Danny Wirtz Definitely Doesn't Hate Losing

Well, we know what the standard is on 1901 W. Madison.

Dear Danny Wirtz,

Hey there, sir. It's your fellow creature of the Old Stadium, Sam. I know you know who I am. You may pretend you don't, and that's cool. Most people who know me do the same. Used to it by now. Anyway, we've got to talk. I don't think anyone like me is in your ear. Usually, that's a good thing. I don't need Qdoba, anyway. Trying to lose some weight. But today, it's not.

I'm not sure where to start, Danny. So let's start with your timing, and then we'll get to the rest. Danny, you chose to announce a contract extension for Kyle Davidson a mere two nights, and the game after your team was booed off the ice for a perceived lack of give-a-shit. Certainly for the results they've been putting up...maybe of late, maybe the past few years? Unclear, but either way, it isn't good. You announced this extension a few hours after your coach was repeatedly asked by the beat writers whether your team had simply given up, or stopped caring, or never cared.

Now, the thing is, Danny, it doesn't really matter whether they do give a shit or not. Not for this. What does matter is that it's out in the bloodstream, there is a feeling among the fans that your team doesn't give enough of a shit. There is a perception that your team doesn't care that it is finishing 31st in the league again. It's just an awfully strange time for you to come out and affirm that you think everything isn't just fine, but going well enough to reward the one guy you are directly in charge of.

Now that we're past that, Danny, what is it you're rewarding? Because your quotes are simply from a dimension that none of us live in, sir. Let me go through some of them, and see if I don't have a stroke.

“Kyle’s done everything we’ve expected of him,”

Ok, well, I guess we know what the goals are on the West Side.

“When he got the job, his first task was to rebuild our prospect pool."

That was what you told him? Not about winning a Cup. Not about becoming a contender again. Not about winning games. The first task upon hiring him was rebuild the prospect pool.

Danny, when you were in a band, did you tell your guitarist the only thing he had to do was keep his guitar in tune? Because yes, that is a necessary part of the job. It's also not really the main goal.

I believe right now we have the best prospect pool in the NHL. Many of those prospects are now actually NHL players, contributing and highly impactful on our team.

Let me explain something here. To get what you believe is the best prospect pool, whatever that means, it just involves drafting guys. It involves finishing last or near last to draft guys at the top of the first round. But Danny...ANYONE CAN DO THAT! Danny, you could put together a dogshit roster and finish bottom of the league and collect draft picks. Any one of my readers could, and Danny, they're so addled they read this fucking thing! It is not an accomplishment to just have so many draft picks because every team you've put on the ice is a noxious gas.

Highly impactful on your team?! Your team is in last! It only has the Canucks beat, and the Canucks are actively trying to sink their arena into the ocean. What's the impact?!

He’s building a championship-caliber team.

I'm sorry everything went black there for a second. Where were we?

“You mention the nine points (better than last season), but I think beneath that, a couple things that I look at that give me some real optimism for where we’re going,” 

I'm going to stop you right there, Danny. This team has two more regulation wins than last season. Two. That nine or ten point improvement you want to use as justification, it's all a result of overtime games. That doesn't mean anything, Danny. Not for evaluation purposes, it doesn't. It's a carnival game. Your team can't win at actual hockey any better that it did last year. That's inertia, Daniel. That means you're not progressing.

And that's it, Danny. The team isn't any better. It's the same as the garbage as last season, which was the same garbage as last season. It's been three seasons of inertia. That's what you're rewarding.

“I think it’s the competitiveness we showed this season. I think there were 35 games (with a) one-goal differential, a quarter of our games going to overtime. This tells me we’re more competitive more nights."

One of my favorite stories with my family was tuning into a White Sox game in the Hawk and Wimpy days, and the Sox were getting smoked by the Jays that night. Hawk Harrelson had to pick a player of the game where the Sox only had a hit or two. He chose Tim Raines. "He only went 1-for-4 but he smoked it!"

Anyway, you can probably figure out why I bring that up.

"But I think that’s what you hear when you listen to Blash (head coach Jeff Blashill), how he’s talking about teaching players about how to win those games."

That's the same coach who just had to defend his team's give-a-shit level to the press. That's the same coach who spent a practice or two trying to get up his team's ass, and then watched them produce 15 shots on Monday night and get booed off the ice. That's the same coach who is providing some of the most boring hockey in the league. That's the same coach that has overseen the worst offense in the NHL.

"One, these players in their own development has to take another step. Even Connor (Bedard) needs to take another step and he will. He’s that competitive. But across the board, those are the things; the collective improvement each of those players makes translates into team competitiveness and ultimately wins. That’s what we’re going for."

This isn't based on anything. Danny. Who's a better player right now than when you drafted them? It's arguable that even Bedard isn't. This organization has shown no evidence that it can develop any of these prospects into real NHL contributors, much less NHL stars, and Danny, that's the far more important part than hoarding draft picks to the roof like the aunt the family has forgotten about. Think of that Seinfeld episode. "Anyone can just take 'em! But the development, that's the most important part!"

And that's the thing, Danny. All this team has done since you've been aboard is lose. They haven't shown any impetus to not lose. There is no indication that the losing is unacceptable. Only Seth Jones said it, and you guys smear him every chance you get on the broadcast, without ever mentioning his name like the cowards you are. I'm sure he's crying all over his championship ring.

Ever since this team was "turned over" to the kids at the trade deadline, they've lost 10 of 15 games. They've not cared most nights. They don't seem to mind that they suck. They don't show any urgency.

And why would they, Danny? This is a team and roster that's never done anything that matters, and yet Frank Nazar was given a contract extension he's currently sitting on like Jabba The Hutt. You're going to hand Connor Bedard however many dollars he asks for, and he's never played a game that matters. Your GM has presided over three straight 31st place finishes, when every team that picked after he took Bedard is now in the playoffs, and you just handed him an extension.

Danny, do you sense why no one in the organization might think there are no consequences? Why there's no urgency? Why this team might not think losing is the worst thing in the world? Do you see what you're sanctioning? What you're inflating? What you're making the ethos of the entire organization?

You see the problem here. You have to. If you don't, we're all fucked. I mean, I know we're fucked. It could just be you don't understand what you're watching. I get it. I don't know that this was a job you ever wanted, and it was passed to you in the worst circumstances. But you have to have the good sense to know that you don't know what you're watching, at least not completely. You need someone to tell you what's really going on.

But hey, you're a Wirtz. A building mostly full might be the extent of your aims. You've gotten that. You've now told everyone that this is good enough. I guess it is. Fine. You can do it without me, then.

Sincerely,

Ol' Shmuel