This will probably give Ottawa fans apocalyptic seizures, but the Tampa Bay Lightning have named Andre Meszaros an assistant captain, along with Martin St. Louis. That's right. They chose Meszaros over Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi and Ryan Malone.
I'm one of the only people left in Ottawa who think the Meszaros trade was terrible, but even that's a bit much for me.
How do you not give an "A" to Roberts?
Regardless, Meszaros will probably grow into that leadership role in two or three years but I'd bet Barry Melrose will be long gone by that time.
***
With so many fringe players publicly unhappy (Christoph Schubert, Alex Nikulin and the now AWOL Brad Isbister), it may be time for GM Bryan Murray to bring down the hammer and squash the kind of dissent that seemed to permeate last years team.
I'm not saying that Ottawa should trade Schubert, but sitting him out for making public his unhappiness seems like a prudent thing to do, especially when there's a lot of other players who would be happy to play his minutes on the fourth line.
If that type of attitude is allowed to fester, how long before other players start bringing their grievances to the press? As the guys over at Sens Army pointed out, Nikulin is actually blogging about the fact he wants out of town and even dragged his innocent teammate Ilya Zubov into the fray.
I really like Schubert as a player, but this whiny act is somewhat sickening to see, especially on a team that is so obsessed with "character" and "chemistry".
Schubert should realize that the team is only one injury away from him being a full-time defenseman anyways. His agent should kick his balls off for pouting publicly like that.
4 comments:
This Meszaros thing reminds me a bit of The Chara Saga. A guy wants more respect and thinks he's a leader, leaves, and gets rewarded. Pretty coincidental considering their chemistry in Meszy's rookie year.
And I totally agree on Schubert. No matter how useful he is as a forward/defenceman, no sense allowing someone who's a fourth-liner winger/fifth-defenceman spoil a team trying to re-establish credibility. Especially with Dean McAmmond, Shean Donovan, Luke Richardson, or Brendan Bell anxious to fill his shoes.
In my opinion dean mccammond and donovan are far better 4th line players than shubert, I dont see him on this team. If someone gets injured on the blueline how much of an advantage is shubert over richardson? Definately not much in the leadership or "character" catagory. Not sure about the difference in the cap hit though.
I agree with you very much Jeremy. A swift kick in the balls.
'kick his balls off' . . . hee hee
Post a Comment