Why I Think People Are Not Liking The Zach Hyman 50 Goal Viral ...

So, Zach Hyman has score 50 goals in an NHL season. That is a phenomenal achievement. In doing so he joins an illustrious list of players. No one can rightfully say that this feat wasn't done through an amount of hard work. The kind of hard work no one reading this is willing to put forth for even the closest aspects of our hearts and mind. Perhaps the only thing I can think of is the work it takes to be a good parent.

But this isn't really an article about Hyman's 50 goals, his hard work, or even the advantages he's experienced coming up. It is much more an article about the comments flying around the internet about Andrew Berkshire's video posted on March 26th.

Andrew Berkshire who, according to his Twitter handle is a hockey writer and analyst posted his somewhat controversial video on March 26th and immediately had commenters from every angle.

In media, we have a responsibility to tell stories, but too often they’re just not honest. The narrative around Zach Hyman’s first 50-goal season for example, erases the real reason it was possible. It wasn’t just hard work. Follow me on tiktok and instagram, for more. pic.twitter.com/LrAxmRiB03

If you listen, and listen carefully I think you might hear in Berkshire's video something that many people already know. That comes with a careful listen, and some meditation before rushing to judgement and the keyboard. If you don't get it right away, I would encourage you to put it away and come back to it again later. If you get something different after a third watch, the hey, you've genuinely gotten something different, but I came away with yet another example of a lesson I learned as pretty young kid.

As I listen to Bershire's comments, I don't at all hear him diminishing a single of the 50 goals scored by Zach Hyman. I don't even hear him besmirch Zach Hyman. I hear him recognizing that Hyman is the product advantages (in addition to hard work) that an over whelming majority of "us sorry people" as we say in my family. Advantages that us the huddled masses might not even have the ability to comprehend. I learned pretty early that it does not matter the breaks you get, but what you do with them after all. Hyman used his to go on and score 50 goals in the NHL. Some of us use them to teach, build things, or even run a country.

What many people forget, and Berkshire's video also reminds us of, a painful reality that might have hit sooner for some than others, is that we won't ever be at the top of our fields. And that even with a lot of luck, raw talent, developed skills, and many advantages (like those betrothed to Zach Hyman) we might still not even come close to reaching the top. At lot of factors go into reach the apex of a field, and those often don't line up in a way that leads to the top.

Zach Hyman's 50 goal season brings to mind the scene in Bull Durham (filmed in Durham's Green Room Pool Hall) where Crash Davis introduces Nuke to Sandy Grimes. Grimes, we learn, hit .376 in Louisville in 1960. Hitting .376 in the words of Crash Davis "is a career in any league."

That scene pushes Berkshire's and my points further. First, such a feat as a .376 battling average or 50 goals in a season, is a career achievement no matter who you are. The second, and maybe more salient point which speaks to an unmentioned point in Andrew Berkshire's video, is that even completing such a feat might not lead to anything more than running a pool hall in Durham, North Carolina.

I highly doubt Zach Hyman will find himself running a pool hall in Durham after his NHL days are done, nor do I think he made it to the NHL only on favorable winds. He's had to work harder, and longer than even the very best NHLers. No one, including Andrew Berkshire or myself, is trying to take that away. We're merely pointing out that it takes tons of skill, and more than a few extra shoves to make it to a 50 goal season. Some people have the wind at their backs, some (like Sandy Grimes, Crash Davis, and the reast of us) don't. Even fewer people (Zach Hyman) have strong winds at their backs.