Because even though it’s dangerous to generalize about any population as large as the NHL player pool — roughly 750 every season — or the NHL coaching fraternity, 32 or more, depending upon how many get fired every year, there seems to have been a shift in thinking, attitude and approach that’s creeping into the game, slowly and steadily, that’s turning the NHL into a league of crybabies.

Whatever happened to the old idea that when you lost a game in the playoffs, you needed to look in the mirror and try to be better next time out? That’s an old-timey sports euphemism for the act of taking personal responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions. But it doesn’t happen nearly enough anymore.

Nowadays, you mostly get coaches and players trying to deflect the responsibility elsewhere. The underlying message is the fault isn’t internal. It’s external. It’s the missed calls and illegal actions by the other team that are ultimately preventing our squad from being at its best.

It’s a distinct paradigm shift and I’m trying to understand the psychology behind that shift.

-Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic where you can read more ($) on this topic.