Why did Habs break the bank for Gomez?
Published Thursday July 2nd, 2009
Back from a week's vacation and, in answer to John Fogerty's query 'Have you ever seen the rain?', well, yes, I certainly did.
Hopefully, the rain lets up/holds off long enough this weekend for the Fredericton Twins to show their senior fastpitch product to local fans.
Six games are scheduled at Prospect Street Park's lower field involving Fredericton, Charlottetown and Glace Bay.
Speedway 660 could use some sunshine, too, after having the last two weekends wiped out by the wet stuff.
Saturday's card is FanFest, meaning everyone gets in for free. The owners could surely use some revenue after losing two gates in a row, so good for them to honour the scheduled promotion.
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Even with Henrik and Daniel Sedin staying put in Vancouver, and Scott Niedermayer doing likewise in Anaheim, it was still a fairly eventful couple of days in the NHL, wouldn't you say?
The biggest deal, in terms of dollars, is the Chicago Blackhawks signing Marian Hossa to $62.8 million over 12 years - he'll be 42 when the contract expires.
Hossa is an upgrade over a soon-to-be-ex-Hawk with the same initials, Martin Havlat, but Chicago will need a shoehorn or a shady accountant to get everyone under the salary cap once Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane's are up for new contracts after next season.
Hossa should be enough to push the on-the-rise Blackhawks into the Stanley Cup final next season, but he's saddled with the 'second place is the first loser' label until he can actually 'win' the Cup.
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Judging by the message boards, it appears fans of the New York Rangers feel like winners while Montreal Canadiens fans' feel like losers after Wednesday's deal, with Scott Gomez and Chris Higgins being the top names.
Subtract Gomez, add Gaborik. Good tradeoff.
The Habs better hope 39-goalscorer Mike Cammalleri, who's better at left wing than at centre, finishes a lot of Gomez's pretty passes. Cammalleri, at $30 million over five years, came with quite a price tag, too.
Burner on hobbyinsider.net: "Gomez, Plekanec, Lapierre, Metropolit. I didn't think it was physically possible to get smaller at centre but old man McWrinkley face (Bob Gainey) shows us anything is possible, even after five years of seemingly doing nothing."
Adds Leafschik1967: "I think the Rangers fleeced the Habs. Higgins is Gomez-lite for $4 million less per season, and McDonagh is a great prospect, probably one of the best young d-men not already in the NHL."
Says Rocket47 on cbssports: "Gomez gets 8 mill a year for having two absolutely terrible years in a row scoring only 16 goals in each of them. Ruslan Fedotenko scored 16 goals for the Penguins last season as well and he makes around 2 mill."
Quebecdom replies: "For all the negative naysayers against the Habs' trade, what do you think you picked up with Higgins? A barely minimum 20-goal scorer, with hands of clay and slower than the Zamboni! Last year he played ALL SEASON with the top 2 lines and on the power play and all he could show is 12 goals??"
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The Canadiens are blessed with speedy forwards - Gomez among them - so all of snowshoe-skating Hal Gill's passes will have to be stretch passes, won't they? Gill has been called Herman Munster on skates, after all.
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Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was hoping to make a big splash by signing the Sedins, but he had to settle for a ripple. He signed an Orr. Too bad it's Colton and not Bobby back when he wore a brush cut. The Leafs do need toughness, though, and Colton fought 18 times last season.
Burke beefed up the blueline by adding Mike Komisarek, who led the Canadiens in both hits (191) and blocked shots (207). Of course, he was on the receiving end of plenty of hits from Boston Bruins' fan favourite Milan Lucic, but I digress.
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New Philadelphia Flyers addition Chris Pronger, who's rougher than a pine-cone toilet seat, was built to be a Broad Street Bully. When San Jose Sharks GM Dean Lombardi picked up frequently suspended Bryan Marchment from Tampa Bay years ago, he justified it this way: "I'd rather tame a tiger than paint stripes on a kitty cat."
Pronger doesn't know name plates, just sweater colours.
Still, one ornery blueliner doesn't make the Flyers the best NHL team in Pennsylvania. That distinction belongs to the Pittsburgh Penguins until proven otherwise. But it sure won't be a lot of fun for opposing forwards to deal with the menacing Pronger and high-strung goalie Ray Emery in the blue paint.
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Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, notes a Tasmanian soccer player has been suspended for the rest of the season after indecently exposing himself on television. When asked why he did it, the player said, "The devil made me do it.''
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White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone, after Cubs catcher Geovany Soto hit a three-run homer after news broke that Soto had tested positive for marijuana at the World Baseball Classic: "He smoked it."
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Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post, after a 47-year-old Milwaukee-area man was arrested for DUI - while trying to make the 40-mile trek home on a golf cart: "That's what happens when you have a driver in the bag."
Bruce Hallihan can be reached at 458-6442 or hallihan.bruce@dailygleaner.com. His column appears each Thursday.
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