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McLean’s Pub Call Of The Wilde: Kicking The Can Down The Road
February 26, 2018
By Brian Wilde
So we are just going to keep kicking the can down the road, are we? We are just going to keep finding reasons it’s hard for Marc Bergevin, are we? Bergevin says nobody wanted to give up their firsts. Well, there were five firsts that moved.
In some examples, you can’t argue Max Pacioretty wasn’t worth what the players who moved for firsts were. You can’t tell me that Nash, Hartman or Tatar are superior to Pacioretty. You can’t make an argument that term was an issue or it wasn’t an issue. Hartman and Tatar had length left in their contract like Pacioretty. Nash didn’t have term. You can’t argue that it would be better to wait. He had two playoffs versus one. You can’t say the offerings were terrible. Nash fetched four pieces. Tatar fetched three pieces. Rangers GM Jeff Gorton got a large haul for his other deal too in Ryan Mcadonagh. The Rangers got it done.
Bergevin did not.
He had eight assets to move and he had to move them because if you’re going to keep the same lousy hockey players on your team next year …. NEWSFLASH: You’re going to have the same lousy team.
He moved two. How many should he have moved? Not two.
Unless you want to be 29th again. Then you had a great deadline day sticking with the same script as this year and I’ve heard it argued two years of tank is better anyway.
Again, it’s hard, right. It’s hard to do this. It’s hard to do that. The can just keeps getting kicked down the road. If it’s hard and you can’t do it, then let someone else try it.
18 trades were made. Lower than usual.
But the job is the job is the job. In the pro business world, do the job. Trades was the job.
So now the kind and loving Bergevin supporters are gonna kick the can down the road until the draft and then they kick the can down the road until free agency. And when you have kicked the can down the road long enough and far enough, you’re an also ran and still finding things hard.
When it’s too hard to achieve your goal of getting a first line center, or a left handed first pairing D, or getting rid of a blue line full of pylons, you are the same team that you were before.
There’s only one result possible with the same players and that’s the previous result.
So the keys are in the hands of Trevor Timmins but there should be more keys for him. Oh but there’s five in the first two rounds. Yeah, I knew that before today. I also know the blue line corps stayed the same and Pacioretty wasn’t moved for four assets, three assets, two assets, or one asset. I knew before that Bergevin wasn’t able to do what Holland did or what Gorton did. I know that the other guy pulled it off and your guy didn’t. I know that’s hard to hear but some guys got it done today and other guys found the can to kick.
The proceedings started out so positively too with the return that Thomas Plekanec fetched but in the end, he did a two for eight.
Well, Brian, no one wanted his terrible players, so you have to understand that.
Except he was the one who got the terrible players in the first place.
So as I commit myself to understanding here the positive spin masters , I am seeing the Catch-22 of the situation… You have to forgive Marc for he couldn’t trade these players that he brought here in the first place because they’re terrible and oh forgive him for that first thing too of bringing them here.
Also, get ready to understand that it’s hard to move Alzner, Benn, Schlemko and Pacioretty at the draft too.
Also, get ready to understand that it’s hard to attain UFA because of the weather and the taxes and the fishbowl of Montreal.
It’s all up to Trevor Timmins, I guess. He’s extremely capable and he has a lot of picks. In fact, just give the GM chair to him as he is clearly the top mind in the organization anyway.
Either that or we can understand how hard all of this is to do and just keep on kicking that can down the road.
Scathing review, but I can’t say I disagree. Two playoff runs are worth more than one, there were enough bidders, other GM’s got it done with pieces of equal or lesser value. Not only that, but: with all due respect to the athletes like Benn and Schlemko, they are what they are, and we have too many of the kind. Could have had a couple extra picks there. Alzner will have to be a buyout, because his contract is as much of a dumpster fire as his play has been. With a fail on the trade deadline, by my count, that’s Strike 3 on Brian’s fireable offences list. Offseason will be have to be the last chance for Bergevin. Let’s hope Molson has the courage and sense to step in if things don’t look up very soon.