A Child's Laughter!

Last week, on a lark, I wrote an email question to Hall of Fame sportswriter Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal as part of his weekly Q and A thingy. I still get unduly excited by the hockey celebrity culture in Edmonton, surely as a result of moving away when I was thirteen. I guess my fandom is frozen at that age. Even at twenty-six, an autograph from 18-year-old Sam Gagner would make me unreasonably excited. I still carry that sense of a large, impenetrable barrier between fans and players/media, even though the reality is that you can run into an Oiler pretty easily in this town. I can't, but others seem to. Anyways, it was with great excitement that today's Journal saw my question published and answered by the great Mr. Matheson. A pretty bland question on my part, but I wanted to get published so I tried to sound like the 13 year-old I still act like. Mine's the last question.

Not one of my deeper NHL thoughts, but his answer is pretty long. He mentions that Wade Belak, Todd Fedoruk and Darcy Hordichuk might be players the Oilers look at for some, you guessed it, MUCH NEEDED GRIT! No, he doesn't actually say that but "toughness," "character" and "nuclear deterrent" are the same thing. Phrases like "nuclear deterrent" are why Jim Matheson is a Hall of Fame writer.

I also flipped to Sportsnet.ca this morning and looked under the "The Wire" section when what did I see? A link titled "Belak could be on Oilers' wish list" and linking to the Matheson article. I can now truly say that I've gone beyond my own blog to contribute to the superfluous self-referencing nature of the internet. So, when the NHL's free agency period starts on July 1 and the big news is Wade Belak's signing with the Oilers, you'll know which no-longer anonymous fan broke the story. Or rather, which no-longer anonymous fan wrote a bland, simplistic, childlike email to his local newspaper which PROMPTED Hall of Fame sportswriter Jim Matheson to break the story on his own.

My own thoughts are that the Oilers toughness issues this year, completely forgotten now and seemingly conquered earlier this year just before Moreau got hurt, were largely a result of who's missing. Torres and Souray represent a lot of missing hits and cycle-breaking and Horcoff, while not in that category, contributes more of a sacrificial toughness: blocking shots, taking hits to make plays, comes out of the corner with the puck. Moreau's presence seemingly made everyone tougher since this team got a lot harder to play against when he came back, though that took time to grow. As a result, Kevin Lowe, I'm guessing, is more likely not to add any "nuclear deterrents" this summer. If he does then somebody, maybe Torres as part of a package, will be gone to clear roster and cap space. I'd love to see Georges Laraque come back, and if not him then another heavyweight because in this division "nuclear deterrents" should be taken literally: Minnesota has THREE heavyweights in their lineup, Calgary and Vancouver have pushed Edmonton around this year, and Colorado has, um, Ian Laperriere. Unless Lowe makes a splash and gets Hossa (unlikely), Naslund (foolish, too old) or pries Sakic or Sundin out of their cushy captaincies, the team you see now is the one going forward. Given the last few weeks, that's a pretty good thing.