My expectations where around a less physical Steve Ott, so ya this is pretty much what I expected. The guys old, he wasn't that crucial to Montreal the last few years, he's a depth player clinging on to the end of his career, a 90 min drive from his family.
I didn't understand it last season when people started the "we wont be that bad" thread, I didn't understand it when people said Rolston was making this team worse, I didn't understand it when people said Nolan would make this team better, I didn't understand it when this years "they wont be that bad" thread was started, and I still don't understand it now that people are complaining that Nolan cant coach and that Gionta is a bust. There isn't just a bad team in Buffalo, there's a team that is intentionally bad.
I like to watch HGTV, its kinda dumb, but I like watching "Love it, or List it". They go into a house and the designers try to remodel it to make the family want to love it, and the real estate agent tries to find them a new house. There's always some woman that comes in during demolition and flips out, "Oh my god what happened to my sink, oh my god you'll never make that look good" and leaves crying that her home has been destroyed and the contractors are incompetent. Now excuse the reference but I think it fits. Murray is the designer with the plans, the team is the house, and Nolan is the truck load of Mexicans that turns the truck load of flooring and cabinets into a nicer house. The Mexicans don't make the ****** house more livable, they tear out the **** you don't want and tell you when its time for the next truck load of flooring to go in. Right now there's no flooring to put in. He's putting up points in the AHL. The Cabinets are scoring in juniors. The new stairs are playing college. There's nothing for the Mexicans to build, just an old, ****** house that has had its copper piping removed and sold to the highest bidder, the antique fixture stripped out and re-purposed, and the lawn torn to shreds by heavy construction equipment. Now you can fire the Mexicans, or you can ***** that counter-tops you're going to throw out in 2 seasons are ****** and they need to be replaced now, or you can accept that the new load of Mexicans and some better counters aren't putting a dent in the 12,000 sq ft of **** you're living in until new parts show up and just go stay at the Residence Inn for the next while and relax.
The point being, why does it matter if Gionta plays a little bit better right now? or Nolan gets the team to play a little bit better? or if Hartley gets the team to play a little bit better? Maybe one of those things happens and the teams is a little bit better, whats the end game? You still want to pick 1/2 right? So why are you knocking yourself out trying to find the biggest piece of corn in the turd? You aren't gonna eat it, just let it go. Just like every other kernel in the log. Cause when you find the biggest piece of corn there will be a new biggest piece and a new biggest piece, and eventually you'll be pissed off and covered in **** and you'll realize it was the turd, and not the corn that you didn't want sitting in your living room. Gionta and Nolan and hopefully Hodgson and Ennis and Stafford and Stewart and Benoit and Meszaros and whomever else you want to chuck on the burn pile, are just nasty pieces of corn and stinking poo.
Once you get rid of Nolan and Gionta, then it'll be on to Moulson and Stewart, then it'll be on Benoit and Meszaros, then Hodgson and Ennis, and by that time you'll have more replacement level players here that weren't good enough to go to playoff teams and those will be the guys you complain about. Until Murray decides its time to shovel the turd away... its still just poop. So either complain about the guy whose telling you its still poo time, or accept that poo time is getting you McEichel time.
