More things that make you wonder what people are thinking.
1) The Winnipeg Jets have done what they needed to do. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff tendered offer sheets to restricted free agents Andrew Ladd, Eric Bogosian and Blake Wheeler.
And, one guesses, he absolutely had to do it because he really doesn’t have much else on his roster. The draft was weak and Cheveldayoff got a player, Mark Schiefele with the No. 7 overall pick, who might be a decent player in a couple of years. But not now. This was a draft, after all, in which Winnipeg’s new team picked one player in the first round and six more after the 67th pick (Third Round). Cheveldayoff announced he was happy, but what else could he say. We’ll find out in about three seasons if he was really happy.
In the meantime, these new Jets have very few scorers.
While the 2010-11 Atlanta Thrashers scored more goals than the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators, they were still stuck at 20th overall in goal scoring with just 218 on the season. They were also remarkably weak defensively, allowing the second most goals in the NHL at 262 (only Colorado at 287 was worse).
Of course, this was a Thrashers’ team that was 12th in the East and 25th overall in the NHL. At 34-36-12, they were one of only seven teams that failed to reach the .500 mark.
Still, in fairness, the Thrashers were a YOUNG team that didn’t score much and so at least there is some upside. And what the heck, an inability to score is pretty indicative of where the NHL is in 2010. Fact is, most teams don’t score much.
As an example, there were only 29 30-goal scorers in 2010-11 and only 24 in 2009-10. Compare that to the year before the lockout (2003-04) when fans complained that there was a dearth of scoring in the NHL – there were 30 30-goal scores in 2003-04 and most hockey observers thought that was weak.
Despite the NHL’s big talk, scoring is at an all-time low. Remember when the league said that after the 2004-05 lockout it was going to open up the game for goal scorers? Well, there’s a big fail.
There really aren’t all that many goal scorers anymore, period. While Atlanta’s Andrew Ladd, with 29 goals, led the Thrashers last year and while it might look strange that the Thrashers didn’t have a 30-goal scorer all of last season, the fact is, there were only 29 30-goal scorers in the entire league last year.
The new Winnipeg Jets aren’t a very good team, but they are indeed young and Claude Noel proved last year, at the helm of the Moose, that he can make a lot out of very little.
While no one should expect the Thrasher-Jets to win the Stanley Cup, there is certainly a decent chance they could make the playoffs.
And in Winnipeg, that would be a very big deal, indeed.
2) It seems a lot of people want to beat up on Adam Dunn this season and I can certainly see why. The one-time formidable ball striker with the Cincinnati Reds has become a complete bust with the Chicago White Sox. Dunn is currently hitting .173 and has struck out 100 times in 221 at bats. That’s frightening.
He reminds me of Dave Kingman, the big bomber, near the end of his career. In fact, in 1984, Sports Illustrated wrote this scouting report of Kingman: “Hits the ball high, wide and seldom. Catches it occasionally. Has developed an iron glove to go with his lead bat.”
Dunn never had much of a glove, but in the American League, he got to be a designated hitter. Or, in this case, a designated misser.
3) Vegas oddsmakers have made the Calgary Stampeders, at 11-4, the favorites to win the Grey Cup. No doubt Calgary has a good team, but are they better than Montreal? Are they even better than Hamilton?
Montreal is next on the Futures line at Vegas at 3-1. Saskatchewan is third at 11-2 followed by B.C. at 6-1, Edmonton and Hamilton at 7-1, Toronto at 8-1 and Winnipeg at 10-1.
All that stuff is fun, but it really doesn’t mean much.
The only thing that really matters is how well these eight teams play on the field and if there is one thing about football that guarantees the old adage, “…on any given Sunday,” it’s the fact the game is as much about emotion and brute strength as it is about speed and skill.
Having said that, here in Winnipeg, if quarterback Buck Pierce doesn’t stay vertical, this Blue Bomber team could have serious stress. In Winnipeg, the brute strength is very important inasmuch as it will guarantee that the speed and skill gets to play.
In fact, if there is one team in the Canadian Football League that needs a great year from its offensive line, it’s the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Thursday, we’ll have our 2011 CFL Preview.
