The question was so egregiously awful, so appallingly dense that one day later it was still the talk of the media around the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It came in the emotional press conference for Jason Blake, who announced on Monday he has chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a rare form of cancer. Blake has the good fortune, if you can call it that, that it was caught in the chronic, or earliest stage, and can be treated with a drug called Gleevec and he is not expected to miss even one game for the Maple Leafs.
But he had the misfortune of having Damien Goddard of Sportsnet attend his press conference.
Goddard asked Blake if cancer put his “mini-slump” into perspective. Blake, who scored 40 goals for the New York Islanders last season, had yet to score in three games for the Leafs.
As jaws in the Leafs’ media centre dropped, Blake looked incredulous.
“Mini-slump?” Blake said. “Is that what you guys call it here?”
Then he paused. “I wouldn’t call it a slump,” Blake said finally. “Three games? Come on. That’s the least of my worries.”
Sorry. Words fail me here.
