Bertuzzi traded to Florida!!!
Oh. My. God. Oh well, it's not that much of a surprise. It's been rumoured all year, and the worse the Canucks played the more the rumours flew. Fairly or not, the Steve Moore incident changed the entire team's chemistry, which just goes to show how integral a part of the team Bertuzzi really was. Maybe the Canucks management would have thought twice about this trade if the team had done better, made it to at least the first round of playoffs, and if Bertuzzi himself had played his best. But the team dragged, and Bertuzzi never played his A game -- due to the SM incident, Bertuzzi was unable or unwilling to play like the hard-hitting power forward of seasons past. Every time he came on the ice, let alone touched the puck, fans were booing him. As a pro, such things shouldn't bother him, but in this case those boo's were a constant reminder of the multi-million dollar lawsuit hanging over his head.
The good news is we got an excellent goalie in Roberto Luongo. Although he doesn't own a Stanley Cup ring, that's probably more a factor of the Panthers' inability to score than Luongo's inability to save (.914 save average, not bad at all). A good goalie is always what's stood between the Canucks and the Cup -- we'll see how different the team looks this fall. Contenders at last?
Saturday, June 24, 2006
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