The "Eric Brewer Is A Good Captain" Spin Continues
by Brad Lee on Sep 23, 2010 11:00 AM CDT
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If you've read Game Time at all in the past few years, you know we're not big fans of Eric Brewer being captain of the St. Louis Blues. We've taken to calling him a robot based on his emotionless body language and lack of facial expressions on the ice combined with his seemingly quiet demeanor off it. We questioned Andy Murray naming him captain at the time, wondered if new coach Davis Payne would install his own candidate entering his first full season with the team and now question the proactive defense of his leadership from all fronts.
Two weeks ago team officials met with the media to talk about the upcoming season, and Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch wrote that new general manager Doug Armstrong volunteered a complete vote of confidence in Brewer's captaincy in response to a question about emerging leadership with the team's younger players. In other words, he couldn't wait to defend Brewer.
"The one thing I want to clarify . . . Eric Brewer is the captain. He's our captain. There's no question he's going to be our captain. He's going to be part of the leadership group that Davis will provide. Eric Brewer was never a problem here. He's a good captain. He has the pulse of this team. He's an Olympian, he's won a gold medal. Eric Brewer is a good captain and Eric Brewer is the captain of our team."
Army (everybody calls him Army) had some talking points there based on Brewer's bio. He was obviously anxious to defend his highest-paid defenseman. And if you say something enough times and with enough conviction, it must be true. St. Louis Game Time is the best website in the history of the universe and St. Louis Game Time will be the best website on the Internet here on earth.
Elsewhere in that Post article, Payne and team president John Davidson also said nice things about Brewer as team captain. And that's fine. They're obviously on the same page on the issue. But what do the players think? Well Rutherford had fellow veteran defenseman Barret Jackman respond to management's endorsement of Brewer as captain Wednesday.
"It's big for management but everybody in this dressing room knows that Brew is our captain and nobody has ever questioned that. I don't care what five or 10 people sitting in their mom's basement or blogging about who does what, they've never been in this room and they'll never know how much Brew means to this team."
Part of that is fair from a teammate point of view. Jackman wants to stand up for his buddy and let people know that the guys in the dressing room are sticking together and he's their captain and anyone who wants to question that on some messageboard or blog or on Twitter or Facebook or whatever can go fuck themselves. Got it, chief.
That's admirable, actually. Any signs of cohesiveness on this team are a positive. Too many times last season guys played as individual players doing their own thing and not playing for each other or together as a unit. If they had, they wouldn't have suffered the numerous breakdowns that torpedoed the season.
But part of Jackman's comment totally reeks of something else. Let's see if we can translate and find the same sentiment but in a clearer way: "Everybody in this dressing room knows that Brew is our captain and nobody has ever questioned that. I don't care what fans think. They're wrong. We know better than they do. They're not on this team. They're outsiders and they'll never know." I'm sure there is a terrific possibility that the majority of professional athletes feel this way. But you don't go around saying that. It tends to rile up the paying customers, a group of people that were booing a certain bald-headed defenseman at the end of last season.
Final word: as outsiders, most fans still don't understand why Brewer remains captain. I wonder if all this defense of him doesn't put more pressure on a player who by all observations has not handled the expectations laid on his shoulders after being the main piece in the Chris Pronger trade. I wouldn't call it a distraction, but it sure seems odd that every level of the organization has been aggressive this month in defense of the team captain. I'm sure the same thing is happening in Chicago and Detroit.
Ok, commenters. Here's your chance. Do you like Eric Brewer as the captain of the Blues? Vote in the poll, campaign in the comments.
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Turd option
Don’t care that much, don’t think I know enough about it as a fan on the outside, and don’t think it actually matters all that much.
I think it’s just easier for the casual fan to focus on one perceived problem to blame for broader problems. Brewer isn’t the best player we have, and he makes some boneheaded moves, so it is easier to boo him than to process that pretty much everyone on the ice last season needed to pick up his game to some extent.
What does a captain do that’s important?
Is Brewer failing at that, or some parts of that, or just at other stuff that annoys fans and we want to punish him by removing the C?
This is the question...
What does a captain do that’s important?
Is Brewer failing at that, or some parts of that, or just at other stuff that annoys fans and we want to punish him by removing the C?
Option “D.”
We as fans want visible, audible passion from our Blues’ captain, and we’re obviously not getting that from Brewer. Does that make him a bad captain, or just a bad choice from the fans’ point of view?
I’m no great fan of Eric Brewer, but I just don’t think we as fans are close enough to everything that goes in “in the room” to be the arbiters of wether or not he deserves to be captain.
B.
"If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."
-- Otto von Bismarck, 1851
http://futurenotes.blogspot.com
by Tomorrows Blues on Sep 23, 2010 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
^^^ this
I would go into further detail, but that really is all that I can think of up there. There are different style of captains out there, just like their are different types of leaders in all sports.
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
are we wrong as fans to demand that from a captain?
A captain is a leader. . . not all leaders (esp. not all GOOD leaders) have been the overly emotional, wearing their heart on their sleeves. . . We have a team full of Passionate vocal players, so maybe (just maybe) what this team needs from it’s captain is a quiet calm demeanor, that can , without losing his temper, communicate w/ the refs (because isn’t that the captains main distinguished role on the ice) . . . was I pleased all of the time w/ Brew last season, NO, but do I have any reason to doubt him as captain (other than the fact most players were playing for themselves, but I do not really think that was caused by him, since the coach demanded young players prove themselves to be allowed play, causing each of them to care more about his own game than the team winning . . .) NO
And I can understand why Ass. Cap. Crappy Pants is kind of pissed off (even at fans) All last season, I had to listen to vocal brew haters blame him for EVERYTHING . . . (even why he was not on the ice, it was his fault) and at the first preseason game. . . those same guys started chirping Jacks from the stands, though he had was one of 6 guys who even cared in that game . . . Until fans learn to show respect for the WHOLE of their team (you do not have to like them, but show respect, because either you are a fan or you aren’t, if you do not like it then leave) the players are going to find it hard to give a crap about what the “Fans Want”
sorry that was a bit of a tangent
I just think it is unwise of us to demand we have a Captain of a certain demeanor if we are not he ones being directly lead by him. . . we have to stop comparing him to all of our former captains, because this is not the same team we had when we had those other captains. . .
just realized. . .
some might take my referring to Jackman as Assistant Captain Crabby Pants as being disrespectful, and thus hypocritical . . . but much like the nickname Brewbot (which i also do not find to be disrespectful) it has derived from a personality trait of theirs that has come to be dominant on (and sometimes off) the ice. If it were not for this quirky trait of his, I am not sure Jackman would have turned around and punched that kid from Colorado in the kidney on monday night. . . which was amazing, and should have been don about 20 minutes earlier. . .
I love Jackman because hes a dick. He doesn’t always make the best passes or a ton of offense but he protects his goalie with extreme prejudice and I absolutely love him for it. I have no idea why people hate him as much as they do. But yeah when you called him Asscap Crabby Pants I was curious.
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Just because Jay McClement is the best defensive forward in the NHL doesn't mean he should win the Selke.
The whole idea of going to a game to heckle a player on the team you’re rooting for just absolutely boggles me.
Even if he’s your LFP, keep in mind he’s still playing for the Blues. Root for him as such.
No beer and no TV make Homer...something something.
by Poor College Student on Sep 23, 2010 5:55 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Rec'd like Vesuvius.
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
"Visible, audible passion" is part of what fans expect...
… the other part is a team that plays at or above the level of its talent. The captain gets a greater share of the glory when a team succeeds; he gets a greater share of the blame when it can’t meet expectations.
The Blues were a bad team in the first part of Brewer’s captaincy. The team as a whole has improved; but it’s still a fact that the Blues have only had one prolonged stretch of superior team play during Brewer’s tenure. That stretch – in the last couple months of 2008-09 – coincided with a period when Brewer was out of the lineup with a back injury.
Maybe that’s all just coincidence. Maybe the team would have played even better in that stretch if #4 had been on the ice. Maybe they would have played even worse last year if he had gone on LTIR. In large part, the fans’ frustration with Brewer is reflective of the frustration with the team as a whole; but on the scoreboard and in the standings, it’s hard to find objective proof that he’s led his teammates to anything other than mediocrity.
In any event, there’s obviously a huge disconnect between the fans’ perception of “what a captain should be” and the team’s perception. I don’t have any problem with Jackman’s statement; it’s the kind of statement that I would expect a captain to make in defense of one of ‘his guys’. What strikes me as odd, and what I would like to understand, is why an Alternate is making that comment to the media, and the Captain is nowhere to be found.
Well the answer to your last question is obvious.
Telling of fans and telling them to get of his back wouldn’t be a very captainy thing to do, would it? Defending someone else on the team, sure, that would apply, but if Brewbot came out saying that the fans need to lighten up, it would just make it look like it’s actually effecting him, which isn’t what you’d look for in a captain at all.
Jackman is doing the captainy style thing to do because, even if the captain wanted too, it’s not the time to do it.
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
But if Brewer had ever stepped up and made a similar comment...
… about any of his teammates, perhaps Bear’s tirade wouldn’t have been necessary.
That goes back to the “visible/audible” thing that TB mentioned, though. Fans don’t see Eric Brewer stepping up and protecting his teammates from the ire of the fans; instead, fans see teammates stepping up and protecting Eric Brewer.
iunno about that.
I seem to recall Brewer droping the gloves for a teammate last year, and all it got was jokes that Brewer is too fragile to fight and shouldn’t do it.
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
that is, on an on ice basis
Which is 20 times more important then defending them from us fans, who are basically harmless, even if annoying.
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
double this^^^^
The person that has traditionally been the Blues captain has had a certain appearance to the fans. They showed lots of emotion, in your face guys most of the time or were later to be HOF guys.
Berenson-Plager-Sutter-Pronger-Ferderko-Stevens-Butcher-MacInnis-Drake-Hull.
I’m sure I missed a few in there maybe Meagher? Corson?
Brewer doesn’t fit in with these guys in our eyes.
Another big thing, and not just with Brewer, is a player that makes lots of money and in our eyes doesn’t earn it. Usually due to injury and no fault of their own.
We are by no means different. Look around the league it happens to someone on every team and that player becomes the goat.
It happened here with Kariya. A player that was paid well, injured and didn’t live up to the expectations of fans; production vs money paid out. He thus became a whipping boy also.
I think to us in the ‘real work’ world they are getting paid big bucks to watch others pick up the slack when they don’t or can’t perform. If I sucked at my job even if injured I would be fired not paid a sum of money each week.
Hockey players wear numbers because you can't always identify the body with dental records.
It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder
i'm going to pick on the same thought brian did
What does a captain do that’s important?
Is Brewer failing at that, or some parts of that, or just at other stuff that annoys fans and we want to punish him by removing the C
what captain thing does brewer do well? I’m not sure he does any.
part of the issue is, of course, brewer speaks english at a 9th grade level and isn’t entirely deaf. being neither a goaie nor a player-coach he is fully capable of wearing the c and doing the functions required. no one is talking about that. not me, not you, not army, not jacks. what we are all talking about is something we are not talking about. our own individual view of captaincy. I know mine is different than jacks and probably army’s. might be different than most fans as well.
so what is brewer a fail at in the traditionally fan-accepted role of captaincy.
1) the media. Brewer is uber fail here. not only had the press stopped talking to him about events that traditionally they asked the standing captain (even when that captain was injured for the rest of the year) the team itself has continued to reduce brewer’s media/public connection over the years and doesn’t currently use him to promote the team or its promises to the fans this season
2) salary. bang for the buck. i think the captain is starting out in hot water should his pay vs. play ratio tilt to the money side.. there is little point picking a captain that has bagage as excess bagage makes it easier to sink in choppy waters.
3) his team’s lack of effort. again, being forced to watch so many effortless losses while brewer was on the ice AND in the press box and did nothing PUBLIC about it means i have to hold him responisble, in part. and that part is LARGER than the part i hold against kariya and backes and mason. had brewer been better at #1 perhaps the amount of my displeasure for watching the entire team routinuely get outworked at home would be less. but the team failed to keep the first promise this owner ever made me, and the only one i accepted on its face value to date (if you remember it was “we will not be outworked”) murray and brewer got extreme doses of ire from me and i challange anyone to view those 12 games i watched live last year and NOT have a mass of ire needing to be deposited.
4) deal with it. it is, by the way, brewer’s job to get extreme doses of ire when routinue failure takes place and bubbles are bursting all over savvis. instead i got his wife bitching in the paper about how horrible we were to him and how many tissues she went through a game. did she go through 17 million worth?
so what is he good with? apparently some people feel he is good in the room. ok. i’ll swallow that whole- including the sinker.
but so what?
while this seems backwards. i mean shouldn’t “good in the room” be the only criteria of the unspoken definition of captancy we are talking about?. nope. a silent but strong person, a boatload of experience, a guy wiling to lead by example and stick up for a mate in a scrum is instead the very definition, to me, of the old adage you don’t need a letter on your chest to be a leader in the room. I mean seriously, inst the defense of “brewer the c”, the EXACT arguement we could use about the ecellant leadership of someone like the letterless Silent Jay?
if the capatncy has meaning not found in the rule book it is because we have made it so. and the ultimate #1 job of the captain is to help the owner sell tickets. I respectfully (and i mean this- RESPECTFULLY) suggest brewer fails at that and that any other number of people currently associated with the blues could help the team become more financially successful and hey, maybe even win an extra game or two, if they had the c instead.
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Sep 23, 2010 5:00 PM CDT up reply actions
I really don't buy that we would win more games with someone else wearing the C.
Leadership isn’t determined by a letter on a jersey, it simply exists. I don’t think our record would be any different if it were Backes, Oshie, Jackman, Tkachuk, Kariya, Weaver, or Winchester wearing the C last year.
And if our record doesn’t improve, neither would our ticket totals. People don’t go to Blues games in order to see a guy wearing a C, they go to see the team.
Unless, you know, you have an Ovechkin or Crosby. Which we don’t.
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
win
only because its a business choice which one might think gives the blues more money which one might think gives us a winchester upgrade (however small). I am not saying per se that backes as c last year= playoff. i am suggesting that perhaps, as a business (hence cash flow and profit) edge that brewer is likely one of the worse marketable captains they could chose.
so it would be based on retaining offseason ticket holders going into the seaon. and perhaps a few new backes uniforms had he had the c this offseason
slightly more than going to see backes the c, but yea just slightly. backes is the marketing name, he needs to become the media name and the fan contact name and i DO believe a likable fan contact would make a marginal difference in spome choices
the other tickets sales will follow a just win mentalitly no matter who wears the c just as you suggest
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Sep 23, 2010 7:36 PM CDT up reply actions
If I tell myself enough times that David Backes is the actual Captain, I'll go ahead and believe it.
David Backes’s family crest is a picture of a baracudda eating Neil Armstrong.
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
Well, two things happened here:
1) I clicked on “POST” twice.
2) I put something in quotes, and the gibberish that was ahead of what was in quotes was erased.
If this continues, SBNation and I are gonna have issues.
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
captain "c"
the only thing we know is that the C matters. I know the rules make it clear it matters little. and the “a” matters even less. but the coaches have punished and rewarded players with the c. players have resinged from the C because IT AFFECTED THEIR GAME and because they felt a better leader had just joined the team. and now we have a multiple season issue making itself know in some pretty ugly ways for the last two weeks. Wouldn’t be ugly if it didn’t matter.
i mean imagine the arguement to be made if the c didnt matter…. DUDE no way and i mean NO WAY can eric conversate with the ref and then tell payne the higjlights of the conversation. lol. and the team’s eventual epic resonse. Eric speaks english at a 9th grade level and is not in any way deaf. he passes all criteria for captancy of this team. end of story.
so the c matters. maybe it only matters because us outsiders have thought it SHOULD matter. score one for us then :)
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Sep 23, 2010 12:17 PM CDT reply actions
I've been toying with doing a post on this after talking to Lou Korac on Twitter...
… of course, that was like 2 weeks ago, and I’m generally slow and procrastinate, so Brad writes this and makes me look like the slow-footed pokeass I am.
The thing is, I was going to be contrarian and say that he’s not maybe that bad. Not really necessarily because I believe that or am a great apologist for The Bot, but maybe there’s a disconnect between what we see on the ice and what goes on in the room.
Screw it, I’m writing it, so nyah. I’ll put my argument up here in a few after I get done writing the whole thing out. I’m not defending Brewer, but I don’t think the “pull the C NOW” line of thought does any good.
Thrashing the Blues
SB Nation Atlanta - home of the Fairest and Weatheriest fans on the net.
Reporter: There`s a "stamp out the Beatles movement" underway in Detroit. What are you going to do about it?
Paul McCartney: We`re going to start a campaign to stamp out Detroit.
Here you go.
I don’t expect anyone to agree with me much, but rousing the rabble’s fun.
http://thrashingtheblues.com/2010-articles/september/the-brew-crew-is-eric-brewer-an-ok-captain.html
Thrashing the Blues
SB Nation Atlanta - home of the Fairest and Weatheriest fans on the net.
Reporter: There`s a "stamp out the Beatles movement" underway in Detroit. What are you going to do about it?
Paul McCartney: We`re going to start a campaign to stamp out Detroit.
I'm kinda in between the two choices.
He’s not my first choice for captain, but I also don’t think that he’s a bad choice at all. I think he unfairly gets a bad rap, as does Jackman.
Third Option?
I don’t give a fucking shit who’s captain, just win a goddamn Stanely Cup already!
- a Tale from my Creased Mind
by jpratte on Sep 23, 2010 1:05 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Chris Kerber has an opinion
From his chat transcript from last night:
“Chris Kerber: I’m so tired of that topic, it’s beyond words. Brewer is the Captain. The GM says it, theCcoach says it and players like it. That will be the last time I address that topic all year. If you don’t like it so be it and get over it. He’s the captain.
www.stlouisgametime.com
Beating a Dead Horse
Even if there is contention about the captaincy within the Blues ranks, they are keeping it wrapped up. I for one thing like that they are backing the captain right now. It’s the beginning of the season, we shouldn’t be having this discussion anymore. It isn’t going to change, so let’s move on to something else.
I'm kind of tired of this topic too
I’m not the guy’s biggest fan, but everyone who sits around me (and 90% of the posters here) have been on Brewer’s ass from the moment he got here. There was no honeymoon. The normally very forgiving St.Louis hockey fans have never cut Brewer ONE OUNCE of slack. When I consider why that happened all I can come up with is:
1. Brewer is the most prominent reminder of how Bill Laurie blew up a halfway decent hockey team and consigned us to fan hell for several years.
2. Brewer is not Chris Pronger.
3. The most recent captains had been either heart-and-soul guys (Dallas Drake) or certified legends (Al MacInnis)
None of those things is the dude’s fault. He’s just a convenient scapegoat, and since he doesn’t fight back in the media, many people believe he doesn’t care. I’m ready to let him be, and let him keep the “C”.
Let’s find something else to bitch about people. I suggest the cost of beer
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But that's the way to bet. - Damon Runyon
by baroose on Sep 23, 2010 2:36 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Also, be advised...
…Barret Jackman doesn’t give a rat’s ass what we think about Brewer as captain.
B.
"If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."
-- Otto von Bismarck, 1851
http://futurenotes.blogspot.com
by Tomorrows Blues on Sep 23, 2010 3:34 PM CDT reply actions
And thank god he doesn't care about our opinions!
If professional athletes were so thin-skinned as to be affected by stuff put out their by the fans, media, bloggers, or whoever else, I can’t say I’d want them on our team.
On the flipside, the same argument can be made for why athletes don’t always buy into or believe the press and others when things are going great.
No beer and no TV make Homer...something something.
by Poor College Student on Sep 23, 2010 5:52 PM CDT up reply actions
SIR JAXX SAYS FUCK YOUR TWITTERS AND BOOKFACES!
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
I don't get the hate for Brewer/Jackman
For Brewer I understand that 1) Hes been Injured 2) Hes not Chris Pronger. People will not let that go, over and over and over again they are taking out their beef with the previous owners on Brewer whether they realize it or not.
Jackman I think gets the “Hes not Pronger” treatment as well even though hes pretty fucking good at what he does for only 3.5 mil.
I have seen Brewer stand up for his team on the ice, ive never seen him do anything that would make me question his commitment to the blues. He was dealt a bad hand here in St.L and instead of causing trouble he just goes about his business realizing he would never win fans over so he does what he does.
Honestly I don’t give a fuck who is captain. If they put the C on Yan Stasney over in Europe and told him to read the local phonebook over the phone before games, if thats what this team needs to get fired up then Stasney for Captain. I don’t care, im not in the locker room, I don’t know.
People want Backes for captain but for all you know hes really introverted inside the lockerroom and doesn’t hang out with the team much. Brewer could be the guy who takes all the rookies and shows em how to get set here in town. He could show the foriegners how to get a translater and live their day to day lives. We don’t see that, we don’t know.
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Just because Jay McClement is the best defensive forward in the NHL doesn't mean he should win the Selke.
its a stupid fucking letter
St. Louis Game Time Fact: Morning links are part of a well-balanced meal.
SBNSTL Writing about the Blues in more than one line is tough.
Results is what I care about...
I don’t care if the fuckin’ mascot is your captain, and you want to defend it…I just want to see a better effort this year, particularly in front of the paying customers…the best way to shut up all the critics is to win…I think it’s that simple. If this team starts playing decent hockey well before Valentine’s Day, all is forgiven.
It is a big deal
There are three elements that win Cups: coaching wins Cups, goaltending wins Cups and leadership wins Cups. There’s a reason Mark Messier has six rings and Wayne Gretzky “only” has four. Some captains lead by firing up the troops (Scott Stevens), some lead by quiet example (Joe Sakic); Brewer seems to do neither. Perhaps he is a leader in the room; it is hard to tell in that he doesn’t say a word to anyone during games. He can’t lead by example because his skills are so lacking. But I gotta agree w/ tbell, ultimately it comes down to winning. It’s time this team rises above its historical mediocrity. I doubt, however, that E. Brewer is the guy to lead that rise.
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