Should the Canadiens trade up in the first round?

Last season, the Canadiens were privileged, after a trying season, to land the #3 overall pick in the draft.  That fortune continued in that, by not having the #1 pick, they weren't tempted to take the acknowledged best player in the draft, Nail Yakupov, a player who is projected to be a game-breaker, but is one of the smaller, skilled guys of the type the Canadiens have a few of in the pipeline already.

They were further blessed by the fact that the Blue Jackets spent their #2 pick on Ryan Murray, a safe pick and a player who projects to be a solid, heady defenceman who is effective in all three zones.  Again, the Canadiens have quite a few defencemen who fit this bill to varying degrees in their system, so the temptation to draft a player who graded highly but wouldn't necessarily be a great fit down the road was removed.

By the process of elimination, and some would say divine intervention, the Canadiens were left to pick Alex Galchenyuk, a big fast centre with great hands and work ethic.  This is the kind of player who has been sorely missing from the roster since the departures of Pierre Turgeon and Vincent Damphousse, and of which there is no other presently in the system.  The only way that could have worked out better is if the Islanders had traded us their entire draft to swap first-rounders, and had still left us Alex to pick up at #4.  I know, an impossible dream, yet with Charles Wang and Garth Snow you never know.

This year, there is no great consolation prize to the ignominious bounce from the playoffs for the Canadiens, their lofty finish in the regular season confining them to the 25th slot in the first round.  This year's draft is thought to have three players at the very top, three or four more bunched together in a second tier, and then a large group of players of equivalent value that stretches deep into the second round.

The Canadiens land just a touch outside of where they would want to be if they wanted a realistic shot at one of two LHJMQ outsized prospects, 6'4" centre Frédérik Gauthier, and 6'4" right wing Anthony Mantha, who scored 50 goals this season.  They are ranked 7th and 10th respectively among North American skaters, so even factoring in some variability on some teams' draft boards, and plugging in the goalies and European skaters in the equation, it's doubtful they'll fall low enough that the Canadiens could snag themselves a big local forward to strengthen the organization's future.  Other fan favourites, like London Knight defenceman Nikita Zadorov and forwards Max Domi or Bo Horvat who all shined during the Memorial Cup tournament, or Finnish defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen are also likely out of range.

The silver lining is that the Canadiens currently hold the three second-round picks, a radical departure from past practice when second rounders were routinely spent to bulwark the roster for a playoff run.  Two of these picks can be considered de facto late first-rounders, falling at #34 and #36.  These picks were obtained in trades with Nashville and Calgary last season.

This brings us to question whether the Canadiens should spend some of these assets to move up in the draft and snag one of these out-of-range players, if the price was right.  This is not a yes-or-no proposition.  For example, if a player the Canadiens' scouting staff absolutely loved and thought would be long gone but was still hanging around at #20, and a swap could be obtained to move up to snag him for relatively little, then it would be an easy decision.  With so many qualifiers, ifs and buts however, we can argue either side of this proposition.

If we are to make a philosophical argument though, I would say that the team shouldn't trade quantity for perceived quality.  If this draft is as advertised, and the depth that is thought to be there holds up to scrutiny, the Canadiens have a good chance of picking up equivalent prospects at the #34 and #36 slot as would be available in the #20 slot or thereabouts.

Further, the Canadiens need to rebuild their farm teams, their system.  They need depth, and young players who can step in when unfortunate injuries strike.  The poster boys for depth on the farm this year are the Ottawa Senators, who weathered the loss of Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen, yet kept chugging along with youngsters brought up from Binghampton who were already familiar with the team's system and contributed right away.  The Canadiens didn't have the same luxury.  When Alexei Emelin went down, no one was able to pick up his slack, and the team's performance suffered markedly. Same when Lars Eller was lost, there was a noticeable drop in the team's ability to compete.  None of the Bulldogs was able to replace him in the roster, to any appreciable degree.

While I'm sensitive to the evidence that a player drafted in the early second round has a much lower chance to be an impact player than a mid-first rounder, there are other considerations right now.  We need to have many players in the AHL who are pro-tested and ready, even if they aren't going to be All-Stars.  They'll compete internally for icetime and promotion and drive each other to do better.  Having a diversity of players who can be called up will allow for greater roster flexibility.  Picking three players as we have the opportunity currently between #25 and #36 is a better fix for what ails us than a single player drafted higher with a higher ceiling.  

Another consideration is the good job the scouting staff has been doing recently under the leadership of Trevor Timmins.  With their expanded staffing and greater resources provided by Geoff Molson and Marc Bergevin this year, I'm more tempted to let them operate, to validate all their hard work.  Let's give them all the at-bats we can, and see how many times they connect, instead of going all in on one shot.

Finally, all Canadiens fans are aware of the reputation the team has, as small and relatively susceptible to physical play, especially in the playoffs as demonstrated this year, when the referees clearly have an institutional mindset to issue penalties only when there is no other recourse.  And even then, turn a blind eye more often than not.  Unfortunately, the days of the Flying Frenchmen, of the speed of Mark Napier and Pierre Mondou trumping the inane brutishness of Terry O'Reilly and Moose Dupont are over.  The ill-tempered pachyderms have taken over at the League office.  Lumbering, crashing and banging is in.  Stickhandling and tic-tac-toe passing is, uhm, passé.

In such a climate, the Canadiens need to transform their roster, their system, with a significant injection of size to match up against other teams when they play the intimidation card, and when the referees wear welder's goggles.  This transformation won't be accomplished with one player, there will need to be a brace of physical wingers and defencemen added to the Bulldogs' roster over the next couple of years.  Quantity is needed.  Interestingly, when scanning the list of prospects and how they grade, such physical wingers and defencemen are available throughout the draft, and especially in the second round.  Since the kind of player we're looking for will be probably available when we're slated to pick, let's hold on to those picks, and grab armloads of players.  

Then, we'll rely on all that other money Geoff Molson is spending, on coaching and development, and groom these guys and hopefully turn a few maybes into definite NHL'ers.

Healy puts his foot in it, declares Chara is impassive when being hit

Routinely, hockey analysts say whatever crosses their mind to fill airtime.  Showing a replay of a hit by Matt Cooke on Zero Zdeno Chara (if I remember my particle physics profs correctly, shouldn't have this been a case where Evil and Anti-Good combine and spontaneously annihilate in a giant stinking cloud of scumbaggery?), Glenn Healy intoned:

"Chara does not respond emotionally in any way when you go at him."

What the hell has he been watching the last few years?  Aren't the play-by-play guys and the guys down near the benches supposed to be there to add insight and explain to the viewer what he or she is seeing?  How can he say that, after Bruin Thug #1's assault on Max Pacioretty?

As a matter of fact, Mr. Chara is known precisely as the kind of player who has a short fuse, doesn't tolerate getting hit very well, and has a history of exhibiting a long memory and trying to even scores for perceived slights.  An Ottawa columnist wrote a piece after the assault at the New Forum in which he explained that when he saw Max crosscheck Zdeno Chara in the back after his game-winning goal in the previous game, he knew the latter would avenge this insult.  In his considered opinion, after covering him for years with the Senators, Mr. Chara holds grudges and doesn't forgive easily, and would certainly attempt to get even.  And he sure did, out of all proportion to anything that had previously happened.

Mr. Healy's remark is straight from the John Madden school of sports commentary, which dictates that each event of a game has predictive value, or must be expounded on to derive broad generalizations.

"The 49'ers have to make a stop here, it's crucial that they stop the Falcons on 2nd and 9 this early in the second quarter, or they'll lose control of this game."

Each player is the best in the game at whatever skill he has just demonstrated.

"Rod Woodson is the best in the league at covering a short hook route in the middle of the field on first-and-ten."

And so it goes, every play, every incident, instead of being seen in the perspective of a whole game, or a whole series, and being just one data point, must be assigned a crucial importance, or be used as proof of an absolute statement.

Mr. Healy, all you had to say was that Mr. Chara showed good discipline in not retaliating to a legal-under-the-circumstances-as-decided-upon-by-the-refs-at-that-point-in-the-game-with-the-aid-of-their-magic-eight-ball-but-not-after-an-involuntary-nervous-glance-at-the-box-where-Colin-Campbell-is-sitting hit.  You didn't need to make a broad pronouncement that proves you didn't know what you were talking about, which is obvious, because if that was a thought you had, that Zdeno Chara doesn't respond emotionally to getting hit, and you'd done any fact-checking on that, asked anyone who had followed his career, you'd have quickly found out that it was completely off the mark, that it couldn't be further from the truth.

Better yet, you could have decided to take a cue from your ice-level colleague Pierre McGuire, and after observing him motor-mouth his way through a broadcast, decide that a bit of dead air is not a bad thing, that saying less is often better than the opposite.

Brad Marchand slewfoots with impunity, while Colin Campbell cheers on his idiot son's team

Why do the refs, as explains Glenn Healy, have to "eventually get tired of" Brad Marchand many dirty acts of douchery, the slewfoots and the slashes and the spears, before they issue a penalty?  Why must there be an accumulation of thuggery and illegality before he's finally sent to the box?  Why does he get indulgences?  Why aren't they calling every instance of a rule being broken?  Why are they allowing the Bruins to cheat their way to a Cup?

The definition of slewfooting is really straightforward.

Rule 52 - Slew-footing

52.1 Slew-footing - Slew-footing is the act of a player or goalkeeper using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him, or pushes an opponent’s upper body backward with an arm or elbow, and at the same time with a forward motion of his leg, knocks or kicks the opponent’s feet from under him, causing him to fall violently to the ice.

52.2 Match Penalty - Any player who is guilty of slew-footing shall be assessed a match penalty.

52.3 Fines and Suspensions - There are no specified fines or suspensions for slew-footing, however, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion (refer to Rule 28).

How did any of this not apply at least once to Brad Marchand in this series?  He committed a slewfoot on Kris Letang on the first shift of this series, and at least two more clearcut transgressions that I've seen, not behind the play, but right with the puck, where the refs were able to see it.

And for those who say the refs are letting things go on both sides, that's entirely missing the mark.  By letting things go, by "letting them play", they're completely favouring the Bruins, this plays right into their hands, and allows them to drag the game into the ditch where they like it.  If the refs were calling everything, as the rulebook states they should, the Pens would be allowed to fly, and play the game the way it was intended, with skating and passing and shooting, with an entertaining result for the fans.

If interference and tripping and roughing and aren't really penalties, why have them described as such in the rulebook?  If a hooking call in the neutral zone is okay, because it doesn't directly lead to a scoring chance (an asinine distinction, since on the double-overtime goal by Patrice Bergeron, how could it be determined at the time that Jaromir Jagr's hook on Evgeni Malkin wouldn't lead to a goal the other way, which it definitely did), why not just come out and say so, spell it out.

The NHL is the custodian of the game I love, its legal guardian, and I'm this close to initiating legal action to strip it of custody.  I've had it with the salary caps and lockouts and insane Mike Milburys and Colin Campbells and Don Cherrys being at the wheel of the ship as it steers full steam ahead toward the iceberg.

Does Jaromir Jagr train harder than anybody?

I'm a bit of a Jaromir Jagr skeptic, with his vacillation and contract teases, but Elliotte Friedman has a good piece on his crazy workouts and dedication to training, on or off-ice.

It looks like Jaromir Jagr is in a class of his own, reminiscent of Walter Payton, who also had a fanatical devotion to fitness his entire life.  He used to run up a slope, which was dreaded by his teammates and spoken of reverently as The Hill, since they'd try to join him for those workouts and could only last a couple of days, they couldn't withstand the pace, even guys who were much younger and supposed workout warriors. 

You can either admire Mr. Jagr, and I mostly do, for this, but you can also wonder about the empty apartment, and whether he lives a full enough life.

Greg Campbell is no hero. Ever.

As bad as having the Bruins poised to get to the Stanley Cup finals, and possibly repeat as 'Starley Cup Champiars', now we're all being told we have to pretend Greg Campbell is some kind of lion-heart, because he broke his leg.  I've been fast forwarding through ESPN's "Around the Horn" and "PTI", zapping basketball and baseball stories, and in both they had hockey segments in which they exclaimed how gutsy he is, and what a warrior he is.

Come on, he blocked a shot and it bounced off his ankle, and broke his fibula.  He hobbled around for a minute before he could get off.  Big whoop.  As if that hadn't happened a hundred times this season.  P.K. Subban by himself put one guy on the bench every game he played this year, due to his rocket from the point.  We all saw these guys limp and one-leg it back to the bench, sometimes with a helpful push from a teammate or linesman.  We'd see them agonize on the bench and try to stretch out the pain, or be assisted to the dressing room.  Most of them came back to finish the game.  But according to the talking heads, Greg Campbell is different.  By their reasoning, Sidney Crosby is Superman times Mother Teresa, since he took a puck to the choppers.

That Bruin creep gets no credit from me for having a puck bounce somewhere he didn't have any padding on.  What else is that shameful plug good for?  It's not like he's going to make a pass or score a goal.  He better be mucking and grinding and choosing his spots and taking on 160 pounders like Tom Pyatt, or else he'll have no career, even in his daddy's league.

The Canadiens should have gotten more for Mike Cammalleri

So the Flames just signed Karri Ramo to a contract, after he spent a few seasons in the KHL polishing his game.  They get a 26 year old goalie who is entering the prime of his career in their roster, just as Miikka Kiprusoff is apparently set to retire this summer.  This is of interest to Canadiens' fans in that he was once their property, but was traded away in the Mike Cammalleri trade.

In hindsight, this trade looks more and more uneven.  What could have been a goldmine was instead exchanged for a relative song.

Mr. Ramo had been obtained from the Tampa Bay Lightning, in a swap of minor-league goaltenders that netted them Cédrick Desjardins.  It's now apparent, with Mr. Desjardins seeming to have reached a dead end in Tampa, that the Canadiens got the better of that deal.  Then, unfortunately, abysmal asset management took over, and that advantage was squandered.  

The scuttlebutt was that Karri Ramo would never come over to the NHL, being content to remain in the KHL and earning a decent living.  Why that is is unclear, as Mr. Ramo isn't a Russian citizen happy to be playing at home, but rather a Finn who spent a good part of his career in North America, and apparently preferred the KHL in order to avoid AHL bus rides.

Anyway, then-Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier included Karri Ramo as a throw-in in the Mike Cammalleri trade to Calgary.  The Flames got the malcontent sniper, Mr. Ramo, and a fifth-round pick and sent back their own headache (René Bourque), a longshot prospect in Patrick Holland, and this year's second-round pick.

At the time, some NHL GM's anonymously questioned the deal, explaining that they didn't know Mr. Cammalleri was on the block, and if they'd known, they'd have offered more for his services.  This was frustrating in light of René Bourque's difficult 2012 season in Montréal.  Mr. Bourque struggled and suffered injuries, and was relatively invisible.  He rebounded to have a stronger early season, but again injuries derailed a promising start.  Meanwhile, Mr. Cammalleri provided the offensive touch he's known for in Calgary, netting 13 goals and 32 points in 44 games.

Analyzing the trade now, it seems the big pieces kind of cancel each other out, in that while the Flames got the bigger name, the player with the better reputation, the Canadiens improved their makeup, exchanging a smaller player for a bigger winger of almost equivalent talent at a lower cap hit.  What rankles is that the secondary pieces don't add up.

The Gauthier régime was described, after the fact, as a dour, impulsive and secretive cabal, with poor communication and a climate of fear and mistrust.  It apparently did an equally poor job of keeping tabs on its players, and fostering a positive climate in the ranks.  

In this case, it seems that the Canadiens gave up on Mr. Ramo and undervalued him.  If the team had had more than a skeleton staff in their front office, and had attempted to engage him in dialogue, they could have realized that asset.  Instead, he was seen as an afterthought, a disposable piece, and was tacked on almost recklessly to the package sent to Calgary.

The second round pick the Canadiens received is underwhelming, when considering the demand for offence, for pure goal-scorers in the NHL as the playoffs approach.  Mike Cammalleri had two strong playoff runs in 2010 and 2011, and had all kinds of value, especially as the trade deadline neared, and as indicated by those jilted GM's.  Had there been more of an auction, Mr. Gauthier should have succeeded in squeezing a first-rounder out of his counterpart.  Rental Jaromir Jagr, for example, at 40 years old, netted the Stars a conditional second-rounder that became a first when the Bruins got past the second round of the playoffs.  Jay Feaster, desperate to win now, while he still had his two aces in Miikka Kiprusoff and Jarome Iginla, was ripe for the picking.  Imagine if we'd extorted his first-rounder, and were now sizing up Sean Monahan and Valeri Nichushkin.  The fact that we had to send a fifth-round pick to somehow even this out is galling.

Patrick Holland is a nice player, but also one the prospects Calgary was probably most willing to part with.  A former seventh-round pick, the Flames had little invested in him, and he was hard to project as an NHL player, being a slender winger who is more of a playmaker than a scorer.  As such, he does not add to the mix of Canadiens forward prospect, already rife with slick skaters who have good skills but will not thrive in the Darwinian NHL of Colon Campbell, in which Shea Weber can grab the back of your head to ram your face in the glass, and in which Duncan Keith can take a full swing with his stick at your face, breaking teeth and causing twenty stitches, but in which such behaviour is met with indifference from observers and a grudging one-game suspension by the 'Department of Player Safety.'  Mr. Holland is more of what we already had.  Mr. Gauthier had crowed about how his team had gotten bigger with the addition of René Bourque, but in the same trade took a step back in adding a smaller prospect.

Interestingly, the Flames drafted Patrick Holland in 2010, the same year they picked Michael Ferland two rounds earlier.  Fans who watched this year's Memorial Cup remember him as a force to be reckoned with on the Saskatoon Blades, a big winger who hit with abandon and was always dangerous around the net.  He is also seen as a marginal prospect, needing to work on his skating to have a chance at the NHL, but I couldn't help but wonder how much better he would have looked on the Bulldogs.  This is the kind of prospect that Pierre Gauthier should have sought in the Cammalleri trade, one that augments our skillset, that complements the players presently on the farm, and one that was conceivably available rather than untouchable.

So while the trade was originally questioned by observers on Montréal's part, the latest news that Karri Ramo will be joining the Flames tilts the balance even further in their direction.  And it throws even more dirt on the reputation of Pierre Gauthier as an evaluator of talent, and as a General Manager of a hockey team who is entrusted to manage its personnel and assets.

Are Canadiens under-regarded by their own fans?

From a recap by Michael Farber of Montréal's 4-3 overtime win in Game 3 of the 1993 Stanley Cup final.

Montreal coach Jacques Demers beats this particular hobby horse on every occasion, trying to convince LeClair just how good he can be.

“John’s one of the strongest players on the team,” Demers said. “He also has a great shot like (Kevin) Stevens. He just has to put it all together.”

Sigh...

Whereas the average Maple Leaf fan overvalues the players on his team, thinking that players like Dion Phaneuf and Tomas Kaberle are All-Stars, Mats Sundin and Wendel Clark are Hall of Famers (no, but I guess if Dino Ciccarelli is a HOF'er, then these two excellent players are, kind of), and players like Nikolai Kulemin and Nikolai Antropov and Luke Schenn are on the verge of mega-stardom, the run-of-the-mill Canadiens fans takes his for granted, and always wants more, better, faster, Maurice Richard-ier.

Éric Desjardins and John LeClair were the individual stars of the 1993 team's consecutive overtime wins, and were relatively shortly thereafter shipped out to Philadelphia.  At which point only did most fans realize how good they were, and what we had on our roster.  Young, big, talented players, who could have been cornerstones for a decade.

I get the feeling we've been trained out of this by twenty years of futility though.  Brendan Gallagher, Max Pacioretty, P.K. Subban, Alex Galchenyuk, they're all held triumphantly aloft, if not clasped tightly to our bosom.  We can't comprehend life without Tomas Plekanec.  We know how awful it is when Andrei's not around.  Brandon Prust was quickly adopted, became a favourite son faster than Erik Cole the season before.

Carey Price is the only exception to this new way of thinking it seems.  He's still held up to the Ken Dryden-Patrick Roy lens. Both of these gentlemen won miracle Stanley Cups, based on their heroic play, as rookies.  They each followed that up with another surprise Cup in short order, and similar fashion.  Carey Price will never be able to duplicate that, and will always be seen by some as coming up short.  What we need to realize is that Carey is an amazing talent who will be better, and can be the Canadiens' goaltender for the next decade if we support him and let him develop.

Hey Sportscaster! (8)

About visors in the NHL, the talking heads are being a little lazy and imprecise by saying visors will be 'grandfathered'.  That's not accurate or descriptive, they're using a hockey term that fans know, but by overusing it they're fuzzing up the definition.

What is accurate to say is that visors might become mandatory next season, with an out clause for current players who don't want to wear one grandfathered in.  So visors aren't grandfathered, they're being made mandatory.

from Wikipedia:

A grandfather clause is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future cases.

Mike Rupp to the Canadiens?

Okay, so at the trade deadline this season, apparently Marc Bergevin was chasing Mike Rupp, Kyle Clifford and Brian Bickell.  Based on the way they're playing, neither Mr. Clifford or, especially, Mr. Bickell will be available this summer at anything approaching a reasonable cost.  So let's cross those two guys off the list.

Mike Rupp is a different story.  He's 33, and had to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, which will not help his limited agility on skates.  He'll make $1.5M next season, and the Wild already have Zenon Konopka and Steve Veilleux on their roster for toughness.  They have about 10 million in cap space, but they need a lot of that to re-sign Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Cullen and Niklas Backstrom, among others.  They also need to either re-sign Pierre-Marc Bouchard, or someone to replace him.

If Mr. Bergevin is still interested in trading for him, I can't imagine the Wild would be very ambitious in their demands.  They'd most likely be happy to lose his cap hit.  The only real factor would be how many other teams might be vying for his services.

Aside from his age, we have to wonder if a slow player like Mr. Rupp would fit in to the Canadiens lineup.  Would he be able to keep up and contribute?  Also, can a player his age really bring much to the table?

My guess is that if he can be obtained for some of our spare parts, for a player we feel no longer fits into our plans rather than for a draft pick, this acquisition would be a no-brainer.  Mr. Rupp would be brought in as a fourth-liner, to bring some toughness and size to the lineup, some Dion Phaneuf insurance.  He'd be a veteran presence and help steady the ship when elbows are flying.

The skillset he would bring is sorely needed on the Canadiens, he would give a huge boost to the team in altering its makeup.  Injecting him into a roster like the Sharks' or the Kings' would bring little benefit, but for ours, or the Canucks' for example, his value would be magnified.

An interesting side note is that he played for two seasons for the Rangers along with Brandon Prust, they were two important components of that team who provided strength and character.  It would be interesting to ask Mr. Prust what his take would be on a possible reunion.

In any case, even if we found that the years and the wonky knee have done their damage and his contribution is limited, we'd only be on the hook for one year of a reasonable contract.  There is little downside if we find that this sponge has been wrung dry.

For these reasons, I think it might be a good idea to obtain Mr. Rupp, at the stated reasonable cost, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

Raymond Bourque, deuxième partie

So I stirred up the hornet's nest with my post about Raymond Bourque's 'feelgood Cup win' from last night, good to see I can play instigator and not just conciliator.  Some good discussion by all.

I thought my preamble indicated the high esteem I hold him in.  I wish he had been a Canadien.  But he wasn't, so I was okay when Dave Maley pasted him to the boards.

I also agree with the posters who say that many great players never inscribed their name on the Cup, and while that's not ideal, it's doesn't tarnish their legacy.  I brought up Jean Ratelle, Gilbert Perreault and Brad Park in another post.  I personally think it's more of an achievement for a player to play his entire career with the same team than to jet to contenders in the twilight of their careers.  And I understand that in this age of free agency and salary caps and greedy soulless ownership (well, that's never not been the case I guess) such idealism is passé, but I still think that way.

Some say it's noble for a player to seek a competitive team to finally get a Cup, sometimes at some financial sacrifice, but I think it's just as admirable for a player to not want to leave his teammate to be a mercenary at the trade deadline.  Mats Sundin, Miikka Kiprusoff and Patrice Brisebois, who preferred to stay with their team rather than go coast to a win on another team are at least as deserving of our respect.

I agree that Mr. Bourque played really well for the Avalanche in their Cup year, but it still doesn't deter me from saying that he piggybacked on an already strong group of players to win it all.  He wasn't a spare as Denis Savard was, as Marc pointed out, but it's still a Cup as an honorific, a lifetime achievement award, rather than a Steve Yzerman Cup, or a John Elway Super Bowl.

Some cases are easier to digest than others.  I think Jarome Iginla did everything right, in how for years he resisted the notion that he should go to another team and have a chance to win, he wanted to remain in Calgary and finish what he started.  Only this season, when ownership and management asked him for permission, and with the understanding that this was a five-year rebuild job, did he relent.  If he wins a Cup in Pittsburgh or somewhere else later on, I'll be happy for him.  I won't pretend it's a fairy tale however.

I'll finish off with a bad example, but it's one we can bat around, and it's the case of Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter.  These two guys are punchlines in the NBA now, and have been for years.  One for never getting past the first round of the playoffs, for being a choke artist, who runs up points when it doesn't matter, and the other for vague injuries, and being all flash and no substance.  Both these characters pouted their way out of Toronto, to oblivion and ridicule rather than the fame and championships they thought would be theirs if they went to 'major markets'.  How much better perceived would they be, and how much better would their career have been if they'd stuck it out with the Raptors, if they'd worked on their game and their team, and fought for championships together?  If they'd had a few playoff runs, but had never won, they'd be seen as warriors and champions for who things didn't work out, like John Stockton or Dan Marino, for example.