Sunday, June 15, 2008

Larry Speaks!

It would hardly be the off-season without some “where the #@$% did THAT come from” speculation from everyone’s old pal, Larry Brooks. In a tirade that reads more like a 13-year old’s whining about officiating (our apologies to 13-year olds out there reading this), Brooks tosses off a couple of lines at the end of his column that concerns one of the Caps’ RFAs-to-be – Mike Green…

“Ryan Suter, the Nashville defenseman who would have been a Group II target for an offer sheet, has agreed to terms for $3.5M per, Slap Shots has learned. That leaves Nashville's Shea Weber, Washington's Mike Green and Florida's Jay Bouwmeester as the most attractive Group II defense alternatives. We're told that Green, a dynamic difference maker, is, is being low-balled by the Caps (sic).”

Assuming the position, as it were, of the “insider,” Ol’ Lar’ “is told” about this…by someone. The Caps being famously low-key and close to the vest on any unsettled personnel issues (see: “Jagr, Jaromir” or “Ovechkin, Alex”), we’re wondering who might have “told” Brooks of this situation. We have some theories…


Eklund. The often wrong (ok, always wrong), but never in doubt one has already reported “according to multiple sources” (maybe Brooks is one of them…maybe they are each other’s source) that Suter has agreed to terms with Nashville…maybe he’s got the goods (or can make up stuff) on Greenie, too.






Magic 8-ball. It’s as good as any source. It knows how to keep a secret, it is low maintenance (just give it shake now and then, and don’t drop it).





Carnac. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from him (owing largely to his being deceased), but it can’t be discounted.






Barry Melrose. Perhaps he’s angling to plant the seed for Green going to Tampa…hey, they share similar odd hair style tastes.



It is entirely possible – like it is possible I’ll replace Cristobal Huet in goal for the Caps – that he is right. Just remember, this is the guy who once bleated that the Penguins had one offer for Jaromir Jagr on the table – from the Rangers. And, they’d better take it and like it. That same day, Jagr was a Cap. More recently (last November), he wrote this…

“Maybe someone can provide one good reason for Alex Ovechkin to sign a new contract with the before becoming a restricted free agent on July 1, because we sure can't think of any.”

As Caps fans know, Ovechkin found $124 million reasons to sign.

He might not be right often (or, well…ever), but he sure is entertaining.



thanks to reisterstowneric on The Official for the lead.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whenever a player doesn't sign by the time someone thinks they "should" the rumor immediately becomes that the team is low-balling them. We say it with Ovechkin, we see it every year with high NFL draft picks and we're seeing it with Green.

Anonymous said...

Well, judging from Larry's past history regarding the Capitals' personnel matters, this means that Green's close to signing, right?

The Peerless said...

Six years...$22.5 million.

Hey, we can do that, too.