Ben Scrivens Stirs the Pot?
By baggedmilk
7 years agoOver at the Journal, Cult of Hockey blog master general David Staples posted the transcript from an interview that Ben Scrivens did with a Russian website called Sport-Express. During the interview, Scrivens was asked about the Oilers and his answers are blowing up Twitter again. Should we make a big deal out it? Should we torch our Scrivens jerseys in a bonfire the likes of which has never been seen? Probably not.
Before we get into the part of the interview that you’re all here to read about I want to make a point of saying that most of what Scrivens spoke about was his life, his approach to goaltending, going over to Russia for the first time, and how he will handle having conflicting beliefs while living in a culture that is not is own — the Oilers part of the interview was almost an afterthought. Scrivens spoke about a lot of different topics before being asked about the Oilers, and, I have to say, I’m a little bit surprised at the reaction and vitriol that this has been getting from some. That being said, a former Oiler is giving his version of the events that happened while he was here and we’re going to dissect the words that were printed.
Let’s take a look…
WHAT HE SAID
When asked if there was a difference between playing in Toronto, Edmonton, and Montreal…
Nothing in particular, the climate, perhaps.
Edmonton gets cold. Toronto can get cold. Montreal constantly smells of smoked meat and du Maurier. Got it. What else did he say?
When asked about the constant media attention, and whether or not a rabid fanbase affected him more in the Canadian markets:
Sure, it might be easier to play without such pressures. But, to get back to those same Kings, guys want to win so hard, it builds pressure by itself in the room. Besides, you have to understand that, sure, every fan in Toronto wants wins, but I want to win even more than any one of them. It may happen that some of the fans wouldn’t want to hear this, but wins are more important to us than they are to them. We wouldn’t be dressing, even, without this. There has to be something that has brought you to the NHL, and if you don’t have such an internal drive, you’ll never play there. So there’s nothing terrible about outside pressure. It’s all simple: if you don’t play well, those same 200 journalists will write bad stuff about you. When you play well, they will write good stuff about you. You have to be trying to show your best game, not paying any particular attention to what they are writing. You have to be moving ahead, perfecting yourself.
TAKE THAT, HOCKEY FANS! You’re not passionate enough to make the show and therefore your dirt opinions don’t matter, right? No, let’s not get hasty. Of course that’s not what Scrivens is saying. I saw that a few people on Twitter took this quote as a shot against the fans, but I get where he’s coming from. We fans love hockey, but so do the players playing it. It’s not like you make the NHL by winning a raffle. Guys that are playing hockey in the best league in the world got there through dedication, skill, hard work, and some luck with the genetic lottery. I always assumed that NHL players put more pressure on themselves to perform than we ever could (that’s their livelihood, MAN!) and Scrivens just reinforced that point. Nothing to see here. Moving on.
When asked how he felt about being traded from a Stanley Cup contending Kings team to our bottom feeding crew of misfits Scrivens took the high road.
I wasn’t playing at all with the Kings, and I did want to get the chance, so I was happy about the trade. They gave me a chance to play, and I was very grateful to both Los Angeles and the Oilers. Unfortunately, not everything worked with the Oilers as I would have wished. We didn’t have a good enough team, it didn’t have sufficient structure, but that’s been getting better. And the last unsuccessful season notwithstanding, I think that Todd McLellan is moving in the right direction. In any case, I was happy to be a part of Edmonton, to be in my home town.
Wait a minute… Did he just show some gratitude for getting a chance to play as a starting goalie? I thought this was going to be a hatchet job. What gives? To me, I don’t see anything wrong with saying there were issues during his time in Edmonton — everybody already knows that! Not only that, Scrivens even went on to say that Todd McLellan is starting to right the ship despite the lacklustre results from last season. I don’t see anything here that makes me angry yet so we’re moving on…
When asked about a seemingly endless supply of #1s while also still maintain a healthy diet of last place finishes:
A lot of first picks overall helps only when they play for the team, and play well. That, obviously, wasn’t happening in Edmonton. That’s a coach’s job to force the team to be responsible. But management must show support, showing the players that they wouldn’t be picking him apart just so. When the players don’t play well, you can hardly change anything.
Uhhhhh who is he talking about here? Hall? Nuge? We all know about Yak’s struggles so he must be talking about the other two so let’s look at the numbers.
During the 2014-15 season (Scrivens’ lone full season with the Oilers), Taylor Hall did have a bad year but Nuge was putting up career highs. That season, Hall only played in 53 games but was still able to finish the year 3rd in team points (14 goals, 24 assists). Meanwhile, Nuge put up a career high in goals with 24 and finished second in team points with 56. Were Nuge and Hall world beaters? Hell no, but it’s not like any of the other Oiler players helped put the fire out. When I look at the roster from that season I see a bunch of guys that are no longer playing in the NHL, surrounding a young core that was expected to lift the franchise out of the darkness with next to no help at all. Remember when they thought it was a good idea to start Draisaitl at 2C despite the fact that he himself said that he would probably benefit from more time in junior?
When asked about Klefbom’s “Hall didn’t play great against the best teams” interview that set Twitter ablaze from a few weeks back Scrivens offered:
He knows him well, they played together long enough, and I can’t say that Klefbom is wrong.
What is this? The Summer of Taylor’s Fall? It seems to me that hockey is a team sport and heaping blame on one guy doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. This ain’t golf we’re talkin’ about here. Could Taylor Hall have played better during his time in Edmonton? Always. At the same time, could everyone else have also played better? 1000%. Besides, it’s hard to blame Taylor Hall for things like:
That whole year was a gong show from swarm to finish and I just can’t reasonably put all the blame on the backs of a few guys. From where I sit, it would be best if we could just blast off the Eakins era into space and pretend like it never happened. In the very least, we should have all drunk away those memories by now.
On Yakupov:
I liked Yakupov a lot. A hard worker, always trying to win, he hates losing, he always fights till the end. I think that, having the right coach who would help and teach him, he can be a very good player and enjoy a long career.
Soooooo maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to bench the kid four games into the season and shatter his confidence? Maybe trying to strap a fifth wheel hitch to the roof of a Cadillac wasn’t the best thing for Yak’s development? Hmm. It is interesting to note that Scrivens seems to have a soft spot for Nail Yakupov more so than the other two #1s (at the time), and I wonder what else we don’t know about that happened behind closed doors.
On Yak’s trade request:
You can ask for whatever you want but that’s not how it works in the NHL, that the demand would be met. He’s now part of Edmonton, and I am sure that he will continue doing everything he can. We’ll see how it will work.
THE WRAP
At the end of the day, I don’t think that Ben Scrivens said anything that we didn’t already know. There were plenty of lows during his time with the Oilers and the guy is speaking honestly about his experience. I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as some Oiler fans that Scrivens thought that the “core” or the “leaders” on the team should have done more to help put wins up on the board. That said, it’s nearly impossible for one or two guys to carry the stinking, dead corpse that has been the Oilers roster and I think we should keep that in mind when evaluating what went wrong. I also tend to take articles translated from another language with a grain of salt because there always seems to be something lost in translation. That said, I’m curious what you guys think? Do you read the quotes above as a shot against the core? Is Scrivens giving us a peak into the world of chopping wood and carrying water?
For me, I’m just happy that Scrivens gave me something to write about.
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