Well said.
Unfortunately I don't think Pronger, Niedermayer and Selanne are grasped for their true skill level in a non hockey town (you would know better). My money was on the Sharks form day one this year. I was surprised Detroit got buy them.
Ottawa sucked, or perhaps they just looked bad in light of dominance but truthfully they should have made it interesting I don't think the divide was that great. Same goes for Buffalo.
Thanks. You know there's often talk about the advantages of free agents coming to LA. (Ducks or Kings). There are a number of players who make LA their off season home, particularly the Manhattan Beach area. It's nice because there are other hockey players around, it's kinda fitness minded yet there are other athletes in the area. In fact, all of LA, there are celebs which takes the pressure off. You don't score a goal in a week in a half, no one's gonna write a column saying you need to be shipped out of town. You can go out to dinner and a movie and not have to answer the question of "how's the shoulder" 20x a night, EVERY night. Being a pro athlete would still get you in the VIP room in the top clubs in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. You can sit down at nice restaurant and no one's gonna recognize you so you can finish your meal. Or if they do before anyone comes over someone will whisper "Hey, isn't that the guy from Matchbox 20?"
On the other hand I could see how one would not feel appreciated here. You see plenty of kids and teens with, (well, adults too) Kobe, Odom, Eldon Brand jerseys walking around but you'll be hard pressed to see a Niedermayer sweater. You don't have to be a primadonna to think the team's mktg dept doesn't think you're worthy. I would think there could be something rather reaffirming in having a GM say come to SoCal and you'll be the man and then see how much hockey is beloved but when you start traveling to Edmonton or Denver or Boston you'll think our city has no love for us.
I think part of the reason Kariya and Saleanne left in the first place was, sure they can see they're the faces of the team but that was it. They asked for help and Disney wouldn't give it to them. Basically, "%*(&# you! We're at 90-95% capacity every night. A stay-at-home defensemen isn't going to sell us any more seats."
You know, I liked San Jose a lot too. But they weren't as impressive as I expected them to be a lot of times. I don't know what it is but you'd think they'd have or have had by now the "over the hump" playoff series win. Like knocking out Colorado right before the strike, I believe it was. You know something that tells the rest of the league, just as much as it says to themselves, 'don't mess w/us - we'll take you out.' But it still hasn't happened, I guess. No one was more surprised they didn't disassmantle detroit. THey're younger, deeper, I would've thought more physical but none of that came into play.
I know teams fair well, if not better when having two top line centers but maybe it's a case of too much biology and not enough chemistry up there. What happens when you bring in Joey Thornton? Marlau picked it up a notch but maybe he's wondering why are you bring some guy in, calling him the messiah when he could get Boston out of the second round.
Considering the team he's built, there's no way you can compare San Jose's GM with, Bobby Clarke but I think he really screwed up. There's no way you go through the season with two #1 goalies. Especially in a salary cap era. While it was kind favorable to have them since they both got hurt or weren't always playing well, it was the regular season. A decent backup should've at least one point in half the games he plays. It's not like either of those guys were coming off rookie seasons where you don't know what's going to happen. Take your pick. Frankly I was surprised it wasn't Tuskola but send he or Nabakov off for someone who you know will get you 30 goals and 60 assists. Hell, even package one with a 2nd round pick. The window's as wide open as it'll be, you gotta get someone who can produce now. The only reason I could see it not happening is if you adhere to the philosophy of don't trade away any of your players to teams in your own division. They really needed to get that deal done, not at deadline but it should've been done before they broke camp.
I did think the west was that much stronger than the east. I thought the one thing that could help the east would be if whoever came out of the west be so beat up, they could get them down by two games somewhat early.
Oh well, guess now we just wait for free agent signings...