Weekly Musings Returns: Dolphins, Ford and Strange Refs

Very busy couple of weeks forced me to push back some things but I finally have some time to go over some of the craziness that has been happening all around us. Let's dive right in.

Underneath this seemingly calm moment, lay a hostile and abusive work environment

-The Miami Dolphins are a mess and deserve everything they get for essentially encouraging veteran Offensive Lineman Richie Incognito to "attempt to toughen up" one of his younger teammates, another Offensive lineman named Jonathan Martin. If you heard the vile and disgusting things that Incognito left on Martin's voicemail back in April (something that says a lot about this entire situation to be honest), you would have no problem with the fact that the Dolphins suspended Incognito indefintely (they SHOULD just cut the guy).

What gets me about this situation is the fact that the next day, despite the fact the voicemail was made public, the next day after this was uncovered, to a man the Dolphins team players came out defending their teammate except it was Incognito that they defended. WTF?! I know some are saying this is a "he said, he said" situation but given the recorded evidence, I honestly don't know how anyone can honestly believe that. The only good thing to come out of this is that it actually happened to a football player who is intelligent enough to know when to say "screw this, I am not taking this from you" and walked away from the team in order to bring attention to his situation.

Martin comes from a family of well educated people who brought him up to get his education first (Ivy league school product who has a degree) and isn't completely 100% reliant on the NFL to get him out of a bad living situation. To him, being in the NFL is exactly what it should be to most athletes; a temporary moment in their lives. For most NFL players however, not only does being in the League become the most important part of their lives, it becomes the only part that matters. Making it to the NFL is an escape for so many inner city kids in the US that it almost seems as if the league banks on this fact with some of the things that they have enforced through their negotiations with the Players association.

I will explain that in a moment. Back to Martin. He clearly was able to recognize just how fickle a career in the meat grinder that is the NFL was and decided if he was going to be subjected to the abusive situation that he was in with the Dolphins then he would rather just leave the team entirely. There are probably not a lot of players who could have done what he did.

Not sure why but I see a definite connection between Di Caprio's Character and many an NFL Owner...

Back to the NFL itself, having just watched Django Unchained, I may well be making a wild connection here that isn't really there but I see paralels between the type of character that Di Caprio played in that movie (A vicious slave owner who in one scene basically motivated one of his own slaves to essentially do anything to kill his opponent in a version of an MMA no-hold-barred 1 on 1 fight). The fact that the league has no guaranteed contracts makes it very much a free for all for many players in the league. add the fact that about 70% of the league is made up of black players and you can see where the comparison comes from. You have owners who have tried to take as much away from the players as possible and to this day are constantly dangling the carrot of financial freedom and stardom but always have the sword of Damocles hanging perilously over any and all players who don't do what their owner expects of them. Very interesting.

-I don't want to get into Rob Ford too much as he continues to find ways of shocking and amazing the entire world now as his plight seems to be on every news station across the globe but I want to make one point about a comparison I was going to make about his treatment by the local media. The angry drunk video is total piling on by the media who seems to have had it in for Ford from the start. My point about the angry video has more to do with the fact that it is so random, has no context to it and yet was released solely to make Ford look even worse (not that he isn't doing a fine job of that himself but still) and yet instead of anyone calling out the media for this clear case of simply piling on, we just sit back and continue to attack a man who clearly needs help.  

I admit it is entierly possible we all know someone who has been drunk on video saying or doing something that they would not be proud of or want anyone to see. This video to me shows just how uninformed the media now is as instead of giving us a date it was filmed, the location, the person's name who recorded it, they just play it and leave out all the details that would help us make a more informed decision about it. They clearly had a story on their hands from the start with Mayor Ford and were relentless in their pursuit of it, even if their own journalistic integrity be damned in the process. I guess the fact that we are now the laughing stock of the planet for having a crack-head mayor doesn't matter as long as they get their own names out there as the people who tracked down this story from start to finish.

One last note here on Mayor Ford. To Mayor Ford; Take a leave of absence already and get yourself out of the spotlight already.

It's time he took some time away from the job

-This has been one strange NHL season so far. The Flyers were supposed to be a good team and they fire their coach after starting 0-3. The young Oilers who many thought would be the breakout team this season, have faltered so badly, they are 2nd last in the entire league. The Colorado Avalanche, and their legendary former player/new coach Patrick Roy were expected to be seller dwellers started off with 10 wins in 12 games and then their Russian starting goalie is accused of beating and holding his Russian model girlfriend prisoner in their condo resulting in an official from the Russian Government to accuse the Colorado police of a conspiracy against Varlamov as he is slated to be the Russian starting goalie in the up coming Sochi Olympics. Oh and did I mention that the current edition of the Maple Leafs is starting to look eerily similar to the 1992-93 Leaf team (before all the injuries to their top 2 centers).

This was his mugshot. Like his Coach in the past, Varlamov could well be facing potential domestic legal issues

Looking at the Leafs, when they were healthy, they were rolling and were off to a great start. they were 10-4 only a short time ago (now 11-7-1). They had balance among their top 3 lines and had all their "D" playing well. Injuries and a questionable suspension (1 game sure, 3? No. Bad call Shanahan....Congrats on the Hall of Fame by the way!). Here are the comparisons I see;

2 Solid Goalies in Bernier and Reimer similar to how the Leafs had Fuhr and Potvin to start that season. There are 2 wingers on the current Leafs that could hit 40 goals, maybe even 3 had injuries not taken Bozak away from Kessel and vanRiemsdyk, with Lupol being the 3rd one. That '92 Leaf team had Wendel Clark and (eventually) Dave Andreychuk, whom they acquired when they dealt Fuhr to the Sabres.Coincidentally, that team dealt away Fuhr once they saw who their true #1 goalie was in Potvin, which is bound to happen shortly when this Leafs team chooses Bernier over Reimer and then deals Reimer over to the Oilers in a 3 team deal that will land them Matt Moulson, Sam Gagner and some picks and cap space (this will be explained later on).

Whether it's by trade or in the summer as a free agent, Matt Moulson will be a Leaf. Write that down...

The Leafs current 7 Defenceman are at least on par if not on pace to be a better group then the 7 that were on the 1992 team. Those 7 guys were Dave Ellett. Jaime Macoun, Bob Rouse, Todd Gill, Sylvain Lefevbre, Dmitri Mironov and Drake Berehowsky. Compared to Dion Phaneuf, Carl Gunnarsson, Cody Franson, Mark Fraser, Paul Ranger, Jake Gardiner and Morgan Reilly.

Both teams had/have depth at forward, with the current team having theirs severely tested at the moment but the one difference in the 2 will be how GM Dave Nonis decides to handle his wealth of NHL caliber defenceman (John Michael Liles is languishing in the AHL and could be helping another NHL team right now instead) and his goaltending situation. If Leafs management really thinks they have as shot at doing something special this year, they need to make some moves now to stem the tide of problems that may well conitnue to push this team down the standings with their top 3 centers out of the lineup.

If it were up to me, I would use both of those to my advantage and make some changes given the injuries to both Dave Bolland and Tyler Bozak. This is what I would do. Edmonton is in desperate need of defenders and the Leafs have Liles in the minors along with Gardiner seemingly a valuable asset they can afford to deal given their own needs at other positions and the fact Reilly looks NHL ready. I would offer the Oilers the following;

From Toronto:
Jake Gardiner - Salary $875K  Term remaining - Restricted FA after this year
John Michael Liles - Salary $3.875 million  Term remaining - Expires after 2016-17
James Reimer - Salary $1.8 million   Term Remaining - Restricted FA after this year
Tyler Bozak - Salary $4.2 million  Term remaining - Expires after 2017-18
1st round pick this summer

 Total Salary - $10.75 Million
Salary Cap Space
Before Trade - Over by $1.65 Million
After Trade - Over by $5.4 Million

For

To Toronto:
Sam Gagner - Salary $4.8 million  Term remaining - Expires after 2016-17
Nail Yakopov - Salary $925K  Term remaining - Expires after 2015-16
Ales Hemsky - Salary $5 million - Term
Devan Dubnyk - Salary $3.5 million  Term remaining - Unrestricted FA after this year
2 2nd round picks (2014 and 2015)

Total Salary - $14.225
Salary Cap Space
Before Trade - $58.8
After Trade - $55.05

This would require a follow up trade by the team which would be with the Sabres and go as follows;

To Toronto:

Matt Moulson - Salary $3.133 million  Term remaining - Unrestricted FA after this year
2 2nd round picks (Theirs from 2015 and the Islanders from this year)

 Total Salary - $3.133 Million (3 million retained)
Salary Cap Space
Before Trade - Over by $5.4 Million
After Trade - Over by $533K
To Buffalo:

Nail Yakopov - Salary $925K  Term remaining - Expires after 2015-16
Ales Hemsky - Salary $5 million - Term

 Total Salary - $5.925 Million (plus $3 million retained)
Salary Cap Space
Before Trade - $12.9 Million
After Trade - $3.975 Million
After these 2 trades, the Leafs would have the following line-up;

Forwards:
Kessel-Kadri-vanReimsdyk
Lupul-Gagner-Raymond
Clarkson-Bolland-Kulemin
Orr-McClement-Ashton

Extra forwards: Bodie and McClaren

Defence
Phaneuf-Gunnarsson
Franson-Fraser
Reilly-Ranger

Extra Defenceman
TJ Brennan

Bernier would be the starter, Dubnyk the back up.

These 2 deals would be ideal for all 3 teams involved. The Oilers would get the solid goaltending and a couple of NHL Defenders to help them rebound. The Sabres would get Yakupov and the salary relief that would come when Hemsky's deal expires at the end of the year and the Leafs would have a solid 1-2 punch down the middle in Kadri and Gagner that would essentially be interchangeable and both being local kids is always a positive.

One last thing that I wanted to focus on. Nazem Kadri was suspended 3 games for a hit to the head of Wild goalie Nicolas Backstrom. A 2 minute penalty was given to him on the play which was fair but 3 games was excessive. 2 games would have been fine but 3 isn't logical. What really bothers me is the fact that later in the same game, Kadri nailed Brodin, a young player for the Wild who was standing still by the boards with his head down, shoulder to chest, and was given a 5 minute major and kicked out of the game. Horrible call on the play by the officials that very possibly cost the team a chance to win the shoot out had Kadri been around to take a shot.

Kadri is out 3 games for this hit on Backstrom. I think it should have been 2

Kadri admitted today to the press that even Brendan Shanahan told him that he found that to be the wrong call and his hit legal and within the rules of the game. This leads to me tonights game between the Leafs and Sabres. On at least 3 occasions where a Sabres player tripped (Gunnarsson behind the net), cross-checked a  player (Myers on Lupol into the boards) or high sticked (Hodgson's stick being almost in Kulemin's helmet) without a call being made yet almost immediately after each of these incidents, a much lessor foul (Fraser's 2 handed push deemed to be a cross check and Kessel inadvertently knocking the puck out of mid-air out of play come immediately to mind) were called instead. It makes you wonder what game these guys are watching and what they actually see as penalties on the ice.

Those are my thoughts for the week.

Until next time....