Tag: roberto luongo

Trade Deadline Day

The Bruins beat the crap out of the Florida Panthers last night thanks to a hat trick by David Krejci.  Ever since going AWOL last season, it pleases me to no end to watch Tim Thomas get shelled.  After yesterday’s trade that brought former Vancouver goalie (and Thomas’ 2011 Stanley Cup Finals opponent) Roberto Luongo to Florida, it will please me even more to watch Thomas sit on the bench as Luongo gets shelled.  I don’t expect that will happen though.  I can’t imagine Tim Thomas makes it through today’s 3:00pm ET trade deadline without being moved.  He has a no trade clause, but I expect he’ll waive it for just about any team.  I can’t imagine he’s happy about being Luongo’s back up, although now there is no question of whether or not he needs to pump Lu’s tires.

The trade deadline is a fun day to be an NHL fan with an internet connection.  I just wish it fell on a weekend so I could actually pay attention to it.  I expect to find a live blog following the news this afternoon (I’m in a meeting all morning) but I don’t expect to actually have any time to look at it.

The Bruins need a defenseman.  Preferably a top pairing kinda guy but at least a top four.  They have a huge hole to fill with Dennis Seidenberg (am I even close to spelling that right?  I could look it up but… lazy) being out for the season.  That’s the big need.  Beyond that they are just looking for depth all around.  They have been tied to a number of big names, mostly forwards, but that might be just an attempt to drive up the price for their rivals.  Specifically, Ryan Kesler has been rumored to be going to Pittsburgh for a few days now.  Suddenly the Bruins are in the talks too.  As much as Kesler NEEDS to be a Bruin, I think that has more to do with trying to get Pitt to over pay than an actual chance of him coming here.  Who knows.

Enjoy the trade deadline, and may the Bruins hit the jackpot.

Luongo to the Panthers

Roberto Luongo traded to Florida Panthers from Vancouver Canucks – ESPN

 

Vancouver has traded Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers?  They sent him back where they got him from?  Does this mean the Panthers have to trade him to the Islanders next?

That’s unbelievable.  Really.  The Panthers are craptastic and they are adding a player at the trade deadline?  The article doesn’t say what they gave up for him.  Also, does this mean Tim Thomas is going to be traded by the deadline?  I’ve heard that he might be a fit for Minnesota, but I didn’t think they would actually take him.  This is crazy.

I really don’t care so long as the Bruins get a top four defenseman to replace Dennis Seidenberg (sp?).

It should be an interesting day for NHL fans tomorrow.

Go Bruins

When Did the NHL Lockout Truly End

Technically the NHL is still locked out.  The legal documents are still being drawn up.  The owners expect to ratify the deal tomorrow at the Board of Governors meeting.  The players will have an electronic vote over the interwebs to see if they approve of the new deal.  The talk now is of training camps opening on Sunday, and the season starting on January 19th.  It should be noted that the 19th is one day after Gary Bettman’s deadline to cancel the season.  Oh well.

So the lockout has not officially ended, but it effectively has ended.  But when we look back at this years from now, what will be the moment we look at as the moment the lock out ended?

It will be the moment when the Toronto Maple Leafs fired General Manager Brian Burke.

This is the dick move of all dick moves.  They waited through the off season after the Leafs failed to make the post season for something like the seventh straight season.  They waited through four months of lockout.  Then, suddenly, just a few days before training camp opened on the insultingly shortened season they gave him the axe.

There are rumors going around that he got canned over Roberto Luongo.  There was talk of a trade in the works and the speculation is that Burke did not want to pull the trigger, but Leafs ownership did.  I’m of two minds on Luongo.  First, as a Bruins fan, I love to see him lose.  He choked like a chump in the cup finals against the Bruins and it was glorious to see.  How dare you tell Tim Thomas how to play the puck!  Tim Thomas might be a right wing nut job, but he already had a Vezina in his closet and was a shoe in for a second.  Forget the fact that after your little bit of friendly advice he went on to win a Stanley Cup (at your expense) and a Conn Smythe (again, at your expense).  What a jack ass!

Of course I am also a lifelong fan of the Lowell Lock Monsters and Luongo was, for a brief time, one of us.  I tend to go easy on him for old times sake.

But given the way he has tended to lose his sanity during the playoffs, and how he still remains saddled with the can’t-win-the-big-game label (unfairly thanks partly to the first three rounds of his Cup run, but mostly due to that shiny gold medal he won in the Olympics), there is no way any serious GM would have pulled the trigger on any trade, unless The Iron Lung (that’s what we called him in Lowell… well, that’s what my brother, sister, sister’s ex, and I called him) were some sort of inexpensive throw in.  Nope.  Not going to take that deal, friends.  Luongo has to win a Stanley Cup before I would consider dealing for him.  Let the Canucks deal with him.

Regardless of the why or the how the Leafs fired Brian Burke, the fact is that suddenly those few of us who still follow the NHL are talking about something besides the lockout.  Today is the day that we actually start moving on.

I will be damned if I give this asshole of a league a dime this year, but I suddenly am not bitching about the labor dispute and the work stoppage.  I suddenly am wondering if Chris Bourque can make his dad’s old team.  I’m suddenly wondering if Tyler Seguin can score 50 goals in 48 games.

Go Bruins!