A little while ago, I reported on what the rest of the league is doing and how they will fare in the upcoming season.
This is a continuation of what I see as I ‘ cruise the neighborhood’ peering in other people’s garbage cans and windows.
The Broad Street Buoys
The ghosts of Shero past made just as an unlikely run in the play-offs as Montreal did, proving once and for all – the regular season is to the play-offs what morality is to Lady Gaga.
Goodbye Simon Gagne. Hello Nik Zherdev.
Goodbye consistency. Hello to another Russian who is so happy to be able to buy McDonalds on a regular basis that hockey becomes an afterthought.
Gagne was hurt often in his career with Philly yet when he was healthy…there wasn’t a player in the league who examplfied heart and grit night after night. Gagne was a Flyer as much as Bobby Clarke was a Flyer and his absence in the room and on the ice might mean the difference between a play – off birth or a ticket to finish ahead of Tiger Woods in the spring’s first PGA event. The Flyers also signed goalie Micheal (where am I now ?) Leighton to a two year deal giving Leighton something that his sparring partner in the finals(Niemmi) doesn’t have… a home. Leighton should show everyone why he has the word ‘journeyman’ tattooed on his back. The ‘Clarkeless’ Flyers also signed Andrej Meszároš (who?) to a three year deal – a deal that pays him 5.5 million in his final year. Somewhere , Bill Barber is cringing and Reggie Leach is lacing up his skates. Philadelphia will finish eight in the conference as they learn a valuable lesson – they go as far as their goalkeeping goes. Yoohoo… Ray Emery…where are you…?
Les Capitales de Washington aka That City that Stole our Expos…
The most important off – season moves for the Caps were the ones that Alex Ovechkin put on Valeria Sokolova.
Um….where were we….? Oh ya…same team as last year with…um…sorry lost my train of thought….same team as last year with no goaltending. Result ? First in….um…in kiss…I mean..the divison.
The Buffalo Soldiers
Bob Marley‘s city gave coach Lindy Ruff a reason to get out of bed last season. Was it free wings? No. Was it free wings? No. Was it…okay there is nothing exciting enough in Buffalo to get Mr. Ruff out of bed so I assume that Lindy arose for the most part because of Ryan Miller‘s play.
Miller – let’s face it, carried the Sabres along with the USA Olympic team on his back last season and a strong back it is !The Vezina trophy winner played in 76 games for the Sabres during the regular season… along with the condensed Olympic experience and a trip to the Gold Medal game – surprisingly Miller did not appear all that tired during the Sabres first round exodus to the Bruins. Miller is the least of Buffalo’s problems.
The Sabres drafted the 13th pick overall this year and probably wished they hadn’t.
Zack Kassian was arrested for assault after an incident in a Windsor bar. Kassian was also suspended last year for twenty games after giving an open ice head shot to Matt Kennedy, a player for the Barrie Colts. General manager of the Sabres – Darcy Rieger, has stopped contract negotiations with the 19 year old former Spitfire.“We’re going to continue to work with him,” Regier continued. “I told him that on one hand there’s no way we’re going to abandon him, we’re going to help him, but he’s got some work to do on the other hand.”
Buffalo used their ‘other hand’ to ink their most important signing, that of Rob Niedemeyer – a seventeen year veteran that will add experience and leadership to a somewhat young bunch of skaters. Niedemeyer joins newcomers Jordan Leopold on defence and Tim Conboy up front.The trio will add maturity to the team and Leopold will help on defence after the Sabres lost two key blueliners in Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydmann. Sabres will finish seventh in division.
That’s all fro now – a woman didn’t appreciate me looking through her window and apparently called the cops…
French Version next page…