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2009 NHL Rookies: Calder Trophy Candidates
Posted by: | CommentsMy life has kind of been consumed by NHL rookies in the first six weeks of the season, so for my first blog entry of 2009-10, I figured that would be a good place to start. At Upper Deck, we try to get the newest rookie cards out the door and on the market as quickly as possible, and with 56 youngsters making their debut since the season began, you can imagine October is a busy month around here for the hockey folks.
Here’s a look at some of the newcomers this year — as well as some that debuted before this season, but are still eligible for the Calder Trophy after playing fewer than 25 games in a season.
• Michael Del Zotto (D, Rangers) — Let’s start at the top, with the first NHL Rookie of the Month. Del Zotto was a teammate of John Tavares with the Oshawa Generals in the OHL, and along with the top pick of last summer’s draft was traded to the London Knights midseason in 2008-09. He was also a former teammate of 2008 top pick Steven Stamkos with the Markham Waxers Junior ‘A’ team before that. Del Zotto got off to a red-hot start to his NHL career, scoring goals in his second and third games and bagging four goals and eight assists in October. He’s cooled off a little of late, recording only a single assist to go with a minus-4 mark in the Rangers’ past six games.
• John Tavares (C, Islanders) — Unlike his predecessor Stamkos, the Mississauga, Ontatio native has looked quite at home in the NHL from the word “Go.” He had a goal and an assist in his debut, and leads all rookies with 14 points (5 goals, 9 assists) through Nov. 11. Tavares also pieced together a four-game point streak (2 goals, 2 assists to go with a plus-4 mark) that helped spark a four-game win streak for the Islanders.
• Matt Duchene (C, Avalanche) and Ryan O’Reilly (C, Avalanche) — If a team is going to start a rebuilding project like Colorado has, it definitely helps to hit a couple home runs in the draft like the Avs seemingly did last summer. There were six 2009 draft picks that were in their team’s respective lineups on opening night this season, and two of them were suiting up in Denver. Duchene was the No. 3 pick in June, and came in with more hype, but it has been the second-rounder O’Reilly — the only one of the six not selected in the first round — who has probably been the biggest surprise among this year’s crop of newcomers. He has 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) and leads all rookies with a plus-14 through 19 games. So much for rebuilding, as the Avalanche stand in second place in the entire NHL, with 27 points through Nov. 11.
• Victor Hedman (D, Lightning) — Hedman got his bell rung Nov. 5 at Ottawa, but was set to return to the lineup Thursday night against the Wild after missing the last game. That’s good news for Tampa Bay, because from the moment he first stepped on the ice in his NHL debut, the Lightning have leaned pretty heavily on the 6-foot-6 Swedish blueliner. Hedman played a team-high 26:27 in that game, a 6-3 loss at Atlanta, and only defensive partner and countryman Mattias Ohlund has averaged more ice time for the Lightning so far this season (by 25 seconds). Hedman is averaging 24 minutes a game, leading all rookies by a wide margin. The No. 2 pick from last summer’s draft has held his own in that time, chipping in four assists and netting a plus-1 mark through 14 games.
• Tyler Myers (D, Sabres) — Myers won the MVP award for his efforts during the WHL playoffs with the Kelowna Rockets last spring, when he scored five goals and set up 15 more in 22 postseason game for the Western League champs, who then went on to lose the Memorial Cup final to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. He attended the Rockets preseason training camp in August just in case, but there was only a small chance he’d be playing anywhere but Buffalo this season. The 6-foot-8 giant is the only other rookie regular aside from Hedman averaging 20 minutes a game or more in 15 contests through Nov. 11.
• Jamie Benn (LW, Stars) — Benn was part of the same Kelowna team along with Myers and Flames center Mikael Backlund that had so much postseason success last spring, and he’s made a nice transition to the pro game. Benn, along with several other factors (continued good play from sophomores James Neal and Fabian Brunnstrom; a return to form by goaltender Marty Turco; a return to health by Brenden Morrow and Brad Richards) has Dallas playing good hockey again in early 2009-10. Benn has played a lot of minutes with what would probably be considered the Stars’ top line — with Mike Ribeiro at center and Morrow on the other flank. He has three goals and 11 points through 17 games.
• Matt Gilroy (D, Rangers) — Gilroy’s success story is the stuff Hollywood makes movies about. He was a superstar in high school, leading his St. Mary’s High School team in Manhasset, N.Y. to state championships as a captain his junior and senior seasons, but drew zero interest from Division I NCAA programs, and decided to walk on at Boston University. All he did with the Terriers was earn himself three All-America nods, captain BU to a national championship last spring and be named the Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top player. After that, Gilroy had the attention of NHL teams like he never had when he was “cold calling” college coaches looking for a home. Gilroy has been solid in Gotham, bagging two goals and two assists in 18 games for the Rangers, but more importantly for a rookie defenseman, he is tied with Myers with a plus-6, the best mark among blueliners who have debuted in 2009-10, while averaging 18:55 a night.
• Jonas Gustavsson (G, Maple Leafs) — “The Monster” forced himself into the consciousness of NHL general managers and scouts last season by leading the Swedish Elite League with a 1.96 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in the regular season, before helping Farjestads win a playoff championship with mind-blowing 1.03 and .961 marks in the postseason. Much drooling and a bidding war erupted over the summer, and the Leafs won the sweepstakes. As a team Toronto has struggled mightily early in the season, though thanks to Gustavsson’s emergence and a healthy Phil Kessel, they’re showing signs of life). Gustavsson has already effectively wrestled the starting job away from Vesa Toskala, starting eight games to the Finn’s five through Nov. 11. He’s got a 3-3-3 mark and a respectable .910 save percentage in those games.
• James van Riemsdyk (LW, Flyers) — The former No. 2 overall pick in 2007 (after Patrick Kane) is tied with Tavares and O’Reilly with 14 points, and leads all newcomers with 11 assists through Nov. 11, despite missing several games after breaking the tip of his left pinky. JVR is now playing with stitches and a bandage on the injured digit, but has played most of his shifts his shifts on what would have to be considered Philly’s top line, with Jeff Carter and Daniel Briere before the injury, so he should continue to see plenty of chances to pile up points.
• Jason Demers (D, Sharks) — Demers was not a guy on a lot of people’s rookie radars coming into the season, but he is now after chipping in 10 assists through 19 games, and with Rob Blake out of the lineup, he has been logging the majority of the ice time alongside Dan Boyle with the Sharks’ potent top power-play unit. That’s a good place to be. Demers led all QMJHL defensemen with 55 assists and 64 points playing with the Victoriaville Tigres in 2007-08, so the high assists total isn’t totally out of the blue (though he’d never had more than 19 assists in a season before that), but it was only after that breakout campaign that San Jose drafted a 20-year old Demers in the seventh round, so he would have to be considered a late bloomer. Whatever, he’s playing great now.
• Nicklas Bergfors (RW, Devils) — The Devils have waited a long time for this former 23rd overall pick in 2005 to put it all together. Bergfors had a solid rookie year in the AHL in 2005-06 with the Albany River Rats (17 goals, 23 assists, 40 points), but had sagged to 32 and 27 points in the past two seasons, respectively, and had played just nine NHL games before starting this season in the NHL, with one goal to show for it. He’s finally responding, netting four goals and five assists through 16 games, playing mostly third- and fourth-line minutes.
• Nikita Filatov (LW, Blue Jackets) — The Russian winger played in only eight games in 2008-09, and showed flashes of his potential — including bagging a hat trick in a game against the Wild on Jan. 10. But he had only one other point beside that (a goal), and has averaged only a little more than 8 minutes a game through 12 games in ’09-10. The sixth overall pick in the 2008 draft probably won’t be winning the Calder Trophy this season, but I think there’s still a good chance he’ll get a shot to prove himself at some point this year, and he’ll deliver. So far, he’s getting support from his teammates and saying all the right things through some sparse playing time, and is keeping up a good attitude.
• Davis Drewiske (D, Kings) — It says a lot about how well Drewiske has played in the early part of 2009-10 that the Kings gave him a three-year, $600,000 contract extension last month. That may not be huge money, but keep in mind the Kings farm system is stocked deep with high draft picks at the defense position — Thomas Hickey, Colten Teubert and Viacheslav Voinov all rank among L.A.’s top six prospects according to Hockey’s Future. Drewiske played four seasons at the University of Wisconsin, helping the Badgers win a national championship as a sophomore in 2005-06, and captaining the team as a senior. He leads all rookie defensemen with a plus-9 through 19 games, and also with 30 blocked shots.
• Semyon Varlamov (G, Capitals) — Varlamov was probably the most known NHL commodity among these rookies coming into the new season, courtesy of his solid play in helping Washington reach the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring. But he has found himself on the skinny end of a time share with hot-and-cold veteran Jose Theodore so far this season, posting a lukewarm 2.90 GAA and .905 save percentage in his eight games played, despite recording a 6-1-0 record in those opportunities. I think Varlamov will end up as the Caps’ starter eventually when he heats up following a predictable Theodore slump. It may have already happened: the Russian netminder sparked a big comeback win over the Islanders on Tuesday night in Washington, stopping 25 of 26 shots in relief after Theodore yielded three goals on New York’s first five shots of the game, before stoning the Isles through 10 rounds of an epic shootout after allowing Jeff Tambellini to score on the first attempt he faced.
The frontrunner for the Calder so far is probably Tavares, simply because he probably had the inside track as the much-hyped first overall pick and he has done nothing to disappoint in the least so far. If he continues to produce like he has, he’ll cruise to the rookie of the year award. That said, should Tavares stumble van Riemsdyk and O’Reilly have played their way into consideration early. Gustavsson could factor in if he keeps standing on his head in Toronto, and as well as some of the defensemen have played, it’s really hard for a D-man to build the kind of backing to win the Calder as is needed.
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Penguins Skate the Cup: C’est Magnifique!
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a good bet a lot of the revelry Friday night in the Penguins locker room after they clinched the Stanley Cup in Detroit was in French.
Friday’s climactic Game 7 had a very French-Canadian flavor to it, with six of the players skating the Cup for the winning team hailing from the province of Quebec — including Max Talbot, who scored both goals in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 victory at Joe Louis Arena, and Marc-Andre Fleury, whose goaltending in Games 6 and 7 was the single-most crucial factor in the Pens successfully overcoming a 3-2 series deficit. In addition to Talbot and Fleury, Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis, Phillipe Boucher and backup goalie Mathieu Garon were all born in Quebec.
Talbot and Fleury are good friends, and have a pre-game ritual performed in French in which they “talk about their boyhood days, their shared experiences on the Canadian junior teams, [and] their good fortune in getting paid to play hockey on its highest level,” explains Robert Dvorchak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Penguins carried play in the first period, but went to the dressing room unrewarded on the scoreboard. Then Talbot serendipitously found the puck on his stick after Brad Stuart’s ill-advised clearing attempt out of his corner glanced off Evgeni Malkin’s skate and right to the Lemoyne native, and Talbot didn’t miss. It was a huge goal, and sucked the life out of the Joe Louis Arena crowd. After Talbot went down the line in front of his bench to get the customary fist bumps, he took a few strides toward his buddy, exchanged a meaningful glance and a fist pump for Fleury, as if to say “OK, we got one. Now it’s your turn.”
On the other end of the ice, it was clear early that Fleury was just as engaged in Game 7 as he was in Game 6 in Pittsburgh, and it was going to be really tough for the Red Wings to beat the Sorel native on this night. He was reading plays very well, his positioning was flawless and there was a sense he might just pitch a shutout. Indeed Detroit didn’t get on the scoreboard until only about 6 minutes remained in the contest, on a goal by rookie defenseman Jonathan Ericsson through a screen that Fleury likely never saw. While he may have caught a break when Niklas Kronwall’s blast smacked loudly off the crossbar with about 2 minutes left, he saved his best stop of the evening for last, desperately flinging his body in front of Nicklas Lidstrom’s last-gasp shot from point-blank range with a second remaining. It was a pretty good scoring chance, given the circumstances, and Fleury’s lunging save will be one of the enduring images from the game, along with the scruffy-looking, yet baby-faced Sidney Crosby triumphantly holding the Cup over his head, a coronation not just for Sid the Kid and the Penguins, but seemingly a new generation of NHL superstars.
Another image that will stay with me is that of another Quebecer, Mario Lemieux, the new unofficial mayor of Pittsburgh, again hoisting the Cup over his head 17 years after winning the second of back-to-back championships with the Penguins in 1991 and ’92, and listening to the effusive praise from Talbot, who was being interviewed by Pierre McGuire on NBC at the time, for Mario:
“When he’s in the room, he pushes us,” Talbot said, mentioning that Lemieux delivered a note to the team before Game 7. “He’s an unbelievable guy, and he’s a winner. Once again.”
Lemieux hoisting the Cup, then and now.
Earlier last week, another of the Pens Francophiles, spare defenseman Boucher from St. Apollinaire, told Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review what Lemieux means to French Canadians: “When French Canadians think of hockey, [Lemieux’s name] is the one that comes to mind.”
Having said that, while French Canadians can and should continue to take pride in the gracious Montreal native, Lemieux now belongs as much to Pittsburgh as he does to his native province, and probably more so.
Mario Lemieux Upper Deck Original Art
Is it possible for any person in sports history to endear themselves to a fan base more than Lemieux, who is as much a part of the fabric of Pittsburgh as the steel industry, and the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers? He has now saved the Penguins franchise in Pittsburgh twice over, first vaulting the club from irrelevant, laughable bottom-dwellers to perennial Cup contenders upon his entry into the league in 1984-85. He played his entire spectacular 17-year career with the Pens, then bought the team in 1999 by turning the money owed him by the team in the form of deferred salary into equity in the franchise, saving the Pens from bankruptcy that very nearly led to the team’s extinction in Pittsburgh. They were close to either moving or folding completely, but Lemieux’s plan to pay all the team’s creditors was successful, and now they will play one more season in the NHL’s oldest building, Mellow Arena, affectionately known as “The Igloo,” before moving into a shiny new home beginning with the 2010-11 season, thanks to Mario.
And of course, he’s been Crosby’s landlord and surrogate father since Sid joined the Penguins in 2005.
Rossi says the Penguins are thinking of placing a statue of Lemieux outside the new Consol Energy Center when it opens, but the humble owner would have to OK that arrangement.
Some random thoughts and notes: As mentioned Friday, it had been 30 years since a visiting team in either the Stanley Cup Finals, World Series or NBA Finals won a Game 7 on the road — the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s only happened three times in NHL history, the last time coming in 1971, when the Montreal Canadiens bested the Chicago Black Hawks. That series played out the same way as this one did, with the home team winning the first six games before the Habs broke serve in Game 7.
• For those that may have forgotten, it was Talbot who scored with 35 seconds left in regulation last year that tied Game 5 and denied Detroit the privilege of celebrating another Cup on home ice, when the Penguins went on to win that contest in three overtimes before bowing out in Game 6.
• I enjoy playing fantasy hockey in the winter, and next year I’m making it a priority to target Jordan Staal, who I think grew by leaps and bounds this postseason. I think Letang is another guy who will be undervalued heading into 2009-10.
• One of this offseason’s more interesting unrestricted free agents, in my opinion, is stay-at-home defenseman Rob Scuderi. He will surely require a raise from his $725,000 salary of 2008-09.
• When commissioner Gary Bettman handed the Cup to the 21-year old Crosby, Sid became the youngest captain in NHL history to hoist sports most treasured trophy, just as he was the youngest player in history to be named an NHL captain before the 2007-08 season. Malkin (22) is the third-youngest player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.
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Game 7: For All the Marbles. Do or Die. No Tomorrow
Posted by: | CommentsIt seems only fitting that we’d squeeze one more game of awesomeness from this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.
If you’ve been watching this postseason slate of hockey closely, it’s hard not to appreciate the exceptional ride it’s been — more so than in most years. There have been so many signature moments, so many unique story lines:
•The epic first installment of Ovechkin vs. Crosby/Malkin, a seven-game cliffhanger that saw all but two games decided by one goal.
• The coming-out party for Blackhawks prodigies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane during Chicago’s run to the Western Conference Finals.
• The memorable aforementioned second round, with three of the four series going the seven-game distance.
• San Jose making yet another way-too-early playoff exit, likely their most spectacular flameout in team history, as the President’s Trophy winners bowed in six games in the opening round.
• And, of course, the hockey marvel that is the Detroit Red Wings, who just find ways to keep winning, no matter what.
I am by no means a Red Wings fan, inclined to dislike all the old Norris Division rivals of the Minnesota North Stars team I grew up rooting for. Those old prejudices have faded considerably over time (It still irks me that Gary Bettman and the NHL placed the Wild in a division with such obvious geographic foes in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Colorado … makes total sense, right?). At this point in my life I find myself simply appreciating teams and players for what they are, or at least I try to, and what the Red Wings are is the best team in North American professional sports, period.
The Red Wings have only three players on their roster who were first-round draft picks, and only one that they selected themselves (Dan Cleary, No. 13 overall in 1997). The other two, Brad Stuart and Marian Hossa, were drafted by other teams and acquired through trades. The other three teams that advanced to the conference finals had several more first-rounders on their rosters: Carolina had nine, Pittsburgh has eight and Chicago had seven.
Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom are arguably two of the 10 most valuable hockey players to their team as there are in the NHL, and neither of them has played a healthy game in this series. Datsyuk has been outstanding the past two games, with two assists and a plus-2 mark in a 5-0 Game 5 shutout at home, and made some spectacular plays to set up scoring chances in both. But the Wings had to do without him in the first four games of the series, as well as the final three games with Chicago in the Western Conference Finals.
Lidstrom, on the other hand, has found a way to stay on the ice, missing only two games with his “lower-body injury” in the series with Chicago. The six-time Norris Trophy winner has two assists and is plus-3 in this series, but he’s looked pretty wobbly, and while defensively he’s been pretty solid, offensively he isn’t as spry as he usually would be.
Despite that, the Wings have hardly missed a beat. They have proven themselves to be the deepest team in hockey, that’s for sure, and even with a banged-up Datsyuk and Lidstrom, Detroit is the consensus favorite on their home ice tonight for Game 7, and for good reason.
Justin Abdelkader dressed in place of Datsyuk early in the series, and all he did was score a goal each in Games 1 and 2 — the first two goals of his NHL career. Darren Helm has been a revelation in these playoffs, scoring four goals and playing solid at both ends of the ice in all situations, including one of the greatest penalty-killing shifts I’ve ever seen in the Game 5 clincher against Chicago before eventually notching the winning score in overtime. Dan Cleary has stepped up with nine goals (three game-winners), and is fourth on the squad with 15 points. Valtteri Filppula is third on the team with 16 points in the playoffs (three goals, 13 helpers), and Lidstrom’s countryman, bruising defenseman Niklas Kronwall, has helped pick up the slack on the back line.
Prediction time
As the cliché goes, you throw out all the stats for a Game 7. So with that in mind, I’m picking the Penguins to win tonight, despite an avalanche of numbers that don’t support their candidacy. The key is Marc-Andre Fleury, who was absolutely brilliant in Game 6, not so much in Game 5 and several other contests this spring.
As I said a few weeks ago, I don’t fully trust Fleury, and he was awful in getting pulled from Game 5 last Saturday. Some people wondered if he’d be haunted by that performance in Game 6, but he wasn’t. To his credit he’s been at his best when the Penguins were in their most dire straits in these playoffs, and in 2008. The signature game of his career so far was his 55-save performance in Game 5 in Detroit last year, when he was the main reason the Pens were able to force a sixth game. He wasn’t able to reproduce that effort in Game 6, and actually knocked Henrik Zetterberg’s eventual game-winning goal into his own net, sitting on top of a relatively innocuous rebound in the crease after losing sight of it.
In the second round this season, Pittsburgh beat Washington 6-2 in an anticlimactic Game 7 on the road, but a nearly forgotten moment in that game came early when Fleury denied Alex Ovechkin on a stone-cold breakaway when the game was scoreless, flashing his glove hand and doing the full splits to rob the world’s most dangerous goal scorer.
Sometimes a lot is made of a team scoring the first goal, but I think the key for the Penguins will be if Fleury is sharp early and can make that first big save, because you have to think the Wings will come out flying, energized by what I’m sure will be an insane Joe Louis Arena crowd.
The thing with Fleury is he’s either feast or famine. He’s a former No. 1 overall pick — the first goaltender ever to be selected with the top pick — so the talent has always been there. If I were drafting an NHL team today, there’d be a lot of goaltenders I’d take before “The Flower.” But when he’s good, he’s really good, it’s just that he’s not always good. It’s simple: If Fleury can tame the bouncy “Flubber Boards” at The Joe (and you’d think he’d have adjusted by now, after three games this year and three last year), and is on his game, I think the Pens steal the first road win of this series and skate with the Cup. If he goes MIA again, they’ll be partying in the Motor City tonight.
• If the Penguins win tonight, Evgeni Malkin will be an easy choice as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He leads all players with 21 assists and 35 points, and trails only Sidney Crosby, by just one goal, for the top spot with 14. He’s got seven power-play scores and three game-winners.
If Detroit holds serve and wins their fifth Cup in 13 seasons, I think Chris Osgood wins his first Conn Smythe to go with his fourth Stanley Cup ring — third as a Wings starter. Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press thinks this is a huge game for Osgood beyond the obvious reason, and as I said a few weeks back, I agree.
“[I]t’s not a stretch to think that a victory tonight, with a good performance by Osgood, secures him: 1) a fourth Stanley Cup, 2) a Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs, 3) a historic footnote as the goalie who stymied Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and 4) the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And if the Wings lose, he might not get any of that.”
Now lets take a closer look at some of those “meaningless” stats and facts that will have little or no impact on tonight’s game.
• The Red Wings are 11-1 at Joe Louis Arena this postseason, and it took the Anaheim Ducks three overtimes to pin that renegade loss on them in Game 2 of the second round.
• Road teams playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals and World Series have not fared well in recent years, and in fact it has been 30 years since a road team won a Game 7 in a final series. It was, however, a Pittsburgh team that pulled it off, when the 1979 Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles.
• The Penguins have three players who have participated in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals before: Craig Adams (Carolina, 2006), Ruslan Fedotenko (Tampa Bay, ’04) and Petr Sykora (Anaheim ’03). Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma also played for the Mighty Ducks when they lost to the Devils in ’03, and the coach of that Ducks team? Current Red Wings skipper Mike Babcock.
Brian Rafalski, a Dearborn, Michigan native and already the owner of three Stanley Cup rings, played for that Devils team and also the one that lost the finals in seven games to the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. He is the only Red Wings player to appear in a Game 7 championship tilt.
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Dear Brett: Please Stay Home
Posted by: | CommentsI have to admit it: as a Vikings fan, I’m very torn on my opinion of the latest Brett Favre saga that has been unfolding over the last month or so. My opinion swings back and forth depending on the day, my mood, the weather. I know that’s not necessarily a great foundation for an opinion piece, but I think Vikings fans should be — and in few cases, are — more conflicted on this than it seems they are.
On one hand, The Purple don’t necessarily have an obviously better alternative to the future Hall of Famer on their current roster. The Vikings drafted (and most certainly, reached) for Tarvaris Jackson in the second round in the 2006 draft, thinking he would be The Guy, and he hasn’t been. Then in February, they traded for journeyman backup Sage Rosenfels, who it is assumed (hoped?) will be the starter once the season begins — in a Favre-less Vikings world. My favorite description of Rosenfels at the time of that deal was that he was a “rich man’s Gus Frerotte,” referencing the backup QB who eventually took the starter’s job from Tarvaris after the young Alabama State product had two dreadful games to start last season. Frerotte led them back to some moderate respectability before eventually giving way in time for TJack to oversee a first-round playoff exit. “A rich man’s Gus Frerotte” is not an inspiring comparison.
It’s pretty widely accepted that the main issue handicapping the Vikings — owners of the NFL’s best running back in Adrian Peterson, a stout offensive line and a rock-solid defense highlighted by arguably the best defensive line in football — is the lack of a bona fide starting NFL quarterback. That certainly makes Favre an appealing option.
On the other hand, there are all sorts of ways this thing could turn out badly for the Vikings if Favre ends up in the fold. And furthermore, it’s kind of degrading waiting on him to make up his mind, knowing that the main reason he’s interested in playing in Minnesota in the first place is revenge. He wants to stick it to the Packers, and playing for their cross-border rivals in Minnesota is simply the most effective vehicle to do so. It’s kind of like dating a girl you know is just going out with you to get back at an old boyfriend, but she’s hot (or at least she used to be, you remember, when he was dating her) so you just ignore her empty kisses and passionless company and enjoy it while it lasts. But inside, you feel dirty.
And this Princess is turning out to be pretty high-maintenance in the waning of her hotness (and if you turn the lights on, she’s really not all that attractive anymore anyway). Everything is going to be done when Princess is good and ready, if at all, and don’t expect her to come visit you for organized team activities (perhaps stretching the analogy a little bit there).
All the while, we don’t much like the old boyfriend either, so we’re more than willing to go along with the ruse, even though the old boyfriend dumped Princess because she was past her prime, and ultimately not worth waiting on every year to hear whether she was going to dump them first. Now the ex has a new flame, and there’s little question in my mind Aaron Rodgers is a better catch right now than Favre.
But none if this messiness changes the fact that the Packers are going to retire Favre’s No. 4 some day, and when they do their fans will all stand and applaud, the lovefest will resume, and with time the indignity of his playing for the Vikings will be forgotten — even if he were to win a championship in Minnesota.
And therein lies the main problem I have. The Vikings’ judgment is being clouded by their eternal yearning for that elusive championship. If you could guarantee the Purple would go to the Super Bowl and lose with Favre under center, a lot of Vikings fans would sign up just for that chance; but many Vikings fans older than I have been there, done that before. Once upon a time, nobody lost Super Bowls as effectively and as often as the Vikings, but now even those modest, empty successes (some might call them epic failures) are a distant memory (and nothing but a fuzzy rumor to someone my age). But if you make this move, it’s Super Bowl or bust. Because if it doesn’t work, suddenly you’re left with even fewer QB options on the other end of this experiment as you have now.
Vikings fans have long since given up on Tarvaris — some of them before he even took an NFL snap — but the organization says it hasn’t. Trading for Rosenfels and committing to a two-year contract for him isn’t exactly the biggest vote of confidence for TJack, but he really hasn’t done much to warrant one. If the Vikings weren’t convinced in March and April that these two guys were the answer though, why not go after Jay Cutler, a quarterback who at least has a future in the NFL, something that can’t really be said of Favre (or, many Vikes fans will argue, Jackson or Rosenfels)?
Under the Favre-in-purple scenario, in two years No. 4 will hopefully (mercifully) be retired, Jackson will have atrophied on the bench for two seasons he couldn’t afford to do so, and Rosenfels will be an unrestricted free agent. John David Booty, the former USC quarterback whom the Vikings drafted in 2008, likely would be looking for a job this fall as the fourth QB on the depth chart right now. The Vikings didn’t draft a quarterback in ’09, so what the team intends to do in a potential post-Favre era is unclear.
I would have less of a problem with the whole situation if Favre weren’t being so maddeningly selfish. If you want to play fine, go for it. But if Brett Favre truly didn’t know in February that he wanted to play football again in 2009, he was the only one. So he waited until May to have the operation on his shoulder, mathematically guaranteeing that he would be unable to participate in last month’s OTAs while he waits to see if his arm is healthy enough to play. Of course nobody, even Favre, is that indecisive. He just doesn’t want to put in the work before he’s good and ready. He thinks he’s good enough to just stroll into training camp, shake some hands, give a few sound bites and go out and be The Legend that John Madden and so many other media folk have been breathlessly telling him that he is for most of the past two decades.
So once again, he has put an entire organization (never mind a fan base) in limbo. Now Jackson and Rosenfels are working out and doing their due diligence to make sure they’re ready if called on, with the knowledge in the back of their minds that Favre could swoop in and render all their preparation meaningless at his own personal whim. It means that receivers will be busting their tails in workouts with a quarterback who may not be throwing the ball to them when it counts.
Make no mistake, if Favre’s shoulder is healthy, he will be quarterbacking the Minnesota Vikings this season. And Vikes fans will smile, bury their self esteem and welcome the aging beauty with open arms.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Dream on Yankees Fans: Mauer Will Be a Twins Lifer
Posted by: | CommentsJoe Mauer may single-handedly force me to order the MLB Extra Innings package if he keeps hitting like this.
The Twins catcher is on one of the all-time great hitting tears I’ve ever seen — certainly among players belonging to my favorite baseball team — and sadly I’ve missed much of it so far.
Of course, one of the crosses to bear of being a Twins fan, or of any other small-market baseball franchise for that matter, is that any time a player on your team enters the conversation among the best players in the game, it comes complete with speculation about which Country Club franchise that player will end up with once he hits the open market as a free agent (see Santana, Johan).
Indeed, there was already no shortage of Yankees, Red Sox and other teams’ fan forums and bloggers licking their chops over Mauer’s impending free agency following the 2010 season, and that speculation has increased dramatically now that Joe has added home-run power to his great batting average and exceptional defense. Remember, this is a guy who is the only catcher in the history of the American League to win a batting championship, and he’s already done it twice at the young age of 26.
But as far as Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs and Dodgers fans are concerned, speculate all you want — you can’t have Mauer. The sooner you all accept this reality and move on, the easier it will be. He will never hit that free-agent market.
Here’s a prediction for you: Joe Mauer will someday be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and when he does he will be wearing the hat of the Minnesota Twins — the only Major League team he’ll have ever played for.
Yeah the Twins are scrooges, and they have time and again let their fans down by failing to lock up popular, star players in time to stave off their free agencies (see Hunter, Torii), thereby being forced to either let them walk away for nothing or trade them for whatever they can get (see Viola, Frank). But mark my words, Mauer will be different.
Twins fans are still smarting over Santana’s departure two winters ago. It’s very difficult to accept the fact that my team traded away the best pitcher in baseball, and possibly a future Hall of Famer himself, in the sweet spot of his prime. The fact the Twins seemingly didn’t get much value in return only makes it sting worse. Twins fans had trouble accepting that both Johan and Torii were lost in the same offseason, but the truth of the matter is the team’s brass was looking a few years down the road in letting them leave. Because there’s no way the Twins could have afforded to have big fat contracts for Santana, Hunter, Mauer and former AL MVP Justin Morneau on the books all at the same time. They chose, presumably, to focus on the latter two components of that equation.
The Twins are penny-pinchers, make no mistake, but they’ve also shown in the past that they will occasionally spend the dough on their cornerstone players. In this case, there were just too many cornerstone players to accommodate at once, so priorities had to be set (Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually sticking up for Twins GM Bill Smith).
Remember, Kirby Puckett became the first $3-million man when the Twins gave him a three-year deal for $9 million in 1989. At the time, it was the richest contract in baseball history. The Twins recognized that Puckett was an extremely valuable commodity who was worth the investment, and they did what they needed to do.
As popular as Puckett was in his day — the most popular Twins player in Minnesota in my lifetime — Mauer is more popular still. One of my favorite Twin Cities radio personalities, KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, long ago labeled Mauer “The Baby Jesus,” because the man can seemingly do no wrong in the eyes of most Twins fans and Minnesota media members. He is “One of Us,” born and raised in St. Paul, taken with the first overall pick in the draft of 2001, and he was already on the radar of Minnesota sports fans while winning high school state championships in baseball, football and basketball at Cretin-Derham Hall long before the average guy in the rest of the baseball universe knew who he was.
There are only two scenarios I envision where Mauer ever hits the open market. One, the Twins upset him by trying to low-ball him when negotiations begin on his next contract extension, and I don’t believe that will happen. The other possibility is that, having lived in Minnesota his entire life, Mauer decides he actually wants to sample life in the spotlight of New York, Boston, Chicago or Los Angeles. But it’s hard for me to imagine the seemingly humble Mauer, with his “Aw, Shucks” persona, yearning for that kind of attention.
Because I don’t think money is going to be the driving force for Mauer. That’s not to say he’s going to sign for nothing, all for the love of playing in his home state. But I believe that he would accept less money than the market might bear to stay home, close to his tight-knit, baseball-loving family, and continue playing with his buddy Morneau.
Oh yes, don’t underestimate the deep friendship between the Twins’ top two sluggers. The two of them shared a bachelor pad in their younger days with the Twins, and Mauer stood up as a groomsman in Morneau’s wedding this past winter. That friendship doesn’t guarantee anything, but if the two wish to continue playing together for the same team — and I believe they do — it would obviously be far easier to do so by staying put. Morneau is already locked up long-term, and the word around the Cities is he is an active lobbyist in convincing Mauer to do the same.
As Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman wrote in a column earlier this week:
The Twins have Morneau signed to a long-term contract through 2013.
But what about Mauer? Like Jerry Bell, president of Twins Sports, Inc., said the other day, “The Yankees have already got him measured for a uniform.”
But then Bell added, “Rest assured, we will find a way to keep Joe.”
(Wow, I can’t believe I just quoted a Sid Hartman column. I feel dirty.)
In addition to being the best catcher in baseball — and if he continues to hit at anything close to his current clip, one of the best hitters in the game, period — Mauer, with his GQ good looks, has made baseball fans and Twins fans out of thousands of women who would not otherwise have embraced the team. Let’s acknowledge a reality here: While there are legions of women in this world who love baseball and sports for the competitive aspect and the game itself, there’s also plenty of women who enjoy sports simply because they enjoy watching good-looking, athletically-built, genetically-blessed and extraordinarily wealthy young men. And Joe Mauer is a lot of all those things (so is Morneau, for that matter).
In every way a pro athlete can be marketable and valuable to his team, Mauer is close to the ideal. So with (insincere) apologies to the blue-blooded fans of all of baseball’s power élite teams, time to move on to the next man crush. Minnesota’s version of the M&M Boys are going nowhere.
Popularity: unranked [?]
