It was definitely odd seeing Cally wearing a Bolt uni; but this had to be. God knows Im no genius, but it became obvious 2 years ago in the ECF season that Callahan was expending an inordinate amount of his hockey life with his style of play, and he really never matured past diving in front of Zdeno Chara in 3-0 games. While I'd seen him compared to Drury many times, to myself and just the people I talk hockey with a lot, we thought he was becoming scarily similar to Mike Peca, in body type and how the injuries started to mount up. And the effective part of Peca's career ended prematurely. Not to say it will happen to Cally, no one can predict. And for his sake I hope he lasts, cause the guy is an old-time player. But you could just see back then this contract becoming a fork in the road. Cally needs to capitalize on the career he's had, and Sather was 100% correct in not locking the club into a long term deal here. I thought their 6-year offer was one they hoped Callahan wouldnt accept, because anything over 3 years lost rationality. Same time, I wouldve never given Lundqvist the monster deal he got, so what do I know? But, one more thing; Sather did get a player that definitely wants to be here, and even I couldnt believe the stat the other night, it'd somehow even escaped me. St Louis has more points than anybody the past 5 years; Crosby, Ovechkin, you name it. I also liked the suggestion I saw to flip Kreider and Hagelin. The 1st unit, which I really like, has grown stale; and they cannot waste MSL's playmaking ability. Maybe Marty will get Kreider going again, and it also adds some size to Richards & MSLs line, and means the first 3 lines would all have at least some size on the wing, if not snarl.
I think this team has a reasonable chance at success; a final four appearance is not out of the question; whether they get the **** beat out of them in the process, and just how much fight they have in them remains to be seen.
