| 18 April 2009
Having sat through a miserable on-ice season her in Ottawa, there's something to be said about taking solace in watching playoff games without having any vested emotional interests. When I mentioned this during yesterday's Red Wings v. Blue Jackets game, my friend Lennie (a devout Leafs fan) said, "Yeah. I've gotten used to it."
Two hours later, while we were watching Montreal get shitcanned by the Bruins, he brought up a good point. From a strategic perspective, as fans of two Northeast teams, wouldn't be in our best interests if Montreal advanced one round?
Why? The reasoning is pretty straightforward.
With an abundance of players available for free agency (Lang, Kovalev, Koivu, Tanguay, Kostopoulos, Bouillon, Brisebois, Komisarek and Schneider), it'd be awesome to see the Habs blow cap flexibility by retaining their own aging players while ignoring the obvious younger upgrades that might (?) be open to coming to the City of Torched Cars.
Stevie Why?
In an effort to generate some discussion amongst his panelists, CBC's Ron MacLean summarized a situation that's developing in Detroit concerning Steve Yzerman's career aspirations. Apparently Yzerman's become disenchanted with how long it could take to make the assent to the GM position in Detroit. With Holland and Nill impeding his progress, Yzerman's experience has stagnated to selecting a glorified All-Star teams for international competition.
So, what better place for Yzerman to ply his trade than in his hometown of Ottawa? Personally, I love the idea of turfing Murray for an inexperienced Name who doesn't have any semblance for the team's prospects, players, or staff. Besides, everything Detroit shits out turns into Gold. Just ask Bruins fans who have only recently had their assholes heal from the raping that the Scotty Bowman prodigy, Dave Lewis, gave them.
This isn't Florida International University.
Panzeri Talks Offseason
Allen Panzeri from the Citizen has taken a look at this summer's free agent market and has concluded that unless something drastic happens to Ottawa's roster, they're likely to be priced out on the big-name free agents like Bouwmeester. Instead, he's followed the Brennan model of looking into acquiring some local talent like Kurtis Foster, Kent Huskins and Cory Murphy.
Translation: You'll have two reasons to drink on July 1st. One, it's Canada Day. Two, don't expect any big splashes on the first day of free agency.
That being said, Bryan Murray could get creative and address the secondary scoring issue or the lack of a top 4 D. One possible example could be trade negotiations with Nashville to acquire Alexander Radulov's rights. If you'll remember, Radulov was a developing offensive-stud who left Nashville for greener pastures. Earlier this season, he let it be known that he had intent to come back to North America, however, by walking away from his entry-level contract, he's burned some bridges with his teammates.
I've corresponded with Paul McCann, a broadcaster and Preds blogger over at Hockeybuzz and here's what he had to say regarding Radulov:
The Predators would welcome Rads back, but he would have some serious work to do in the locker room...
Re-structuring may be something the team would be willing to do, but only if an extension was possible and the deal was back loaded with plenty of incentives to stay.
I know the Preds have been offered a series of draft picks for his rights... all turned down. Don't know if there is a price for him right now... especially with the NHL so deeply involved.
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