I'm Happy I'm Not A GM

I've done an awful lot of ragging on general managers lately, from impatiently waiting for a new contract for Josh Gorges, to my tirades about Paul Holmgren's insanity.

But I just realized something: I can't criticize their work, because I know I'd never be able to do it. I've never been able to call a coach an idiot because I know they know more about coaching hockey than I ever could. (Case in point: Jacques Martin, as much as we love/hate him, won a Memorial Cup before I was even born.) But somehow, being the eternal rookie that I am, I never realized that I should apply the same logic to GMs.

I may hate the way they seem to treat players as commodities, but maybe they do too. All they do is make decisions - it's the backbone of their profession. They have control over who stays and who goes, who needs to look for a new job and a new home and who gets to stick around, surrounded by an ever-changing cast of teammates. They decide how much money someone deserves to make, and they have to own up to their decisions. Every move they make will be criticized by fans and analysts alike. One too many poor decisions or unfortunate twists of fate and they're fired.

It's too much planning, too much decision-making, too much stress. I'm so glad I'm not in a general manager's shoes this week. It must be awful.