Saturday, October 22, 2011

Why Marco Sturm?!


In my last post I praised Mike Gillis for his move of going on the radio and defending his team and goalie against a very poorly written editorial. However, I will now slam him for the Marco Sturm signing. A signing I am still trying to figure out, especially at $2.25 million and that through six games he is a minus five and that's his only stat. But that's not my biggest problem. My biggest problem is for that $2.25 million, Marco Sturm was your best choice?! I find that very hard to believe. Here are several Forwards I would much rather have:



-Raffi Torres - Just was a Canuck and part of the best third line in the league last year. Signed a two year $3.75 million contract with Phoenix. In the long run its another year and $1.50 million in total, but when you have a shut-down third line and a guy that can check, score, and fight, you keep him. This is still confusing to me. If Raffi wouldn't of stayed for equal money then he had a problem with teammates or management.

-Patrick Eaves - The Red Wings locked up Eaves for three years at $1.2 million per season. He has been a solid third liner and penalty killer the last three years, and been a 20+ point player the last two seasons. I would of much rather had Eaves, if for effort only, for more money and more years.

-Jamie Langenbrunner - He signed a one year deal with the Blues this past offseason for $2.7 million, which is a little bit more than Sturm, but he has three points in seven games. Granted he is a minus 3, but for a little more money I would much rather have a guy that can score, and spend some time on the PP and PK. For the return Langenbrunner would be better.

-Fabian Brunnstrom - This is more a Dark Horse candidate, but I believe the Canucks could of taken the approach the Red Wings did. A Swedish player with a lot of talent on a roster loaded with them. And at one year $600,000 it was well worth at least giving him a shot.

There are several more, but nothing special. I am not going off on Mike today, but I just find it hard to believe that Marco Sturm at $2.25 million for one year was, at any point, a good idea for this team. He hasn't proven in the last decade he is a good player at $1 million per season. You have a team that just went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and is in a phenomenal city with a great fan base. You should not have to overpay mediocre talent. 


Rumors Create...More Rumors



I was going to ignore all this "Trade Luongo" tripe that has been going around, but after the last 48 hours I kind of feel I have to acknowledge the biggest story in Canuck Nation right now. It seemed as if it was going to be the usual blogosphere/tweeter talk "Luongo to Washington for Ovechkin" garbage, but then this happened. Which in turn caused Mike Gillis to call into Team 1040 and defend himself, his team, and his goalie, and as much as I rip on the guy and dislike his some of his moves, I loved this, go after the idiots.

And this is just what this is, idiotic. Now I am not sitting here in my Luongo jersey (I have my Mogilny jersey on actually) with his poster on my wall. I place a lot of the blame if the Finals on him, but the past is the past and their is no use dwelling on something you cannot change. I hate the Luongo contract, or any contract like that, it handcuffs the team horribly, especially in today's NHL where goalies are not paid like Franchise players.

But writing about it, in an editorial nonetheless, is a joke and a cowardly move. Something like this belongs in the sports section written by a columnist for accountability. If you think that's ridiculous then read the editorial, its weak. I could write something better than that, and I am sure my 4 readers would agree (thanks again for reading Dad!). Its five paragraphs of crap, and lets not forget all it does is create more rumors. The newspaper is dying in today's world everything is done online, however, newspapers are still held in high regard. So that's why this tabloid crap is garbage and shows a lack of creativity and intelligence on behalf of The Province.

Things like this are detrimental to the team, and the player(s) in question, but I agree with BMac and Taylor that Gillis's move of calling in was a great way to get his side out there and squash any doubt in Luongo's head if his GM thinks he has what it takes. Luongo let in some weak goals when his team needed him most, and ran his mouth after Game 2 when he shouldn't of, but lets not forget all those games were not 4-3 and 3-2. The "leaders" of this team (i.e. The Sedin Sisters) completely fell apart and looked listless through the entire Finals. When the going got tough, they ran into their shell and gave up. Somehow Roberto is the problem though. This just wreaks of an upset, casual fan, who had a half-assed thought in his head. And after listening to Wayne Moriarity call in to "defend" himself, sounds like he has a grudge against Gillis, way to control your personal and professional feelings moron.