Roberts took Stamkos under his Wing

So I was reading the Globe and Mail today. Normally I don't read their sports articles, though they writers are not bad when on radio, but today there was a neat article that was published. After last night's win over the Leaf's, the centre of the universe had a little bitching about the reffing last night. I would love to know what Wilson said to get him tossed out of the game last night. But anyways, if you keep reading the article passed their bitching about 'tomfoolery", they had a neat story about the friendship between Gary Roberts and Steven Stamkos.

Apparently Roberts was at the game last night, he lives just outside of Toronto, and was watching from the press box. Roberts took Stamkos under his wing, they were roommates during the first roadtrip in Prague, and according to the article, Roberts frequently took Stamkos out for dinner. He also plans to keep in contact with Stamkos during the summer to help him along.

Pretty cool of Robert's to be able to help Stamkos through the early part of the season, especially when the marketing of Stamkos came down on him hard. Unlike Crosby, who after being built up after the draft had a decent rookie year, Stamkos' rookie season has been more like Vinny's first year. If you remember, Vinny was called the Michael Jordan of hockey, and in his first year, well Michael Jordan he was not. Now that we see Stamkos on a line with St. Louis and some goals start coming for him, you can see the confidence building with every game. If the team had been in a playoff run, his recent goal scoring would be a bigger story. His record is even better than Vinny's for his rookie year even though the season is not over yet. Doesn't that make you excited to see what he will do next season?

For the full article, click here.

Gary Roberts Retires

So today, Gary Roberts made it official, he's retired.

He played his last game against the team that he won the cup with, the Flames. After not getting picked up on waivers around the trade deadline due to his high cap hit, he has decided to retire, for the second time.

So today it reminded me of a video that I came across last year during Pittsburgh's run for the cup. The video is gold.

Trade Deadline Lightning Style

What was the trade deadline for the Lightning today?

Two words: A joke.

Seriously, OK Hockey seems to be turning the Lightning into more of a circus. Or maybe they really don't care about fans. Or winning. Or their money.

So the trades today:
1. Mark Recchi & a 2nd round 2010 draft pick to Boston
- Not unexpected. But we threw in a draft pick with him for Boston to take him.
-Recchi does not find out that he was traded from Lawton, oh no, Len Barrie told him.

What did we get from Boston? Matt Lashoff (D) and Martins Karsums (RW)
*Is Martins Karsums more than one person? Or does someone want to tell him that both of his names are plural?

Lawton thinks both players are NHL ready, well Boston didn't think to play them enough to be, and I think they are still a little raw.

So far this deal is ok. We weren't going to resign Recchi for another year so I'll consider this deal an ok deal, but giving away draft picks is never a good idea, especially if your farm system sucks. It's too bad Karsums isn't really more than one person.

2. Steve Eminger traded to the Panthers for Noah Welch and a 3rd round draft pick in 2009.
-Noah Welch hasn't played much in the past 2 seasons because of a shoulder injury!!!
-Eminger has been one of the better of our defencmen. Why are we trading him AWAY?
-Did we just go from Boyle > Matt Carle + Ty Wishart > Eminger + Steve Downie > Noah Welch + 3rd round pick? Seriously?

After this trade I was convinced Lawton has been drinking too much of the Koules-Aid.

3. Olaf Kolzig, Jamie Heward, Andy Rogers and a 4th round draft pick to Toronto for Richard Petiot.
Who??? Well we just sent 3 injured guys and a draft pick for a guy who has played the last 3 years in the AHL.
That's right.

So this trade is not so much for a good player, more for a way for Lawton to dump a bunch of salary. Much like putting Roberts on the waiver wire (and not getting picked up), Burkie is eating up salary for the Lightning in Toronto. He's doing this all for the 4th round draft pick.

What does our defense look like now?
Lukas Krajicek, Cory Murphy, Josef Melichar, Matt Smaby, David Koci and Noah Welch.

Vomit.

Our defense doesn't have top 4 defencemen. And is Noah Welch even playing NHL hockey? Has he seriously been healthy scratched 26 times this season? Was it my imagination or did we have Boyle only a year ago? This management in a circus.

Now, I'm not saying I don't understand why management traded away a 30 minute a night defencemen named Eminger away for an RFA named juice, but it's hard to take as a fan. True, because Eminger is playing so many minutes, and has already 1.5 million dollars already thrown at him, and he's an RFA with a contract up this summer, and they have no money, and he's not a top 4 defencemen....well I see the bigger picture. But these next 18 games will be painful. And he plays 30 minutes a game!

But if someone could tell me why we traded for Eminger in the first place, it would be nice. I would like Boyle back. I'd like to take O'Brien back as well seeing as how well he's playing for Vancouver these days.

I read somewhere that all of these salary dumping is to get the Bolts under the cap for revenue sharing, but I can't find a good source for it. Whatever the case is, we know that Lawton isn't the one actually making these decisions.

Clearly "Management" ahem ahem, certain player turned owners, must think this a joke. It makes the team look like a joke. Can we even tank enough games to get a good draft pick? Does management realize that giving your fanbase a crappy team will not make fans want to pay to see the team, even it it's only for $5.69? (My thoughts on that will take up a whole other post).

In the end, the Lightning was a disappointment in the trades today.
Our defence sucks even more.
I hope Barrie enjoyed the night of entertaining his friends in Vancouver during his game that night, and taking them all out to his post-game party at his restaurant... if he keeps doing what he's doing to the team, he'll not only loose the fan base, but also money faster than you can say Phoenix Coyotes.

Gary Roberts on waivers...

TSN is reports that Gary Roberts has been put on waivers, see the link for details:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=269562&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_nhl

-Satan has also been put on waivers clearing cap space for a move for the Pens.
-Crosby is not playing tonight
-Some Pens fans on The Pensblog are hoping that Shero picks up Roberts for the team

Obviously Lawton couldn't move Roberts in a trade, this kinda surprises me since he seems like a player that other teams might was to pick up. But perhaps sending through waivers will help him salary dump for the last 18 games. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Recchi sat out the game tonight, which pretty much confirms he'll be traded tomorrow.