I'm just coming back from a local baseball game and 4th of July fireworks (a night early because that's how my town rolls). I'm still stewing about the geriatric asshole with Florida plates who was in such an urgent rush to get home to his Matlock reruns that he refused to let me merge. You know the type - you get position, you throw up the friendly wave...and then he moves his bloated white SUV to an inch away from your car door. Fucking clown. A few miles later I run into the dumbass in a Jeep who has an urgent need to pull out in front of me so that he can drive 20 mph under the speed limit.
So, I'm already a little wound up as it is. Imagine my utter joy to find that the Avalanche have traded their best and most consistent player last year, someone who plays a position (LW) that is a gaping hole for the team, and they've traded him to the Kings for two meh defensemen (Tom Preissing and Kyle Quincey) and a 5th round pick.
That's. Just. Fucking. Swell.
Okay, Preissing has some offensive ability...although he's only topped 40 points in his career once. Quincey is also supposed to be okay offensively (Detroit must not have thought so, because they waived him last year). This means we now have, approximately, a shitload of so-so defensemen and surely someone from our D is going to be moved. Soon. But there is no way, no way at all, that we are in any way a better team after this move than in one, single area - our financial bottom line. This move cuts $2.95 million off of our salary cap and gets Smyth's remaining 3 years off of the books. Super.
Look, we knew there was a strong chance that Captain Canada would be traded. I guess I just expected we'd actually try and get something back in return. Silly me.
That's all the whining you'll get out of me tonight - I heard a rumor that Matlock is about to start.