What do you know about leadership?

[jRuutu 2,473]

 

One day I was sitting in the Moscow locker room. I was looking around at the players who were getting ready for the morning skate, they were putting new tape on their sticks, they were making sure their hair looked good in the mirror, someone kept changing the music after listening to a song for 10 seconds to see whether they like the song or not. All I could see was a bunch of zeroes when it comes to leadership. The goalies have something going on, but when it comes to the leadership of the skaters -  The Menace is a sorry bunch. As a veteran player, I knew it was up to me to be a leader, I knew it was up to me to make sure the players around me focus on what is important, so there and then I decided to improve my leadership. Thanks to the hard work I have done I am now officially the highest-ranking leadership-skater in Moscow.

 

By focusing on leadership I also managed to get 1111 as my TPA rating.  To someone that might not sound like a big deal, but I am one player who believes in numbers and their meaning.  When I see 1111, everything is in order, I see perfect symmetry. This type of mental edge can only be a positive thing when I step on the ice, I feel calm, I am at ease. Everybody knows you need to be ready to play, but you need to also be relaxed, you need to have faith in your own abilities and the abilities of your linemates, and you need to trust the gameplan, so you don't start to force plays on the ice. When I saw the news that Moscow Menace traded up to 2nd overall - I felt a similar sensation, I felt relieved. I know how much the number 2 means for the general manager in Moscow because they often urge to keep meetings short as they need to take a number two.

 

I admit it is too early to tell whether the need to take number two in the upcoming draft was forced or was it something made by choice. Giving up two first-round picks to one first-round pick points towards a certain level of desperation, which is natural when describing number two, but could the general manager of Moscow somehow manage to hold on and offer something else than two first-round picks? Instead of pushing the chair violently toward the nearest wall and sprinting out of the room, could they have rolled their eyes, could they have raised their wrist to the air and tapped their watch, or could they have dangled the keys to their 1994 BMW 3 series in the air to signal number two is something they obviously are interested in but without leaving a strong whiff of urgency floating around the room?  As mentioned, it is too early to tell as we are talking about draft picks that are used on young players who have not played even one game in VHL yet.

[Spartan 4,530]

1 hour ago, jRuutu said:

When I saw the news that Moscow Menace traded up to 2nd overall - I felt a similar sensation, I felt relieved. I know how much the number 2 means for the general manager in Moscow because they often urge to keep meetings short as they need to take a number two.

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