Daily Buzz: Wednesday, Jan. 21

Greetings, Jackets Land. Hope this finds you well, especially if you are in some filthy Godless country.

Another couple of days and another couple of W's and L's for the Jackets. Losers Friday to the Devils, winners against the Canucks, and losers against Ales Hemsky (4 points). Calgary tonight and it’ll be another tough one.

Steve Mason is clearly exhausted after 14 starts in a row; just not as sharp as we saw him earlier (especially in December).

I’d honestly be surprised to see the Jackets pull off a win tonight, especially as they played last night and Calgary did not. The way the Jackets manage to dig down lately though, I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if they won too. Either way, a three-game sweep of western Canada would have been great, but I’ll take 2-of-3.

 

Rumor Roundup

Not much out of Tampa these days. The idea that Vincent Lecavalier would be moved is absurd. Not because it would be stupid of Tampa, but because it would be stupid of EVERY other team in the league.

Don’t get me wrong, Vinny is a spectacular player. The kind of guy that you’d want to build a franchise around. Aside from that though, NOBODY deserves an 11-year contract. It is the stuff of supreme retardation.

Yeah, if Vin stays healthy and productive, maybe you get some good value out of it, but contracts aren’t written that way. Vin is slated to get $10 mil per season for seven seasons starting next year and then he’ll make $8.5 million. Maybe that’ll be a discount eight years down the road for a 36-year-old guy.

My point is that players are not indestructible. Look at Peter Forsberg. He was probably  one of the top five most dominant players during his hey-day. What if the Avs signed Foppa to a 10-year deal after his 106-point season in 2002-03? They’d be up shit creek without a paddle, that’s where.

Hell, look at Rick DiPietro! What has he played, six games since his 15-year contract was signed in ‘06? How’d that work out?

Speaking of Foppa, word out of Sweden is that he’s training again—I think with MODO. That led to a typhoon of articles out of Denver proclaiming (once again) that Peter the Great would be coming back to the Rockies! Uh, yeah. Too bad for the Avs Foppa has stated that his workouts have not gone very well and his foot is still bothering him tremendously. No return for you!

I’ll sound off after the game later this week to give an outlook of what the season could/should/might look like after the All-Star break.

Nate, if you’re reading, sound off—hope you’re doing well.

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