saneopinion

"Keep the opinions sane and well thought out."

Canada, AB • Canada •

What If....

What if. It is a small phrase that usually pre-cursers everything I find annoying. What if Gelina's goal had counted in '04. What if Dion got traded for a 1st. What if they didn't trade a 1st for Jokinen...or trade to get him back again...or trade him for Kotalik. What if what if what if. As Jim Rome is fond of saying, " if...if my aunt had junk, she'd be uncle. But she doesn't."

I can't stand the argument that starts with "what if". Having said that I'm going to give you one to ponder. What if Iginla was sat tonight.

I'm not picking on the guy, at this point it may seem like it but I ask you, would it make a difference to this club? Would tonight's outcome be changed? I keep waiting for a multi-goal game from Jarome and it keeps eluding me. If Jarome and Jokinen were not playing and the guys who are over performing like mad were given that ice time how much better would the team be? Case in point Bourque has a point per game in 16:50 of ice time, Jarome has .6 in 19:15 a game. If Bourque got that ice would we have scored more? I think the answer is obvious.

If the line up looked like:

Glencross- Backlund- Bourque
Tanguay- Stajan- Moss
Hagman- Morrison- Jackman
Mayer- Conroy- Kostopolous

or any combo you want of the above.

Would you be surprised to know that the flames would only be 5 goals less on the season. In fact Kostopolous and Babchuk coming in would net minus 1 as they have 4 between them. Babchuck has as many goals as Iginla. So again would sitting those two make a difference to the winning and losing record of the team? If not you have to ask why they are here and what their 10 million plus in salary combined would actually buy in production. They do not provide any kind of danger to take away defense pairings from the top line with Bourque. What purpose do they serve.

So "what if" is a pretty annoying way to start a sentence, and Iginla will dress tonight and hopefully get his first hat trick in a very long time but my guess is he won't. Jokinen was suspended and I didn't hear or read one comment where anyone was the least concerned about it. The only reaction I've seen is that most feel Backlund will get the shot he deserves.

With Kotalik coming back soon and three other players coming from injury you can bet that there will be moves but we have yet to see if they will be meaningful. The White trade simply brought in a cheaper defenseman with size and got rid of a small expensive defenseman all in all their stats are similar and neither of them will care that they are not wearing the flaming c next year.

The biggest "what if" of all. The one everyone is terrified of is: What if they don't do anything at all?

S>O>

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