GTH with the "real fan" garbage. Been a fan since '72 and take a back seat to no one in my love of the Isles. Just not an inconsistent fool about it. JT built up nine years of good will with me playing for a bad team and a bad organization and never once complained so I take JT at his word that it was a tough decision. Do I wish he and the Isles had done the whole thing better, of course. I'm sure he wishes he had too. Furthermore, as much as I admired him, I am not sure he was or is the right player to lead this team and have been consistent in saying so, so I am ambivalent about his leaving. Short run, bad, maybe. Long run, it's gonna be ok.
So again, you have found peace in your heart about the whole thing. Good for you. So, leave the rest of us to vent in peace without your mightier than thou philosophical lectures.
Just as it is your right to vent, I'm pretty sure I still have the right to offer my perspective, which I will continue to do.
Wow, "cheating whooore". That's new. You know for certain that he was plotting this behind the Isles backs the whole time? You think LL was in on it and now can't say because of tampering rules? Pretty bold on JT's part. Maybe he's ballsier than I give him credit for.
I'm an Isles fan just like you are and as much as you are. I happen to not think JT is the demon he has been made out to be, for the most part, on this board. Now if that opinion offends you or think that it has no place on this board, perhaps I could recommend some third world, dictatorial nation for you to move to where freedom of speech is not as revered, but so far all I have done is express my opinion, which I assume is the purpose of this site. So take your threat somewhere else or ban me. If you do, that will say far more about you than me.
You're so annoying.
I don't buy into the "it was planned all along" sentiment but I too am pissed about the loss without anything in return. But as I said earlier, I put that squarely on management's shoulders. They had a big, difficult decision to make and they screwed the pooch. JT had not signed on the bottom line before the deadline and in business, that's the only metric the organization should have been looking at. It's not up to the player to do their job for them.
He did tell them in the only way that matters: He didn't sign a contract.
To your last point you have any number of posts on the Tampa board talking about Tampa as your team. I can go and copy/paste your comments here if you want. Sorry but you come off as highly fishy. Your posts here make your position even fishier.
Hey, everybody, including me, thought he was coming back and I get the anger and the frustration, but what I don't like is the notion that we can get inside JT's head or know what he was thinking or planning. I don't believe he had his mind made up but who knows. What I do know is that he had a nine year track record to go on and that means something to me. I think he is an honorable guy who had a hard decision to make. Go back to a team that I really believe he loved playing for but that is at least two or three years away from a Cup, even with him, or go to a team that can win now with him, and a team he loved growing up. Who wouldn't agonize? Having said that, I hope the Leafs lose every game and JT ends up with 40 pts next season, but that is cause I hate the Leafs, not JT.
I've already explained my Tampa connection, so post away. Isles come first and always have.
When he started mailing his play in after December both those guys looked fairly solid in their positions. Maybe them both going added fuel to his fire in the end but that did not start the fire. Just read his letter and text. The decision made itself and then apply it to when he went from saying he wanted to stay here to "I don't want to talk about contracts." Panarin just gave a class in how to be honest about your position. Tavares gave the opposite which for a guy who professed love for team and character shows how hollow his words really were.
