With the fire sale/down-to-the-foundations implosion and rebuild of the Maple Leafs underway, we've seen a few rumours involving a possible trade with the Canadiens. Now I believe these are mostly created by bloggers attempting to generate hits by including two teams with lots of followers.
About Nazem Kadri being a desirable option for the Canadiens, I respectfully, strongly disagree. He may be an idiot-savant, able to do wizardly things with the puck but completely inept at others.
Like being a decent teammate and human being.
Offhand, there’s the way he’d throw his weight around and act like a tough guy when he had that revolving cast of goons on his side, but now barely checks his opponents, careful not to rile them.
There’s his quote that he’s pretty much as talented as John Tavares.
There’s his acrimonious contract squabble with the Leafs, performed in public with the media, including a mention of how offended he was at one offer (compare to P.K. both times he’s had to negotiate a deal), and a Twitter battle with Bob McKenzie.
There’s his quote that his teammates had to hold him back on the bench when John Scott was going after Phil Kessel.
I’m probably forgetting a couple of other specific reasons why I detest him.
So no thanks. He and Phil and Dion can continue starring with the Dave Clark(son) Five, that’s quite the nice little group they’re cheering for out there in T.O. Let’s not help them out by taking a headcase off their hands.
That video Sportsnet showed of Phil Kessel getting off the team bus before the game shocked me. I went over it a couple of times on PVR. He’s not just chubby, or skinny fat, or out of condition, or doesn’t pass Paul Maurice’s ‘Shirt off test’. He’s obese. He has a huge roll over his belt, and his face is exploding more than Barry Bonds’ in his last few seasons in ‘Frisco.
I do believe that the Canadiens dressing room has leadership, and that the coaching staff and front office work hand in hand, there’s no vacuum there. But is there anyone that can make Phil lift anything other than a six-pack?
At such an early age, that he’s progressively letting himself go like that, after the kerfuffle at training camp, when he made the remark that he hadn’t skated ten times over the summer, and just scoffed at the skeptics, implying that he’d play himself into shape, like usual. Well it’s not happening.
And this isn’t new. In “Future Greats and Heartbreaks”, he’s being interviewed before the draft, and they’re questioning him about his fitness testing scores. He allows that they’re not good, but says that he played late into the spring, on the U.S. World Championship team, so he didn’t have the opportunity to ‘get ready’ like the others at the combine. When he’s pressed about this, that even without the specific training to prep, his scores shouldn’t be that low, he shrugs.
So can a couple instances of Andrei barking at him, or the sight of P.K. and Max preaching by example, all of a sudden make him develop good dietary and training habits? Or has he been successful so far on his natural gifts, and is about to fade quickly as he approaches thirty?
So again, no thanks.
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