ok basically. matthew is better than you because he is aware he is better than you and behaves accordingly. i think he is genuine about being nice and thoughtful to staff and workers etc and this is sincerely one of the values that he was raised with, but at the same time he knows his own position and knows that it Means Something to people when he approves of them. so by giving his approval even though it is genuine it simultaneously reinforces his own magnanimity and thus his persona. and when he is out of his element he tries to maintain said persona but it’s very clear he gets nervous. the most interesting part to me is his interactions with other nhl players, the first arm being with the panthers where there is obviously affection but due to his status/personality there is a proportional entitlement to mess with them in an almost familial way. i think this is apparent as early as the budlight one-timers vid with benny (<333) but obviously he grew into it with more experience and success - the delight he takes in pranking the team, his media tour which is in many ways separate from the team, things like the chuckles/giggles dynamic and matthew/reino chiclets appearance where you can tell the other guy takes their cues from him. even when regina george likes her friends she can’t help being regina george… the second part being when there isn't the long-term team bond he can be so mean it kills me. was most apparent in the 4 nations jt miller group chat situation which was so fucking funny and evil i think about it all the time.
on the other hand sasha is better than you because he is literally just better than you and this is so self-evident he doesn’t have to do anything to prove it. and he would never do anything to prove it, unless he is drunk or you are anton lundell. and even matthew has to acknowledge this fact but at the same time he doesn’t resent it because sasha purposely carved out space for him and allowed him to code into the dna of the team to an extent he wasn't permitted in calgary. and matthew especially early on was clearly amazed by this and how well he and sasha understood each other, and as a result will be genuinely deferential to him not out of perceived status difference but because he actually wants to do it. CASE IN POINT the . the helsinki old market hall date videos that torment me everywhere i go.
ALSO: the national teams are destabilizing to this dynamic because on the us team matthew has established a reputation that extends beyond the panthers, and sasha is not part of it. AND YET! matthew turning away from an opportunity to scrum with sasha despite saying he was going to run panthers playing for other countries + spotted chatting with sasha after the game despite saying he was going to ignore other panthers during the tournament. and the matthew + am34 as captain dynamic being so laughably different from the matthew + sasha as captain dynamic that it was reinforcing of 1619 exceptionalism. the foundations are solid <3
ALSO: marchy is interesting because in many ways he plays matthew’s game and has done so for longer so matthew “has” to defer to him i.e. faceoff s2e6 where he waits for marchy to say that he never apologizes for chirping someone before agreeing, which i thought was unusual for him (and he was not fully comfortable doing it But he was very enjoyably prickly that entire episode so). rly good contrast between that + matthew’s general accommodating nature toward marchy despite his reputation eclipsing parts of matthew’s - and then marchy saying the chirp matthew lobbed at him when he was a bruin is one of the only ones that’s goten to him. the team is at the center of everything matthew does and directs his approach to other people… and sasha IS the team but he is also More and Special.
