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***hotdog*** · 07-06-2020, 01:15 PM

Johnson, to be specific. I know, I know. Controversial. I already know what the comments to this thread will be. "lol gabe sucks" "imagine thinking gabe is good at/for anything" "HAHAHAHA NO"

Kriminal he is not, but gabe he most certainly is. And to some that seems to be a worse offense.

Gabe has spent nearly his entire SHL tenure as the object of scorn and ire, and I think it's reached a breaking point. I will no longer engage in ironic gabehate.

At the end of the day, the crux of the matter is that gabehating has become too mainstream. I can speak with confidence that I was one of the first to dunk relentlessly on the poor chap, specifically during his first two seasons in Anchorage. All the things you think about him I had to deal with in real time and from close distance.

Before it was cool to dunk on gabe, before clauses were added to contracts specifically relating to how bad gabe is, before every single GM in the league also openly hated gabe in GM chat - I was there, hating gabe. It's like when you're one of the first people to love a band and you form a special bond with them and then they start blowing up and every other idiot in the village starts talking about how much they love your band and it makes you not like them so much anymore. That's me and the Gabe slander, so now it's time for me to zag while everybody else zigs.

Everybody hates him now because it's cool to do so.

Some may call me a white knight for appearing to come to Gabe's defense here, but I promise that's not what's going on. If there's one thing we know about gabe, it's that he's resolute. he's strong-willed. he will definitely stand up for himself and would never cower like a little slug and accept widespread unwarranted beratement. The last thing he needs is me defending him.

Unfortunately, this has become more meme than meat. We're turning into the boy who cried wolf - now when Gabe inevitably does something worth hating, it'll get drowned in the preexisting vortex of "gabe sucks" and those valid critiques will go to waste.

Conversely, we should treat him as a vital member of the SHL community, which would be a worse place without him. He's done a tremendous job with the SMJHL PT Department since taking it over, has led Canada to what I'd have to assume would be 2-3 IIHF titles, and is the co-GM for the most widely-respected organization in the league. He does all this while being a joy to chat with on Discord, never complaining about the mountains of shit he receives, and being genuinely liked by - i'll say it - everyone in the league that encounters him.

Know this is gonna get hate. Know it's gonna spark controversy. I can take it.

Summary: Gabe is good. (???)