Lots of little things today, and maybe one big thing:
-As McClure posted here last night, the Hawks signed Ryan Potulny, who looks like a straight up Versteeg replacement. I’m not sure why people such as Sassone are confused by this and the Pisani signing. The Hawks lost at least two penalty killers in Versteeg and Fraser, as well as Ladd and Burish who took their turns doing so, and Pisani fills that gap. Potulny is a shifty little player with some wheels who could benefit from being around superior talent. Or he just got 15 goals in Edmonton because someone had to get them there. Don’t be worried about the -21, look at what was defending and goaltending in northern Alberta last season. Secondly, this assures that Skille or Beach or Dowell or whoever aren’t going to have to hurdle some obstacle to get on the roster. Handing things to kids rarely works. Oh, and why is Pittsburgh’s signing of 13-goal Mike Comrie genius but our signing of 15-goal Polulny curious, when both are from the same team (granted Comrie played in 20 less games, but it’s not like injuries are a rare occurrence for him)?
-Second item, the Hawks have promoted everyone to VP of something, and I don’t know what that means other than they get to put out a press release and McDonough gets to flash that smile that basically tells you he just finished blowing himself over what a great job he’s doing.
-Right then, so on to the good stuff. Next week we’ll be starting our season previews. Last year you may remember we posed a question that we would answer about the upcoming season. That was ok, but asking us to think of a question and an answer led to a lot of blown fuses (both emotionally and physically). So as always, we’re going to shirk some of our responsibility. This year, you’re going to ask the questions. Use the comments section here, or if someone wants to start a fanpost thread as well, and spend the next couple days collecting questions you might have about the upcoming season. They can be anything, as serious or as goofy as you want. Starting Monday, at least one of us will pick one each day to post about. Pretty simple. Have at it.