Sunday Conversation: In Dale We Must Trust.

While the dust may not have settled yet on last night’s surprise trade of David Booth to the Vancouver Canucks, I’m here to tell you that it’s way to early to pick a winner or a loser in this deal.  Since none of the four players has played a game, I don’t think you can evaluate this trade for a few months.  Also you need to trust general manager Dale Tallon and let him do his job.  It’s very simple to sit in our La-Z-Boys and have negative feelings about the the David Booth trade, but in reality, with the way the team played in the two games prior to the trade, Dale felt that something had to be done.  I give him full marks for doing it now.

You can’t have it both ways kittens.  Yes, we all fall in love with players, and wish that they would stay on our team forever, but in this day and age, that’s just not possible.  This is a results oriented business and without winning results, it’s very obvious that Dale Tallon isn’t going to just go with the flow.  It’s become quite apparent that anything that had to do with Jacques Martin has a trap door waiting with a ticket out of town.  Dale is the first general manager that has not only had the autonomy to do what he wants, but also the nerve to actually do it.

I’ve read a lot of remarks, and a lot of comments about this trade and all of Dale’s previous moves.  Put things in perspective for just a few minutes and think about what you might be upset about.  In the last few years we’ve seen our previous general manager JM the GM toss money at players who didn’t deserve it (Rusty Olesz).  Hold on to players that couldn’t make up their mind if they wanted to stay or not (Jay Bouwmeester).  He also passed on trades because he didn’t want to upset the apple cart (could have had Claude Giroux).  The free agent signings?  Really? Those were exciting?  And yet we struggled as a team, failed to make the playoffs, yet people were “content”.

Now, we have someone that expects more, demands more, and isn’t afraid to do something about it.  Some people have been left scratching there heads.  Folks, Dale Tallon was brought here to build a winner.  And if it takes doing things like what he did Saturday night, and it yields positive results, then please Dale, let’s get on with the gettin’ on.  People think Vancouver got the best part of this deal?  Really?  While I really like David Booth as a human being, we have no idea what’s going on with his game.  The Panthers apparently felt that if his value is at his highest now, then it was time to move him.  As for Steven Reinprecht, good on Dale for unloading him to Vancouver. Both Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm are proven NHL veterans who can help this team, and if they can’t, then they won’t be back either.  But we’ll have freed up salary cap space and two roster spots as well if they don’t.

Don’t take this post the wrong way.  I liked David Booth.  A lot.  I felt horrible about the hit he took from Mike Richards, but knew he probably would never be the same player he once was after that.  But I want to win.  Dale’s won before, and he did some controversial things over there (Chicago)in order to win.  But he’s got one thing that we all want.  A Stanley Cup Championship ring.

This is no longer a retirement community where you come to play golf and tennins and sit on the beach.  Either you’re here to play hockey or you’re not.  Like Dale said (courtesy of the Miami Herald):

"“We treat everybody equally. They better pull up their socks,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they signed as free agents or not. It’s about production, it’s about performance and it’s about the Panthers.”"

I can live with that.  Can you?  Let’s hear what you have to say.  Leave a comment in our comment section.

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