Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Why did you insert "yeah" in your last sentence? Affirming that you've managed to convince yourself?
Actually it was to indicate moving on from the digression into your sketchy understanding of how the media works back to the original point about whether Matthews receives media attention because he's sold to us as a star vs. him being a star because of all of those pesky goals he scores.
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
I guess I cling to the quaint notion that reporters, even sports reporters, are supposed to tell us the "news," not bolster a narrative. Maybe Johnsson will dish out quotes just as anodyne as Matthews (not to mention JT, who sets the bar in that respect), but how will we ever know if they don't feature him after his big game on the big stage, when he deserves it?
The idea the sports media ever operated without an eye to attracting the most eyeballs isn't a quaint longing for the principles of yesteryear, it's just rewriting the history of the profession. Babe Ruth had a cadre of reporters following him around regardless of what Earle Combs or Bob Meusel did on a given day.
If Johnsson was given to saying anything remotely interesting, we'd have heard it by now. You're not seeing the editing going on. Reporters talk to players off camera, get a sense of whether they're interesting or not . Believe it or not stars saying boring things is the most interesting thing they can report on.
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
In any case, the headline gunnar36 was referring to was simply wrong.
Again, headlines(which are usually an editors responsibility, not a reporter's) are and always have been about driving clicks or whatever the old-timey equivalent would be.
For instance, in the actual
TSN story you referred to where Johnsson supposedly gets "little mention".
Here, he gets his own paragraph:
Matthews wasn?t the only top player who cranked it up for the Leafs, either. His linemate contributed a power play goal and an assist in the victory as well, while Mitch Marner awed with a pair of jaw-dropping shot blocks in the final minute to preserve Toronto?s one-goal advantage.
Then, a little while later, he gets a quote:
?I feel like we played much harder, we forced it hard and were heavier on the puck,? Johnsson said of his line. ?We didn?t lose it too much so we didn?t have to backcheck a lot. It was more controlled play and so we didn?t have to waste a lot of energy in our zone.?
Here, then, are four more paragraphs on Johnsson, including quotes from Babcock and Matthews about Johnsson:
It was only in response to Kadri?s absence that Johnsson had been moved onto the Leafs? top power play unit at all, and once Matthews? mojo was flowing, he wasted no time returning the favour to his winger. On Toronto?s next power play, Matthews pokechecked a puck out to , who got it to Johnsson for the Leafs? second man advantage goal of the night. They finished the game 2-for-3 in that category.
The score was Johnsson?s first of the postseason as well and, like Matthews, he?d been without a point in the series prior to Monday?s game. In finally finding the back of the net, both players found some much-needed relief going forward.
?That was a beautiful goal [he scored] and a beautiful pass that he gave me,? assessed Matthews. ?You get a couple goals like that under your belt and it gives you confidence, you get going. Hopefully it?s just a domino effect and we continue to produce and make plays.?
"[Johnsson] hadn?t been as good here lately, so it was good to see all the details in his game tonight," added Babcock. "He?s quick, he?s smart, he can be real hard and tonight he had good details in his game. He was rewarded for that. "
The idea that the actual article, which is where the reporting is actually going on, held up Matthews as some sort of singlular force solely responsible for the outcome just isn't true. The article is actually very good reporting that lays out a comprehensive detailing of how the game went. Matthews gets top billing as the main attraction but the idea that it fails to account for other things going on would only hold sway for people who failed to read past the headline.