I could stop a train without brakes with Davey Jones in the engine room, I tell you.
Just a few hours later I wrote this, Penguins and Evgeni Malkin have agreed on the same four-year, $24.4 million deal, which appears to be the end of the street-hopping game, and a contract that Malkin has decided will likely not be enough to keep him. And then, when both Pens and Malkin have that moment in a romantic comedy where they look at each other from down the street, while it’s almost certainly raining, let’s watch.”Bitter Sweet Symphony“Start playing (“Heartbreak A Stranger“If you’re working with a director who knows what they’re doing), and they realize all the mistakes and blunders that happened in the previous two hours doesn’t matter much when in the end only the two of them can. tolerate them being themselves. They then run towards each other at the climax of whatever memorized song the director has chosen.
So the free management company NHL definitely kicked in before it started, today at noon Eastern, as Malkin was immediately replaced at the top of the market by Johnny Gaudreau. The Flames announced that Johnny Hockey will not be returning to the Flames, as he wants to leave for “family reasons”.” ( i.e. play somewhere on the East Coast or Tri-bang area). The Flyers don’t have much of a position to reel in big fish like Gaudreau, but he’s from Philly-half of the Jersey and the Flyers would have a hard time trying to cram him into a team that won’t be competitive for years just for the sake of it. Devils are another hot rumour, as they’re actually growing and have a hub that Gaudreau can play with (Jack Hughes, even though their games are very similar) instead of just pretending to be Flyers. There will be no shortage of suitors, as this is the 100-point winger currently for the highest bidder.
It was a gut punch for the Flames, who had only been briefed on Gaudreau’s wishes on the eve of free agency now with little time for Plan B. Had they known the draft in advance, they might have in Alex DeBrincat discuss and at least alternate goals if not Gaudreau’s playstyle. Can they hope to force Ondrej Palat north with the money they allotted to Gaudreau? Or do they try to go deep and sign two or three players with the $9-10 million they’ve spent?
Or is this the end of the Flame era, if Matthew Tkachuk is really trying to find a way out of town as it was whispered? If the Flames conclude that they can’t keep Keith Tkachuk and Gaudreau’s trash son away and they can’t replace him in any way, do they have to take a step back and figure out what’s next are not? Their division is still bad and they can still easily make it to the knockout stages, and that’s usually enough for some teams, but it’s also a great way to finish in Nowheresville without nothing but some unimportant memories.
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That wasn’t the end of an intriguing Free Agency Eve, as Palat took a page from Malkin’s playbook and announced he will be testing the market (we’re assuming it’s multiple-choice, nyuk nyuk nyuk). There was always going to come a day when the Lightning couldn’t keep their Cup-winning depth together, and it may be now. Palat has been the do-it-all forward who pops in the biggest moments, and while his loss won’t be a death blow to the Lightning per se, his removal from Tampa takes them from scary monster to mere contender.
Should be quite the frenzy this afternoon, as NHL free agency rarely waits around. Which makes you wonder about tampering, but that’s for the crusty old crowd to worry about. Gaudreau can definitely shift a few teams’ fortunes, and Palat could be a final piece for teams that think they’re on the cusp (or, y’know, the Rangers). And then we can put hockey back in the bag until training camp, which is always the best part of free agency.
I’ll end this selfishly, as I’m always a sucker for a great team goal. Step up, Austin FC, who string together seven passes here that covers the entire length of the field for their third goal to cap off a 3-1 win over Houston Dynamo last night:
Ask why people like me watch soccer and it’s for stuff like this. I don’t listen to classical music, but this is the point of it as I understand it, several people with different job descriptions blending together to create something as one that dings a tuning fork within you. Yes, I’m Tin Cup. What of it?
