Friday, June 25, 2010

D-Day

Yes

So here we are.

Must admit---now that we've had a few days to digest it---we're feeling ambivalent about this week's big trade.

No question Byfuglien is a nifty guy, but was he worth Jeremy Morin? Of course Morin might come to nothing, but I'm having nightmares about him scoring goals in a Blackhawks jersey. Essentially, we've become seriously grittier and more physical, which is good, but I worry about our stock of players who can put the puck in the net.

It seems we've built up something resembling the supporting cast of the Chicago Blackhawks (which now includes actual Chicago Blackhawks) without ATL equivalents to Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews. Who, after all, were the biggest factors in turning around Chicago's misery. I'm willing to learn, though: if I'm mistaken, just who are our equivalents to Toews and (P.) Kane? Or Hossa, for that matter....

BUT I'm willing to suspend serious judgement until this team actually starts playing. And of course the team isn't even completely assembled yet; who knows what might happen during free agency?

So, draft day. My own opinion is that we have no choice but to trade our #8 pick for a decent top-six forward, but that probably won't happen. I'm a bit wary of this #8 position, but who knows? We might get a Devin Setoguchi.

We could have gotten the ACTUAL Devin Setoguchi at #8 in 2005, but we traded down and picked up Alex Bourret instead. An argument against my "trade the 8th thing" argument? Perhaps, but I say WRONG LESSON TO LEARN TRADE IT DUDLEY, etc.

Now. If I could choose any player within range of this #8 pick, I'd take Swiss hero Nino Niederreiter and greet him with chiming cow bells and Roger Federer statuettes.

He'll be gone by #8, though, so....who's left?

Why not his Portland Winterhawks teammate Ryan Johansen? Uh, yeah, let's go with Ryan Johansen. Playing on the same team as Niederreiter makes him close enough, and he's probably related to Scarlet Johansson, despite the varied spellings (that's Hollywood for you).

Anyway, yeah, um...so it looks like Chronicle operative "Krisabee" and her inconvenient boyfriend Mr. Speaker are dragging Monsieur Catalogues and me to the Official Draft Party at Philip's tonight, which could be interesting. Never been to one of these official Thrashers draft parties before.

Happy Draft Friday, comrades. Drive carefully if not safely.

5 comments:

j_barty_party said...

Oh, so now I'm inconvenient? I thought I was simply crass, boorish, trucculent and surly??

Well, no matter. I'll try not to leave you at Philips under the railroad trestle whence leaving tonite from the party. ;-)

Okay, so comparisons...I'll play.

Our P. Kane - well, Evander. Duh.

Our Hossa - Antropov?? He's foreign so that counts.

Our Bolland - Slater...uh oh!

Our Byfuglien - Artyukhin? No wait! I know this, I swear!

Our Sharp - DICKY PEVS! Adv - ATL

Our Versteeg - "Fly" Pettersson!!

Our Madden - aw fuck, come back Marty, pleeeeeaaaaassssee!!

Our Bergfors - HA! They don't have a miserable Swedish SOB like us!

Our Toews - uhhhh, Jeremy Morin!!

NOOOOOOOOO!!! FUCK NOOOOOOO!!

Mortimer Peacock said...

I think Niclas Bergfors is Kris Versteeg, possibly better. Evander Kane I see as Patrick Sharp, but if things go REALLY well he's our Toews and Bryan Little is our Sharp.

Maybe Bogosian will become our Duncan Keith.

GoPuckYourself said...

I'm excited for Rick Dudley to go third person on us and thank himself in the process for all his hard work in building the Blackhawks cup-winning team.

Oh man, please let this happen.

Did anybody else see that Chicago wanted Cormier instead of Morin in that trade? I missed that. Hmm.

Oh, and if you're looking for a place to watch USA-Ghana, it's the Brewhouse in Little 5. Come down, wear your Glenn Beck t-shirts and scream like a Twilight fan. Unless you're actually a Twilight fan. In which case, shut the hell up and stay home.

Big Shooter said...

I've been to a few official draft parties. Not trying to be negative, but based on what I was looking for (being able to actually HEAR the draft for ALL the teams, not just what Mr. Eliot was telling the radio about us)... they all sucked.

Have fun!

GoPuckYourself said...

Thankfully whatever deal we had worked out with the Blues that involved Kubina & Ten Gallon is dead.

Trade Ten Gallon!? Surely not....