Money Talks

I've got a few things on the blogging agenda I'd like to try and talk about this morning. A lot has happened over the last week, we've seen brawls, a Russian guy finally got signed, and the Patriots finished up their preseason. Since I'm going to talk about hockey for the majority of the blog, I'll start with the less important stuff.

First off, I've added a new athlete to the list of "most hated." I never thought it was possible for fringe players and mediocre depth guys to be added to this list, but Nyjer Morgan managed to get on there. On a second note, Gaby Sanchez immediately inked himself on my "most loved" list for his spot-on impersonation of Mo Vaughn de-cleating George Bell. But back to Morgan. I don't know if that guy realizes he's barely Major League quality. Yea, you're fast, but do you realize that you're probably just the new Alex Sanchez? You can't play defense for shit (something he has in common with Sanchez), you have zero power to speak of, you weigh 128 pounds sopping wet, and your on the fucking Stephen Strasburg-less Nationals! I watched some clips of Morgan trying to run over various catchers a few weeks ago, and I guess I just started to hate the guy a little more. I'm all for competition, if you have to run the guy over to win the game, by all means run him down. But looking at Morgan against the Cardinals, he went after Yadier Molina when there wasn't even a throw made and Molina was standing a good 3 feet away from the plate! In fact, Morgan's attempt to run Molina over actually made him miss the plate and he had to run back to tag it. But back to the brawl. Yes, I would be pissed if I got hit once and then thrown behind in my next at bat. I'm not trying to place blame on Morgan for charging the mound, because I think he was completely justified in doing so. My beef with the guy is him coming off the field acting like he's 10 feet tall and strong as a ox! Dude, your 5'2" at best! But the funniest part of him coming off and raising his hands and taunting the crowd is that he got absolutely BLASTED in that brawl! First off, he charged the mound against a 6'9" giraffe in Chris Volstad. Mistake #1 because he actually had to jump to take a swing at Volstad. Then, when he did swing, he missed. Mistake #2 was landing back on the ground, because Gaby Sanchez absolutely destroyed him as soon as those cleats were planted. Then, after getting run over by the Marlins first baseman, the aforementioned giraffe got 2 or 3 good slugs right to Morgan's cheekbone. Moral of the story, Morgan got his ass absolutely handed to him during that brawl. Yea, you just got thrown at twice and you got the shit kicked out of you! Guy was coming off waving his arms like he had just defeated Floyd Mayweather, when in reality he probably needed a neck brace and most likely couldn't feel his face. Nice job, Nyjer!

Alright, now to the Patriots before I get all caught up in hockey talk. Preseason is finally over, and 8 days from now we'll be watching every football analyst say that they may have overrated the Bengals defense after Brady torches them for 5 TD's. I'm not kidding when I say that I think Brady could actually eclipse his TD record this year. Yes, Welker won't be 100% to begin the season, and Moss is 3 years older than he was in 2007, but Brady has so much depth! While Welker might not be himself just yet, Julien Edelman has a year under his belt and is on his way to being Welker-like in a few years. Add Brandon Tate to the equation, the guy moves faster than sound. Then you give Brady a two headed monster of Gronkowski-Hernandez at the Tight End position. Then, of course, you have Kevin Faulk out of the backfield. Moss might be aging, but he still makes DB's look like Pop Warner players at times, and he's in a contract year! The Patriots have had a few duds recently in terms of signing veteran wideouts to help the cause (Galloway and Holt), but wouldn't it be something if they went out and signed TJ Houshmandzadeh after the Seahawks cut him? Housh is guaranteed $7 mil this year by the Seahawks even if they do cut him, so chances are he'd come cheap. A receiving core of him and Moss on the outside, Welker and Edelman on the inside, Gronkowski and Hernandez at the TE postion, and Tate and Price as your flex options would be absolutely unstoppable! Now, Mr. Belichick might have other plans, and the Houshmandzadeh thing might just be a pipe dream. But it's fun to imagine how much damage Brady would do to this league if he had that core. Even without TJ, Brady is set to torch the league this year anyways.

But, now we get to the Patriots' Achilles heal, and it's something that was their strength during the Championship years...defense. We saw it at times last season that the defense was incredibly weak, and then it all culminated into one abominable showing in the playoffs, when there was absolutely zero answer for Ray Rice. Now, we're set to see the same struggles all over again. Yes, the defense is slightly improved from last year. Brandon Spikes is going to be a beast, I'm not sure how that guy lasted to us in the 2nd round this past draft, but thank you all 31 other GM's that passed on him. Then you've got McCourty, Pat Chung, and Tyrone McKenzie added to the fold. They don't lack athleticism, but they lack brains. If Brandon Meriweather knew how to play football, he's got the talent to be Troy Polamalu. Meriweather, much like the rest of the Pats D, does not have a brain...yet, and will be incapable of reaching that next tier until he learns how to harness his ability. I'm interested to see how guys like Darius Butler and Ron Brace will perform now that they'll be asked to do much more this season. We might not be having this conversation, either, if it weren't for injuries striking us already. Ty Warren stunk last year, despite a few solid games. But he was a valuable piece along that D-line, and his presence will be missed more than most can imagine. Then you've got Leigh Bodden, who I've never been a fan of, but he was still the veteran presence in that secondary and can absolutely bring the heat for a corner. They guy might be the slowest in the league at his position, but he can pop a guys helmet off no sweat. Bodden, while not a shutdown guy by any means, is a solid player and, once again, his presence will be missed more than most think (including myself). Here's to hoping that Brady and Co. can make up for our defensive shortcomings this year.

Now I move onto hockey. Kovalchuk finally signed! The NHL backed itself up against a wall when they reportedly gave the Players Association (now headed by Donald Fehr) an ultimatum when it came to long-term deals. Had they rejected this new deal for Kovy (which, by the way, does not circumvent the salary cap), it would have sent the league into a tailspin heading towards the beginning of the season. Donald Fehr and a stern negotiator, and the league must know it. Had they vetoed this deal, it would have been a certain lockout in 2012. Thankfully, like most people with common sense, they were able to see that this new deal for the Russian sniper was indeed legit and did not circumvent the CBA. The reason the first deal was rejected is because Ilya would have made $650,000 for the last six years of the deal. In that scenario, it's hard to fathom that he would still play in the NHL for peanuts. So, the Devils intent with that deal was two things. The first being the lowered cap hit. Rather than have a cap hit exceeding $7 million, they were able to get it under $6 million and make it far more manageable in the short term. The second idea for NJ was that Kovalchuk would retire as soon as his paycheck dropped down into 4th-liner territory. By him retiring, it would not be $650,000 that the Devils recovered, it would be the entire cap hit. They would have recouped just under $6 million in cap space when Kovalchuk retired, despite his salary being almost $5 million below that figure. Yes, the NHL treaded into dangerous territory when they rejected that initial deal, but they were able to come to amends and make things work for everybody. Had they, however, rejected this deal, it would have been an absolute shit storm that would have sent Kovalchuk to Russia and the NHL into a tailspin for the next several years.

Now that the Kovalchuk debacle is a thing of the past, the rest of the NHL can stop standing still and we can finally see some activity. It will start with the Devils freeing up cap space, because they'll need to trade either Danius Zubrus, Travis Zajac, or Bryce Salvador (or any combo of the 3) by the end of September in order to be in compliance with the salary cap. And it's not only the Devils who are over the cap and need to make adjustments, because there are several other teams that need to move money around (the B's and the Canucks to name two). The Canucks will try to move Kevin Bieksa in order to get under the cap, and I'm sure the Bruins will talk to teams about Michael Ryder, Blake Wheeler, and maybe even Savard. The Bruins are in a funky situation, though. They don't need to make their move until the middle of November or early December, when Marco Sturm will come off long-term IR and go back on the books. At that point, if Ryder hasn't moved and is still performing at last years pace, he'll probably just be buried in the minors and they'll take a chance on Jordan Caron or Brad Marchand at wing.

Also, the NHL goaltending situations have begun to iron themselves out. As predicted by BSP, Anti Niemi ended up in San Jose, where he'll be in a timeshare with Antero Niittymaki, and Carey Price ended up back in Montreal. No surprises on either end. Doug Wilson had to have known that Niittymaki wasn't a 60 game goaltender for a contending team when he signed him, and Niemi will help take some of the load off his fellow Finn. Then you have the curious case of Carey Price, who, by all means, could still become the best goalie in the league if he screws his head on straight. Again, him staying in Montreal comes as no surprise. If Pierre Gauthier had let him get away after they sent Jaroslav Halak out of town, he would have never made it out of Montreal alive. He basically had no choice but to come compromise with Price. The Canadiens are another team now financially strapped to some degree, so they might have to work on a deal to get one of their overpaid defensemen out of town (Roman Hamrlik).

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Believe me, the NHL is about to heat up in terms of trade talk and the rest of the free agents finding their homes, so I'll be back and buzzing about all of that. Rumor even had it that the Bruins were looking to bring Steve Begin back to Beantown for the veterans minimum, which would be money well spent if they're able to make it happen. For now, we have to wait.