Summer, Summer...

Summer is coming. I can tell, not by the way the weather is warming up, but by the way my twin 9-year olds look at me when I tell them they (still) have to do their homework, and yes, they do have to go to bed while its still light outside. I am also sure that they are giving me the finger behind my back. Soon they will like me again, when summer vacation hits and everybody gets some time off. Except the grown-ups.

Kenny Holland is in for a challenging summer. Whatever he does, hopefully it will be better than the deal we made for Ville Leino. Now, before all of you start throwing fresh road kill at me for bashing the legendary Mr. Holland, bear in mind that we got seriously screwed on that deal. Pending of course, the draft pick we get in the fifth round. Other than that, we traded Leino (11G, 9A, 16PIM in 68 games) for Ole-Kristian Tollefson (4G, 8A, 296PIM in 163 games). To be fair, Lieno wasn't doing much to impress Mike Babcock (though Danny Briere is now singing Leino's praises), and we needed some beef on the blue line. But Kenny went against his usual "wait and see" strategy, which has been proven over and over to be a pretty good idea. Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren knew that Leino was going to be gone one way or another, and Kenny was forced to take "something" rather than "nothing". Meaning that if Leino was placed on waivers, he would have been snapped up right away, and the Wings would have nothing in return. What we got, however, was almost as bad. Tollefson averages two trips to the box per game. With that kind of rep, how do you think he would have been treated by the refs in this years playoffs? So yeah, we got jobbed by Philly's GM, who is no slouch himself. Remember that when Paul Holmgren took over as Philly's GM, the Flyers sucked donkey. Now they are in the Conference Finals.

Kenny also has to look for another goalie to fill in for the departure of Daniel Larsson for Sweden. I say good riddance. Besides, if he stops whining long enough to make a few saves for HV-71, we can still get him back since the Wings still own him for three more years. His reason for leaving? Too long on the farm team. Boo-frickety-hoo...I mean, this is the Red Wings. Everyone knows that you will be on the farm team for a while. Jimmy Howard was there four years. So quit crying and play. Rumor has it that Chris Osgood is going to retire next year, at the end of his current contract, so why not just stick it out? I think the underlying reason is that he didn't want to be a backup to Jimmah, but that's just me.

As an aside, the Magical Mr. Holland's contract has been extended, so he will continue to work his magic for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, he is giving Stevie Y some pointers, so that he will stay in the Red Wings camp. Talk about Stevie going to Tampa Bay has died down a bit, and Ron Hextall's name is being bandied about. Maybe Stevie or Tampa Bay (or both) have lost interest? If Stevie must go, then I would rather see him go north to Toronto. The Maple Leafs don't have a Stanley Cup team picture in color, for chrissakes, so would it really be so bad to see him help some other team out? Especially the storied Leafs?

Nah, fuck 'em...