Post by IGive1 on Aug 11, 2007 12:54:35 GMT -5
Have not had a chance to post much about the off season. As an aside to any and all students who may be reading this board....stay in school for as long as you can, say till about you're 45, because working for a living really sucks!
I think this off season can be summed up as this..."A huge opportunity squandered". With the letting go of Mancini they had 3 strong candidates who if hired would have put this franchise in the upper echelon of teams (i.e. Kitchener, London, Ottawa, etc.) and to really take it to the next level, as Goslin said they had "one of the best coaches in Junior hockey" lined up to come here as well. Well, they did not get the GM so they did not get the coach. Isn't one of the Gs supposed to be a super salesman? As Junior Soprano said to Bobbie Bacula about Richie Aprile, "He count not sell it". What a debacle the Ferguson thing was. One of the reasons he did not want the job as DG said was Ferguson realized the job would be more than he wanted to do. Let me get this right, Ferguson was a GM in the WHL where I'm assuming he had both the hockey and business sides to run, but just running the hockey side (Goslin would do the business side) in Saginaw was more than he wanted? Very Strange. Me thinks when it was time to sign the contract on that Friday, there was something in there he was surprised with and did not want.
So where are we? Basically with a GM and coach new to their positions that will learn on the job. It really is no surprise DE is staying close to DG since DG has 5 years experience in the league and DE has none. You get the feeling we will be going all through this again in 2 years? They both could turn out to be fantastic hires, but we really won't know that for what, 5-6 years?
I think this is critical juncture for this franchise. The novelty of the new building and the team in general is quickly fading. I'm feeling the "buzz" for the team is fading as well. I know season tickets are down, Goslin had said as much, I'm hearing way down. The dreadful economy certainly has a part, but also fans are frustrated by the continual change in management. Most of us are employees and we really don't like to see management go through employees like this.
Wouldn't it be great at some point in the future that high end free agent American kids would want to come here rather than to London and Kitchener? I think this off season was a huge opportunity to bring the franchise toward that level, but it was squandered badly.
I think this off season can be summed up as this..."A huge opportunity squandered". With the letting go of Mancini they had 3 strong candidates who if hired would have put this franchise in the upper echelon of teams (i.e. Kitchener, London, Ottawa, etc.) and to really take it to the next level, as Goslin said they had "one of the best coaches in Junior hockey" lined up to come here as well. Well, they did not get the GM so they did not get the coach. Isn't one of the Gs supposed to be a super salesman? As Junior Soprano said to Bobbie Bacula about Richie Aprile, "He count not sell it". What a debacle the Ferguson thing was. One of the reasons he did not want the job as DG said was Ferguson realized the job would be more than he wanted to do. Let me get this right, Ferguson was a GM in the WHL where I'm assuming he had both the hockey and business sides to run, but just running the hockey side (Goslin would do the business side) in Saginaw was more than he wanted? Very Strange. Me thinks when it was time to sign the contract on that Friday, there was something in there he was surprised with and did not want.
So where are we? Basically with a GM and coach new to their positions that will learn on the job. It really is no surprise DE is staying close to DG since DG has 5 years experience in the league and DE has none. You get the feeling we will be going all through this again in 2 years? They both could turn out to be fantastic hires, but we really won't know that for what, 5-6 years?
I think this is critical juncture for this franchise. The novelty of the new building and the team in general is quickly fading. I'm feeling the "buzz" for the team is fading as well. I know season tickets are down, Goslin had said as much, I'm hearing way down. The dreadful economy certainly has a part, but also fans are frustrated by the continual change in management. Most of us are employees and we really don't like to see management go through employees like this.
Wouldn't it be great at some point in the future that high end free agent American kids would want to come here rather than to London and Kitchener? I think this off season was a huge opportunity to bring the franchise toward that level, but it was squandered badly.
