Saturday, February 14, 2015

Statement Analysis: Evander Kane

Evander Kane on trade to Buffalo Sabres: 'It's nice to feel wanted'

Some background:  the subject, Evander Kane, had established a reputation for being high-minded, arrogant, unteachable, a 'poison in the locker room', selfish, self centered, irresponsible, and so on.  In short, controversy.  Even though he is the star of his team, he has been benched repeatedly, by his coach and his most recent insubordination led to his own team turning against him. He refused to follow team rules, such as wearing a suit, showing up on time, and so forth.  He was to be traded.  Then it was announced, he needed shoulder surgery.  
February, 11, 2015
T
Evander Kane is no stranger to Twitter, but strangely enough, he found out about his trade to the Buffalo Sabres the old-fashioned way Wednesday. 

Like any of us, his words reveal him:  

"I've been having some tough nights sleeping with shoulder surgery. "I woke up to a call from my agent and he gave me the news before I could even turn on the TV or check Twitter or anything like that.  I'm excited, very excited about the trade." 

Note: 
a.  "excited, very excited, with both repetition, and the word "very"
b.  Note that this is preceded by:
-tough nights sleeping 
-woke up to a call from agent, as he was sleeping.  

He welcomes a fresh start after all the drama that fueled his exit from Winnipeg. 

But first and foremost, after talking to Sabres general manager Tim Murray, Kane sees the opportunity that lies ahead next season after he recovers from his shoulder surgery. 

Was he really excited about the trade?  Note what follows: 
"Once I talked to Tim and talked to my agent [Craig Oster of Newport Sports], there's a lot of excitement for the future in Buffalo," Kane said.


"Once" sets the stage for timing.  
"There's a lot of excitement for the future in Buffalo" is passive language and avoids saying that he, or even his agent, is excited.  Buffalo is in last place in their division.  


 "Just looking at next year, they're going to get a top pick and that's exciting. 

The season has quite a way to go, but he anticipates a "top pick" which is given to the team that finishes last or near last, in the entire league. 



Just to have one of those two guys maybe to play with next year, plus the other young players on that team. 

Perhaps he anticipates them being utterly last ("two guys") Please note that Buffalo gave up a prospect and...
a first round pick.  


The sense I got from Buffalo is that, yes they're rebuilding but they're not going to sit around and wait. They're looking to do something now. It's nice to go somewhere where you feel wanted and you feel that they want to put you in a situation to have success." 

It has been a whirlwind week for the 23-year-old star winger, who became persona non-grata in Winnipeg after a controversy erupted last week following his no-show for a Jets game in his hometown of Vancouver.

He now addresses the incidents that led to the trade.  This was being a "no show" for practice, no show for a game, and failing to show up for a team meeting, and then refusing to wear a suit, showing up in a sweat suit, instead. This was the "final straw" for the coach, but the most unusual was that the team responded with anger, and the team captain took his sweat suit, and threw it into the shower to send a message that no one was above the tea rules. 

Will he deny wrong doing?

"There's definitely a lot more to it than some of the funny story lines that came out," Kane said.

First, instead of denying the specific wrong doing (perhaps the sweat suit story) he tells us that there is "definitely a lot more" information. 
Following his pronouns is not easy:  

 "Sometimes you have to just let a story die and I guess that's what we'll do. 

1.  "You"
2.  "I"
3.  "we"

all in one sentence.  Accused of being a narcissist, he does not use language that seems to show a familiarity with humility. 

But it was definitely disappointing with how everything shook out and some of the information was misconstrued, misleading, some of the facts kind of came out wrong or didn't come out at all. That's to be expected. But I'm definitely glad to be moving on and I'm going to have a fresh start with a new team. I'm looking forward to the future for sure." 

Note "disappointing" is to explain the impact, but not to deny the act. 

Note next that although there was a lot more information to come out, that which did come out was:

a.  misconstrued
b.  misleading
c.  only "kind of" came out wrong

He goes a long way to avoid denying that it was true.  

In coach versus high paid superstar, coaches almost always lose. In this case, it is likely that the coach had not only the support of the players on his side, but had the truth on his side, as well. 
What upset Kane the most was that there are people who questioned the timing of his season-ending shoulder surgery. 

On that, Kane wants the air cleared. 

"I had it [shoulder injury] last year and it got worse over the last two months. And actually, when they went in there to do the surgery, they found a hole in my shoulder as well and some other things they had to fix. It was a little more complicated than everyone thought at first, so it's really good we got it fixed now. 

"That some people thought I was having surgery just to end my season, that's so not true. That's the biggest thing I want to make clear." 

That was not one of the accusations against him.  Principally, he was accused of not just not showing up for the game in his home town, but refusing to take the teams' phone calls, or text messages. This was the accusation:  
Kane says the shoulder problem got so bad last week that he couldn't bare it anymore. 

"It's just common sense that I would have wanted to play in my hometown in front of friends and family where I know everyone has tickets to the game.  Of course I would have wanted to. But unfortunately, it comes to a point where you just can't do it anymore because of the things I was going through. I couldn't do what I needed to do out there. It (his shoulder) would come out twice in a period, once a period, sometimes it wouldn't come out. It was tough to judge and get a feel for it." 

He asserts "common sense", which means to take what he says without question.  However, Statement Analysis seeks to believe what one actually tells us. 
He then says "of course", which means:  take what I say without question.  We do not.  We need him to tell us.  
Note "would have wanted to" is repeated = sensitivity.  
Note the change of pronouns from "you" to "I" within the same sentence. 
Added Kane for emphasis: "After the break, we played in Philadelphia, our second game back, it came out twice in the third period and it just became harder and harder to continue. It was getting worse. I didn't want to put myself in a situation where it would become possibly career-threatening or maybe not be able to recover fully." 

He still does not address the fact that he did not show up, nor inform the team management (his boss) that he was not able to play.  Instead, he refused to respond to their calls. 
Asked about then-Jets teammate Dustin Byfuglien throwing his tracksuit in the shower last week and whether there were other incidents with teammates that led to his divorce from the Jets, Kane downplayed those things. 

"I'm actually one of the guys that doesn't mind that kind of stuff, to be honest," he said of the tracksuit in the shower. "That's kind of a funny part for me hearing all this. I'm a pretty tough guy mentally and physically. I think if people thought it was just about that, that's fine. That gives me a pretty good laugh." 

Note "to be honest" indicating the need to persuade which suggests lack of honesty there, or in other parts of his statement. 
Note that it is only "kind of funny"; not the incident, but "hearing all this."
It was not funny and according to the team captain, it was done to send a message that no one player was above the rules that all players were subject to.  
Note the description of self:  "a pretty tough guy mentally and physically" is not necessary when it was only "funny"; what toughness is needed physically?  Mentally?  to bear humor? 
Regardless of what people choose to believe, he's turning the page. He's a Buffalo Sabre now. 

"It's a fresh start, I'm excited," Kane said.

3 comments:

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

"I've been having some tough nights sleeping with shoulder surgery.

Peter, this doesn't sound correct to me. Should there be the pronoun "my" between "with" and "shoulder". Or the past tense "since "my" "shoulder surgery. Also the word "with" distancing language. I'm wondering if his shoulder is, since his "surgery," as bad as he makes out ?

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.