Hope you all had a fantastic hump day! My apologies for the belated edition of Wednesday’s Worst but I unfortunately was cooped up at the new job all day, then Lost came on. Priorities here people!
Now without further ado…THIS WEEK’S WEDNESDAY’S WORST IS…
ESPN and their love affair with President Obama! (And I thought the guy was already married!!)
It’s one thing if you want to have the President give you his Tournament picks, especially given he’s a basketball fan. It’s something else entirely when you are filling large chunks of Sportscenter with Obama and Obama-related interviews and shoving Obama-mania down the throats of anyone visiting ESPN.com. Coach K really put it best when he was asked about Duke not making Obama’s Final Four…
Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four, and as much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets.
And seriously Mr. President, could your picks be any more boring? The lowest seed he has making it to the Elite Eight is Syracuse (the only 3 seed to make it that far on his bracket) and his Final Four consists of UNC, Louisville, Pitt, and Memphis. If you are going to waste a half hour of my life douching it up on Sportscenter at least take some risks and have fun with it!
The World Wide Leader should definitely take the brunt of the blame for this though; whether it was Andy Katz’s nausea-inducing grin the whole time he was standing next to El Presidente, or the incredibly cornball “Barack-etology” graphic on the ESPN homepage…the whole ordeal reeked of one giant Presidential ass-kissing. Slow sports day or not, this is definitely Wednesday’s Worst.
Dishonorable Mention…
THE SCOTTIE UPSHALL TRADE!
I’ll be honest with you, I’m going to go a little easy on Paul Holmgren on this one. The guy has made his fair share of brilliant moves (Zhitnik for Coburn) and not-so-brilliant moves (how’s that Danny Briere contract lookin’?) but all in all Homer is a very competent GM who helped transform this team from one of the worst in the NHL into one of the best in just one offseason.
That being said, this past trade deadline was a complete disaster for the Flyers. At the end of the day they lost Ossi Vaananan, Glen Metropolit, Scottie Upshall, and a 2nd round pick and gained…Daniel Carcillo. Yep, that’s it. For a team that was one good move away from being a serious Cup contender all of that seems awfully unnecessary, does it not?
Now I realize that the deadline passed back in early March so this criticism might seem a little late. I also realize that Vaananan and Metropolit have been non-factors on their new teams, but what makes this trade even worse from a Flyer perspective is the way Scottie Upshall is blossoming in Phoenix. In seven games he has three goals and an assist, and you better believe the Flyers miss his energy on their third line. The 25-year old is averaging almost five more minutes of ice time per night in the desert and is showing some of the promise that led to the Flyers acquiring him from the Predators in the first place.
As for Carcillo…well he has 21 penalty minutes, three assists, and zero goals in his first six games as a Flyer.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: the last thing this team needed was another hot-head who takes dumb penalties, which is exactly what Carcillo is. Even when you consider how mediocre Upshall’s stats were prior to the change in scnery, this trade made the Flyers worse as a team because it hurt them in the one area they had to improve in; taking fewer penalties. I’m not even going to touch that whole Kyle McLaren thing either.
I still have faith in Paul Holmgren as a GM, but with the Flyers so close to being an elite team a diasastrous deadline deal was the last thing the franchise needed. Call it a rip-off, call it a salary dump…I’ll call it a dishonorable mention for Wednesday’s Worst.
