William Nylander and the Lazy ‘Compete’ Narrative

You know what really puts a damper on my day. Going online and seeing Babcock or the media talk about how “William Nylander needs to up his compete level to be a good player”. Nothing annoys me more than when a player that brings nothing but fun and enjoyment to the great game of hockey is ragged down because he doesn’t look like he’s trying hard enough.

Why? Because I think compete is the most lazy way you can insult a player, especially if it’s wrong. So, why do I think it’s wrong if both the coach and the media claim otherwise?

First off, Nylander’s compete level suffers from the eye test, or the errors that come with an eye test. When you watch Nylander, he probably looks like he isn’t trying super hard. Except he probably is. The thing with a player who is as skilled and smooth-skating as Nylander is that he doesn’t have to destroy his lungs in order to beat the competition. He might look like he’s gliding into the defensive zone because his glide is as fast as someone else going full force. He might look like he’s not battling along the boards because all he has to do is steal the puck from the scrum. Nylander looks like he isn’t trying because he’s being efficient with his energy, which is exactly what you want from your star players. If they’re trying their hardest, they’ll be out of gas by the end of the first. If you want a dominant shift from them every shift, they need to be well-conditioned, so let them be efficient.

Second off, he’s in the unfortunate position of his compete being compared to Zach Hyman. You know why Hyman looks like he tries harder than Nylander. Because Nylander is a much better skater, scorer, and puck possessor. Hyman looks like he’s trying hard because he has to in order to keep up with Matthews and Nylander. Because of this, he looks like the hardest worker on the line, because he isn’t as good. You ever notice that Nylander only gets dragged for his compete when he’s with Hyman? That’s why. Because Hyman looks like he’s working his ass off to get the puck, Auston and William also have to look like they’re working their asses off to get the puck. Except they don’t need to, because getting the puck is a whole lot easier for them than Zach Hyman.

This is probably why Babcock doesn’t like his compete. You hear him go on and on about how his favourite toy works hard, despite not getting the results, while Nylander does those same things much easier, and gets the results. Matthews is the same way, but I highly doubt that Babcock would ever do anything to slight Matthews in public. So, that leaves poor Willy to get the brunt of the abuse.

Finally, the media slights him because Nylander probably slights the media, and they don’t like it. When’s the last time you’ve seen or heard Nylander talk to the media. He doesn’t say much to them, so he doesn’t really help them do their job by giving them meaningful quotes.

Since the media is a bunch of babies, they have to find some way to beat him down to make them feel better about themselves. So, how do you criticize a player? First, find some flaw in their game. What happens if they have very few flaws in their game? Well, you have to criticize them for something, so might as well insult their character or their compete.

Disclaimer: I do believe that intangibles play a role in hockey. However, whenever a media member or fan brings up these intangibles to compliment or criticize them, I think it’s probably not useful, considering that they have no insight on what a player is like in the dressing room, or during a game. If Babcock comes out and says Nylander is an asshole, then Nylander is probably an asshole. But if Darren Dreger is telling me that Nylander’s poor character is the reason why he should be traded for Brandon Montour, I’m less inclined to believe.

We saw this with Kessel during his time in Toronto. He never gave the media quotes, so they didn’t like him. But they couldn’t critique his on-ice play, because he was a god in Toronto. So, they attack his character and laziness instead, because it’ll be harder for fans to call them out on it (unless you talk about how he’d get a hot dog from a specific stand on street that he lived nowhere near, that’s just being an idiot).

It works the other way too. Dave Bolland strolls into town, and is great with the media. Problem is that he sucks on the ice, so the media has nothing to compliment, so they preach about his great character being the glue for the team.

Nylander doesn’t give the media their quotes, so the media calls him lazy in return. It’s how the system works.

So, to wrap things up, Nylander is getting unfairly criticized for not “competing” hard enough, all because he doesn’t actually have to try super hard to be good, the media are babies, and he’s probably getting compared to Zach Hyman, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, here are some gifs of Nylander trying hard.