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It's Deja Vu All Over Again: Randy Miller is a Bobby Ryan Fanboy & The Final Word On This Topic

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This goes all over the place. It starts with a reporter that is in looove with Bobby Ryan and we've got the tweets to prove it. It ends with the final word on this story that won't die.

By Jen Neale
/ new
Stephen Dunn - Getty Images

We often tease our very own Robby (Phantom Pretender) about being a die-hard Bobby Ryan fan. For example, he gave his son the middle name of 'Ryan' in tribute to #9. BR is his player and there is no talking him out of it. The thing with Robby is that he knows he's a professional athlete and a normal person. He's not going to be stalking Bobby in the off-season; at least I really hope he's not.

I found someone that is far, far, far worse than Robby. Way worse, like walking into a house and hearing "I'm Chris Hanson from To Catch a Predator" kind of bad. His name is Randy Miller and he is a "journalist" from The Courier Post in Philadelphia. Our friends at Broad Street Hockey have had their run-ins with Mr. Miller. Let's just say that giving credit isn't really his thing.

So, why does that name and newspaper sound familiar? Miller is the guy that caught Bobby on the golf course (probably allegedly boozin') and published a story on the temper tantrum that BR threw. The timing of the story was bad. It was the first day of the draft. My brain exploded out of my ear a little bit when it happened.

Flash to a month later, Bobby is back in Anaheim and he does what most of us expected to do - set the record straight . Armed with the Orange County Register, Bobby gave his mea culpa. It was another thing we expected - passive aggressive.

Bobby has been practicing with the boys up at Anaheim Ice. Like normal people, Ryan took a mini-vacay that ended with him at his parents' place in Cherry Hill, NJ (a suburb of Philly). While at home, he did something I was happy to see, skating! If you've read anything about Bobby's off-season routine, it involves zero skating until around two weeks before camp starts. (Maybe he'd skate better...never mind.)

I was unable to see this, seeing as both @AnaheimCalling and @WhatWouldJNDo have been blocked by Mr. Ryan on Twitter, but I guess Bobby sent out a tweet telling people where he was going to be practicing. That's cool. No big deal. Not exactly idea that it's in Philly, but whatever.

Randy Miller was at the arena. I don't know if he came specifically for Bobby or to see the Baby Flyers play against the Baby Devils in a scrimmage. It's irrelevant because the barrage of tweets began. I imagine a tween-age girl tweets like this to Justin Bieber all day. Start from the top and read all the way down. Read the stories and look at pictures along the way.

I don't think there is anyone on this earth, including BR's parents, that want him to go to Philly as much as Randy Miller does. He is the Robby of the Philadelphia media (which, at times, is akin to our Daniel). He only mentioned his old BR story in his new BR story a couple hundred times, even after Bobby said he's happy where he is. Let it go, bud.

***

I'm giving the final word on this topic because I really hope I don't have to write about this crap again. Although, I'm sure once the season starts again in 2024, Bobby will do or say something else to cause an uproar. Anyway, final word commencing.

History always repeats itself in one form or another. Nothing could be more true for Mr. Bobby Ryan. Think back to 2008, GM Brian Burke had effed up the salary cap and Bobby was the casualty because of it. His first shot at the big show was during the 2007-2008 season. He scored his first career goal in his first NHL game in London, on a team that was defending Stanley Cup champs.

All kinds of bad signings lead to cap trouble for Burkie. Ryan would be sent up, down, left and right as the Ducks tried to shed cash. He wasn't happy. He was the second overall pick and should not be treated like this. As we've seen recently, Bobby's father is the first one to make a comment:

"It's hard to complain when your son's in the NHL making great money," said Bob Stevenson. "But it's hard to take when he's up and down like a yo-yo."

Papa bear defending his cub. Probably just an off-the-cuff remark, like the ones he's made in the past few months. Now it was Bobby's turn to give his side of the story:

"There were definitely times when the Ducks had the opportunity to make a trade and I was involved," Ryan said. "They always told me I was a big part of their future. But you need to get a chance, right? So I said to Burkie that if by December I'm not with the (Ducks), use the opportunity to move me."

Here is where we go back to something we've been repeating all summer - Bobby Ryan takes the business of hockey personally. Teemu Selanne and Scott Neidermayer were coming back, Burke had to work the numbers and it took a while. It had nothing to do with BR's play. He was destroying people in the AHL. It was business decision. They wanted Bobby there. Burke made some moves, bought out bad contracts and finally got BR up with the Ducks. They wanted him there.

If I were Bobby, I wouldn't be angry about these oversights of the business of hockey, I'd be pissed if my GM came out and said this after being eliminated from the playoffs:

"We’ve got to find a way to generate more offense and not try to win 2-1 or 3-2 every night. I think that’s the primary thing and whether Bobby Ryan is ready to step up or we have to go into the free agent market or we make a trade, we have assets to trade." - Brian Burke

That, students, is what a GM does when he wants to get a player to listen and to officially put you on the trading block. A message like that cannot be construed as a rumor.

A rumor.

A rumor is what got us into this whole ordeal in the first place.

**Thanks again to reader kid ish for giving us the heads up on the story**

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