“I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” is a feature that will be posted every Saturday here at the View From My Seats. There are plenty of things going on in the hockey world (and even the sports world); and you know everyone has an opinion. This is a place for some quick hits of the week that was.
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I might just be a hockey fan in California, but:
- We heard from the Phoenix Coyotes that Matthew Lombardi’s asking price was “off the charts.” After seeing him sign in Nashville for $3.5 million per season, I’m wondering exactly what “off the charts” means—because that’s a pretty damn good price for a 1A center.
- This time next week, we’ll probably still be waiting for Ilya Kovalchuk to sign with L.A. or New Jersey.
- If you ever have the opportunity to go to the NHL Draft, do it. Hanging with a bunch of hockey nerds in that kind of environment, the actual draft picks almost don’t matter.
- Obvious guy says: “Dale Tallon knows how to build a team from scratch.”
At least Angelica still wants me...
- If teams were able to roll for lines of DEFENSEMEN, the Canucks would be sitting pretty.
- You have to love the aggressiveness of GM Ray Shero in Pittsburgh. He knew that one of his team’s weaknesses was defense after Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill left via free agency. Mr. Michalek and Mr. Martin will quite adequately help fix that weakness.
- If you need money, here’s what you do: become an agent, acquire an older fighter, and call Glen Sather.
- Going into the NHL Draft, I really liked both Cam Fowler and Emerson Etem. Leaving the draft, things have changed. It got weird.
- So who was more desperate? Darryl Sutter for turning to Olli Jokinen as a free agent option or Olli Jokinen for actually accepting a contract with the Flames?
- If it weren’t for the KHL and higher salary options, I wonder if Evgeni Nabokov and Alexander Frolov would have already signed somewhere.
- Speaking of Frolov, I heard someone call him “Kovalchuk Lite” earlier this week. I won’t lie, I was embarrassed for Kovalchuk.
- It shows the kind of salary cap world we’re in when Sheldon Souray can hit waivers—and clear. At a $5.4 million cap hit, all 30 teams would rather pass than add the former all-star. Now if he clears his RE-entry waivers and only costs $2.7 million, watch how quickly he’s picked up.
- Something I learned on July 1st this year: A lot of Sabres fans HATE Darcy Regier’s tactics. Then again, he DID get Jordan Leopold to replace the combination of Tallinder and Lydman. Ummm… right.
- The St. Louis Blues must really have trust in that 11th place team they had last year. Were they really only a goaltender away from the playoffs? Are the playoffs their only goal?
- I like how the Philadelphia Flyers are handling Simon Gagne. “Hi, we don’t know where you may end up, but we’d like you to waive your no-trade clause for all 29 teams. Thanks for the years of service.”
- It’s interesting that Tomas Kaberle has gone from “very good NHL defenseman” to “back-up plan for teams that completely whiffed in free agency.”
- This time of year should serve as an important reminder: If Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Kevin Allen, or Pierre LeBrun isn’t reporting it—then it probably didn’t happen.
- I’m convinced that Jonathan Bernier will be involved in trade rumors for his entire tenure as a Los Angeles King. He very well could replace Alexander Frolov as the new default Kings player to throw into any trade proposal.
- I loved reading the comments after a Sun-Sentinel article that described the Nathan Horton trade. Just about everyone agreed that he didn’t give enough effort and they were done with him. Yet a lot of fans were upset that they didn’t get more than a top 4 defenseman and 1st round pick. Here’s a news flash: That’s a decent return for a guy that doesn’t give 100% effort and is an under-achiever.
- Gary Bettman is a pompous little person that needs to be fired for the good of the game.
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Click here for our archive of past editions of our “I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” feature.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
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