So your Chronicle editor is trying to enjoy his lunch hour by drinking a whiskey-and-coke to take the edge off his case of swine flu, reading a bit in the first volume of G.M. Trevelyan's great trilogy about Garibaldi, and listening to NWA and Rick Astley. Miserable as I am with this were-pig sickness, I'm enjoying relatively untroubled thoughts about the Atlanta Thrashers. From where I sit, the future looks bright, especially if we get that damn Kovalchuk contract signed.
Then I look up from Trevelyan on Garibaldi, "Never Gonna Give You Up" blaring in my earphones, and click my way to Rawhide's blog. I read the following:
Thrashers’ GM Don Waddell had this to say two years ago regarding the contract talks with Marian Hossa:
“It’s progressing, and as long as we continue to have the kind of talks that we had, they’re very upbeat and on target with where we’re headed, then at some point here we’ll be able to announce a deal,”
Contrast that with his recent comments to Chris Vivlamore:
“We’ve had several face-to-face meetings…We’ve had some very, very long discussions….I feel very confident that at some point - I don’t know when that point will be - but at some point, we will get a contract done”.
The similarities in those two comments are spookily similar, don’t ya think?
Oh man. My first impulse when I read this kind of thing is, of course, to panic. But when I look at the two DW comments again, I have to say there's a slight difference. I hate to disagree with our esteemed friend, and that recurring "at some point" certainly gives me pause, but let's examine these two comments a bit more closely-er:
The Hossa comment: "It’s progressing, and as long as we continue to have the kind of talks that we had, they’re very upbeat and on target with where we’re headed, then at some point here we’ll be able to announce a deal."
This DW comment is just vague all the way through, and therefore it's impossible draw anything concrete or meaningful out of it. In some ways, "on target with where we're headed" is pretty accurate: I'm sure that by that point Hossa was well on his way to jumping ship.
The Kovalchuk comment: "We’ve had several face-to-face meetings…We’ve had some very, very long discussions….I feel very confident that at some point - I don’t know when that point will be - but at some point, we will get a contract done."
This is still a bit vague, which is inevitable with any kind of PR-to-reporter-speak, but I think DW is much more specific here. He clearly says there have been face-to-face meetings (even "very, very long discussions"!) and he says that HE'S confident, not that the talks themselves have been "upbeat" or whatever. I feel like we're on better footing here.
But then again, I might be wrong, and should sink further into swine panic. Whatever the truth about the Kovalchuk negotiations might be, Rick knows my heart:
P.S. Not to mention the fact that Kovalchuk is the captain, the Czar, the franchise player, seems to feel committed to the team, etc. This is common knowledge.
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8 comments:
Funny enough Mort..I was thinking close to the same thing the other day...Didn't we hear all kinds of positive things about signing Hossa?..only to watch him go away...
I do however agree with you...one of the main things to keep in mind is this..Hossa came here on a trade from Ottawa...he signed with the Sens.not the Thrashers and I don't think he had any intention of staying here..the Czar on the other hand has repeatedly stated that he likes it here..hell even that Russian article they kept asking him why he doesn't ditch the whole thing to come back to the Rodina and he stated he's got a commitment to Atlanta...I think we'll see ole 17 for many years to come in Thrasher blue
Also Kovy's statements in the past are a bit different. Hossa was just going along keep a proper PR stance. They are two different characters so to a level they can't be treated the same. Kovy was drafted here, is the captain, has a family, is having another kid, is the franchise, and so on. It's a little different. Kovy has some higher responsibilities than Hossa.
Yeah, the Kovy situation is different from Hossagate in so many ways. Like you say, Hossa came here in an unexpected trade that he didn't want; Kovy has an actual connection to the team, likes it here, etc.
I can see where you would need to keep a positive spin on contract negotions no matter what's happening. It's not like Waddell could have come out and said "I'm not getting anywhere with that Slovakian bastard, he's as good as gone"
I still find it amazing that people read our blog.
Dude...your blog is the shiznit. Your blog and that of the Falconer was the impetus for me starting mine. The reporting staff here at the chronicle rocks!!
^ dito,except for creating my own blog. I'm just not that good of a writer. So the chronicle is like a daily read for me
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
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