Should we boo Sergei Gonchar?

I think the frustrating part of the situation for fans is that Gonchar could correct most of his mistakes just by trying harder. That’s a tough pill to swallow, you know?

That’s so… bold.

Rookie or grizzled veteran makes no difference. @Sensreporter James Gordon tweeted last night that the look on Gonchar’s face revealed he was mortified by the fans reaction to him. Tough to start out a game with a positive outlook when you’re getting booed before the puck has even dropped.

Fans do have a right to be angry and feel slighted. Write a blog, call into the radio show after the game. Disect it with buddies at the bar or the next day at the water cooler. Fans also have a responsibility to their team to do everything they can to help the team. The easiest and most effective way to do this is through support. The 13th forward or the 6th skater effect. Booing your own team is classless.

I don’t know if I agree with that. A person’s Psyche is not affected by their earnings, in my opinion.

I’m also not suggesting that fans “muzzle” themselves, per se. Criticism of Gonchar is warranted; I’m just suggesting that fans consider what good booing a player on home ice does.

I mean… maybe the fact that I write for this blog and have a way to express my opinions on his play freely (which I’m not hesitant to do), but I don’t see what booing accomplishes. Is he failing miserably in his job? Absolutely. And he’s paid ridiculously well despite that terrible failure. But booing him isn’t going to change his approach except, in all likelihood, to make him less interested in pleasing the Ottawa Senators faithful.

He’s making his money whether he plays well or not. If he hates Senators fans, there is little reason for him to improve; if he doesn’t hate us, maybe he’ll be more interested in playing well to improve our experience. That doesn’t mean we have to surround him with bright colours and happy thoughts, it just means that we should be realistic about what we’re doing.

They certainly have the right to boo — they paid their money. I just don’t know what they hope to gain from it.

The emotions were running very high on the positive side of the spectrum. Dany Heatley has done so much more to piss off Sens fans than Sergei Gonchar has, so why are we wasting negative energy on a guy who’s on our side?

I wonder if Heatley heard the fans booing our own players, and reassured himself that his trade demand was absolutely the right decision. Wouldn’t be surprised.

Also:

what are we, habs fans?

I was at the game and at one point I really wished I could get on the ice and beat both him and Kuba up. While I generally don’t agree with booing players, it’s not the end of the world for fans to voice their displeasure during certain plays but booing him during introductions is just unacceptable, you can not cheer if it makes you feel better but do NOT boo him. This is like last year when the fans booed Kuba during “jerseys off our backs” event. As much as these players suck, as long as they are wearing our team’s jersey, we should show some level of respect imo.

I didn’t realize he was booed during the introductions (on opening night during our 20th season celebrations, no less). I agree that makes us look like a bunch of clods.

This seems like a much fairer approach. I’m still not confident booing your own team does anything, but I’ll admit it’s a lot more understandable when directed to a particular moment or play, rather than at a particular player for anything he does.

Marvellous, you have that right: Ottawa loves a whipping boy. Ask Alfie; “Praise Alfie” was preceded by “Trade Alfie”.

Good article Mark. You put the conundrum very well. It would be nice to see Ottawa mature a bit. We’ve had 20 years to grow into our roles. You would like to see just as much passion, but with a little more insight.

I definitely think 2 games into the season is way too early to start booing anybody!

Just because you’re not booing someone doesn’t mean you’re simply giving them your respect; it’s very rare that I meet someone and decide that I’ll boo them until they impress me.

Gonchar has actually played 70 games for the Senators, not 80+, thanks to a concussion he sustained last season.

And speaking of last season, I won’t try to deny that Gonchar was terrible, but I will say that the ENTIRE TEAM was terrible, and we were all back on opening night to cheer them on.

Why is Gonchar individually so different? We can’t give him the benefit of the doubt and refrain from booing him, at least for the home opening game? Literally, the first time most of us are able to see him live, and before the puck is even dropped people are raining boos down upon him.

It’s ridiculous.

He had his best game this season, as far as I’m concerned. Not that it says much.

He was quite good on the PP last night.

I saw worse mistakes from other players, but I’d seen worse mistakes from other players in the other games too.

I suspect Ginch to get some of his game back. Surprise player though? Hmmmm

Like it or not, he has more ‘crappy play’ credits on which to draw than Gonchar; he’s one of ‘ours’ more than Gonchar is. If Phillips plays horribly the whole season long, we could well see him exhaust that line of credit.

I agree that the amount of money you make doesn’t make a hostile environment any more palatable. We all like to think that if we made dump-truck loads of money, we wouldn’t care what other people think, but it doesn’t take much observation of people who actually make loads of money to see that that isn’t the case.

I do think that we should express disapproval of players who we know could be doing better, but it needn’t take the form of classless booing, and we could stand to be much more discriminating about when we voice our disapproval and how – to be fair, that might be a little difficult after you’ve had a few cold ones.

I didn’t hear any from our section, unless I missed something.

Rec’d.

To your first point. I am much more accepting of the jeering during the course of a game when something legitimate occurs that might be boo worthy. However, in pre-game intros, and every time our own player touches the puck whether he makes a mistake or not just reflects poorly on ourselves as a city and as fans of the Senators. Nor does it do anything to help that player improve his play.

If he wants out to go to a contender, he will have to put in the effort and play like he can. He has to show the 10 GM’s out their that have a shot at the cup that he’s still got something to offer. Until he does that, he’s not going to be traded because no one wants him. BM treats his guys well. If Gonchar wants out, he doesn’t have to play like crap with no effort to get out. BM will accommodate him. He just has to show he’s worth something.

By the end of the game, there was a lot of exasperation when Spezza would make a bad move, if not outright booing. Granted, they were bad moves, but we owe him a little more than that…

Thanks for joining.

Thanks for joining.

I think you’re right, too; one thing about booing that hasn’t been mentioned that much is that it isn’t just the player you’re booing who hears it; the whole team does. So some (particularly young) players might get nervous or anxious when they get the puck, out of fear they get booed, too. Some (particularly older) players might get really pissed off that their teammate is getting booed for what they see as no good reason.

I am used to seeing a winning product and I expect a winning product.

So you missed last season then? You know I think I’d rather see empty seats at the rink than have that much negativity on a team that’s this early in a rebuild. We’re going to lose a lot this year. That’s just a fact. If you’re just going to bitch and boo all season about how you spent good money and expect a winning product, then I feel inclined to point out that you could save your money and your bitching because it’s unlikely to happen.

Not to mention we won last night so quit complaining.

For the record, I don’t agree with anything this guy said.

You are welcome to whine all you want, and boo all you want because you expect the world to give you what you want. Just notice how effective your whining and your booing is. If you look around you, do you enjoy being around whiners and complainers?

I equate booing with complaining. A referee deserves a booing after a sucky decision. A player on your team not so much.

Alfy is booed by the opposition’s fans because he’s a great player. That’s different.

… quite frankly if Gonchar isn’t happy, let him go to Costco and get himself some bulk Kleenex. Same with Kuba, Spezza, whoemever the whipping boy of the day is.

You’re missing the point. The argument against booing your own team isn’t about Gonchar’s happiness. It’s about expectations. You said yourself, you expect a team to win; booing will do little to nothing in achieving that goal. More often than not, it will do the opposite. So all you’re accomplishing is a little smug satisfaction at having shown that rich bastard what you think of him.

I am used to a winning product, too; the Senators through last decade set a high bar. I’m not expecting it, but I am expecting a winning attitude. I won’t deny that Gonchar isn’t showing a winning attitude, but I will say that booing won’t rectify that problem. It won’t make me feel better, won’t make Gonchar play better, and won’t make the team win.

It’s one thing to yell if you’re upset when something bad happens. But I feel like booing tends to become a habit and then it doesn’t stop even when the reason for it goes away.

Good point.

Good point.

Changes made.

As a friend of mine put it, that was disgusting.

I agree with you, for the most part. Hopefully Gonchar is able to turn his game back around, and booing becomes a non-issue.

because surgeons work in intimate, controlled environments surrounded only by fellow professionals and hockey players play in a huge loud environment surrounded by excited, and often drunk, commoners.

Apples and oranges.

This is a spectator sport. they get paid for a skillset that should include mental resillience.

Heck, i was an AMATEUR university swimmer and we had talks from sports psychologists and the like talking about this kind of thing, visulalization, dealing with adversity, etc. The expression was “Swimming is 10% physical, 90% mental”. Replace swimming with your choice of sport.

You don’t get to this level (NHL) without being a physical specimen. If you don’t have the mental strength (or don’t have it anymore), get yourself some professional help or get out.

And basically, it was what I was trying to say, but you said it better. I will just link to your comment from here on in.

we could just boo until Melnyk gave the thumbs down and Gonchar was fed to the lions. Unfortunately, he’s not a slave and is paid $5M per season for his sins instead.

First, seeing anyone boo my team pisses me off. However, I look at Gonchar and, he’s paid at a level in the NHL which puts him near elite status. He works in an entertainment medium that is put on for fans. He signs that contract and there is a level of expection that is and should be created. Now, i don’t know what’s going on his head but his play so far has NOT equaled his pay and without any other explanation it looks like either indiference (which i find hard to believe) or a lack of effort or… something. Frankly, he should take his lumps and work to redeem himself and earn his paycheck like a super-highly paid professional. If he can’t handle the criticism, he’s in the wrong place.

Kuba’s situation i see as different – he has had injury problems the last few years, missed a training camp, etc. There are a lot of qualifiers you can throw around his performance. I feel bad for him getting booed because I don’t see a guy who doesn’t look like he’s trying but rather a guy who needs a good stretch of play to get to where he can play (he also didn’t come in with anywhere close to the kind of expectations that were justifiable had for Gonchar).

At least not unless you play for the Habs or any of Toronto’s various sports teams.

And as for the Ottawa crowd knowing it’s hockey, yes and no. There are a lot of knowledgeable fans here and there were a lot of people who called for Murray to be fired because he had the gall to trade Mike Fisher. Those people might not be the ones commenting on the blogs (obviously not, because if they read the blogs they would have realized that trade was a good deal for everyone), but I’m willing to bet they’re a good number of the boo birds.