COMMENTARY: IN IT TO WIN IT
Photo: Mike Stobbs
(Listen daily for the RP Commentary on the All New Hits CKHD 98 & LTD Radio)
A coupla thoughts headed into the weekend:
#1 – It’s the time of year that gets everybody talking, whether they’re a hardcore fan of junior hockey or not.
In the lead up to the Western Hockey League’s trade deadline, the Wenatchee Wild – formerly the Winnipeg Ice – traded star players Matthew Savoie to Moose Jaw and Conor Geekie to Swift Current in deals which returned an embarrassment of draft picks.
My timeline’s full of commentary on this, and hockey people are blowing up my phone. To be frank, they’re wondering why the Wild would blow up their team while they’re sitting second-place in the WHL’s Western Conference, with seemingly a legitimate shot to win it all?
I had to shrug my shoulders on that one, say “I dunno” and hope that Wild boss Bliss Littler knows what he’s doing.
But to be honest, I don’t care about them.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s been decades since we’ve seen a race like this in the East. The Saskatoon Blades have what they feel is their best team in 30 years and weren’t in on the Wild firesale. They got their deals out of the way ahead of time.
The Warriors haven’t been this good since they had a team that went to the league final 20 years ago and to me, the Broncos came out of nowhere to serve notice that they’re “in it to win it”.
The winners are the fans and as I said, everybody’s perked up and taken notice.
#2 – The NHL announced its all star teams last night and they’re giddy here in Florida as the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart and the Lightning’s Sergie Kucherov were named.
There’s grumbling that every team has a representative and fans feel there are some players that don’t deserve to be there. But that’s wrong. Every team needs to be represented in order to get every fanbase excited in the event which will be held in Toronto next month.
It’s always been that way, and always should be.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)
The only sense that I can make out of the Wild’s moves is that Bliss Littler figured the Wild don’t have enough capital to make any trade deadline pickups that would make them a serious contender. So they decided to become a seller instead. I think it’s a bad decision given that the Wild are staring down a rebuild no matter what. Why not give your fans a little feast before the famine kicks in? Anyway, I’m on board the Moose Jaw bandwagon. Always enjoyed watching that exciting team and they’re going to get that much better with Matthew Savoie.… Read more »
Poor old Pete, the jets making him forget, wake-up!
Meanwhile, Ole High Bucket (William Nylander) gets a undeserved 92 Million Dollar player contract. No wonder that Toronto NHL Hockey Franchise is referred to as the Maple Laughs.