Greatest Tank Battles! (Who benefits most from McDavid?)

Like many of my hockey loving brethren, I participate in fantasy hockey leagues with varying degrees of success (lately I’m fucking Sharks, every year so close only to implode during the playoffs). But to that end in the leagues I participate in, most of the people I deal with are close friends of mine and we stay in communication a lot. It also helps we’re all more or less based in Toronto so we can argue and analyze  the minutia of our favourite local clubs (Maple Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays).

Stick tap to my buddy Andrew who presented this idea; it makes sense to tank this season because a guy like Mcdavid is an instant rebuild. The argument isn’t without merit either. If you accept the idea that Sid Crosby is the best player in hockey today, let’s compare Sid’s numbers his last year in Junior versus McDavid’s (note this will only be up the point McDavid broke his hand, because he’s also a fucking warrior apparently):

	Crosby	McDavid
GP	14	14
Goals	9	14
Assists	24	28
Points	33	42
+/-	+11	+30
PIMs	22	19

Stats courtesy of London Free Press

Looking pretty good over a small sample size, you have to admit right? I guess my major issue is I take umbrage with the idea that any player can be a one man rebuild. Obviously if you’re a team in the NHL you have to have some talent on your team or it’s all for naught. Even a team that’s as bad as the Sabres (seriously click this Link, they are awful: https://twitter.com/IneffectiveMath/status/538739557903384577) has some talent to surround a guy like McDavid. Hell the Penguins and Blackhawks drafted sure things, but those sure things had some help.

But the concept is cool so at this point I’ll rank the teams at the bottom of the list that would benefit most from having a guy like McDavid, going from long term slough to instant contender. My criteria is as follows, you must be garbage in your division, conference and league wide to have a shot at sucking this bad. The number one ranked team is not necessarily the worst team, merely the team that I think rises to contender status the soonest based on current roster, current coaching staff and current management. The process is really unscientific so yeah, if you don’t like it write your own.

So without Further ado, here are your options:

7. Philadelphia: Current rank: 19 points,  6^th in the Metro , goal deferential -13.

Pros: Elite up front, prospect system not great but not terrible, new coach and GM so management is stable.

Cons: Management might be terrible, the entire backend is a tire fire, goaltending a huge question mark. Lots of bad players eating up lots of cap money.

Analysis: Why not rank the flyers higher? With Giroux and Vorachek tearing up the league, great secondary scoring pieces like Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and a developing elite shutdown C in Sean Couturier. Up front they are decidedly elite, except for Vincent Lecavalier (signed for 4 more seasons at 4.5 million), R.J Umberger (3 more years at 4.6 million) and Zac Rinaldo (3 more years at 850k). The Backline is a tire fire. Andrew MacDonald (who made the Isles better just by leaving the team last year) is signed forever at 5 million a year. Mark Streit is over 35, also signed north of 5 million forever. Frequent press box visitor and not good enough for the Maple Leafs, Luke Schenn, 3.6 million. Goalies, Steve Mason has been better than he was in Columbus, but it would be really hard to be worse. Hard to win with barely better than Pavelec numbers, and Emery is decent in spot duty, but is no longer an option as a number 1 in the NHL. Management which was weirdly bad when Holmgren was running things (JVR for Schenn, Big money to Lecavalier) may be getting worse under Hextall (Hartnell for buy-out candidate Umberger, desperation signing for Del Zotto, no one to replace Timonen). McDavid makes an already elite offense more elite, but unless they move the secondary scoring for goalies and defense they’ll still be a non-competitive, Mcdavid benefits them the least because he isn’t a defenseman or goalie.

Carolina - Current rank: 17 points,  7^th in the Metro , goal deferential -14.

Pros: New GM and coach looking to put stamp on team, Staal Brothers play there, they have some sneaky good players in all positions (Tlusty, Sekera, Khudobin), Play in the metro with many other bad teams.

Cons: Still have Cam Ward who’s been terrible since he won a cup, Staal brothers might not be that good anymore, Alex Semin makes 7 million to sit in the press box, Tons of guys on the team who sucked on a terrible Leafs team over the last few years (Gleason, Harrison, Liles, McClement)

Analysis: Carolina is one of these teams where I’m not quite sure they’re as bad as their record looks. With Jordan Staal breaking his leg early, and their stubborn insistence to play a fading Cam Ward has hurt them. Thin at D, but middle of the pack possession wise. Unless they let a Staal go, where does McDavid fit in at first? They’re paying the Staals a lot of money to be 1-2 there, Carolina suffers the same debilitating issue as Philly does, the D and G aren’t good enough to make them contenders, even with McDavid in the fold.

Colorado - Current rank: 21 points,  7^th in the Central , goal deferential -14.

Pros: so much good youth; Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon. Holy shit could you imagine McDavid with that, they would be so incredible ahhhhhh! Also Patrick Roy is the coach and won a Jack Adams and Semyon Varlamov was lights out last year, totally worth not having Filip Forsberg bolster that incredible youth

Cons: They’re one of the worst possession teams in the league. Their regression is the single most predicted thing this season, and boy howdy has it happened fast. D is anchored by mediocre Erik Johnson, they signed a bunch of expensive, past their prime vets for leadership which as a Leafs fan I know always turns out well (Briere, Iginla and Stuart, so far not having the desired effect, can you have too much leadership?)

Analysis: Holy hell did I want to put these guys higher just because I think a powerplay that features Mackinnon, Duchene, McDavid and Landeskog would be the greatest thing for all hockey fans to watch ever. Varlamov is a really good goalie, even if he’s not doing as well as he was last year in which he was superhuman. The issue again is they are still brutal in their own end. They play a system (with a coach that won a Jack Adams no less) that has them buried on the shot clock every night (which should be impossible with the young talent on the club) and the D is awful. They have no one on D that seems to be able to get the puck going the right way. McDavid makes this team more fun to watch but until there’s a system fix or some competent D in this mix, he doesn’t grant them instant contender status

Arizona - Current rank: 21 points,  6^th in the Central , goal deferential -14.

Pros: Maloney and Tippett put together decent teams with no money, play an incredibly tight defensive system (until this year), two stud D-men in Yandle and OEL, Mike Smith is usually an above average goalie.

Cons: this team is bereft of scoring. Last season’s leading scorer was defenseman Keith Yandle with 53 points. Next in line was winger Radim Vrbata, who now rides shotgun with the Sedin twins in Vancouver. They win games with crazy defensive systems, shot suppression and getting piecemeal scoring from their entire lineup. This season Mike Smith has turned into a pumpkin, calling Tippett’s job security into question, Arizona is still a tough market, lots of uncertainty.

Analysis: Middle of the pack for me. They have some pieces that are necessary for contenders; Good Goaltending (Smith sucks, but Dubnyk’s numbers are ridiculous this season), two unreal D, a guy like OEL is a treasure and would as beloved as Karlsson if he played in the east. They have some good pieces up front (Hanzal, Boedker) and some weapons in the system (Domi, Gormley, Murphy). They really could use a guy Like McDavid, boost sales, make the market viable, and attract free agents. But unfortunately they’ve been pretty bad the last little bit, and I’m not sure McDavid is the cure all

Buffalo - Current rank: 18 points, 8^th in the Atlantic , goal deferential -34.

Pros: on a tear to close out the month winning 5 of the last 6, might have something in Enroth who’s been impressive in every game I’ve seen him tend goal in. Tyler Myers seems to be finding his game, been awful for a few years so they’ve stockpiling picks and prospects like what. Tim Murray has this team in greatest tank battle mode in the sense he’s stocked them with angry yet not really good vets who have something to prove

Cons: -34 goal differential? Holy shit is that bad. Did you check that chart I linked to earlier? Here is it is again; https://twitter.com/IneffectiveMath/status/538739557903384577 they are literally off the charts bad in possession. Team is well aware they are in tank battle mode, makes the coach hulk smash angry

Analysis: I really, really, really agonized putting the Buffalo outside the top 2. Holy shit does that team need something good to happen to them. And Nolan is a disciplined coach that tries really hard to turn this pile of chicken shit into chicken salad. But man, do his systems suck, but also his players suck. Not a totally destitute club, Cody Hodgson, Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers. Prospect cupboard includes Sam Reinhart, Mikhail Grigorenko, Rasmus Ristolainen and a boat load of draft picks over the next few seasons. McDavid will help things along, but this team is not McDavid away from the Playoffs or contending.

Edmonton - Current rank: 16 points, 7^th in the Pacific , goal deferential -28.

Pros: RNH, Hall, Eberle, Perron all good players, bringing in guys like Fayne and Pouliot addresses the woeful possession issues they’ve had. Eakins hates the Media, which is entertaining if nothing else.

Cons: Sweet merciful crap where do I begin? The goalies that came in last year and stabilized everything last year have ruinously bad. Justin Schultz might actually suck. Perron after a 30 goal year last year has shit the bed hard this year, Eakins is on the hot seat already, and they’re talking about trading young pieces to stabilize things. Edmonton fans have started the #herecometheoilers hashtag which is my favourite thing to read on the internet after an Oilers loss. Mac T still answers to Lowe who is a goddamn moron, who thinks his winning as a bit piece on the Messier/Gretzky glory years’ teams means he’s capable of running a professional team.

Analysis: Sabres deserved this spot, expiring deals, prospects coming up so much going right for them to be awful and get better quick. The Oilers though? Much like Carolina I think they aren’t as bad as their awful, awful, awful record dictates. Among the worst PDO numbers in the league, they’re getting garbage support from two goalies that are so far in their careers statistically better than their numbers this year, and both keepers are still pretty young. They still have great prospects in the system right now. Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Oscar Klefblom. Maybe I’m naïve but I want to believe in this team, and since their weak down the middle, a guy like McDavid stepping in immediately to play with a superstar like Hall puts the Oilers immediately ahead of Calgary and/or Arizona in the Pacific. Doesn’t make them contenders in the Pacific yet, but Lord Almighty this rebuild has gone on long enough no?

Columbus - Current rank: 14 points, 8^th in the Metro, Last in the whole league , goal deferential -30.

Pros: Sergei Bobrovsky, Vezina winner in the goal. Murray, Wisniewski, Tyutin patrolling the blueline. Johansen is destroying the league this year (after missing camp no less). Dubinsky signed to a reasonable deal forever, Anisimov, Foligno, Atkinson, Jenner all coming into their own as pros. Turned buyout candidate Umberger into useful NHL player Scott Hartnell. Nathan Horton turned them into a viable free agent destination. Jarmo Kekalainen is apparently a genius.

Cons: They are clearly under the spell of a gypsy curse. We’re at the quarter mark of the season, the Blue Jackets have 142 man games lost to injury this year (for context the Coyotes had 141 man games last to injury the whole season last year). Among the Players hurt this year; Bobrovsky, Dubinsky, Jenner, Horton, Tyutin, Murray, you guys notice a trend between the names in the pro and the injury list in the cons? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team that pushed a contender like Pittsburgh around last year’s playoffs falter like this the following year. But really they’re missing or have missed the best players on their team. Holy Christ have they been beset by awful luck.

Analysis: No team, and I really mean this no team would benefit more, and more importantly stinks bad enough right now to capitalize on McDavid enough to be a contender. Carolina, Philly and Colorado would certainly love the boost up the middle and would be able to toe to toe offensively with the best of them. But Columbus is the only club that actually has a pretty awesome roster, with great pieces in the system still, where McDavid not only makes them a playoff threat, but arguably the second or third best team in their division. McDavid/Johansen/Dubinsky would probably be the best 1-2-3 in the East right now. The pieces surrounding the Blue Jackets now include an above average D line and a Vezina winning goalie. It’s hard for me to think of a single team that sucks so much right now, that would benefit more grabbing McDavid than Columbus.

Note: all stat lines courtesy of TSN.ca, all Salary Cap figures courtesy of Capgeek.com, All prospect reports courtesy of Hockeysfuture.com

Salute-Gazi: The Action, the Impact and The Vast Ignorance of Fan in Terms of Player’s Salaries.

Hey do you follow hockey with any regularity? Then surely by now you must have heard the BFD that was the Maple Leafs refusal to salute their fans after dropping the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Thursday night. If you are not familiar with this latest crisis in Leafs land please read This or this or this or this for background information on why the Maple Leafs either Don’t owe their fans a goddamn thing or why they are just meanest bunch of prima donnas to every lace up skates and play in the city of Toronto.

Now does any of this matter? Of course not, this salute to the fans stuff likely started by Marek Malik of the Rangers a few years after the lockout. (source) but still there are fans that feel mighty slighted that this garbage team doesn’t do enough to appreciate their long suffering fan base.

But let’s break this down shall we. The Leafs are actually 7-4-1 over their last 12, now mind you 2 of those losses came in spectacular fashion over the last week to League garbage-fire the Buffalo Sabres (whose recent winning ways has officially made it a race for McDavid rather than a foregone conclusion) and giving up a touchdown and a safety to the Nashville Predators in the worst game the Leafs have played in terms of Goals against since what, 1991 or 1992. (Note: the last time the Leafs were shelled this bad Mario Lemieux was in his prime and the Leafs traded for Doug Gilmour the following week). All things told those are ugly stat lines, but the Leafs are arguably in better shape this year than they were last year. The goaltending has slipped (which is to be expected as last year they got superhuman efforts out of both goalies for stretches) but overall the Leafs are getting balanced scoring, possessing the puck more, and no longer depending on off the charts shooting and save percentages to win games. On balance their play is sustainable in terms of winning. So no, these Leafs aren’t cup contenders, it’s insane to think a team with Bozak as 1C and Clarkson in the Top 6 is anything but a tweener in the East, but the devastating free fall is a lot less likely this season because this year the Leafs are actually outplaying teams rather than out-scoring them early and hanging on for dear life (Mirtle Knows Best).

As for the appreciation aspect, I’m unsure if there’s a single team League wide that mandates their players do more for the community. From charity events, box purchases for a variety of different charity groups (Loops Troops, Sick Kids Hospital, Variety Village et al) not to mention even after all this stuff broke out, Dion Phaneuf, Brendan Shanahan and Peter Holland attending a charity fundraiser for the Special Olympics. Leafs fans are incredibly active in the Toronto Community and to deny that is willful ignorance. No Joe Somebody, they aren’t coming to your house to clean your gutters, but too expect that is a level of insanity that might be too much even for this fan base.

So what is the big deal here? Why are fans feeling so slighted? It’s possible they didn’t like Dion’s obviously PR coached “we’re changing up the routine” response to why they didn’t salute. To be honest I disliked it as well. I would have preferred he was honest. Here’s how he should have responded.

“Fuck these fans who shit on us at every turn, demand we get dealt wholesale and kick up a stink if we don’t bend to their will. Maybe if this place wasn’t a tomb 2 out of 3 games a week, we could get some energy in here sooner and it wouldn’t be the easiest barn in the league to play in for opposing clubs”

Of course that would have landed him in even more trouble so maybe the canned response was best.

The thing about Salute-gazi is that it seems almost entirely media generated. Which is problem, Media is supposed to report the news, not actively generate it. I’m not sure if the salute matters ever, but hey it is what it is. I guess my question is, do you care if the wait staff says goodbye after you’ve paid for your meal? I don’t. Does it matter that you’re greeted as you leave whatever store in whatever mall you frequent? Does your local barkeep high five and salute you on the way out of the door? None of those things matter to me, but maybe they matter to you. So let’s frame it in a different context.

Should the cast of your favourite TV show bid you goodnight? Should the director of the movie include a heartfelt thank you for choosing his movie over others? Should every CD you buy have a Codec where the bands thanks you personally for purchasing their music? Sports in the end are entertainment, and after the game is over the Players really don’t owe you anything. I don’t remember Wendel and Dougie skating around with sticks high after home wins; no one seemed to give a shit then. These guys are in essence paid (well) to play a children’s game at a high level. But when the clock strikes zero, their obligation to the audience is pretty much over. Its why shit like Kessel being mean to reporters isn’t news either. Why ask Phil things about the loss, dude might be the most camera shy player on the team, he won’t be providing anything other than canned insight anyway.

But arguing about his stuff on Twitter and reading comments sections (always a bad decision!), the thing I see the most is “these guys would be nothing without the fans there paying their salaries” and the “team belongs to the city and the community, they need to respect us”

Both of which are patently untrue.

First off, when you buy tickets or merchandise or tune in on TV you aren’t funneling money into the player’s pockets. This isn’t concert tickets where the players’ livelihoods are directly affected by your purchasing choice. You know who pays the Players? MLSE, that gigantic multi-conglomerate owned by Canada’s 2 biggest telecommunications companies, those guys pay the players. They’ve got a lot of money in fact to do so. Now do you as a fan contribute to the revenue that allows them to continue operating? Sure you do, but in the GTA you are one of 5 million people who do so. The ACC seats just south of 20,000 souls, basic supply and demand says you don’t have to watch, because others will. The 'we pay the salaries' thing doesn’t hold water, the second you stop someone else will plug their money in to keep revenue high (not to mention all that tele-comm and real estate money) and really you don’t do anything to contribute to player salaries. You know how I know this? Because you can see Florida, they still pay their players, and no one’s attending those games. And if they can’t they’ll sell the team to someone who will. Or they’ll move that team to an area where someone will, like Denver for example. You can ask the poor fans of the Nordiques about that. They're pro athletes not politicians. Your influence on their pay grade is slim to none, and thinking otherwise is really really uninformed.

And my next point follows nicely from there, unless you’re the City of Green Bay, you don’t own the team either. It’s good to love your hometown team, and to follow and support them. But its still just a sport. You aren’t owed anything because you’re a fan or a citizen of the place where that team plays. I’ve highlighted that the Leafs already do a ton of community service in the GTA, but that doesn’t mean your owed a half-hearted stick wave after a win. You paid to watch the hockey game, that's it, anything else is a bonus

All I can think of is imagining the perspective of a current Leafs player and a potential Free agent. As a current player you’ve watched your fans at 3 or 4 separate games this year toss their jerseys on the ice as some form of protest to the team, ignoring the fact that the team does in fact have a winning record this year. These same fans you Bronx cheer your goalies, boo their team’s players as they touch the puck and just in general show contempt for the players on the ice when the team gets behind. And somehow this same group of fans expects a salute after a win like they’ve done something to deserve it, like it’s a right they’ve earned by purchasing a ticket.

As a Free Agent could you imagine your agent coming to you in the summer saying the Leafs had interest in you after watching this circus this past week? Not talking to reporters is news, not saluting after games is news, your wife or girlfriend will no doubt be harassed by douche bags on social media after a loss. What player would ever want to play in this type of circus atmosphere? Nothing you do is good enough and we want more.

I’m not saying the Leafs are perfect. There are tons of problems with this team, the Coaching systems are still meh, Tyler Bozak still isn’t a 1C, David Clarkson is still being paid way too much to be bad at hockey, and the D goes from being airtight to a sieve from one game to the next. But acknowledging there are issues, as fans let’s focus on the ones that actually matter. A bullshit post game ritual doesn’t. Period.

All Heart: Why the Leafs and their Fans Love Grit over Skill and why it's (kinda) Wendel Clarks's Fault

Disclaimer off the top for this article, I was born in 1985, a few months after the Maple Leafs made Wendel Clark their first number #1 overall pick in what must have been infinity at that point in the franchise. I grew up idolizing Wendel Clark, I had a button up Captain Crunch t-shirt (that I'm sure my folks bought at Zellers or something) that I continued to wear far after it was okay for a boy my size to do so. This is a critique born out of love, I promise.

Leafs Nation has always had a weird relationship with the Ideas of Leadership, Character, Grit and Heart as being a major thing the team always lacks. It really isn't difficult to find examples of this thinking. I'm sure it's not just a Toronto problem, I'm sure if I talked to fans of teams in Boston, Montreal, or Philadelphia, I'd be sure to encounter a lot of the same things, particularly from the fans and the media. The weird thing is though, it doesn't appear into the ethos of the franchise like it has here (Though Philly and Boston both love their tough guys to the point of deification, if I've learned anything from reading the hate tweets delivered to Puck Daddy's Ryan Lambert).

It's weird to just pin it on one set of guys or management/coaching teams though, as It's something that's always been a  fixture throughout my years watching this team. And I feel like as an identity (hey another media buzzword!) it's not necessarily bad to have a tough, gritty team with strong leadership.

Here's the problem though, most players in the NHL are given monikers like "character guy in the dressing room" or "heart and soul guy" or "Tough, gritty player" or "brings veteran leadership qualities" it usually means they don't put up points.

Now I said usually because Leafs fans had some shining beacons of optimism in terms of hard nose players who could also fill the net.

Scary Gary Roberts: Man could play














Insane Darcy Tucker: 4 seasons where he scored 20+, 2 seasons of 50+ points, Plus Crazy Eyes

But Leafs Lore isn't complete without mentioning Wacky Wendel, Just as a Leaf, broke 30 goals 4 times (5 if you count the years split between New York and Toronto), Plus he was tough as nails

Can you see what I'm getting at here people, and it's not like the concept is a weird one either, it really does appear as though the Leafs have just tried to spend time recouping that tough edge lunch bucket type of hockey. But these guys aren't Lunch bucket guys.

Let's take a look at the Leafs most recent attempt to recapture that past glory,

David Clarkson is an okay hockey player, born in March of 84, by age 30 Clarkson has had exactly one year where where he's scored 30 or more goals, and 0 seasons where he has accumulated more than 50 points, for comparisons sake let's look at Captain Crunch, above, Wendel had 4 30 or more goal seasons before 30, and 5th in the season he turned 30 (October birthday). Now it's not fair to compare a first overall pick to David Clarkson, so let's take a look at our other illuminates on our list, Tucker never put up 30 goals, but put up 2 plus seasons of 50+ points by his age 31 seasons. Roberts? Massive numbers before his broken neck, even after he came back, after 30, two 50+ point seasons. Like Clark it's hard to compare Clarkson to Roberts another former first round pick, but after his broken neck, Roberts took a role closer to Clarkson's in the grand scheme of the NHL, no longer a PPG top line player Roberts became a solid second/third line guy who could play the powerplay and spot duty on the first line if needed.

If Clarkson isn't a fair comparison, let's look at the identity who got away, Dave Bolland, No seasons over 50 points, no season cracking 20 goals, for comparisons sake Darcy Tucker was bought out after 2 disappointing seasons, which would be Bollands's second best and fourth best seasons in terms of point totals and one that would be 5 goals better than Bolland's best goal scoring season.

Now this isn't just a trip down memory lane for the sake of doing so, it's more the message overcoming the process. I'd argue since Fletcher's second coming (Marked with an inexplicable trade of a draft pick for future AHL and Czech League fixture Ryan Hollweg) The Maple Leafs have fetishized being tough, or big, or gritty or bring leadership qualities, but they've seemed to miss a huge part of their feisty leaders who were tough as hell. They put up points. Because no matter how you slice it, hockey games are won by putting more pucks into the opponent's net than they are able to core on yours.

Not saying there isn't room in the NHL for guys like Clarkson or Bolland or Komorov. But the best way to incorporate guys like this into your lineup is by keeping them low in your lineup and not giving them a brinks truck of money that cripples your cap like a mob enforcer. It's insane thinking like this that leads the Leafs to drafting guys like AHL healthy scratch Tyler Biggs, who is showing all the signs of a first round bust, ahead of players (and full time NHLers), Ty Rattie, Tomas Jurco, Boone Jenner, Nick Ritchie and Brandon Saad. Or using a first round pick on a guy like Freddie Gauthier, who may end up a useful NHLer but currently projects to being a 3rd line C, which seems odd for a first round selection.

But lets stop looking to guys who happened to be a championship teams as leaders, and let's stop comparing guys who occasionally fight and have had one decent second line type season as the next coming of the last #1 overall pick. I loved the Clark/Gilmour teams, but Wendel has us obsessing about a player like him the same way Neely had B's fans drooling over a similar guy for years (and lets be honest, comparing Lucic to Neely is like comparing Megablox to Legos, they just aren't the same), and we project the tough guy, leader, character, heart and soul guy on the wrong type of player, because these 40 plus goal scorers who drop the gloves basically ended with Iginla.

And maybe let's recall for all the leadership and grit and wonderful stuff that came of the Clark/Gilmour Era, they've won as many cups in Toronto as Sundin, Kessel, Sittler and Phaneuf have. The recent changes this off-season show the process is changing, grabbing Nylander in the draft, and building a cheap, effective bottom 6 could go a long way in restoring some glory to the Blue and White.

Though I guess its hard not to want a guy like Clark, DGB knows what's up.

Robin Williams, I hardly knew ye!

I've debated starting a blog to do some writing for a few months, mostly just for a new outlet for doing some critiques and analysis of things i like (or don't)

But Robin Williams passed yesterday, and it's the first time I really felt compelled to write about something, especially something like a celebrity death. I've talked about this with a few friends and we've discussed sort of the weird over arching feeling sadness his death brought, and regardless of how he went, I wanted to try and figure out why this was such a big deal to me.

As someone approaching his 30s, I think I'm part of a generation gap when it comes to Robin Williams, unlike my parents I didn't know him as Mork from Ork, or from his manic performance on SNL or his improv stuff with Billy Crystal, or as a cocaine fueled party machine on the Stand-up Circuit.

And I was too young to really latch unto his first foray into films, Good Morning Vietnam,Dead Poet's Society, The Fisher King were all flicks that were way too adult when I was way too young to understand them, so I missed his initial rise to prominence.

The Robin Williams I knew was a movie star already, and he did a lot of stuff across a lot of genres, but I recall him best in 4 films, Aladdin, Hook, Mrs Doubtfire, and Jumanji, because before I had turned 12 I had seen each movie approximately eleventy billion times. And Robin Williams was the man, until he wasn't. He was essentially the first movie star who seemed to be a movie star for kids. Guys like Arnold, or Van Damme or Stallone, were action stars, but those guys were bad ass. Robin Williams wasn't bad ass, Robin Williams like a giant kid, the class smart ass that winked and nodded to the kids to keep them in on the joke. He was Mister Rogers with an attitude. Those movies I mentioned above, are child wish fulfillment, Robin is a magic Genie, Peter Pan, Living in a board game and a dad who would literally do anything for his kids. He was a movie star who only acted in roles kids would want.

Williams worked steadily and even joked that there were years that movies were promoted as "not starring Robin Williams" But there was some stuff that was not so great in there, Flubber, Father's Day. Bicentennial Man. Mostly stuff that I skipped, but not everyone based on the number of tributes I've read this week.

But a funny thing happened, he became a cool ass actor when I was an teen/adult. Maybe they were movies that came out when I was coming of age or stuff I'd seen as uni student, It's easy to love Williams in What Dreams May Come, Good Will Hunting, World's Greatest Dad.

Shit I even loved him in stuff that got panned like Death to Smoochy, Man of the Year, One Hour Photo

Then I saw his Standup:
Robin Williams Live on Broadway is about as close to a recent classic we have in terms of standup comedy specials, Filmed in 02, in a post 9/11 world, Williams had a manic take for a lot of stuff, and while some the accents and mannerisms may date his material, It was funny in a time where not a lot of people were willing to be (though Carlins' Complaints and Grievances came out right after 9/11, and I thought that show was awesome). But Lord only knows how much material Williams had and how much he was just riffing on stage. Williams was a bit manic on stage but I loved the guy, even if the act has to be watched in stages, because you can't possibly get everything in one sitting.

Recently I've dug his return to the small screen, The Crazy Ones wasn't the best show to premiere this last season, hell I doubt it was the best new show to be cancelled, but it let Williams just riff. The blooper reel at the end of the show was always fantastic, watching his co-stars try and keep up with him. His bit on Louie was fantastic as well

It's a strange thing but If you look as his filmography he'd become the kids guy again, Night at the Museum, Robots, RV, Happy Feet, He'd cycled back for people who were surly teens when I was kid, to entertain their kids, which is really kind of awesome.

 

It just bums me out that Williams ended up being the punchline to this joke, which is cruelly fitting for a man who dedicated his life to making people laugh (Credit goes to Patton Oswalt for making this connection for me): Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor...I am Pagliacci"

Robin Williams we hardly knew ye, which is weird because we totally felt like we did

Right Craig Ferguson?

Rest in Power Robin Williams, and thanks for all the Laughs, and for teaching me that divorce wasn't really the end of the world.