(Photo by Alena Schwarz)
Eric Fehr‘s spectacular overtime goal against Boston back in March was nominated for TSN’s play of the year. Fehr won the first two rounds of the bracket, but then faced Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk in the quarterfinals (who is also represented on the other side of the bracket).
After a few days of voting, Fehr lost, 50.18% to 49.82%. For the record, Fehr took the high road after the defeat:
A big thank you to everyone supporting me for poy.tsn.ca/?p=3358, especially my campaign manager @matty_python! #MaybeNextYear
— Eric Fehr (@EricFehr) June 4, 2013
Caps Outsider, on the other hand, will kick and scream over this debacle, and anyone who wants to call us crybabies may do so. We’re Caps fans, so we’re used to it. Let’s review the plays:
Fehr
Datsyuk
Fehr should have won this vote, but was ultimately robbed by Datsyuk fans. This is clear from the comments on the poll (connected via Facebook).
“There isn’t anyone else like Pavel Datsyuk. He’s the magic man. He has all my votes,” wrote Rosalie Mikos.
Did anyone actually vote for Fehr simply because of who he is, like Datsyuk fans clearly did? The edge in the blind-loyalty department is clearly with the four-time Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner, and not a player best known for scoring two goals in the Winter Classic a few years ago.
Datsyuk fans also gave their opinion on Fehr’s goal.
“Luck really. You don’t have a lot of control when you’re falling. It was a chance…and he got lucky,” wrote Diane Stannard. Clearly she’s found herself in the same position during games and easily got that same shot away.
Daniel Smith wrote the same about Datsyuk, but went further: “Datsyuk on the other hand went skate to stick, through the defense, fakes out Quick while dodging a stick-lift, and roofs it beautifully. Long story short, VOTE FOR DATSYUK.”
Certainly, what Datsyuk did was incredible, but he was offsides on the play. Also, he looks this good because of poor defense. Would Datsyuk have scored that same goal if he were sandwiched by two defenders? (BTW, both goals were game-winners, though Fehr’s was in overtime after the Caps came back from a 3-0 deficit).
Then there’s the superstar factor. Had Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby scored Fehr’s goal, there’s no doubt that it would get more attention. People vote for who they like, not necessarily on the merits of the play alone (though Fehr did beat Evgeni Malkin in the second round). Let’s also reverse the goals – had Datsyuk scored Fehr’s goal (and vice versa), Datsyuk fans (who say this wasn’t even his best goal of the season) would still vote for Datsyuk.
Would Ovechkin fans have voted for Ovi based on who he is, rather than the goal he scored? This didn’t happen. Ovechkin was nominated in the first round with his goal against Montreal back in April, which was not better than Malkin’s nominated play, and we’ll be the first to admit that.
So bottom line, Fehr was robbed by Datsyuk fans in this poll.
Now that we’re done throwing this temper tantrum, we’ll march back to our room, slam the door shut and cry in the corner over this.
