Monday, June 30, 2008

The Act that Keeps Entertaining

OK, here are the first two paragraphs from a story this morning...
"The Rangers' perfect 2008-09 world would feature Jaromir Jagr and Mats Sundin combining forces on the first line with Chris Drury moving to left wing to skate with Scott Gomez on the second unit.

"It's anybody's guess why Glen Sather hasn't made the effort to communicate that vision to Jagr, who has every right to be miffed over what can politely be described as the GM's cavalier approach to the captain's impending free agency, but trust me, the Rangers will be giddy if they can retain Jagr and unite him with Sundin."


Can you guess who wrote them? Of course, it's our old pal, Larry Brooks, who never ceases to bring a frothing message board fantasy league perspective to these times of year, when there is the possibility of player movement and the Rangers doing something dopey in that regard.

What makes anyone think a pairing of Mats Sundin and Jaromir Jagr would work any better than a pairing of Jagr and Chris Drury did?...or a pairing of Jagr and Scott Gomez did? Oh, Sundin's a name player with a big contract expiring, even though in the end, it's all about keeping Jagr.

Adding Drury and Gomez and $14.4 million in cap hit didn't have the desired effect. Now, signing Sundin, re-signing Jagr, re-signing Avery, and God knows who else from the free agency buffet, is supposed to do the trick?

Yeah, that kind of strategy works...