SENShobo
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Heatley Departs But Questions Only Removed From Forefront
by SENShobo on 09/12/09 at 03:24 PM ET
Comments (7)
It was the longest summer anyone in Ottawa could remember, for all the wrong reasons, but at the very least there’s closure now.
The names—Heatley, Cheechoo, Michalek—they weren’t the relevant detail of this afternoon’s transaction. That training camp can start with a whole new set of questions instead of the same old tired ones, even only pushed to the back of our minds as they are, that’s what matters.
I believe Chris Phillips said it best, from the Ottawa Citizen,
“I believe you don’t replace a 50-goal scorer with two 25-goal scorers,” [Phillips] said.
How about replacing his 39 goals from last season with the 35 Michalek and Cheechoo managed to generate? No, that doesn’t seem fair dealings either, let alone because Heatley’s shooting percentage has consistently been above 15% over the past four years (15, 18, 16, 17), while Michalek (13, 10, 14, 11) and Cheechoo (8, 10, 15, 18) can’t compare in success or consistency, unless consistent decline is what you’re interested in. Between those two, Alfredsson, and Kovalev, the top four wingers are set, and I feel some minor degree of confidence that Marleau and Thornton make San Jose stronger down the middle than Ottawa with Spezza and Fisher.
To be honest, there is good to say about both Michalek and Cheechoo, on and off the ice, but it’s the troublesome-tale discount that forces them to be put into this comparison, one that is anything but fair or equal. From the Ottawa Citizen,
“I talked to Dany at length yesterday ... he was adamant that he wanted to be moved and we felt, based on that more than anything, that we should get the fair value we could get for him and move on,” Murray said. “When I looked him in the eye and talked to him, I knew the minute he walked out the door that I had to trade him.”
He added he spoke to Michalek, who expressed excitement at taking on a big role with the Senators despite having to leave a California-based first-place squad.
“There was a few things, just ... I’m not going to get into specifics on those things, but there was some personal things that I felt a change was the best thing for everybody involved,” Heatley said.
It will be the questions that nag at us for a long time. How Heatley could say that he needed to see real choice when turning Edmonton down, but obviously jumped the second California became an option. How he said he wanted a bigger role on a team than he felt he could get amongst Alfredsson, Spezza, Fisher, and Phillips, but couldn’t bring himself to go to Edmonton, which boasted a 1-2 goal-scoring-leader combo of Hemsky and Souray with 23 apiece. How Heatley had alleged problems with Clouston’s coaching but somehow New York and Tortorella made it onto his list, and he’s now wound up under Detroit product Todd McLellan in San Jose, looking for every ounce of committment and full play from his men, on and off the ice in the ways Heatley couldn’t bring himself to show.
It makes you wonder where the problem lay; with Heatley, who couldn’t show himself to be a true leader or to own up to the problems he had in Ottawa (though libel/slander laws and League rules forbid a lot of the discussion that might have taken place), or if it lay with Ottawa, who can count among their most recent departures a very greedy Meszaros, a troubled Wade Redden, a Russian-departure-threatening Nikulin, a Russian-departure-the-only-option Emery, and a now NHL substance abuse program graduate McGrattan (and truly all the best to him)?
There’s a lot to wonder, but at least now, after all this time, the wondering doesn’t have to affect the team, every news conference, and the utter flurry of rumours that spread over the summer, which I proudly avoided, just as I chose to sip Zombies on Lake Okanagan instead of driving into Kelowna for Heatley’s presser this summer. It’s just we fans once again being left with the nagging perturbment in our brains, left out of the loop.
Bah, just give me some hockey!
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators, Trades | SENShobo | Permalink
Tags: Dany+Heatley, Jonathan+Cheechoo, Milan+Michalek,
Comments
i’m wondering if the real story will ever be written? enough people know about it, and i’m only one degree of separation from the dressing room, and if I know the real reason, surely someone in the media does and will write about it.
Then it’ll show the decision had nothing to do with Hockey.
Posted by Greg on 09/12/09 at 07:11 PM ET
Garth - The issue of ‘choice’ comes down to how he made it seem like he was hoping that a week or two after asking to be traded, Murray would come to him with three or four teams he could go to who’d made acceptable offers. At this point, yes, San Jose’s a no-brainer and getting out of Ottawa was high on his mind. As for the bigger role, he had been talking about wanting to be a bigger part of the team, since there were players who you’d look to first for leadership, scoring, and non-scoring play before you’d think of Heatley, and I think Jumbo Joe is just the tip of the iceberg in San Jose that puts him even further behind; he’ll be on the first line, but ‘bigger role’ it won’t be.
Greg - You need a lot to write a story, and anyone needs to be careful because of libel/slander. If a video or recording was out there, and someone could release it without losing their job or access, they probably would, but just like you I have a few ties to the organization, but there’s no fame for them, no reward, nothing worth sticking their head on the chopping block for. It just becomes the stuff people talk about huddled around a bar table with beers.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 09/12/09 at 07:20 PM ET
The fact that there were so many “problem” players who have since left Ottawa, one has to wonder if the organization itself is problematic.
This is hobo’s whole point it seems to me.
Sucks dude. We have that in the Detroit Lions; the whole organization is completely fuched up.
Posted by Osrt on 09/12/09 at 09:21 PM ET
Senshobo - you’re right and good for you for not mentioning whatever you’re hearing too…
these sens stories are a lot more sensible than what the Wings fans turn theirs into by the way.
Posted by Greg on 09/12/09 at 09:23 PM ET
“Heatley’s shooting percentage has consistently been above 15% over the past four years (15, 18, 16, 17), while Michalek (13, 10, 14, 11) and Cheechoo (8, 10, 15, 18) can’t compare in success or consistency, unless consistent decline is what you’re interested in”
Now I’m assuming you put those numbers in a chronological order the last number being last year. Michalek has been up and down, and Cheechoo has been improving…
Where’s that constant decline? Unless ofcourse you scrambled the numbers and they are not chronological…
Posted by fish from Antwerp, Belgium on 10/05/09 at 07:34 AM ET
Reverse chronological order for all three, so Cheechoo was shooting at 8% last year, compared to 18% four years ago. Apologies for the lack of clarity.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 10/05/09 at 08:13 AM ET
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How Heatley could say that he needed to see real choice when turning Edmonton down, but obviously jumped the second California became an option. How he said he wanted a bigger role on a team than he felt he could get amongst Alfredsson, Spezza, Fisher, and Phillips, but couldn’t bring himself to go to Edmonton, which boasted a 1-2 goal-scoring-leader combo of Hemsky and Souray with 23 apiece.
Is that some sort of contradiction I’m not getting? He turned down the only team that gave a serious run at him (publicly, at the time) and wanted more choice. AND the choice he ended up going to will be putting him on the first line and the first power play unit (unless McLellan is a retard). AND he’s been sent to a top (regular season) team.
Seriously, where are these contradictions?
Also, I wouldn’t overlook that another of Ottawa’s relatively recent departures was when they chose Redden over Zdeno Chara.
The fact that there were so many “problem” players who have since left Ottawa, one has to wonder if the organization itself is problematic.
Posted by Garth on 09/12/09 at 05:08 PM ET