ATD 11, Jim Coleman Finals: Inglewood Jacks (1) vs. Regina Pats (2)

[arrbez]

- Our esteemed opponent has not shown up for any debate in this series. Apparently they feel they can walk away with victory with little effort. This does not appear to be due to a lack of time: they have about 50 posts on this board since this series started. Inglewood did not show up in the last series either, and lucked out with a quick and easy victory against a motivated opponent. Will lightning strike twice? Don't count on it.

I've come to the conclusion these last couple rounds that I really love making teams, but don't enjoy the strung-out arguments about the validity of playoff points from nineteen dickity six. I just can't get motivated to spend hours researching a smear campaign against my opponent's team. If we're awarding points for research and tenacity, then by all means vote against me in a sweep.

But before you do, here's the top-5 reasons why you should vote for my team:

1. My top-6 is ****ing pimp. Malone-Denneny and Savard-Makarov are both lethal combos. Malone and Makarov are a lot closer to Lafleur than they're being credit for, and are IMO the clear #2 and 3 forwards in this series. I like that I have gamebreakers on each line.

2. TEAM OF DESTINY (and I'm never wrong about this*)

3. I have the two best defenders in this series, and perfect compliments for them. I think Chelios-Watson is perhaps the best shut-down pairing in the draft.

4. My checking line is the t!tties. The best checking duo of all time, and Ken Mosdell down the middle. And when combined with Chelios-Watson, likely the best PK in the draft.

5. Dany Heatley has nixed a trade to Regina, claiming "that place is even worse than Edmonton".


*instances where arrbez may have been misquoted about "teams of destiny" include the 1993, 1994, 1999, and 2004 Toronto Maple Leafs.

 

[vancityluongo]

I've come to the conclusion these last couple rounds that I really love making teams, but don't enjoy the strung-out arguments about the validity of playoff points from nineteen dickity six. I just can't get motivated to spend hours researching a smear campaign against my opponent's team. If we're awarding points for research and tenacity, then by all means vote against me in a sweep.

I can understand that. I personally just can't seem to get into these discussions about top-10's from way back when and stuff, although I'd like to be able to someday, and enjoy reading the stuff when it gets posted.

However...

1. My top-6 is ****ing pimp. Malone-Denneny and Savard-Makarov are both lethal combos. Malone and Makarov are a lot closer to Lafleur than they're being credit for, and are IMO the clear #2 and 3 forwards in this series. I like that I have gamebreakers on each line.

You have solid duos. All our forwards work in solid trios. Every player has a perfect purpose on each repsective three-man unit.

BTW, Nalyd, while I can't agree with you about Makorov being that close to Lafleur, he's close in terms of what he'll provide because he's on Inglewood's second line. I'll give him that "gamebreaker" status, and I'll also add Gare on our side.

2. TEAM OF DESTINY (and I'm never wrong about this*)

3. I have the two best defenders in this series, and perfect compliments for them. I think Chelios-Watson is perhaps the best shut-down pairing in the draft.

But like my co-GM brought up, we have the next four best (arguably). And, I'd like to throw this out there, the difference between Cleghorn and Chelios/Fetisov is a lot lot smaller than the difference between Lafleur and any of the Jacks forwards.

4. My checking line is the t!tties. The best checking duo of all time, and Ken Mosdell down the middle. And when combined with Chelios-Watson, likely the best PK in the draft.

Then ours is...the $ex. Yeah. You may very well have the best checking duo, but we have the best checking trio ever, all collectively assembled as a unit. And when combined with our sick top-4 d, is more likely the best PK in the draft.

5. Dany Heatley has nixed a trade to Regina, claiming "that place is even worse than Edmonton".

I had planned to bring this enigma up myself, but you have done that for me. Dany Heatley is a cancer. Harry Sinden is a okay coach for him, because Sinden the players coach, will probably let Heatley do what he wants. You're lucky that you have him in the top-6, because Heatley would've *****ed non-stop on a fourth line. However, is he suited to playing a top-6 role? Savard-Makarov is a pretty strong duo on the second line, but will Heatley drag them down?

To close out my argument, I saw a zebra while hiking today:

Do you really want to vote for THAT?

 

[arrbez]

I had planned to bring this enigma up myself, but you have done that for me. Dany Heatley is a cancer. Harry Sinden is a okay coach for him, because Sinden the players coach, will probably let Heatley do what he wants. You're lucky that you have him in the top-6, because Heatley would've *****ed non-stop on a fourth line.

Dany Heatley is a cancer? As a guy who thoroughly enjoys every piece of bad luck that befalls the Ottawa fanchise...I think people are going WAY too far against Heatley. I just don't understand where it's all coming from.

Dany Heatley asked for a trade. To my knowledge, that's the extent of his crimes in this particular situation. I mean, what am I missing here? Did he stop halfway through his trade request to club baby seals or spit on orphans? There's a long and distinguished list of players who have asked for trades, with Wayne Gretzky and Patrick Roy being the first two who come to mind. Hell, Regina's first line centre openly feuded with management, gave up his captaincy in protest of personnel decisions, and asked for a trade because he didn't like the direction the team was going in. Darryl Sittler: Cancer, or just a guy doing what he felt was best for his career?

 

[arrbez]

Also, the Zebra is a powerful and majestic beast. It is widely regarded as the most well-endowed animal in the jungle.

 

[vancityluongo]

Dany Heatley is a cancer? As a guy who thoroughly enjoys every piece of bad luck that befalls the Ottawa fanchise...I think people are going WAY too far against Heatley. I just don't understand where it's all coming from.

Dany Heatley asked for a trade. To my knowledge, that's the extent of his crimes in this particular situation. I mean, what am I missing here? Did he stop halfway through his trade request to club baby seals or spit on orphans? There's a long and distinguished list of players who have asked for trades, with Wayne Gretzky and Patrick Roy being the first two who come to mind. Hell, Regina's first line centre openly feuded with management, gave up his captaincy in protest of personnel decisions, and asked for a trade because he didn't like the direction the team was going in. Darryl Sittler: Cancer, or just a guy doing what he felt was best for his career?

He's not in any position to be complaining; he signed that extension just one year ago, it's not like the world came crashing down all of a sudden. He has every right to ask for a trade, and want out of a place. I don't respect his reason, but, if he feels it's something needed to be done to further his career, I wish him the best. However, he shouldn't have turned down Edmonton like that especially when they went as far as to meet with him. Yeah yeah, I understand, maybe he felt Edmonton would be the same situation, which is why he doesn't want to go, and I know he has a NTC, but why limit Murray so much is my question. The guy is most likely gonna be fired (IMO) after this ordeal, when all Heatley needed to do is request a trade to NYR, since it seems that's what he wants. Too bad Sather knows likely this, and is probably only offering the rights to Markus Naslund in exchange.

It's all a rather irrelevant discussion to this series, but plain and simple, whether he's a cancer or merely just a tumor, Dany Heatley is not a character guy, and IMO is a problem in the dressing room. Just my .02 cents.

 

[arrbez]

It's all a rather irrelevant discussion to this series, but plain and simple, whether he's a cancer or merely just a tumor, Dany Heatley is not a character guy, and IMO is a problem in the dressing room. Just my .02 cents.

Has there ever been any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, of Dany Heatley being a problem in the dressing room? I've never heard anything, ever. Not one instance.

There's plenty of evidence to the contrary, however. This is a guy who always graciously accepts Team Canada's invites, and has worn a letter both internationally and with Ottawa (and he was widely seen as captain-in-waiting for Atlanta before his accident). Do you think he would have had the outpouring of support that he received after his crash if he was Sean Avery or Claude Lemieux?

The fact his, Dany Heatley has been very well liked everywhere he's played. We know he was very highly thought of in Atlanta, and here's a couple quotes suggesting he was (and still is) very well liked in Ottawa:

Even after the trade request was announced, Neil stated: "He’s a guy who was well liked in the dressing room, a guy who is going to score 40 to 50 goals for you (each season)." Fisher also praised Heatley's personality, saying "Heater has done so much good here. He's a good guy ... he was a great teammate."

Later in the afternoon, I heard Shean Donovan interviewed on the Team and, although he did not want to speculate as he has not spoken to Heatley directly, it was clear that this announcement caught him by complete surprise when he found out as well. He said he could not understand the exact reasons why Heatley would ask for the trade since "Dany is very well-liked in the room" and he was not aware of any problems.

“As a friend and a teammate, Dany is as much as you can ask for on both fronts,” [Brendan] Bell said from his Ottawa home. “He really is a great guy."

At the end of the day, what Dany Heatley is doing is just business. He doesn't like the direction the team is heading, and he's trying to get himself to a better situation. It sucks, but it's life, and it's certainly not unprecedented. He's never slammed a teammates' wife, openly conspired to have his coach fired, got in fist fights with team mates, or any other morale-crushing behaviour that you'll find "character guys" in this draft have done. He just asked for a trade, and the guys in the room understand that.

 

[seventieslord]

Hell, Regina's first line centre openly feuded with management, gave up his captaincy in protest of personnel decisions, and asked for a trade because he didn't like the direction the team was going in. Darryl Sittler: Cancer, or just a guy doing what he felt was best for his career?

You don't actually think the two are similar, do you? As a Leafs fan, I suspect you know the full details of the Sittler situation. That was bumbling ownership and management of an unprecedented nature. Sittler was showing integrity by standing up for his friends and teammates.

Heatley is acting in his own best interests and the way he's gone about it has hurt the team's best interests. "Cancer" may be too harsh, but I don't think he's the "good guy" you make him out to be. The truth is somewhere in between the starting points you and VCL have established.

I hope you don't feel like this is a smear campaign. It's just a campaign. You gotta get those votes, right? Some people have their minds made up already, and some want to see the arguments. I personally feel that taking a look at how often our players have been among the playoff scoring leaders is a big step towards determining what they'd score in a fantasy playoff series against eachother - don't you?

 

[Sturminator]

I think of Heatley as less cancer and more like a special form of herpes. He's not really hurting you most of the time, but he's somehow unpleasant to look at, and never goes away when you want him to.

 

[arrbez]

I think of Heatley as less cancer and more like a special form of herpes. He's not really hurting you most of the time, but he's somehow unpleasant to look at, and never goes away when you want him to.

I won't deny that he's a disheveled looking, googly-eyed *******.