When Pride Devolves Into Complacency

[gcom007 1,465]

I'll generally be the first to admit that quite often, perhaps far more often than not even, staying the course and riding out the bumps in the road proves to be a wise decision. It's too easy to let your emotions get the best of you and I'd stilly firmly say that far more often than not, our emotional responses serve as very poor indicators of the actual status of a situation. As Red Wings fans, we've gotten used to an organization that is run with this idea at the center, more so than ever now that we're well settled into the cap era. Over the last 7-8 years, we've seen significant individual transitions take place within the organization, but we really haven't seen a true rebuild. Frankly, we haven't needed it, so naturally we haven't seen panic-induced trades, we haven't seen too many major signings and we've seen a great deal of loyalty continue to be shown to long-standing Wings and younger guys that developed in our system.

This is not a bad thing. We've seen a lot of success over the last 10 years despite many pieces of the previous foundation moving on. When you can rest with that kind of confidence and continue to be successful, it's very easy to develop a sense of pride over the whole matter. And why shouldn't we (or "they" when referring to management)? Our resilience is something to be proud of. Loyalty is something to be proud of. The simple act of not succumbing to the emotions that lead to panic is something to be proud of.

And many of us are quite proud. Many of us do indeed take a great deal of pride in our steady insistence that things will work out in the end. And again, with this team's success even in the many years we failed to win the Stanley Cup, we've been faced with little reason to question our stance. After all, even when things don't quite work out perfectly, there are far worse positions to take up than those in which one's enslaved to ever-fickle emotions.

It's occurred to me though more and more over the course of the last couple seasons, just as a hint in the back of my head, that my pride was served up with a larger and larger dose of a little something known as complacency. It's become less about confidence in my beliefs and more about having any beliefs at all. And if I were to be honest, I'd say that it's clouded my perspective on things in certain situations. But as this off-season came and went and lead into this season, it's gotten harder and harder to sit here and rattle off any variation of the line "we'll be fine down the stretch." Even though a large part of me still believes that to be true on some level, an increasingly larger part of me is looking at this team with a desire to skip the stock lines and the filters and call it exactly how I see it.

What I simply cannot deny seeing at this point is an organization that's run down, more than a bit off the path and still desperately trying to rest on it's laurels. I see management that looks more complacent and timid than truly prideful and confident. I see a lot of players that are familiar faces that I've grown to like, but they're becoming known more and more for their face and less and less for what they're doing on the ice. And as for the coaches, it's been a bit of a revolving door, but from what Babcock's said about the players and management over the last couple years, I can't help but think that he's truly aware of what the problems are and what needs to happen, but he can't force Ken Holland to make a move nor the players to shoot the puck more.

Still, all factors considered, the Detroit Red Wings organization has become a comfortable, functional mess.

How do I know that that's the plain, simple truth? I'm not upset about it at all. I'm more bored than angry. I can't even muster up the frustration level enough to feel annoyed. And I can't sit here and tell myself that I haven't been thinking this more and more each day over the last couple of years.

So what am I getting at? I'm not entirely sure. I don't know exactly what needs to happen. But it's getting to the point where I can't tell if it's pride based on a somewhat-objective sense of confidence or just plain stupidity when I try to tell myself and others that Franzen will pick it up "down the stretch." And what I've realized though is that it doesn't matter either way. The fact that it's a question says it all and there are too many questions just like that one right now with this organization.

It's still great to be loyal and stalwart and it's still silly to be impulsive and impatient. I'll never say otherwise, but perhaps what is most important is that you also have to be able to adapt to changing times. Adaptability is everything. To do so, you don't need to be impulsive, but you do need to be agile. You have to balance loyalty with objectivity. You have to step out into the darkness and take some chances to gamble a bit, knowing full well that sometimes you win, but sometimes you lose. That's life. In either circumstance, adaptability is still everything. "Survival of the fittest" has far less to do with strength than it has to do with adaptability.

I have no trade possibilities to offer. I don't even know if trades are truly what we need right now or the best choice in the current landscape. I don't know if Datsyuk or Zetterberg should play together or be split up, or if Z's back is or isn't hampering or bound to eventually hamper his effectiveness. I don't know if we can trust that Franzen will or won't become a consistent scoring threat again.

All I know is that when pride devolves into complacency, you stop moving forward and making progress and you begin digging your grave.

I can't take pride in beliefs for the sake of beliefs or positivity of the sake of positivity.

I take pride in objectivity.

I take pride in aiming to be the best every time, with little regard for the value of the end result so much as the value of the effort leading to whatever the result may be.

I take pride in the idea of perfect successes and perfect failures. By that I mean that win or lose, I don't want to have to look back and second-guess every decision. I want every decision to be made not with the end goal in mind being to just get by, but to be the best, giving it my all, win or lose.

The presence of that attitude in the Wing's system is largely why I've grown to love the Detroit Red Wings so much over the years. They weren't only brilliant and loyal and patient, they also had all the drive in the world to be the best in every way possible. Their enthusiasm was infectious; their passion, utterly and completely contagious. They weren't just the class of the NHL, they were the class of the sports world in general.

But as 2011 winds down and 2012 approaches, my reaction to a five game winning streak to start the season is the same as my reaction to the six game losing streak that followed: I just don't care at all. Complacency has become a stronger force than pride. The passion is gone. It's hard to care about a team that doesn't seem to care about the game. It's hard to care about management that openly admits to not getting the job done as well as they'd like. And while I'm somewhat more sympathetic to the coaches that have to sit in the middle of these two sides and try to make the most of it, I'm tired of hearing the same lines about working harder and shooting the puck, if only for Babcock's sake. I'm sure he's infinitely more sick of them than me.

Again, I don't have answers or even suggestions, and I don't know who or whom to blame or praise. I don't know if we need trades. I don't know if we need to truly rebuild this team from the ground up.

I absolutely know one thing for certain though. It's been hard to ignore for awhile and it's clear as day now.

It's time to think differently.

Edited November 4, 2011 by gcom007

[RedWingsRox 614]

Way too damn long ... this is a forum, not an English essay class. If you want people to read your thoughts, learn to be concise.

[Lonewuhf 47]

Way too damn long ... this is a forum, not an English essay class. If you want people to read your thoughts, learn to be concise.

If you don't want to read people's thoughts, gtfo off of the forums. It was a well thought out, well said post, and your s***ty response literally makes me want to stop posting in these forums. Responses like yours frustrate me as much as anything that's happening on the ice.

That said, excellent post gcom. I actually completely agree, and when the Wings were down after just the first goal I felt exactly the same. I have a hard time caring whatsoever about this team anymore, and it's been growing for the past few seasons. I've been watching the Wings since 1990 and I've never been so disinterested in watching them play. I feel like the "top" players on our team all of a sudden just stopped caring after they got their big contracts (coincidence eh?). There are only a few players I enjoy watching anymore, and I find myself yelling through the TV and the s***ty play I see from the same players day in and day out.

I don't know the answer either, and like you said, I'm not sure it matters. The lazy play I see every night now almost makes me embarrassed to be a fan because the team seems to not give a s*** about their fans. Shuffling the lines every night is obviously not the answer, I think part of the answer is getting the lazy players off the ice, though I know this organization has too much loyalty to certain players for that. Shrug, as much as I hate to say it, I may take a break from the hockey season.