[tvp2003]

Latest puff piece by Spector: McSurly starting to mature as a person and realizing having no personality in front of the Edmonton media is a bad thing:

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...-for-the-game/

As former Face of the Game Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins arrive for a Monday night meeting and their only visit to Rogers Place this season, you may have noticed his successor has become a more eloquent, patient and cooperative spokesman this season, whose answers to questions let us in more than they ever have.

...

At long last, Connor McDavid is becoming a spokesman for the game, not a prisoner of it, ready to accept the role that his otherworldly game thrust upon him long before he was ready for that part of the job.

“I am older — this is my eighth season now, and I’m starting to understand how the league works a little bit better,” McDavid said during a candid conversation Sunday afternoon, before he settled into the Chiefs-49ers game.

I don't particularly like the reference to the late Ben Stelter, and I'll spoil the ending because you probably weren't going to click anyways:

Today, McDavid has found the confidence to admit — like a player doing extra work on faceoffs or one-timers — that he could do a better job with his media persona. That he can add to the conversation, not just survive it.

Is it a coincidence that this epiphany comes months after his young friend Ben Stelter was laid to rest, a victim of brain cancer at age 6? McDavid wasn’t sure if there was a link there, or if there isn’t.

“He certainly had an effect on me in a number of ways,” McDavid said. “It just makes you realize how precious life can be. Gives you a different perspective on life. He certainly gave me a better appreciation for the smaller things in life.”

Perhaps his media relations team, his agency, or maybe his parents or girlfriend have changed his focus. Or could it be that he’s finally figured out what awesome folks we sports writers are (kidding).

Or maybe it is as simple as this: the young superstar is simply growing up.

“Maybe a little bit of that,” he reckoned.

Then he thought about it some more.

“Yeah, I think so.”