You get out of bed. You pour yourself some coffee. You try to remember if you have any eggs left. You manage to get the skillet onto the stove without setting yourself or anything else on fire. It’s an achievement.
On Sunday mornings, you look into the abyss, and the abyss suggests that perhaps you should have knocked off after the second round of drinks, huh?
Speaking of regrettable decisions, the Blue Jackets will part ways with the “veterans” picked up for last season to help the leadership in the room, Chris Clark, Craig Rivet, and Ethan Moreau. Pro Hockey Talk also has their reaction, but I’m going to take a moment to weigh in.
First, I want to say thank you to Chris, Craig, and Ethan. It’s never easy to have to jump to a new city after a trade or a waiver deal, but that’s what each of them did, from between a season and a season and a half. They came in, and though it didn’t always work out on the ice, all three of them put themselves out there in practice, off the ice, and whenever they were asked to reach out in the community. I think they did a lot to teach the guys in the room about a level of personal accountability, and how to keep a positive attitude and work ethic even in a less than ideal situation. I’m glad that each of them managed to hit a career milestone or two in Columbus, even if it was just in games played – I hope it gives them some pleasant memories of the city and their time here, and I wish them well.
Second, I think this is overall a positive thing. Not just for the cap space it frees up (not a bad thing, and not really the player’s fault – Howson was just paying off the rest of someone else’s contract decisions…), but because it’s a sign that guys like Rick Nash, R.J. Umberger, and Antoine Vermette are stepping up to truly make this “their team” and their room. They don’t need to rely on guys with more years and more experience to come in and tell the room what needs to be done – they can see it for themselves and take steps.
It’s part of the maturation process, and a healthy step forward.
On to the rest of the news.
Remember how we talked about Andrew Ladd taking a trip up to Manitoba to visit the new owners of the Winnipeg ______? It turns out that he called them to arrange the visit, not the other way round. A positive sign for _______ fans hoping to keep their captain in the fold.
It looks like negotiations between Zach Parise and the Devils aren’t going so well. Depending on how the arbitration goes, you wonder if Howson will keep his ear to the ground.
Talented but somewhat injury prone prospect Brett Connolly has agreed to an entry level deal with Lightning.
A nice look at the Jackets’ offseason (and more talk about Jeff Carter) from Martini Hockey.
Roberto Luongo ran his mouth a little after game 5. The Bruins responded yesterday, and Bobby Lou just kept talking. You have to wonder if Alain Vigneault might want to consider just duct taping his franchise netminder’s piehole until after the hardware is handed out.
Speaking of which, Puck Daddy is thinking that Tim Thomas will be walking away with the Conn Smythe, win or lose.
And here’s how Game 5 looked through twitter, if you couldn’t watch the game.
Did you like the Heritage Classic last year? Too bad. (Actually, doing it every other year isn’t a bad idea, especially if they’re going to focus on just having Canadian teams playing in it – otherwise you’d be repeating by 2014…)
Aaron Portzline is wondering if the changes to the scouting department will help the Jackets’ drafting, and there’s a rather epic picture of Nikolay Zherdev being forcibly stuffed into a hat.
(Take it with the usual grain of salt, though – they blast the team for picking Nikita Filatov, for example, despite the fact that Filatov was universally ranked as a top 5 prospect in the 2008 draft. Oh, and we’re all bad fans for not continuing the love affair between the team and the city. Which is funny, because I’d say the fact that we have over 15,000 people paying up hard cash money for tickets every game after 10 years of constant post-season frustration says a lot more about a love affair than selling out a brand new team for a year. But what do I know? I’m just a blogger, not a trained journalist. Your strange world of talking boxes and thinly veiled snipes at the front office when they don’t do what you predict is cold and terrifying to me. I’m a blogger. That’s the way I think.)
Finally, the Winnipeg ___________ are making a very classy move, and will continue to honor the legacy of Dan Snyder.