Ian White's Selective Memory Leads to His Confusion over Likely Departure

Recently, soon-to-be-former Detroit defenseman Ian White addressed the media in regards to the probable odds of his heading out of Hockeytown and looking for yet another rink to call home.  While speaking to the press, he basically came out and said, "Well gee, guys, I don't know what to tell ya! I guess it's because I'm such a little guy, they must just not like that I'm so little and so I have no place here anymore...!"

Allow me a moment to wipe my tears...of laughter.

No, Ian, this organization is not going to let you go just because you're small.  Does that aspect of you work against what you're paid to do? It certainly seems so, but it's by no means the sole reason you're time as a Red Wing has come to an end.  It seems you've forgotten a very important choice you made some months ago, or perhaps you've blocked it out of your memory already as you should be embarrassed by it in the first place.  You see Whitey, it's like this: If, when you don't get your way and you're frustrated, you run to the media and mouth off about your coach and the management team for not giving you more playing time, then you're going to have a lot of people in charge of your place on the team very pissed off at you.

Thus it stands to reason that if you do that while not even playing above-average hockey, you're REALLY going to piss them off; so much so that when a young guy like Danny DeKeyser comes along, the coaching staff is more than happy to give him minutes and see what he's got.  You know why, Ian? Because he won't bitch and complain about it if he doesn't play well and gets benched!  It's the nature of the game, Ian.  In a season where we weren't even sure of we'd make the playoffs, we had no time for you to be playing minus-rating hockey.

You're a defenseman and you were doing a terrible job at defending, so you got scratched.  It was YOUR reaction to this that punched your ticket out of Detroit.  Had you handled it like an adult and kept your snide comments to yourself, and tried to better or re-invent yourself to make a push to retake a spot on the defense pairings, perhaps we'd all be looking at a totally different picture.  But instead, you decided to piss you pants and run crying to the media, and THAT, Ian White, is the biggest--if not the sole--reason you are not welcome back for next season.  We've shown uppity players the door before, you need look no further than Jiri Hudler and Ville Leino.  Looks like you're the next one on the list, Whitey.  Don't let that door hit ya where Babcock split ya...