With Tampa Bay’s hiring of Steve Yzerman to take over as their new GM, a small hornet’s nest was kicked in Columbus by Dispatch beat writer Aaron Portzline, who twittered “#CBJ beware: Steve Yzerman and #CBJ coaching candidate Kevin Dineen are tight. GM Scott Howson could lose a candidate by taking so long.”
Not long after, Portzline then put up an expanded version of the same thought at the Dispatch’s Puck Rakers blog, promising that it was all too likely that Howson’s perceived caution might cost the team their best candidate, and more than a few Jacket fans began to wonder over Twitter, facebook, and other sources if Yzerman’s hiring might force Howson’s hand. (I’ll even give myself a slap on the wrist and admit I was one of them – not so much that I expected the team to ‘lose’ Dineen, but wondering if it might give Howson pause about waiting for Boucher to be available.)
After being appropriately slapped upside the head by Ten Minute Misconduct‘s Jeff Little over a Twitter conversation, it seems that Jeff and the Dark Blue Jacket team have both decided to take a stab at proving to the fans’ collective Chicken Little that the sky is, indeed, not falling.
TMM‘s article does a great job of laying out six quick bullet points on why a hiring in Tampa does little, if anything, to change the decision making in Columbus. Meanwhile, DBJ calls out the Dispatch for the fairly blatant electioneering and reinforces that the process is just that – a process – and should be allowed to proceed at its’ own pace. (Plus, he manages to find more pictures of Susan Powter than I’ve seen anywhere outside of “Oh-my-god-it’s-late” infomericals.)
The sky is not falling, and shame on anyone who is saying otherwise.