#24 – Not Sure If Serious or Playing Dumba

[dekedangle_rpf_mod]

This is the twenty-fourth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

THE RULES

1. Mods retain the right to delete, freeze, and/or screen threads and comments.
2. Meme rules do not require warnings.
3. Respect flock. Do not repost or share information from private tumblrs, locked twitter accounts, flocked LJ posts, etc.
4. No linking fans to their real life identities.
5. No looks bashing or body shaming. This applies to players and people associated with those players and their clubs, as well as fellow fans.
6. No embedded music.
7. No embedded images.
8. No spamming the meme, whether through repeated comments or other means. 
9. No discussing trolling, individual trolls, or their efforts.





Meme rules do not require spoiler cuts. However, this layout does allow for them. Any of the following tags will create a spoiler cut when closed: <div cut>, <span cut>, <font cut>, <font color="white">

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to The Mod Post. 

Threaded View
Flat View
Top-Level Comment View

Next post opens at 5,000 comments.

Comments

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm so over Letang's bullshit and I can't ever say anything because everyone is so in love with him.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not. He's the classic example of "player I couldn't care less about if I tried."

- Pens fan

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Just last post people were talking about how he was mysteriously absent from fic. I think you're overstating the case, unless you mean in your particular circle of namespace friends.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

NA Player popularity does not always translate to fic popularity. Lots of Pens hockey fans that I come in contact with seem to love him. IDK if they any of those write fic or not.

/not a Pens fan

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

na

Yeah, I mean, the reason why people find his absence from fic so mysterious is because Pens fans love him so much. If no one really liked him, the low amount of fic would make perfect sense.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

One of the things I really appreciate about Sullivan is that he's more than willing to lose his everloving mind at the "star" players as well as the complimentary players.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

And he's also been doing a pretty good job of keeping them all in hand, Letang in particular. That double penalty is the most Letang has lost his shit in a long time.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not a Pens fan but I don't get why he's so popular. He just seems to lose his mind every period or so? I get that some people are into that but as an actual fan of the team who then ends up on the PK all the time it seems like you'd want him to chill out once in a while.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

It depends on what you mean by 'popular,' but he's an elite defenseman who's currently logging between 27 and 32 mins a night, so in terms of "person I'm glad is on my team" he's right up there, even though I don't have any feelings about him in the fannish sense. And as has been said elsewhere in this thread, he's a lot more disciplined under Sullivan than he's been under any other coach I've seen him play under.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Meh. He's a mixed bag for me. He's very good at what he does offensive defenseman-wise. And he has absolutely zero chill. Zero. Maybe even negative chill.

And his kid is adorable.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There are times I appreciate the negative chill, like when Toronto didn't give Kessel a tribute video and Letang was salty about it on Twitter.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

The positives outweigh the negatives. Same with Geno, who has similar weaknesses (stupid penalties and injury trouble). And they've both been better at keeping their tempers in check under Sully.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

He's the third leading defensemen in scoring, got a lot of Norris votes, and his PIM/games is down this year from last year. He does have a history of concussion and injury, but when he's healthy he's pretty great.

2015-6: 66/71 = .93
2014-5: 79/69 = 1.14
2013-4: 16/37* stroke = .4
2012-3: 8/35* lockout = .2
2011-2: 34/51 = .66
2010-1: 101/82 = 1.23

People with higher PIM per game this season include OEL (1.28), Buff (1.47), PK (1.1). So, of top 10 scoring defensemen this year, he is ranked 4 in PIM per game, which kind of contradicts the eye test of he's losing his mind and taking dumb penalties. I'll grant that double minor was stupid yesterday, but like, the numbers don't bear out the claim.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

SA
To clarify, Norris votes last year.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

It's probably a sample size issue, where every time I put on a Pens game there's Letang looking like he's trying to murder someone, and also my personal circle of Pens people seems to be in love with him for precisely that reason.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Not a Pens fan, but he's a very good defenseman. People will make a lot of concessions for the lack of chill and taking bad penalties if a player generally does more to help the team than harm it. They'll still get pissed about the penalties and stupid moves, but it's more of a "why must you be like this?" than a "I want this guy off my team NOW". My team has a player who has a similar habit of losing his temper (although he's been better lately *knocks on wood*), but he's also a talented player, and most of the fans I know, myself included, just sort of have a long-suffering reaction when he pulls something dumb.

I think there's also the fact that Letang has an adorable family, seems like a really good teammate, and a lot of people (both Pens and non-Pens fans, based on what I've seen) feel endeared to him because of his medical issues and him having overcome some adversity there.

(frozen comment) Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There's also Catherine's miscarriage, can't forget that.

Part of me wonders if his stroke/concussion history played a factor in that. There's so little research out there about the short and long term effects of both especially at his age.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah pretty much this. When I see he does something stupid on the ice I'm like 'come on Tanger' and when he does something dangerous, I call him an idiot, but he is good at his job.

And yes, his negative chill when someone insults a teammate (and him being willing to show this negative chill on instagram), his adorable kid and his beautiful wife are all plus points to him as well.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Do you happen to be a Colorado fan?

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

1) this is so weird coming from pens fans because malkin is the same way? (recency bias! i smell recency bias!)

2) the penguins would be a shitty defensive team without him, that's why people like him! plus he is very attractive.

3) a lot of good defensemen are dirty as shit. there's a front-page gif on r/hockey right now of brent burns punching tarasenko in the ribs. plus there's all the keith stuff, and the weber hit on zetterberg + all the other shit, and the multiple chara hits. ekman-larsson took so many stupid penalties this year but the yotes would be AWFUL without him. it's a give and take scenario.

(fandom favorites are not exempt! jamie benn, pk subban... )

4) the cleanest d-men in the league are guys who have very little fic: erik karlsson and victor hedman. and karlsson has been known to dive occasionally. victor hedman is large and soft and everyone should be in love with him, though. but that's enough about me being a bolts fan.

5) letang is nowhere near prolific enough in fandom for "everyone" to be in love with him. when i first got into fandom (through fic) i thought he might be a bottom-pairing d-man because he's barely in fic at all, even as a bit part. i don't think of him as a fandom favorite because BEAU BENNETT is in more fic than him. last post someone referred to it as "missing kris letang syndrome" and i think i might co-opt that term to talk about players who are very important but bizarrely left out. "missing john klingberg syndrome". "missing wayne simmonds syndrome". "missing braden holtby syndrome" [less nowadays but still a plague sweeping the fandom].

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

What is this comment even

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

na
I don't think they even know what they're trying to say.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

1) Sure, there's some recency bias, and Malkin is more fandom popular. But Letang's lapses tend to be more costly, both because he is more extreme and because of his role on the team.

3) Cool, but this is Pens fans complaining about a Pens player. None of those other dirty dmen are playing for the Pens or making plays that cost the Pens when they should be doing the opposite. They can complain about Letang letting down the team without naming every single other dirty player ever.

4) ????

5) The entire complaint was about the amount of Letang fic not matching up to his fandom popularity, so lol at arguing that he isn't popular because he isn't in fic. Again, Pens fans talking about Pens fandom!!

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There's a lot going on in this comment but I just need to say that Hedman not being a dirty defenseman and not having fic about him has nothing to do with Letang, it has to do with the relative popularity in fandom of the Lightning to the Pens. If Hedman was on the Pens maybe people would write fic about him!! Despite his "softness"! I don't see what any of this has to do with whether or not Letang is a fandom fave or whatever it is thsi comment is about.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Why are you stirring up dead wank? I'm pretty sure this poster just posted a nonsense rant just to sit back and eat popcorn while watching people argue.