JIM LANG ON SPORTS

BY: JIM LANG
FOR RODPEDERSEN.COM

The NHL Trade Deadline goes into effect March 5th at 3:00PM ET. I am a huge fan of the annual NHL meat market. NHL General Managers will tell you that more teams will over-pay to complete a deal at the deadline than at any other time of the year. Despite this knowledge most are still more than willing to do it.

Why you ask?

Because of that drug called “winning”. It is a drug that is just too addictive to give up. GM’s can’t help themselves. They want to win so bad that they are convinced that if they make the right deal at the deadline their team will win the Stanley Cup.

Now there are times were this logic works out and the player that is added at the deadline turns out to be the missing piece of the puzzle they have been searching for. (I will have more on that later on.)

However, there are more examples of deals that are made at the deadline that never pan out.
What happens at the deadline is a high stakes poker games and instead of chips, GM’s use players to go “all in”.

Now in some cases a losing team can use the deadline to ship out future unrestricted free agents and, hopefully, re-stock the cupboard full of high draft picks and stud prospects.

If there ever was a team this season that fit that description it is the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres are well on their way to having the worst record in the NHL this season and it is time for the front office to do some serious soul searching. The Sabres are in re-build mode right now and they definitely need to stock up on draft picks and prospects.

As luck would have it the Sabres have two, very enticing, bargaining chips to use at the General Manager’s poker table on March 5th.

The first is goalie Ryan Miller. Despite playing on the worst team in the NHL Miller is 10th in the league with a save percentage of .923.

Now if you are a contending team that isn’t 100 per cent sold on your current goaltending, wouldn’t you be calling the Sabres to see what is the asking price for Miller?

Matt Moulson

The next player on the Sabres that should draw a lot of attention is left winger Matt Moulson. One of the most under-rated snipers in the NHL Moulson is a pleasure to deal with and would fit in nicely into any NHL dressing room. With 127 goals since the beginning of the 2009/10 season Moulson would be the perfect addition for any team looking for some extra offensive punch before the playoffs.

The Good, the Win/Win and the Bad of the NHL trade deadline

The Good

Since the Leafs didn’t make playoffs in the 2005/06 season (Stop laughing, they were going through a tough time) I ended up spending a lot of time covering the Carolina Hurricanes in their run to the Stanley Cup. One of the guys that held that dressing room together was Mark Recchi. Now Recchi didn’t do a whole lot after he was picked up at the deadline but he took his game to another level in the playoffs. Recchi ended up with seven goals and 16 points in the ‘Canes Cup run. Recchi had played over 1200 games in the NHL at that point in his career and was the kind of steady veteran presence every team needs to win the Cup. Of course Recchi ended up in Boston a few years later and ended his long career by helping the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Recchi would also rank very high on my list of NHL players I most want have to beer with so I can hear him tell me stories.

The Win/Win

In 1988 the Flames dealt Brett Hull and Steve Bozek to the Blues for Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley. Ramage was a horse on the Flames blueline in 1989 as they won the one and only Stanley Cup in the history of the franchise. While the Blues never experienced any true playoff glory, Hull emerged as one of the most pure goal scorers the NHL has ever seen. So one teams ends up winning a Stanley Cup and another lands a goal scoring legend. I call that a win/win trade.

The Bad

Thanks to the Hartford Whalers the Penguins added a player that would help them win two Stanley Cups. In March of 1991 Francis was dealt to the Penguins as part of a multi-player trade. Francis racked up 44 points in the Penguins Cup runs in 1991 and 1992. Of the 15 goals he scored those two playoff runs six of them were game winners. That’s what I call a horrible trade for the Whalers.

The Blue Jays

Last year I spent over $700 dollars on tickets to see the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. And that was with the Rogers employee discount.

The reason I am bring this up is my wife asked me the other day if I was thinking of buying another “Flex-Pack” like last year.

I told her I would have to think about it. I like the Blue Jays. I always have. I have lived and died with this team many times over the past three decades. The pain of the end of the 1987 season will stay with me until the day I die. The joy of 1992 and 1993 is something I will always cherish.

But I am having trouble getting excited about this year’s team. So much so that I am going to hold off and see how they play the first month of the season before I reach for my wallet and start buying tickets.

I hope I am dead wrong about the Blue Jays this year. I hope that Jose Bautista stays healthy for the entire season and crushes 40 bombs into the upper tank at Rogers Centre. I hope Ricky Romero re-discovers his “Mojo” and pitches 200 quality innings. I hope that John Gibbons wakes up from his nap and starts acting like the great manager that everyone says he is.

I hope that they all start kicking ass right out of the gate and they make me run to the phone to order tickets.

But I am not holding my breath for that to happen.

After an off-season where the Blue Jays did next to nothing I am not expecting much this year. If, and that is a really big “if”, but if they stay healthy then maybe they can surprise some people and win 80 or 82 games.

But the playoffs?

Give me a break.