Standing tall in Ladd’s skate boots

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2016 (3496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If I were Andrew Ladd, I’d most likely be in the same spot — maybe for a different reason, or maybe not.

Winnipeg Jets fans said goodbye to their team’s captain Tuesday with a well-deserved standing ovation after he scored in what was his last home game before his trade Thursday to the Chicago Blackhawks.

How the Jets got to this point will likely never be known. The organization isn’t exactly forthcoming regarding much of anything, so the media is left to speculate.

I can tell you what I would have done in Ladd’s place — and since I was captain of Jets 1.0 for a tiny bit of time, I’ll use that licence to speak to it. (I was named the Jets’ captain in 1980-81 after the great Lars-Erik Sjoberg retired. While mentioning that, my contribution as a captain is such a pittance compared to Ladd and Sjoberg it’s almost nothing.)

At the end of last season, I’d have been excited after seeing my club survive a season where it was clobbered by injuries, gutting it out for a well-deserved playoff spot.

When I shook Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff’s hand and said goodbye for the summer, I would have lobbied hard to keep the best of that club together, add a few pieces and take another run.

There’s no way I would have received any commitment to my request — so I’d have called my agent and told him to keep the price I’d accept entering unrestricted free agency very high, as I had a lot of questions as to what was coming down the pipe.

As time went by and I saw Michael Frolik, Lee Stempniak (who was begging to come back to Winnipeg), Jiri Tlusty and other vets walking the plank, I’d be reaffirming my wishes to my agent. My message would be simple: let this play out, as I won’t be comfortable with a bunch of “potential” guys replacing the proven veterans that got us to the playoffs until I saw them in the hard grind of an NHL season.

Can you blame me? I’m (at the time) turning 30 and I want to win. I know my window as a top player is closing. I’ve won two Stanley Cups and want one more, at least, as an important part. I’ve heard about players with “potential” my whole career and have at times been disappointed. I’ve seen most of the Jets’ supposedly “ready” top prospects up close, too, and they are good, but are they ready?

And I must take care of my family at the same time.

Sitting here today, as Andrew Ladd, I’m not impressed by the rookies other than Nikolaj Ehlers. Andrew Copp’s play has been mediocre at best. Nic Petan didn’t last long. One-time top prospect Alexander Burmistrov was supposed to replace Frolik, which wasn’t fair, but he’s failed.

So I would sit, as Ladd did leading up to Thursday, awaiting a trade to a Stanley Cup contender.

If Cheveldayoff took one last shot to sign me, I’d have listened, but only to a guarantee of building the lineup back up this summer — and that would be one heck of a sales job. I’d have already asked Dustin Byfuglien what exactly he bought into when he re-signed earlier this month.

I love Winnipeg, but if you thought I’d be coming back to the Jets in the summer as an unrestricted free agent before I saw a real effort to win, you’re wrong. Or maybe you, like Cheveldayoff, didn’t get my message.

But that’s just me in Ladd’s skates, or is it?

Since we’re playing “if I were…”

❚ If I were Jets head coach Paul Maurice and watched two star players get smoked without a penalty being called (see Bryan Little and Ehlers versus Tampa Bay Feb. 18), I would have blown my top at referee François St. Laurent. Then I would have gone into the dressing room at the end of the second period and thought the referee was weak because he hadn’t yet tossed me from the game.

In Maurice’s shoes, I also would have addressed my detractors who think I’m supposed to always be the calm guy who is never ornery and is always the calming influence. I’d tell them to talk to Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks players and ask them about their fiery coaches, Darryl Sutter and Joel Quenneville, who they love playing for. (There’s also all the Stanley Cups they have collected.)

Then I would go home and thank the universe for nobody noticing the real mistakes I’ve made this year and for focusing on my blow-up.

❚ If I were to morph into Dennis Wideman of the Calgary Flames, I’d have a variety of feelings: the first being I hope the linesman I flattened (an incident for which I originally received a 20-game suspension) doesn’t suffer any long-term consequences health-wise. Then I’d hope a former NHL player would at least make his opinion known on the subject.

Since “he” feels like that, I’ll try to do it, but it’s not easy as I believe officials have to be protected at almost any cost.

I have been hit so hard I saw three players when there was only one. And in the way old-school players did it, I tried to keep skating to the bench, keeping upright with legs moving to show the opponent he didn’t hurt me — even though I wanted to lay down and go to sleep.

Wideman is an old-school guy in a new world where many players flop like they were shot when someone brushes by them. So as Wideman, I’m pissed off, so I might, while straightening up from my bent-over position, decide to crosscheck any figure wearing white (as I’m wearing a dark-coloured jersey).

Actually, I might think I got three players with one push. I’m not sure if Wideman did. Are you?

Chosen ninth overall by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and first overall by the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1977, Scott Campbell has now been drafted by the Winnipeg Free Press to play a new style of game.