Giving Dater Props

by J. Scott Moore

It’s time I mention that I think Dater is improving.

Yes, I know that you and Darcy Tucker are stunned by this admission.

I think his Twitter personality took a good shift towards a more mature nature I expect from a pro journalist. He quit getting in stupid twitt-fights. He learned how to stand up for himself much better instead of just blocking people all the time.

As an Avs fan the last thing you want is to have the access you get from him blocked because you dared to disagree with him. Something I’d like to see him do is go through his Twitter account and unblock everyone. I think it would be a good reboot for his social media persona.

No, this isn’t a suck-up post. Many of you know I was blocked long ago for daring to criticize Denver’s favorite hockey son, Chris Drury. Was I trying to provoke a reaction? Probably.

That’s water under the bridge. I’m Twitter savvy enough to still figure out what he is tweeting about regardless. And yes, I still want to know what he has to say that info only he has access to. I enjoy the minute-by-minute updates of the practice skates, who’s in who is out, who’s injured, who’s healing. It keeps me primed during the off days and pregame. It’s an inside scoop. I miss the chatter when Frei is on the beat instead of Dater.

I’m not too sure about the dire game commentary…has that continued? I’ll admit I’m not sure about that. It certainly isn’t a very popular part of his feed but to be fair, lots of fans do the same thing.

All that said, one thing that did suck last season was that the Post clearly quit sending Dater on the road with the Avs as the season withered, wilted and died. But there were still games to play and the fans were just as interested in information. But the Post wasn’t playing and Dater either couldn’t or wouldn’t admit it publicly.

Also, I am glad to see Frei on board with the blogging, even if it is occasional.

One very odd thing that I have noticed is Dater’s karmic ability to be out of touch when the big stuff happens lately. I think when Forsberg signed he was on a plane, Liles was traded and he was stuck in traffic…I have the impression that some other ones are out there but don’t recall the specifics. Maybe you can remind me in the comments?

It makes me wonder if Sherman has an assistant that stalks Dater. Anytime Sherman is going to make a move he checks with the assistant to see where Dater is. Whenever Sherman can do it, he pulls the trigger when Dater is in the air, has the day off, anything to mess with the guy. Probably not, just funny to imagine it.

So I guess that actually turned into a small overview of the Post coverage of the Avs, not just Dater. As fans in a one newspaper town we tend to really be critical of our team’s coverage. We want the best, we want it all the time and we want them to get it right.

Dater Watch – Plain Vanilla

Well it’s been a long time since I wrote a Dater-Watch piece. Maybe I’ve been slacking.

Dater published his blog the other day about Altitude team member Mark Rycroft calling Jason Spezza a wimp. Big deal. Well, at least Dater wants us to think it’s a big deal. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with Dater on this matter. He who is often on the bus populated by the critics of the Altitude crew and their unfailingly sunny view of all things Avalanche. There is a small vocal crowd out there that doesn’t care for the overly positive slant on the team that is presented by Mike Haynes and Peter McNab, particularly during game time and Dater has often been a part of that crowd.

Interestingly enough the studio crew that Mark Rycroft is a part of has now been assaulted by Mr. Dater as being less than vanilla and one has to wonder why that is. I mean, if he would like to see a little more criticism of Avalanche players why are other team's players off limits? Dater alludes to doing some research on the two, Rycroft and Spezza, and could find no previous encounter to explain this less-than-vanilla behavior by Rycroft. Perhaps it is just his opinion of Spezza, simple as that.

Why does there have to be a grudge at the root of this comment? To throw you off the scent, that’s why.

Don’t think for a minute that everyone in the media are all good buddies and don’t rib each other now and again. And Rycroft has taken a shot at Dater in the past. Here’s the video. The sound is pretty low so crank it up.

I kept this little jab at Dater mainly because I thought it was funny, but also because I thought Rycroft had a good point. I believe that Dater had recently written a piece on the value of Paul Stastny. That would be a piece questioning the value of that $6 million contract. In fact Dater spent a good deal of last season driving that bandwagon. He seems to have abandoned it by the side of the road this season because even the least statistically savvy of us can see that Stats is maintaining a point a game.

What Rycroft points of are the other less statistically quantifiable parts of his game and calls into question people writing in the papers that don’t know the game. Ouch!

I suspect this little burn has been festering for a bit and Dater finally saw a chance to zing Mr. Rycroft in his blog. Problem is that you can’t have it both ways Dater. You can’t complain about vanilla all the time and then pitch a bitch when someone delivers something with a little more flavor.
-From the Point