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First off, I neglected to mention New Jersey's big trade acquisition Ilya Kovalchuk in my playoff predictions. That was dumb, obviously, but I'm not sure how much of a difference he'll make in that defense-first system. If Jersey wins it'll be because of Brodeur and their defense holding up and not so much because of guys like Parise or Kovalchuk. But I still should've brought him up, he did have 27 points in 27 games since the trade. I am, as always, an idiot.
The big news last night, of course, was the NHL Draft Lottery. The draft is clearly the Super Bowl of the NHL season, both in importance and in hype, especially when you consider the parallels between how both leagues figure out the teams then wait, like, forever before getting to the big day. It's just too bad we have to wait through all that meaningless spring hockey before we get there. Hockey in JUNE?!? Lordly-loo that makes my pacemaker smart. These kids today. Cold weather. Uphill both ways. Etc.
With the Oilers drafting first overall, like I wrote before, I think they either take Hall or trade down to take Seguin. I don't think they take Seguin first overall because there's more demand for Hall later, and they'd be smart to exploit their leverage. Boston also has some cap space, depending on how they re-sign Wheeler, Boychuck, etc. The dream for Edmonton would be to get both; they've got lots of wingers coming up in the system so one of Hemsky or Penner could be available (I might prefer Hemsky, Edmonton needs one big player) and one of their smaller prospects, some draft picks, whatever. It would take a huge offer to get that pick out of Boston of course, I'm not suggesting Hemsky and Cogliano gets that deal done, but you'd have to think the price would be a little lower trading that pick to Edmonton rather than to a division or conference rival. I just hope that if the pick is Seguin, and I've been seduced into thinking it should be because of his position, he doesn't bust. If he's only a good NHL player, that's fine. Hall looks sure-fire, it would kill this city if Edmonton passed on the better player and took the other sure-fire only to have it jam.
It reminds me of Moneyball, whichever chapter where Michael Lewis talks about Oakland's mandate of only drafting college players. In some case in the draft, you'd run into a case where the college player is good but a high-schooler might be GREAT. The A's, being the cash-strapped ugly step-child of MLB (one of many!), couldn't afford to take risks on pipe dreams and fairy dust and would therefore draft the college player because they'd played longer and there was a greater statistical sample size. Play it safe, don't waste picks going for the homerun. Now Hall and Seguin are pretty close, but are the Oilers interested in playing Moneyball? Hall's resume is pretty decorated and has played an extra season, whereas Seguin's is just starting. There's more evidence of Hall's future stardom, so by definition Seguin is the greater risk because he's the greater unknown. Plus, if Edmonton can't clear out some of their roster redundancies they might put Seguin back in junior, let him dominate another year, play in the World Juniors, and not waste a year of entry level contract. That's fine, the Oilers don't need either prospect to be any good next year, but if Seguin can't crack the roster and Hall scores 30 goals it puts a lot more pressure on Seguin the following year. Also, in spite of everyone in Edmonton saying they're willing to rebuild properly and be patient, the opposite is true. We want the 1980's to start NEXT YEAR DAMMIT, and God help Lowe and Tambellini if it doesn't. This is driving me crazy.
Sheldon Souray wants to be traded? Really? Huh, nobody knew that. Wow. Makes my pacemaker smart, getting shocks like that. I really think the only person who didn't know Sheldon Souray wants to be traded was Sheldon Souray. He proved that by getting into a stupid fight with Iginla right and getting hurt before the deadline when there were apparently teams willing to trade for him. There's two issues, totally separate, going on with his comments to Mark Spector: Should he have said anything and Was he right. The first one's easy. No, you should not make trade demands public and no you should not trash the organization before leaving it (for the second time). The timing was brutal too, right before the big draft announcment, totally coloring what should have been a happy, positive press conference. Was he right though? Dude, who knows. He was pretty specific in his criticisms though, and Tambellini's typically tepid, lukewarm, (Who's that sad dog? With the rain cloud or whatever? He's blue? If only there was some sort of Internet search thingy, with which one could use engines to find things about stuff) response didn't help the perception that Oiler management is aloof and displays the emotional range of cold to frigid. These are the kinds of things that make fans flip out. It's one thing to suck on the ice, you can turn that around. It's another thing to be a northern city that's cold and windy without much to do, you can't help that. You can sure as hell can help how you treat players though; no matter how much money they make they should be allowed to repair a surgically repaired shoulder without being harangued into playing. If that part was true, and if it's part of an ongoing behavioral pattern in Oiler management, then screw those guys and clean house. I'm the guy who wants the team to get better WITH Lowe and see his legacy in Edmonton recover, but if this is a sound description of the atmosphere surrounding the players (and, by extension, the real reason why free agents allegedly won't come to Edmonton), well screw that. If a change in management means an immediate improvement in the free agent quality we can attract then sorry guys, team first. I'm indifferent to Tambellini's legacy, if you were wondering why I left him out.
One last thought on the Draft Lottery coverage. Peter Chiarelli has to change his look. Just sayin...
Right? Okay, now compare him to that guy from Sex and the City whose name I certainly do not know:
And finally to Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies:
See? Even Gary Bettman can't tell the difference! "Hey you! Hey, in the eyes when you talk to me! Little lower... Okay! This guy? Let him in, he can eat whatever he wants on me! Why? TWO first round picks! Yeah, BOTH years!"
First off, I neglected to mention New Jersey's big trade acquisition Ilya Kovalchuk in my playoff predictions. That was dumb, obviously, but I'm not sure how much of a difference he'll make in that defense-first system. If Jersey wins it'll be because of Brodeur and their defense holding up and not so much because of guys like Parise or Kovalchuk. But I still should've brought him up, he did have 27 points in 27 games since the trade. I am, as always, an idiot.
The big news last night, of course, was the NHL Draft Lottery. The draft is clearly the Super Bowl of the NHL season, both in importance and in hype, especially when you consider the parallels between how both leagues figure out the teams then wait, like, forever before getting to the big day. It's just too bad we have to wait through all that meaningless spring hockey before we get there. Hockey in JUNE?!? Lordly-loo that makes my pacemaker smart. These kids today. Cold weather. Uphill both ways. Etc.
With the Oilers drafting first overall, like I wrote before, I think they either take Hall or trade down to take Seguin. I don't think they take Seguin first overall because there's more demand for Hall later, and they'd be smart to exploit their leverage. Boston also has some cap space, depending on how they re-sign Wheeler, Boychuck, etc. The dream for Edmonton would be to get both; they've got lots of wingers coming up in the system so one of Hemsky or Penner could be available (I might prefer Hemsky, Edmonton needs one big player) and one of their smaller prospects, some draft picks, whatever. It would take a huge offer to get that pick out of Boston of course, I'm not suggesting Hemsky and Cogliano gets that deal done, but you'd have to think the price would be a little lower trading that pick to Edmonton rather than to a division or conference rival. I just hope that if the pick is Seguin, and I've been seduced into thinking it should be because of his position, he doesn't bust. If he's only a good NHL player, that's fine. Hall looks sure-fire, it would kill this city if Edmonton passed on the better player and took the other sure-fire only to have it jam.
It reminds me of Moneyball, whichever chapter where Michael Lewis talks about Oakland's mandate of only drafting college players. In some case in the draft, you'd run into a case where the college player is good but a high-schooler might be GREAT. The A's, being the cash-strapped ugly step-child of MLB (one of many!), couldn't afford to take risks on pipe dreams and fairy dust and would therefore draft the college player because they'd played longer and there was a greater statistical sample size. Play it safe, don't waste picks going for the homerun. Now Hall and Seguin are pretty close, but are the Oilers interested in playing Moneyball? Hall's resume is pretty decorated and has played an extra season, whereas Seguin's is just starting. There's more evidence of Hall's future stardom, so by definition Seguin is the greater risk because he's the greater unknown. Plus, if Edmonton can't clear out some of their roster redundancies they might put Seguin back in junior, let him dominate another year, play in the World Juniors, and not waste a year of entry level contract. That's fine, the Oilers don't need either prospect to be any good next year, but if Seguin can't crack the roster and Hall scores 30 goals it puts a lot more pressure on Seguin the following year. Also, in spite of everyone in Edmonton saying they're willing to rebuild properly and be patient, the opposite is true. We want the 1980's to start NEXT YEAR DAMMIT, and God help Lowe and Tambellini if it doesn't. This is driving me crazy.
Sheldon Souray wants to be traded? Really? Huh, nobody knew that. Wow. Makes my pacemaker smart, getting shocks like that. I really think the only person who didn't know Sheldon Souray wants to be traded was Sheldon Souray. He proved that by getting into a stupid fight with Iginla right and getting hurt before the deadline when there were apparently teams willing to trade for him. There's two issues, totally separate, going on with his comments to Mark Spector: Should he have said anything and Was he right. The first one's easy. No, you should not make trade demands public and no you should not trash the organization before leaving it (for the second time). The timing was brutal too, right before the big draft announcment, totally coloring what should have been a happy, positive press conference. Was he right though? Dude, who knows. He was pretty specific in his criticisms though, and Tambellini's typically tepid, lukewarm, (Who's that sad dog? With the rain cloud or whatever? He's blue? If only there was some sort of Internet search thingy, with which one could use engines to find things about stuff) response didn't help the perception that Oiler management is aloof and displays the emotional range of cold to frigid. These are the kinds of things that make fans flip out. It's one thing to suck on the ice, you can turn that around. It's another thing to be a northern city that's cold and windy without much to do, you can't help that. You can sure as hell can help how you treat players though; no matter how much money they make they should be allowed to repair a surgically repaired shoulder without being harangued into playing. If that part was true, and if it's part of an ongoing behavioral pattern in Oiler management, then screw those guys and clean house. I'm the guy who wants the team to get better WITH Lowe and see his legacy in Edmonton recover, but if this is a sound description of the atmosphere surrounding the players (and, by extension, the real reason why free agents allegedly won't come to Edmonton), well screw that. If a change in management means an immediate improvement in the free agent quality we can attract then sorry guys, team first. I'm indifferent to Tambellini's legacy, if you were wondering why I left him out.
One last thought on the Draft Lottery coverage. Peter Chiarelli has to change his look. Just sayin...
Right? Okay, now compare him to that guy from Sex and the City whose name I certainly do not know:
And finally to Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies:
See? Even Gary Bettman can't tell the difference! "Hey you! Hey, in the eyes when you talk to me! Little lower... Okay! This guy? Let him in, he can eat whatever he wants on me! Why? TWO first round picks! Yeah, BOTH years!"
2 comments:
You're right! All bald men DO look the same!!
We can't have girls posting on our sports website!
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