Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Slow News Summer

Well, the season is over, the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup, Ovie got a shit ton of awards at the "show" in Vegas, Tavares went #1, and a bunch of players had to file a change of address.

So now what do we turn to in the hockey world?

Scandal!

It works for everything else, so why not give it a try. No, it doesn't have the newsworthyness of a Pop Star's death due to an addiction to pain killers and plastic surgery. Or the heartbreak of an investment scheme that sends the culprit to 150 years of house arrest in his mansion while the people that paid for it are still left broke and hopeless. Or the hilarity of marijuana usage before holding office, only to get busted for the waste of a good cigar on female anatomy.

No this only has to do with Free Agents, both restricted and unrestricted. Ooh, the suspense.

The first whistle to blow was on Dale Tallon in Chicago, the man who landed Marian Hossa, for whatever that's worth. Mr. Tallon, the General Manager notorious for overpaying players (can't wait to see what the Toews and Kane deals look like) has misplayed his qualifying offers, (QO is the term for the supercool in the front offices). Apparently, players such as Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker, Ben Eager, and their respective agents, never received the QO's before the end of their Restricted Free Agency period. I don't even feel like getting into it, read this if you actually give a shit. From what I've read, this kind of clerical fuck-up happens all the time, but no one makes it public, so someone is probably trying to kick Tallon in the balls a bit. Aaron Johnson's agent, Allan Walsh, the man who brought Twitter to the NHL, was quick to kick the sand. Could this have possibly been the overflowing of emotion from the Hawks handling of Havlat?

And then these two notorious jackasses Tony and Larry call out Mattias Ohlund for his relatively quick, and complexity of structure in his deal with regards to money per year. Free agency tampering by the Tampa Bay organization?! Never! No doubt J.P. Barry, agent for all things indecisively Swedish, had his hands full with the pair and his other clients, but does anybody really care? I'm betting that this one actually turns out to be true, but what's going to happen? A slap on M.O.'s wrist, the stripping of a seventh round draft pick from a team that so desperately needs draft picks. C'mon get over it.

And now, out today on TSN.ca, the Leafs to be investigated for Ron Wilson's completely benign comments made on the radio on June 30th about Toronto going after the Sedins'. Read the quote, its fucking ridiculous.

"You're hearing right now, and this sounds very contradictory but, there's a real possibility, I would think, that we would be going after the Sedins. Let's just speculate there."
- Ron Wilson, on a Toronto radio station

Does that state anything about already signing the twins, or even talking to them before the deadline? To me, all that states is an intent of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization to actively pursue the Sedins' on July 1st. Bottom line, it didn't even get to that point, D & H re-signed before the bell rang.

I know it gets slow in the off-season, especially after Canada Day but do they really have to resort to this crap? And moreso, do we have to be subject to it?

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