WWYDW: Predictions

The season is finally upon us. Since the Canucks won’t need to make any more decisions in the immediate future, we’ll eschew the usual format in favour of a more traditional line of questioning. Today is the day bragging rights can be won. How many points do the Canucks finish with this year? Where do they finish overall? How about in their division. Feel free to get creative with your reasoning.

As a GM, I’d give my players the choice. Forcing them one way or the other makes the GM no better than Trump, insisting that everyone do as they say.
As that hypothetical GM, I would also not go to the White House.

The old diplomatic solution to dissatisfaction before a meeting without pulling the plug entirely is to downgrade the level of officials attending. How funny would it be if the Penguins sent, like, the equipment team or the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Penguins to meet with the HR people at the White House or something?

If I were the Pittsburgh Penguins, I would say this…
Players have the right to speak and act on their political beliefs in their own time. When representing the club, however, we insist that all staff avoid politics altogether.
Visiting the White House has become a tradition for Stanley Cup winners, and does not represent an endorsement of the sitting president. To cancel the visit, however, would send an undeniably political message. We believe our fans do not want the organization to use its substantial public exposure for political purposes of any kind, and we are determined to respect that.

A lot of people want to act like “politics” is a dirty word and that acknowledging anything social or political is beneath them and somehow tainted by ideologies.
However, any belief about the way that the world is, or how it ought to be, is in some sense a ‘ideological’ – that sense is different than the way in which Capitalism is an ideology, but ideologies operate based on beliefs about what is or should be.
The point is that acting like speaking out is wrong, but then enjoying freedom of speech and the rights and privileges we get in a modern democracy isn’t being apolitical: it’s being upfront that whoever is being marginalized doesn’t deserve to be heard.
I wouldn’t go the White House or allow the organization’s name to be associated with approving of a president who doesn’t respect his own citizens.
If players wanted to go on their own, fine, but they’d go as individuals, not as representatives for the team I was running.

It’d be a hard pass if I were the owner and while giving the players the choice is a nice idea in practice it does place a responsibility on their shoulders that I feel would be unfair. Just as I lose respect for the club and the NHL on this issue, I except that some players don’t want to stick their necks out on this and that’s their right (not the stuff heros are made of but hey).
It’s your right not to want to participate in politics and just play/watch hockey. It is not your right to demand that of others though.

After raiding the deli tray, the entire team takes a knee during the group photo.