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Mason Has Disease That Is Affecting Performance |
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There has been rumblings that their is a rift in the locker room between the players and Steve Mason. The riff all stems from his disease that he has. Magnus Caput disease is the swelling of the head that can have adverse effects on performance as well as interaction with people around you such as teammates and coaches.
The on set of this disease can be linked to both Steve Mason and the organization. It's obvious that his parents cut out all his press clippings from last year and he spent a great deal of the summer reading those clippings. These actions increased swelling to the cranial region and thus has made it extremely difficult for the young goaltender to stop pucks. The good news is that he can continue the exercise of reading his clippings, which have been none too glowing this year, and it should start to decrease the swelling. With a 3.44 goals against average and an .890 save percentage, it shouldn't take to long for Mason to realize that this is no longer the 2008/2009 season. Once he realizes this, it will help subside the swelling and help sharpen his vision of both the privilege it is to play in the NHL and also his vision in stopping pucks.
Also to blame for this terrible infliction has to be pointed toward the Blue Jackets organization. For whatever reason, the organization has coddled Mason which only increases the effects of the disease. The organization is fully aware of Mason's affliction as Dave Rook, Blue Jackets goaltending coach, recently told ESPN. "Basically, he had trouble handling the success he had last year," Rook told ESPN.com. "Maybe it's not as easy as he thought it was. "He needs to make sure he doesn't forget where he is and how much of a privilege it is to be here," said Rook.
Now that the organization has diagnosed the problem, what are they going to do about it? Mason has never felt pushed and has never feared losing his position as the starting goaltender. This became crystal clear after Mathieu Garon pitched a shutout against the Phoenix Coyotes and Mason was stuck right back in net in the next game. I wrote about it then that I thought it was a bad decision on the part of the Blue Jacket coaching staff (
Garon Article ). What the coaching staff needs to do is give Mason some "shock therapy" in which he gets his system shocked back into place. This can be done by letting Garon start in net for at least 5 games in a row. Make Mason sit and watch someone else take his net away from him. This will make him realize how tenuous and precious that a career in the NHL is. If something like this isn't done and the organization continues to pat little Stevie on the head even after giving up bad goal after bad goal, the disease will continue to exacerbate and a promising career may be lost.
Preds Preview
If you want to hear me discuss more about the Mason situation and other situations on the Blue Jackets as well as preview the up coming games against the Preds; you can listen to tonights PredOnTheGlass podcast that I was on earlier tonight.
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Eric Smith
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