Luke Schenn, might I suggest just hyping the hit on Malkin, or the fight with Chris Neal after a hit on Stajan (which was a similar situation to the Kennedy fight, but in reverse).

Anyhow, I'm off to Vegas for the next few days, so if you're going to comment and rip me a new one please try to make it something I don't have to delete when I get back.

Later Skaters,
Pamplemousse