College Hockey:

Da Costa leaves Merrimack for Ottawa deal

I wouldn’t call his departure “fleeing”. That makes it sound like Merrimack is a place you want to get away from. It’s a great school and they had a great season. He is doing the same thing that Cam Atkinson and Paul Thompson are doing; capitalizing on a great college career.

I’d like to pile on the USCHO editor who chose the word “fleeing” for the headline, especially since that word appears nowhere in the TSN report, the headline for which reads “Senators land highly-touted college free agent”. I also like how the boilerplate above the comment form says woofing and taunting are not allowed, but the editor makes Merrimack’s program sound like a burning building when a sophomore doesn’t turn down a $900K contract, plus bonuses. I note that Denver’s Donovan, also a sophomore, is only “signing” with New York, and Hayes at BC is also only “inking” a deal with Chicago. He was a junior. York, a junior at RPI, “bolts” from RPI, which I suppose isn’t as bad and does imply an early departure, but all these signings are early and somehow there’s no need to emphasize that when the story is about BC or Denver, only when it’s about RPI or Merrimack.

I realize there’s pressure to come up with unique wording for each story, which is hard when the stories are all so similar and coming fast and furious, but there’s no call for using words that are hardly value neutral like “flees” in some stories and not in others, especially if there’s nothing in the story– nor anywhere else, for that matter– to justify them. What’s he fleeing from? It makes it sound like Coach Dennehy is pursuing him into the stands with a shoe.

No class.

Reader Flees biased blog at USCHO website

Geez, people will just find anything to cry about these days. Flees, leaves, bolts, jumps, whatever. They all mean the same thing. Now go back to work. I think the fries need to be taken out of the grease.