MAGICS:
A couple of quotes to set the tone before the jump:
"I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place." -- Winston Churchill
"I was also drunk, crazy and heavily armed at all times. People trembled and cursed when I came into a public room and started screaming in German." -- Hunter S. Thompson
Only one of these really has anything to do with this post. The other is a fair assessment of what's probably going to happen this coming weekend at Oktoberfest...
Well, now that the dust has settled on the Jaffray injury news, we can make a couple of conclusions:
1. Jaffray is, for all intents and purposes, done for the season. More on this below.
2. Jaffray’s injury leaves a pretty gaping hole in the projected Crunch roster.
Those are some pretty solid conclusions to make. However, I would like to point out in response that while many of us (probably correctly) assumed that Jaffray would at least start this season in a Crunch uniform, that was never set in stone. In that spirit, I would much prefer to take the position that we really can’t miss what we may not have had to begin with, and leave it at that.
Now…what happens next? I’m not entirely sure, but I can say with every bit of certainty that one of two things will happen:
1. The Ducks will find a replacement for Jaffray and sign Mr. X to a contract.
2. The Ducks will not find a replacement for Jaffray and sign no one to a contract.
Really, that’s what it comes down to in this case. A or B. Either/or. Yes or no. However you’d like to spin it, this is a binary system, and one of these two things will have to happen. Now, I know that many of you are probably not going to like hearing this, but I think that the likely outcome is the second choice. Don’t get excited — this isn’t the start of some anti-Duck soliloquy. What this is is an honest, sensible assessment of a bad situation.
Let’s look at some of the realities of our current surroundings. What do we have that we can (probably) count on? Well, we’ve got:
1. A new coaching staff that just spent a very healthy amount of time at the Duck’s rookie tourney. It is very fair to say that several of those rookies will be spending at least some of this season under Holick’s tutelage here in town.
2. We have what (on paper) appears to be, at the very least, a competent, defensive-minded defense that will have some veteran leadership mixed in.
3. We have Anaheim staff here in town all season long to identify what our team needs and to take steps to address them.
That’s not a bad trio of things to have in your back pocket. Of course, that’s not to say that those three things are going to win you a championship, but it’s better than what we’ve been accustomed to in the recent past. While we’re at it, let’s keep in mind that Pascal Pelletier was supposed to be last year’s veteran offensive juggernaut, and before him it was Mike York and Steve Kelly, and before them…well, you get the point. As much as we can let it get away from us sometimes, there isn’t a single hockey game that’s won in September. The opposite of that is true — nothing’s been lost yet, either.
In the end, I realized yesterday that there’s really nothing to get too worked up over just yet. There’s no guarantee that the Jaffray Expectation Level would meet or exceed the actual results. For that matter, there’s no guarantee that we’d see that much of him in the first place. We also don’t know what this roster is going to look like just yet, or what moves might be coming in the near future. There are still a few weeks left before the season begins, and a lot can happen on any given day. Let’s give these guys some time to find their feet, put a plan in motion and see what happens.
And, just because...
Hunter S Thompson On Drugs (via NaturesInstinct)