Francois Giguere Has Got His "Priorities" a Little Mixed Up

"My priorities are to sign Joey and Blake. My intention after that is to get as many guys back as I can" -Francois Giguere

Oh really Giguere? Is that your intention? Well you are doing a pretty awful job at it so far. You come in here, take over for arguably the greatest GM of all time in Pierre Lacroix. Your first move is to sign Joe Sakaic, the best possible move, a nice ploy to get all the fans on your side. Then you go ahead and trade off Alex Tanguay. I thought your intention was to keep as many players as possible. Giving up our second-leading scorer is a pretty bad second move in that plan.

Then, you lolli-gag around for a week with no activity. Finally, some good news on the TV. The Avs have singed two more players. Could it be? Did the finally get Blake and Hinote? Nope, just Antti Laaksonen and Ossi Vaananen. It's ok, they are good players, and there are still 4 days until free agency. I know you said Blake was your priority, but you still have time.

3 days until free agency...

2 days until free agency...

1 day until free agency...

12 hours until free agency...

Yes! More news from the Avs camp. Blake has to be signed, I mean, it was your priority, and there are only 12 hours left!

"Avs resign Clark and Skrastins."

Either they made a pretty bad spelling error in the article, or you decided that Brett Clark was more important than Rob Blake.

Rob Blake has been one of the faces of this franchise for 6 years. He helped us win a cup. He has helped us in contention every year. He is a vetern. He has expressed to you he wants to stay in Colorado for less money than he makes now. What is the deal? Blake should have been the second player signed right after Sakic. There is not a single other player that should be signed until Rob Blake has his contract.

Giguere, buddy, you need to get your priorities straight real soon.

Giguère's Signing of Sakic Overshadowed by Tangauy Trade

A day after announcing that he wants to keep the same line-up as last season, Avs GM François Giguère made a move that already makes me miss Pierre Lacroix. With the trade of Alex Tanguay to division-rival Calgary, he just threw away one of the staples of the organization.

One year ago, the Colorado Avalanche were trying to figure out how to keep together one of the greatest line-ups (on paper) in the history of the game; Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake, Milan Hejduk, Adam Foote, Teemu Selanne, and Paul Kariya were just a few names on that list. Yesterday, only three of those names were left.

Sakic, Hejduk, and Blake, along with Tanguay, are the faces of this organization. Sakic has been around since the beginning, Hejduk and Tanguay since they were drafted in the late 90's, and although Blake has only been around 5 years, he will be known forever as an Av, and his #4 will one day hang in the rafters.

The question last year was Forsberg, or Tanguay and Hejduk? In the end, Tanguay and Hejduk were seen more important to the organization than Peter Forsberg. "There was a possibility of offering more to Forsberg and parting with some of the younger players, like Tanguay and Hejduk, but I don't think the fans would have been proud of me for that," Lacroix said.

Kariya, Salanne, and Foote were gone already, and now Forsberg was gone because of Tanguay and Hejduk. This move made is seem like these two players were the future of the organization, which is (was) exactly what they are (were).

The new NHL is now made up of fast, good, young players. Tanguay is the trifecta. One of the teams leading scorers, and only 26 years old, Tanguay would have, and should have remained as one of the go-to guys of the organization.

Giguere re-signed Sakic, which was the priority, and also made it seem like Giguere was on the right track. This move not only makes me think twice about his power at GM, but also makes me shutter to think what else he might pull off in the future.

Responses to What Everyone Around Denver is Saying

I've seen many points on discussion boards, and talking to people around Denver, as to why the trade is good, but I don't agree with any of them:

1) "With a big time player such as Tanguay probably looking for a BIG contract (my guess is between 4.5 - 7.5 million), we probably wouldn't be able to sign the players we wanted while staying under the cap (i.e.: Blake, any big free agents, etc...)."

Joe Sakic, arguably one of the top 5 players in the league, and one of the top 20 all time, just signed a contract for $5 million. There is no way Tanguay would even try to get more money than that. Most players would give up money to play where they want for who they want. A great example is Paul Kariya and Teemu Salanne, who both signed for $1.5 million for a chance to play in Colorado. That was $8 million less (combined) than they would have made had they stayed with their respective teams.

2) "We had the 4th best offense in the NHL last year, and a terrible looking defense (especially for a team looking to be a playoff contender)."

Tanguay is a HUGE reason we had the 4th best offense. If you subtract Tanguay's statistics from the Avalanche last year, and add Leopold’s, the Avalanche would rank 15th, right in the middle of the pack. If one player makes that much of a difference, he should not be just tossed away (that's the way I see it).

3) "We opened up quite a bit more cap space, making it possible to sign Blake, 1 or 2 half-decent forwards (maybe better than Tanguay) for a cheap price, a high caliber defensemen."

We only opened up less than $2 million. Tanguay made $3.2 million last season, while Leopold mad $1.5 million. Blake won't make very much, if any, more than last season; in fact, a player like him might actually take LESS money (just like Sakic, who will make over $1 million less than last season). We could sign 2 or 3 players at the introductory salary, but in reality we will probably only be able to sign one other player for the $2 million saved on Tanguay. In addition, the cap is rising over $5 million next season. We could have kept Tanguay, and still had over $5 million to spend on new players.

4) "If we were to sign Tanguay and Blake, we would most likely see little changes for the Avs in 2006/07 season (mainly because we would be really tight to the cap)."

Again, we automatically get $5 million more because of the cap increase, plus the $1 million from Sakic. In addition, little changes isn't a bad thing. Giguere told the radio station in Denver that he would put up our team from last year against Edmonton or Carolina, and thinks they would be equals.

5)"We got two 2nd round picks in the deal."

Cool, so for giving up one of the best players on our team, we got two prospects whom may or may not pan out to be anything good. They will probably be traded off in the future anyway.

Where Did My Sports Go?

Today (Today Today), I consider myself (myself myself), the most bored man (man man), on the face of the Earth (Earth Earth).

The Miami Heat stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to win the NBA Championship last night. The Carolina Hurricanes have already had their victory parade for their Stanley Cup Championship. The Vince Lombardi trophy has been sitting in Pittsburgh for 5 months. And now, I am bored.

The slow-paced, tedious game of baseball is all I have in the sports world today. No bone crushing hits from a football or hockey game. No amazing MVP worthy throws by Brett Favre. No one-timer goals from the blue line by Rob Blake. No slams by LeBron or three’s by Nash. Nothing. All I have is nine long innings, three long hours of pitch after pitch after pitch, with an occasional home run or good catch thrown in every other game or so.

America’s pastime is becoming history. Sure, it’s a classic. Sure, the playoffs are fun. But what about the other 162 games that we have to sit through?

It’s a fast paced society we have today. We love the 97 yard runs, the 102 MPH slap-shots, and the 130-128 score games we see in today’s NBA. We are bored with 3-2 pitching duels. We are tired of steroid controversy. Why do you think that the average attendance at any Major League Baseball game is less than 65% capacity? At the Rockies/Athletics game last night, a bigger crowd was gathered inside watching the NBA Finals than there was 15 feet away watching the game that they paid to see.

What used to be the greatest sport in America is slowly fading away, becoming the black sheep of the American sports family. Summertime, the previous home to the most exciting, electifying competitions, is becoming a time for the fan to rest, to take a break from the sports world, to rest up for the next NFL, NBA, or NHL season. The game we used to love so much stopped loving us. It stopped giving us what we needed, and one-sided relationships never work out.

I'm sorry baseball, but football, hockey, and basketball are giving me what I need. Only 77 days until kickoff, and sadly, I think I can make it without you.

Give It Back to Maris

Steroids will forever be a blemish to today’s era of baseball. In the minds of many fans, Barry Bonds will always have an asterisk next to his name. Soon, with all the revelations about baseballs recent history coming out, Mark McGwire's 70 home runs, Sammy Sosa's 66 home runs; maybe even Ichiro's 262 hits will have an asterisk accompanying the record. There is no way to know which records were achieved fairly, and which ones were achieved through the means of cheating. Every record will have to be thoroughly reviewed.

Marc “The Mose” Moser, a radio personality at Denver’s AM 950 The Fan, wants to do something about it. He believes there is only one solution to the problem; Give It Back to Maris.

"This website is designed for the sole purpose of setting the Major League Baseball Single Season Home Run Record straight. With the acknowledgement of an era of baseball where the legitimacy of every record is in doubt, we believe there is only one solution to the ongoing steroid controversy and mistrust that not only surrounds the game but has created doubt in the game for the last 16 years. That solution is for Major League Baseball to GIVE IT BACK TO MARIS!

The 61 home runs that Roger Maris hit in 1961 were the benchmark that every major league slugger was shooting for 37 years. We contend that the passing of the Maris record by Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 and the subsequent mark set by Barry Bonds in 2001 CAN’T BE TRUSTED. We know it, they know and Major League Baseball knows it!"

While the effort might (and most likely will) be thrown aside, not even recognized by those who need to see it, it can’t hurt to try and at least show that there are thousands, maybe millions of fans out there who want something done about the contraversy.

So for everyone who questions these records, who disagrees with them, who wants to make sure that an asterisk be placed next to Bonds’ name forever in the record books, take a minute of your time and try to Give It Back to Maris.

http://www.giveitbacktomaris.com

"World Cup, USA Style"

Almost everyone will agree that soccer is not a huge sport in the United States. If you don't agree, you should probably open your eyes and look around. Compared to (American) football, baseball, basketball, and even hockey, soccer is just pushed aside and declared a sport for the Europeans. Blame it on the origin of the sport, blame it on the lack of TV exposure, blame it on whatever you want, but it's fact that MLS (Major League Soccer) games draw an average attendance of roughly 12,000 per game. That average includes games played in Mexico City (92,000 in attendance), where soccer is much more popular. Take away the Mexico City games, and the average attendance for teams like the Colorado Rapids is barely above 4,000 (which again, is deceiving, as that number includes the July 4th game, where 70,000 people pack into Invesco Field to see not the Rapids, but the fireworks).

That being said, soccer is about to invade our televisions for the next 30 days. Fans who have never watched a second of soccer in their lives will almost be forced to endure a few minutes of at least one World Cup match. Who knows, maybe it will catch our interest, maybe we will want to know more.

Until then, however, we are still stuck wondering about every team, their abilities, their players.

I wish I could take credit for this idea myself, but I have to credit this to Cormac Eklof, who, in an attempt to "Americanize" the World Cup, has broken down each team, and compared them to something we might be more familiar with: American Sports. Eklof has taken each team, and compared them with a team of equal caliber in the American sports world (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA).

Here is the original article, posted from Boston Globe writer Eric Wilbur, with the link to the original article following the post.

"World Cup, USA Style"

Group A

Germany

-The Detroit Pistons 2006. A defensive team, built on some powerful players, but playing with a huge psychological weight (Germany is expected to do well being the home team, much as Detroit was the defending Beast of the East). Outlook grim for those watching and for the Germans themselves, who should show us a new level of defensive, terrified play.

Poland

-The current Baltimore Ravens squad. Ostensibly a defensive team, but without any real defensive ability. Should be offensive to watch.

Group B

England

-The 2000-06 New York Mets. Massively, ridiculously overrated by their local media, always involved in some sort of comical downfall, insane injuries, woeful management. A huge car crash waiting to happen, at which stage the local media go absolutely berserk in berating the team that they themselves told literally everyone was going to win the tournament

Sweden

-The 2005 Baltimore Orioles or the 2006 Detroit Tigers. Potential dark horses until they have to play decent teams.

Group C

Argentina

-The 2005 Chicago White Sox. Nowhere near as colorful as their illustrious neighbors (The Cubbies/Brazil), but built to perform as a team. They just keep on winning.

Ivory Coast

-Syracuse hoops team, 2006. Colorful, talented, might make a decent run, might get knocked out in the first round, Didier Drogba is Gerry McNamara.

Serbia

-The Pistons from the ‘90s. REALLY dour, defensive and brought up in the school of hard knocks. Maybe you'll beat them, but you'll know about it physically after.

Netherlands

-Ladies and gentlemen your New York Knicks. A collection of individuals rather than a team, simmering below the surface is the local media waiting to pounce on first year coach and former god Van Basten, his decisions are Isiah-like in leaving out several stars, including the potentially influential Van Bommel. Could get buried early in the hardest group by far.

Group D

Mexico

-The 2005 Houston Astros or the 2006 Seattle Seahawks. Not quite sure how they got here, just kinda happy to be here, and not entirely sure they will actually do anything while here.

Portugal

-The Yankees post-2004. An impressive collection of names under possibly one of the best coaches in the game (Big Phil Scolari/Joe Torre). Destined to look pretty and crash horribly, ala NY in 2004 and Portugal in the European Championships.

Group E

Italy

-Peyton Manning. High hopes lead to low yields.

USA

-Phoenix Suns 2006. Pacey, unbelievably fit, and play an alien style that should confuse many teams. If everyone stays fit the Yanks could go deeper than expected.

Czech Republic

-The Yankees of 2006. Huge injury problems should lead to an early exit ... but ... you just don't know ...

Group F

Brazil

-The Yankees of the late ‘90s. If they avoid injuries, forget about it.

Croatia

-The 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers. Tough team from a hard knock school of learning; no one will want to draw them in later rounds.

Group G

France

-Ladies and gentlemen, your 2004 Boston Red Sox. An experienced, talented bunch of individuals who know how to win and could very well do it again. Thierry Henry is Pedro Martinez whilst Zinidine Zidane is Curt Schilling.

Switzerland

-I don't know anything about the NHL but name any boring, bad NHL team and this is who the Swiss are. I hope France puts 9 past them.

Group H

Spain

-Alex Rodriguez. They will look excellent in initial league play, will probably tear Tunisia and the Saudis apart, might even make Ukraine look silly, but will choke harder than the 2004 Yankees when push comes to shove.

Ukraine

-The 2005 Dallas Mavericks. They go as their superstar striker, and genuine world beater, Andrei Schevchenko, goes. He is Dirk to them, if he twists his ankle the Ukrainian nation holds its breath.

Korea, Togo, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Australia, Japan, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Iran

-Any first round exiting team in March Madness.

Trinidad and Tobago, Angola

-The Kansas City Royals