On Hockey

On Marion Hossa:

Okay, yesterday I watched my local news and got the answer to a question I posed in my last post. The question, "Can we now dispense with the myth of the usefulness of Marianne "The Passenger" Hossa? Short answer, no.

Seems the chatter is about whether the Wings can afford to ink him to a long term deal. If not, who's going to pony up 7 - 8 mil per season for however long. Hmm, let's recap.

Ottawa; scored a bunch of regular season goals, carved Bryan Berard's eye out of his face, disappeared in the playoffs. "The Scalpel" gets traded to Atlanta.

Atlanta; scored a bunch of regular season goals, disappeared in their one (IIRC) playoff appearance. Quick get him to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh: made no impression on me whatsoever. But, to be fair, that may simply be because he was on a team with Crosby, Malkin and Staal. A lightweight like Hossa is simply going to vanish against that sort of competition. Anyway, did he do anything in that playoff year? Other than lose the final and jump ship to Detroit, where the talent is so deep they could afford to drag "Deadweight" Hossa to the cup.

Last season, signed in Detroit as a free agent. Undistinguished regular season, although, again, to be fair, there is so much real talent on that team that he might have had a decent showing and just faded into the shadows. Much like he did in the playoffs. Scored in one game of each of the first three series.

Look, you just can't give a guy 10 - 15% of your salary cap if he's going to disappear when it counts. Unless it is your intent just to get to the playoffs, not caring if you win anything, for the extra revenue.

On Mike Babcock:

Okay, Babcock has been named to be Canada's coach at the Olympics. Cool, you've got a proven winner with a ton of experience behind the bench. I just got one, tiny little dissent to voice...wouldn't it have been better to have a proven winner with a ton of experience coaching Canadian players behind the bench. I mean, he'd be a fine choice for Team Sweden, but Canada?

Oh well, we'll see, and I'll be making a post about the results, eating crow if we win, and snarking some more if we lose.

We? What the hell am I saying, "we." I was never good enough to get out of house league. If Canada wins, it ain't because of anything I did. So, to rephrase, oh well, we'll see, and I'll be making a post about the results, eating crow if Canada wins, and snarking some more if Canada loses.