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Melanie Fitzpatrick
Julie Henderson



I love how Leafs fans gloss over the wingers he had - calling them "finished" by the time they got to Toronto, yet at the time they got picked up, Mogilny and Roberts were considered high-end wingers and big time players. Cripes, I remember hearing Leafs fans call for Sundin to be traded so Roberts could be captain. Now he's considered to have been garbage during his time there. Oh how memories change with convenience.
He also never won anything in the NHL. No individual awards, no Championships, and, well, he tended to miss alot of his team's playoff games (when games are played for free - coincidence?), so he doesn't have phenomenal playoff totals by any means. And its not like the Leafs didn't make a run with him in the lineup - they made it to the Conference Finals multiple times with him in the lineup, last I checked, but that fell off after leadership reins were put in his hands. Sure he was basically a point a game player, but so was Bernie Nicholls, does that make HIM a Hall of Famer? No. Mind you, I bet it would had he been a Leaf, right?
All Star games mean nothing, its All Star Teams that matter, and he was never a First OR Second Team All Star.
That Mark Messier award he received? You mean that year he refused to waive his no-trade clause and all Leaf fans were up in arms and calling him garbage? It was a bull-shyte awarding that should and could have gone to many other more deserving people but was given to Sundin because he was a Leaf. As a leader, noone ever put him in a class with Yzerman or Messier, but let's get serious, he wasn't even a Rod Brind'amour or a Scott Neidermayer, yet still got the nod. Garbage.
Guys who's numbers DROP in the playoffs don't tend to get looked on favourably as leaders OR Hall of Famers, and you pulled that stat, not me.
I could keep trashing him all day, but I just don't have the time. I'm not saying he'll never get in, I'm just saying he should only be considered a fringe HOFer - certainly NOT a first ballot. If anything, it should be posthumously, like Dicky Duff...
But does the league really think he'll be on their side in the next round of negotiations? Sure, he took it upon himself to get that Competition Committee going and everything, but that was for the good of hockey, not to help the NHL. Its seems (at least to me) that he would be too recently removed from the union to truly expect him to battle against them, no?
Make him the new Ombudsman, NHLPA!
It seems clear to everyone that the Coyotes can't get by in Phoenix without this lease being re-negotiated (we won't get into the lack of fans for now). This would result, soon enough, in the team moving to another city (we won't get into where for now either).
So, if Glendale re-negotiates, they can keep collecting SOME of the money they have been getting, but if they don't, the team moves and they don't get to collect ANY rent anymore.
Isn't SOME better than NONE?
There HAS to be a time coming up where Bettman has to be honest about teams' financial standing, right?
I was trying to think of a solid quote to respond, but can't come up with any that don't have the slurs, haha
I think Komisarek will likely be wearing it next year, if he can figure out a way to stay out of the penalty box other than not playing. He's got the toughness, he's signed long term, is fairly well spoken and is used to being in a media fishbowl from his time in Montreal.
I don't much care for his Favre-ian yearly anguish on if he wants to retire, but you can't deny his ablility. If you could get him to agree to a sign and trade for a 2-3 year term, and you are a serious competitor for the Cup, why wouldn't you? A team like San Jose could use him next year after failing to win again this year and Rob Blake's retirement. The Devs could defintely use him. I'd pay Neidermayer that money ahead of what Gonchar may draw if I'm the Pens. Geez, if the Wings could convince the Ducks to take Rafalski as part of the package they would be frightening, haha. You get the drift.
Besides, he can always play the "Bettman owes me" card for that whole fiasco in Nashville when he was convinced to seel the Preds for less than Balsillie was offering...
I also agree that these should be held in football stadiums not baseball fields.
Someone said it should be played in the New Yankee Stadium. I disagree, based on spite, more than anything. The league tried to hold it in the old Yankee Stadium last year until it was decided that an NHL game wasn't good enough to be the last event held in that park. Now they've built a billion dollar barn, and its well known that they are doing everything they can in terms of event bookings, to try to re-coup some of that money - they've even gone so far as to have invented a new College Football Bowl Game (called the Yankee Bowl) to be played there year after year between two middling teams. Why do them a favour and give them this kind of event? If hockey wasn't good enough for the old Yankee Stadium when they DIDN'T need money, what makes it good enough now? Let 'em choke on their expenses and spend some time lobbying first.
I think Avery is mostly uncontrollable though. It seems like there is no grey area to him. If you let him do his thing, he'll go too far. There is no governor on him. Give him a rope he wants to be a cowboy, to use an old term (from Eddie Murphy Delirious, without the N bombs of course, haha classic). Anyway, maybe Torts has figured it out and won't give him the rope...
The Kings owners are one of Gary's biggest supporters. And I guess I just sorta blocked out the Habs and Oilers ownerships. Vancouver is on their 3rd owners under Bettman's stewardship though, if I remember right, so while the current ownership may be quality (ask Hank, haha), Bettman had 3 tries at getting right. Mario was a unique situation, and if anyone OWNS Bettman (as opposed to the other way around) its Lemieux - just look at all the breaks his team gets! St. Louis looks better with every season, so they have got to be some good people, but losing the Waltons (Wal-Mart family) as owners was a big loss in my opinion. The Avs owners are as good as any out there, nothing to say bad against them, even as a Wings fan, haha. When did Jersey switch owners?
Either way, your initial point was one of those "Things That Make You Go Hmm."