Jumping In Head First

I’m going to be touching on a few things here including the game tonight that I’ll miss due to work. GRRR! Also, I want to touch on the anti-Eberle fans and then on a more serious note I’ll be talking about a serious article from The Oilers Rig that has had me thinking and I hope you can help me with my thoughts a bit.

**WARNING! THIS POST HAS QUITE A BIT OF FOUL LANGUAGE IN IT. PLEASE GO ELSEWHERE IF YOU’RE OFFENDED BY SWEAR WORDS. IF YOU DO STAY AND READ AND THEN DECIDE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SAID LANGUAGE, I WILL PROBABLY REPLY WITH THE SAME SORT OF LANGUAGE. THANK YOU!**

kadri mcdavid

Oilers/Maple Leafs: McDavid vs. Kadri

I’m very interested in seeing how this is going to go down. Will Kadri try to go at McDavid like he did in TO? Will Lucic do something about it if Kadri does? How will McLellan work the last change?

I think that Connor is going to take this match-up very seriously and very personally. He looks like a man of immense pride and being embarrassed like that in TO has surely left a mark.

How will the Oilers combat Mitch Marner? What if Darnell Nurse was out there every time Marner was? Do what Arizona with OEL on McDavid and just have a single dman tasked withs shutting Marner down.

Will Auston Matthews and William Nylander have a better go this time around? They were pretty quiet in the previous game. Do you reckon that RNH will be given the job of taking care of the Maple Leafs’ kid line?

This should be a beauty of a game and in comparison to the last two versus Arizona, it should feel like 1987 all over again!

Eberle

JORDAN EBERLE

Are you one of the fans that is yearning for the Oilers to sit Eberle in the press box for a night to “teach him a lesson”? Or are you the kind that wants the Oilers to deal him right now?

Ain’t happenin’ folks!

Eberle is the team’s best RW, period and he’s on pace to put up 25 goals and 60 points! You can’t even argue that Puljujarvi is one bit and he’s the closest one! WHY would you want to trade that?

Ebs scores, forechecks like a mutha fucker and he’s been backchecking like crazy this season. More than any other season that I can remember.

Do you think he’s lazy in the corners and too weak?

Remember how he and Hall and Nuge used to work that cycle in year’s past? Yeah, he had to go to the dirty areas to do that.

Look, I’m mad at him for missing that assignment in front of the net vs. Arizona too and I absolutely HATE how he has to dribble the puck 3 or 4 times before letting it fly but you win as a team and you lose as a team. The Oilers, and Eberle himself, had plenty of chances to score earlier and they didn’t. Boo hoo, we move on to the next team.

I mean if you’re going to pick on someone, be consistent. Get on Pouliot’s back.

McLellan

ON A SERIOUS NOTE… This is Where I Jump in Head First.

As I laid in bed trying to get to sleep I had a Joe Rogan podcast playing in the background and today’s guest was a professor from the Univ. of Toronto and they were talking about social justice warriors and the likes and it got me thinking about an article I read from my old haunt, The Oilers Rig.

On Sports, Email and Abuse

The article was from the site’s content manager Megan Fowler and she had an encounter with an unknown follower who happened to show a lack of appreciation for her fondness of Taylor Hall and proceeded to call her a cunt. Neh! A stupid cunt.

Now I’ve dealt with Ms.Fowler in the past and I’ll be honest, the interactions weren’t that pleasant. It was more business-like than I was used to and we didn’t see eye-to-eye because we’re on the opposite sides of the Hall debate and had no problems letting each other know. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t a stupid cunt or anything. But I left the Rig family soon after to concentrate on things here at BLH. Shows how smart of a guy I am…

I’m torn and a bit confused about my whole feelings on Ms.Fowler’s experience and that’s why I’m writing this. I’d like to know more about the situation and in the process, hopefully, learn more about myself by exposing my underbelly a bit on the topic and most likely open myself up to some public shaming due to my lack of empathy. Hooray! And a pre-emptive thank you for taking the time to read perhaps a different viewpoint.

Honestly, I just want to know if my wheels are aligned or if they’re in dire need of an adjustment.

I’m not female so I can’t say I know how Ms.Fowler feels nor have I been called any sort of cunt before. But a part of me says if she’s going to passionately write about her team and be combative and have the words “Salty AF” (AF = as fuck) in her Twitter handle, then she should be prepared to have some shit slung at her and when it does come her way; she can’t go crying on social media and through her site about it.

I don’t know why but there lingering questions for me.

  • Did the email only contain the sentence, “Hey you stupid cunt, why don’t you cry about Taylor Hall some more?” Because ironically, that is a pretty cunty email to send if that’s all it said.
  • How do we know it was a guy that sent it?
  • Was it a person from Great Britain where the term “cunt” is fairly widespread and common?

The ego takes a bit of a hit there when someone calls you a name (especially a cunt in North America) and nobody likes to be disrespected be they male or female but the reassurances needed by Ms.Fowler, a grown adult and teacher, are also a question for me. She claims that it’s not the first time and certainly won’t be the last but if it’s happening so often, is there something there that should be reflected upon? I mean, what’s the motivation in posting an entire article on being called a name and why does she care so much about this one person’s opinion?

She claims that it’s not the first time and certainly won’t be the last but if it’s happening so often, is there something there that should be reflected upon personally? I mean, what’s the motivation in posting an entire article on being called a name and why does she care so much about this one person’s opinion if this is a common occurrence?

  • Social justice?
  • To shed light on women in sport and the abuse they have to endure?
  • Needed attention?

In Ms.Fowler’s case, she kinda made her own bed with her pining of Taylor Hall but hey, we all have our favorite players and even I’ll say that trade was questionable. My favorite band was Blink-182 when I was younger and I can say from experience, I did not want to admit that amongst my more punk rock engrained friends and I never wore a Blink shirt to the Warped Tours I attended… Stayed safe and wore Anti-Flag shirts 🙂

I guess personally, I just don’t feel the need to bring to light the garbage that someone is trying to toss on my lawn so I can say “Hey! Look at what happened here! This is an unspeakable offense!” I suppose I’m more of the type that says, “Wow! Whoever sent that is obviously having a tough time in life, I hope things get better for them but a name only has the power you give it.” And honestly, there are worse things to be called than a stupid cunt, unless you feel that you might be a bit a cunt and are pissed someone has finally called you out.

I imagine I’ve done my own but of shit-disturbing by now and there will most definitely be someone who’ll ask me, “What if that happened to your daughter?”

Well, the answer to that is, don’t worry about my daughter because it’s none of your business. I appreciate the concern but we’ll handle it.

I figure in this instance there’s some person out there laughing his ass off feeling empowered by what has transpired. So has Ms.Fowler really done anything to combat this sort of offense?

All of That Being Said…

Megan has obviously gone and done something so well that it has irked someone enough into showing their own insecurities to you by taking the time to email her and call her a cunt. She’s obviously talented at what she does and since taking over at The Rig, the site has gone stratospheric!

One must give credit where credit is due and often times when one cannot find it in them to give said credit, they go the other way and try to tear down what that other person has done.

You see, that’s the thing about the keyboard warriors. So so so so insecure and they believe that their opinion of you or your works counts for something. The mindset of “If I’m wrong then you’re a dick” is the most fucked up and childish one I’ve come across but I find it rare in public settings because those people tend to be taken care of one way or another. Give a guy a keyboard and the safety net of knowing they may never have to meet the person their denigrating though and it’s on!

In the end, I really believe that the sex of a writer is unimportant. Good content comes from everyone and everywhere, male or female or transgender, but if you’re being a cunt, you’re fair game.

So don’t be a cunt.

The comments section is open for your thoughts. Thank you!

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Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!