Thursday, January 22, 2009

An Old Guy Moment


I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
As is the ribbed sea-sand.

Jeremy Roenick was born on January 17, 1970 (a belated happy birthday...). How long ago is that? That date was the one-year anniversary of the release of "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles.

Rob Blake was born on December 10, 1969. How long ago was that? That Apollo moon landing mission that Tom Hanks made a movie of hadn't been launched yet.

Claude Lemieux was born on July 16, 1965. Barry Sanders, the former running back of the Detroit Lions who gained more than 15,000 yards rushing over his career would be born on this date... three years later.

What's the point? Well, the San Jose Sharks (hence the "Ancient Mariner" reference above) sit atop the NHL standings points rankings and have had these three ancients skating on a team that has dressed 11 players who are 25 or younger.

Given the Caps rather youthful core, it makes one wonder if a graybeard will be added to the club as the trading deadline nears. There are 11 players who have dressed this season for NHL games who were born prior to 1970. Sergei Fedorov is one of them. Of the other ten, not all have actually played games this month, but they include...

Chris Chelios
Claude Lemieux
Mark Recchi
Teppo Numminen (although he just had facial surgery)
Brendan Shanahan
Mathieu Schneider
Rob Blake (he's also recovering from a facial injury)

Chelios isn't going anywhere. Neither, we suppose, are Lemieux, Shanahan, or Blake. That leaves Recchi, Numminen, and Schneider. Do you think...

...nah.


No comments: