As you may know, there is this thing out there called Twitter. All three of the writers here have accounts - but as I told one of my cohorts who found glee in jobbing me when I showed up on the 28th, I have my twitter for two days: Trade deadline day and Opening day of Free Agent hunting season (every now and again, I look around and find a gem.... green gun, green knife, green something. [don't worry if that doesn't make sense, Nutmeg and I are cracking up]). So when I logged on to Twitter Monday, I was there with a purpose.
One of the bloggers I follow in Tweetville is Down Goes Brown - if you don't read it, really you are only hurting yourself. It's brilliant. But when he posted about having everyone tweet about a player being moved, he was up front about it and made it very clear it was not a hard and fast fact. The problem was that once it started, certain websites picked it up as the truth. Then the talking heads got duped (that and fake twitter accounts). Then DGB got lumped in with all the parodies. Which was too bad. If you want a more detailed account of the madness, please check out ChuckAPucker favorite, Puck Daddy
Look, I get it that we as a society have this almost desperate need to know everything first. Breaking news and first alerts are jammed down our throats but look. There is this thing called fact checking. Reporters used to do that (well aside from that whole "Dewey beats Truman" thing) but now, any hint of a rumor is splattered as fact. And that should be more disappointing.
Both the Pens and Sabres were quiet on deadline day which I'm ok with. The Slugs in essence, replaced Craig Rivet with Brad Boyes (I'll take that anyday); I wished they could have gotten Connely's salary off the payroll but that day is coming. And with the new owner in place? Maybe July 1 will be a happy day in the Queen City.
The Guins took a different approach and went proactive. Picking up Alex Kovalev for peanuts was a great move. He's showed his worth already. Then trading Goose for James Neal and Matt Niskanen (who shares my birthday) who are both under contract was a smart move. Nicely done GMRS.
From the Pens site on Yahoo:
Brooks Orpik Feb 24, 2011 Injured Reserve Broken finger
Nick Johnson Feb 18, 2011 Injured Reserve Concussions
Eric Tangradi Feb 12, 2011 Injured Reserve Concussion
Chris Kunitz Feb 8, 2011 Injured Reserve Lower-body injury
Evgeni Malkin Feb 5, 2011 Injured Reserve Torn right ACL, MCL
Arron Asham Feb 2, 2011 Injured Reserve Concussion
Sidney Crosby Jan 6, 2011 Injured Reserve Mild concussion
Mike Comrie Nov 26, 2010 Injured Reserve Hip surgery
Riddle me this: at what point does Sidney Crosby lose the "mild" in front of his concussion tag? He's not played a game in two months for something that was supposed to keep him out a week or two.
So on that note, I'm going to go eat my mild breakfast.
