News Article: The Connolly saga

[1point21Gigawatts]

I think it was Rob Ray who said he lived in Connolly's building and the guy was seriously depressed by fans getting on him.

"Tim Connolly is really good, but the fans don't think so and that's not good. Timmy puts in a lot of good work and makes good plays. The fans don't like him and he is sad about that, so that's bad."

 

[Moskau]

Ricky Williams came to mind when reading that.

I wonder if TC has some serious issues with shyness that didn't mix well with being a pro athlete?

Williams was an incredibly nice person off the field though. Tim Connolly was the opposite. A lot of that could be from the shyness and not knowing how to cope with it and dealing with it differently than Williams but Connolly treated people off the ice like garbage and there's no excuse.

 

[Ron C.]

Personality of a wet dishrag....no offense to kitchen linen.

 

[slip]

Personality of a wet dishrag....no offense to kitchen linen.

Offense? That a ******* compliment since this guy:

 

[gallagt01]

Connolly was a good, smart player with a solid two-way game. He developed a bad rap in Buffalo because of his questionable work ethic, but there's no denying that he was good.

This post could have been about Stafford and it would be the same.

Let's keep perpetuating myths about "heartless" Drew Stafford.

 

[msm29]

Whoever brought up the point about Connolly on the PK, good on 'ya.

He was Ruff's go-to guy for killing 5-on-3s, and for good reason.

 

[slip]

Connolly was a good, smart player with a solid two-way game. He developed a bad rap in Buffalo because of his questionable work ethic, but there's no denying that he was good.

The Fragility of Goodness -- the Tim Connolly Saga.

 

[Paxon]

Let's keep perpetuating myths about "heartless" Drew Stafford.

Not to mention Connolly was twice as talented offensively. Drew has nothing on Connolly in any offensive tool except frame/puck protection. Drew was overachieving when he put up 30 goals in 60 games. Connolly was not overachieving when he put up his best numbers.

 

[gallagt01]

Not to mention Connolly was twice as talented offensively. Drew has nothing on Connolly in any offensive tool except frame/puck protection. Drew was overachieving when he put up 30 goals in 60 games. Connolly was not overachieving when he put up his best numbers.

Agreed. Connolly had a world of skill; Stafford doesn't. I don't buy the parallels drawn between the two in terms of work ethic/heart/however you coin your intangible terms, though. Stafford - like Connolly - has developed a poor reputation as a guy who doesn't work hard because he's underachieving based on his contractual expectations. I've never questioned his attitude/effort level as many have. He's just not a very good hockey player.

 

[Sabre Dance]

The Fragility of Goodness -- the Tim Connolly Saga.

Strange how he can play 80+ a year his 1st 4 season and then the injuries start.

 

[slip]

Strange how he can play 80+ a year his 1st 4 season and then the injuries start.

Hard to isolate the root cause, but his time here conjures up a little Cake:

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Reading these posts reminds me of Sabres Facebook feed. There are people who fawn over plugs like Kaleta, Ellis, Scott. Players who while important in their own way don't drive W/L in the NHL. And then when the topic of a player like Connelly, who is you know.. "good at hockey" comes up they do nothing but slam the guy.

I don't understand. But there's a significant (possibly just vocal) portion of fans who'd rather praise a plug who they thought would score 5 goals a season who magically makes it to 8, and blast a player who can get 30 but doesn't hit.

This vocalization, in my opinion at least, has palpable effects on the players/team. And as fans shouldn't they be doing things to help the team they allegedly cheer for? When people take steps to run a player out of town it hurts not only their on ice performance but actually lowers their trade value as well. So if you're just interested in being pragmatic it doesn't make sense either.

I'm not suggesting that people don't have the right to make their opinion heard. Or that if they buy a ticket they can't boo if they want. Good for them, but it's childish and counter productive. Maybe I'm expecting too much from drunken whiner line callers.

 

[Sabres Fan UK]

Equally, a talented player who could score 30 but instead always looks lethargic and unmotivated doesn't drive win/loss in the NHL. While i agree fans shouldn't be so hard on their teams players; a talented player playing bad and not even looking like he wants to be involved is a whole lot more frustrating then a less talented player giving his all everynight for the team.

 

[couture23]

Some of the best hands I've ever seen.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Equally, a talented player who could score 30 but instead always looks lethargic and unmotivated doesn't drive win/loss in the NHL. While i agree fans shouldn't be so hard on their teams players; a talented player playing bad and not even looking like he wants to be involved is a whole lot more frustrating then a less talented player giving his all everynight for the team.

This is the part that always confuses me about this line of thinking. You heard it a ton with Vanek, his facial expressions, or how he looks after his deflection didn't score. And then people rush to psycho-babble him like they're looking at celebrity couples on a trash tv program.

I don't know if many people around here are old enough to remember Pete Sampres, but you talk about a guy that always looked like he was out of it, beat; and moments away from dying of exhaustion. Yet he's one of the best players ever. It was just the way he looked while playing.

Another Sabres example would be Miller. He doesn't suffer fools lightly; and he's really snarky when interviewed. Sports broadcasting is done at a very foolish level, and it's probably beyond boring both for the interviewer and interviewee some guys are better at putting up with it then others.

 

[CrankyJay]

Let's keep perpetuating myths about "heartless" Drew Stafford.

Okay, then he's just talent-less hack?

 

[Chainshot]

Tim started putting himself into positions to get hit and that was where his injuries came from. When he was a pure perimeter player, he was not nearly as effective. I recall him getting an early injury with Buffalo -- the knee when he tried to squeeze past Kaspariatis in a game against the Rangers. He thought he could get there and it got him hurt. He also had a variety of bad luck and received a couple of cheap shots -- the faceplant against the Bolts that I've seen Nate Thompson do a few more times on other players or Richards then-legal "shove" into the boards which as we were told then was just an "old fashioned" play and not a dirty bit of **** from a dirty bit of **** player like Mike Richards.

Who's to say what several traumatic brain injuries will do to someone's personality. From personal experience, it can be pretty harrowing. From personal experience, he wasn't the most likeable cat off the ice. Who's to say if his off-ice habits that mirrored a few of the older guys on the team didn't contribute to his time on the IR?

I give him credit for coming back from so many different injuries. And it's still a question in my mind of what could have been beyond just the injuries.

Hopefully Tim can sort out what he needs to sort out and move through whatever bitterness or resentment he has from his playing days.

 

[gallagt01]

Okay, then he's just talent-less hack?

He's not a talent-less hack, either. He's just not a $4 million player.

But that means he's a heartless player with a questionable work ethic and commitment to the game, right?

 

[dire wolf]

Connolly is truly an enigma. Did Milbury ruin him by rushing him to the NHL? Did injuries cause his sharp decline? Did he have a lot of heart (effort on PK, coming back from serious injuries) or no heart? These questions are really hard to answer. I can tell you this though - when he was at the top of his game, he was truly a joy to watch. That's what makes it so frustrating. Of course, the off-ice stories don't really help his case either. Would be cool if he took a year off, met a guru in India or something, changed his name to "One Love" and came back next year healed, with a new attitude and better than ever. Won't happen, but it would be an awesome story.