"I gotta have you talk about Barkov a little bit... 'cuz, you know, he's your Captain but like... What should we know that we don't know about this guy? He's so quiet, he keeps a low profile—I'm sure that's by design—but he's the quietest, incredible superstar that...When Chris Pronger was working there (VP of Hockey OPs/Senior Advisor from 2017-2020), I remember he used to say to me, 'Hey, this guy is a Top 5 player in the game.' Even when nobody was even putting him in the Top 10 at that time, you know? But what makes him so great? What do you know about him now that you thought you knew before you got there?" "You know, well, everything—because I'm with you! I knew he was in the league, I knew he was a great player but playing on the other side—I'd see him play twice a year and I wouldn't watch that much and I had no appreciation for how good he was. But the answer—I'm gonna give you an answer about Barkov and it's not gonna be good enough... 'cuz I can't answer that question about him yet, I still haven't gotten to figure it out. I don't know to do it justice but he's this extreme perfect blend of absolutely no ego and an incredible drive to be better at the same time. So usually the guys that are really driven have a bit of an ego. Ego's not bad always, right? Maybe I'm using the wrong word to describe it but he will put his teammates and his—everything—first, and it won't bother him one bit! That's exactly the way he wants it! He doesn't want to be the first guy out, he doesn't want to—it's not that he doesn't want to do interviews because of the media! Talk to this guy! You walk in our room—you don't know hockey and you don't know names—you can't tell if he's the 1st forward or the 13th forward by the way he treats people. That's absolutely the truth! And the reason he's not appreciated as much as a player is: I have never, ever once seen him even remotely cheat to the offensive side of the game to score a point. He just won't do it. That doesn't mean he's sitting back defensively! He doesn't give a rat's ass about his point totals, he just wants to win. So he's never gonna put the numbers up that he could. If Barky decided he was gonna generate points—if somebody'd convince him, 'Hey, Barky! If you just cheat the game and score—we'd got a better chance of winning!' I don't know, [he'd put up] 120, 130 points? Like he is brilliant but he will never, ever put the game—you know, what? He wouldn't put himself in front of the game. The game demands certain things and you can't get past that no matter how good you are. There are certain things you got to do in this game and usually those are hard things... he'd never once put himself in front of the game." "You can't score 120 or 130 without cheating a little bit, right? It's just a real—" "Yeah, except those guys don't call it cheating! They call it anticipating. Bad players cheat, good players anticipate." "They see things before they happen, Paul! That's what happens!" "Exactly, exactly!"
The Cam & Strick Podcast | 9.24.24 (x)
#paul maurice#aleksander barkov#florida panthers#2425 #woe paul waxing poetic about sasha for (looks at stopwatch) almost 3 minutes be upon ye #this specific segment is so special to me #“im gonna give you an answer about Barkov and its not gonna be good enough cuz I can't answer that question about him yet” #PAUL #my favourite thing about all of this is even in a hypothetical situation where sasha suddenly started scoring more points #hed have to be convinced into by a teammate and that its for the good of the team #you see paul realise none of this sounds realistic and then adds the whole hey barky! wed get a better chance of winning if you- #utterly hilarious paul was like this sounds too ooc of sasha i have to fix this #and then drops that fucking bombshell like jfc paulson #sasha no ego my beloved #do you remember when they brought up the whole baby barky thing to paul and he started going on a whole monologue about #how different lundy and sashas games are and that ssha will always ALWAYS put the team first in all his decisions #and lundy differs in that sometimes he'll be more offensively minded if and when he can #yeah? yeah :) #also the anticipating bit #you can tell paul is relaying what players have been whining to him for years when he scolds them not to cheat LMAOOO #LIKE OKAY PAUL YOU ARE SO TIRED HUH #also rat's ass. topical! #he doesnt give a rat's ass about points but he certainly does care about one (1) special rat's ass #also this man monologues for so long i love him but please let me live man
