New Hockey Players Needed. So Is a Sense of Humor.

I’ve had quite the varied reaction to yesterday’s blog entry about a fictitious job posting for new hockey players for the USA men’s team. While several teams played below their expectations, it was Mike Modano and some of the other players on the American team that refused to admit that their failure to perform might have been primarily responsible for their failure to win more than one out of their four games.
Ever had an employee like Mr. Modano? Talented? Yes. Heart? Yes. Proves great leadership skills over a long period of time and with a wide variety of co-workers? Yes. Able to accept blame when there’s failure? Not a chance.

In many ways, these types of employees are the most frustrating because they add so much value to an organization that you cannot afford to get rid of them. Yet during bad times they tend to be the worst people to have around because rather than acknowledging their shortcomings and therefore being able to at least have a chance to overcome those shortcomings, they instead point fingers at everyone other than the person in the mirror.
Did Mike Modano single handledly lose the Olympics for Team USA? Of course not. But his whiny behavior afterwards was beneath him. He is and always has been a great player. Modano is not perfect and neither are his teammates. I suspect that he would be the first to admit both statement. Modano played poorly and so did his teammates. Unfortunately, I suspect that he will only agree with the latter statement.
The reaction to the fictitious posting had parallels to Modano’s behavior. Overwhelmingly positive, but a few instances that just made you shake your head. One was from a Canadian who attempted to equate the “Canadians need not apply” part of the posting initially with religious discrimination and then later discrimination based upon a person’s national origin. Perhaps he didn’t realize that Canadians aren’t allowed to play for Team USA. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why Canadians would want their best players to play for Team USA. Didn’t that upset them when Brett Hull did that?
Another headshaking comment was from a woman who was upset that the joke only applied to men. Apparently, she must have thought that it would be a good thing for the women’s team to be whiners too. They weren’t. They were defeated but none complained about being at a disadvantage because, uh, well, I’m still trying to figure out how the men’s team was at a disadvantage when all of the players on all of the best teams traveled at the same time and had to make the same efforts to bring their families to Italy if they so chose.
But my favorite comment was from another woman. She definitely got the joke. She replied saying that she appreciated the opportunity but didn’t think that her husband would appreciate her hanging out in a locker room with all those young, cute players. I didn’t have the heart to remind her that the team captain was Chris Chelios (age 44) and so doesn’t really qualify as being young, but if she considers him to be cute then that’s just fine with me. I did reply to her, thanked her for the chuckle that she gave me, and also reminded her that the players are all pretty muscular. Not sure if that helped or hurt the chances of her telling her husband about her secret desire to hang out in the locker room with her new teammates.