Saturday 27 September 2014

Jiri Sekac: how much does a Czech weigh?

This is getting comical.  I know we're simultaneously traumatized and fascinated by the player size question as Habs fans, but the see-saw Jiri Sekac is being put through is unprecedented, I guess.

I posted on hockeyinsideout.com the following bon mots on this subject a few days ago:
Un Canadien errant SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 AT 9:24 PM

Let the prospect inflation begin. According to Mario Tremblay, Jiri Sekac is 6’3″ and 220 lbs. I can’t wait ’til the end of camp and after another goal or two, he’ll be 6’5″, 235 lbs.
Monsieur Tremblay, who has been championing Mr. Sekac's play and for his inclusion on the roster on RDS, had indeed stated he's 6'3' and 220, although he backed off last night and used 215 lbs as his number.

Today we get this from Frédéric Daigle of Canadian Press: "Quand on lui pose la question, le Tchèque de six pieds trois, 183 livres rougit et sourit timidement."

I wonder where he fact-checked these measurements.  Hockeydb and Elite Prospects list him as being 6'0", 174 lbs, which was his size from back in his junior days with the Peterborough Petes.

The Canadiens updated these measurements to 6'2" and 195 at the prospect development camp, but listed him on the roster at the rookie camp as being 190 lbs.  As I've observed before, the five pound drop is not a bad sign, 190 lbs on a 6’2″ frame is a good weight for a speedy forechecking winger, and he probably lost the weight doing all that training to murder the beep test.

I don't know, until further notice, let's use the official Canadiens' figure of 6'2", 195 lbs, it's straight from their website.  Even if we accept that there's a little rounding up when listing these figures by NHL teams, it's a reasonable size increase to expect from a kid aging from 17 to 22.

And as far as where Mr. Daigle pulled that figure from, I note that on Elite Prospects, his height is listed, in cm/in, as "183 cm/6'0" ".  The same dynamic exists on hockeydb.

So I assume a harried reporter, with no fact-checking and little editorial of his contributions, made a simple mistake and it went right to press.

Journalistic standards, declining...

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