get this:
a 20-year old swedish kid that is a-okay wearing capri pants (god, i wish i'd taken a photo of the capri pants) has been brought in to solve the calgary flames scoring troubles.... i bet that makes HEAT leading scorer & AHL all-star jason jaffray one pissed off hockey player.
it also suggests that darryl sutter is beginning to kowtow to public opinion to satiate the masses, even though he went on record last week suggesting they can pretty much all fuck themselves (i'm paraphrasing, here, but the quote i'm referring to is "I don’t really care what you think, to tell you the truth.... It doesn’t really matter what ‘everyone in the city’ thinks . . . because I can’t imagine you’ve talked to 1.2 million people.”) nice one, daz. way to keep your job.
anyhow, a couple weeks ago ---just after the second bay-area blowout in as many years--- i suggested that if backlund was called up in lieu of a trade it would be a last-gasp, desperate move by an outgoing GM. here, darryl gets the best of all worlds; he inserts young, skilled, fast talent without moving a single organizational unit in the other direction. it's a no-brainer: bring up a guy the fans want in the lineup, and put him next to iggy who needs something new.... but here's what i'm thinking: it's all show. if daz was serious about his team sinking pucks into nets, he would take the baby flames' top scorer (jason jaffray) and give HIM top-line duties. cause let's be honest, here. jaffray was given a cup of coffee with the big club a few weeks ago, but it was two games with a TOTAL of 13:10 TOI and linemates like prust and mcG.... not an ideal goal-scoring situation for a guy with 16 of 'em (and 21 assists) in 46 games.
the bottom line is that, while i'm not certain i'd predict another flames loss tonight, i don't really think backlund's gonna have a great game. for a guy that's struggled throughout his career with confidence issues, i would think getting maybe 5 shifts on the top line and then being relegated to centering the fourth line pugilists isn't gonna make the kid feel good about himself. it'll also presumeably punch his ticket back to the coast tomorrow when conroy is magically 100% again and ready to play.
here's to hoping i'm eating my words in the morning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I don't know. You're right that it reeks of desperation at the present time, but Jason Jaffray — and I love the guy — doesn't have the tools to score at that level in the NHL. In theory, Backlund does. I'd rather have seen him in the NHL from the start of the year, given serious minutes, and given the time to fail. That's my preference in the case of players like him.
But, as long as we're stuck with this, I hope you're wrong about his fate. If it doesn't work with Iggy, I hope they put him on some kind of second line rather than with Prust and the director of Charlie's Angels. As long as it's not with Jokinen, that'd be a disaster.
Jaffray is a tease. He is that unfortunate career minor leaguer that can never make the jump. After two stints with the Canucks it became clear that JJ's foot speed wasn't up to NHL standards and his role would remain to keep the Winnipeg fans paying. Even if he is leading the Heat he ain't the answer.
Post a Comment