Journalism 412: What not to publish

Quote from Joey Crabb in yesterday's AJC:
"It's funny how long I’ve been trying and working for this," Crabb said Friday, seven hours after his 4:15 a.m. wake-up call in Chicago and minutes after his first regular-season practice with Atlanta. "Every [writing] assignment I had to do in elementary school, it was about playing in the NHL. It's pretty neat."

One of Ben's Twitter updates today:
Todd White will play tonight. Don't shed any tears for Joey Crabb- he still gets an NHL salary while he's on the roster. Pavelec in goal.

Listen, not to be a complete dick about this but I'm pretty sure his quote wasn't taken out of context, and he did not actually say, "...it was about drawing an NHL salary." I'm pretty sure the $6,700/game he'll pocket for the inconvenience of going to Atlanta, dressing, and missing the Wolves first home game in 2 weeks doesn't hurt, but it's not the same as playing in the Show, and that's a pretty arrogant and jerky thing to say about a prospect. I hope Joey's parents don't subscribe to that Twitter feed. Ask any hockey player, in any league, at any level, if they'd rather play, or get paid to sit, and with the exception of possibly Sean Avery (who could review the most recent issues of Vogue and Elle on the bench!), every single one of them would say, "I'd rather play." Our own (beloved) Kari Lehtonen once said "If I was not getting paid, I would still play hockey, even somewhere at a lower level." Granted he goes on to mention the camaraderie of the team as part of the appeal, although knowing a lot of guys who've gone up to the Show from the A, there's more intimidation in sharing a locker room with bona-fide "stars" instead of with your regular day-in/day-out teammates. And as a small aside, I'm quite sure THAT offer is no longer binding considering the support he's gotten of late. Case in point is, I don't know a single hockey player (and I know a lot of hockey players) who dreamt of making it to the NHL so they could ride the pine but draw a nice cheque for their troubles.

Not a sermon. Just a thought.