mack got a lot of shit from his teammates when he came to bu / & his captain, i think they had a physical altercation?? or it was a very strong verbal one.. either way awful dynamics going on afterwards they “patched” it up but
See I knew this story was out there and I do absolutely believe it but I searched high and low for any reporting on this (by which I mean like. a twitter or reddit post) in order to include it in my post but I just couldn't find it. Even if I combine search for their names I get to quotes like this one:
BU captain and graduate defenseman Case McCarthy sits next to Celebrini in the locker room and has gotten to know him better despite their five-year age difference.
“I don’t know if it’s me getting old or him being young, but that kid works,” McCarthy said. “He’s going to live up and exceed every single expectation he has … it just seems like pressure doesn’t phase him when he’s on the ice.” (x)
Now that example is from October of that season, so maybe the fight you describe hadn't happened yet (or maybe McCarthy is just smart and/or media trained enough to know that he can't badmouth the 1oa projected new star of his team in the media). Either way I just genuinely couldn't find anything on this through googling which is why I didn't include it in my post. If you do have anything I could link to, let me know.
Regardless of me not finding sources, I do believe this rumor is likely to be true! I included a shorter version of the following quote from this article in my post:
“It’s the understanding that all you see in production on TV, it’s not real,” Rick said. “What’s real is behind-the-scenes work. These guys are just guys. They happen to be really good at something, and they are because of all the work they put in. It peels back the layers and shows what it’s about.
“(Macklin) always wants to be first in line, lead every drill. It’s in his DNA.”
The Terriers found that out on the opening day of camp. Part of the initial workout and testing is a three-mile ride on an assault bike. Usually, it’s the tallest, heaviest players who finish first. Macklin clocked in at 6:40, five seconds off the top time.
“He pissed a lot of guys off, but it was because of how competitive he is,” Pandolfo said. “He doesn’t give anyone an inch, and he’s like that every day. And for a 17-year-old to push a group of older players like that, it’s pretty impressive.
‘That’s why he is who he is.”
Celebrini pushes even in cards, introducing the teammates he shares a three-room, six-person dorm with to a poker-style game he learned at world juniors. He plays bubble hockey like it’s a Game 7. His hockey IQ translates to other competition, too, approaching games like they’re chess.
“He’s one, two, maybe 20 steps ahead of his opponent,” Boston University associate head strength and conditioning coach Ken Whittier. “A pretty sharp kid.”
Earlier in the season, Pereira was going over video for the penalty kill. He was having fun, showing clips of the Terriers PK doing well in practice against Celebrini.
“This kid is a good player and we shut him down,” Pereira told the team.
“He looked at me and started steaming — didn’t talk to me for a week,” Pereira said, laughing. “I didn’t go after him again on video. I learned my lesson.”
I think what we can glean from this quote if we read between the lines is the following:
Mack definitely made waves coming into that team being only 17 and yet seemingly working harder and just generally being better than all the other guys there. His coach literally says that that pissed some guys off.
Mack doesn't want to be criticized about his play while going over video with the team - he struggled with what he perceives as criticism of his play in front of his team mates. I think it's interesting that instead of telling the 17 year old to suck it up and learn to take some criticism, the coach instead "learned his lesson" and presumably didn't criticize Mack's play on video anymore.
If you take those two things together it frankly doesn't surprise me that there was some tension in that locker room between Mack and the older guys.
In that same article there's another quote by his captain, by the way, but again, it's all positive:
“It’s a lot for a 17-year-old,” said Case McCarthy, a fifth-year senior. “Guys at his age are gearing up for under-18 worlds, maybe looking for a prom date. That’s what my senior year of high school was. The maturity away from the rink and the way he handles it is unreal.
“They say, ‘He’s a freshman.’ Yeah, he’s a freshman, but he’s 17. Playing college hockey at 17 is hard enough. What he’s doing is ridiculous.’”
Now since this is an article from April, maybe they had made up by then (or again, this guy just knows what he can say in an interview).
I don't really see why you put "patched up" in quotation marks there. Do you have any sources saying that they remain(ed) on bad terms? Personally I could see them moving past this and there are pictures of them together later in the season that seem amicable enough (e.g. x).
I also am a bit weary of equating interpersonal problems between players with a bad locker room culture or the presence of hazing (to be clear idk if that's what you're saying, anon, your ask just sparked this thought for me in a general sense). The fact that one of the players involved here is the other's captain of course makes for a difficult dynamic, but just because some guys don't see eye-to-eye doesn't mean there's a toxic (or even just bad) culture in the team as a whole. I think what says a lot more about culture is how fights (especially if it was physical) are handled - how does the coaching staff approach this? How does interpersonal conflict generally get resolved by the people in and surrounding the team? I think it's impossible to have a competitive team where everyone is friends all the time, so whether there's a healthy locker room culture or not really depends on how conflict is approached.
Thank you for the ask (and for giving me the chance to elaborate on this a bit cause it didn't fit in the original post)! I'm going to include a link to this ask in my original post too.
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