An Injury and a Shakeup
The Hornets can’t be happy with the loss of Chris Paul for at least a month thanks to a knee injury – it’s hard to be happy when you are losing perhaps the best point guard in the league. Still, the way that Darren Collison has played the last two games no one is really going to miss Paul at all. In his first game against New Orleans on Saturday the former UCLA guard erupted for 17 points and a gaudy 18 assists. Tonight he was almost as good against Phoenix, with 16 points and 14 rebounds – this time in just 36 minutes. These outbursts are the two career highs in assists for the rookie, and only his second and third time in double digits.
The Calgary Flames made a bold move yesterday to shake up their pathetically underachieving squad when they made an uncharacteristically bold seven player deal. Deals like that aren’t nearly as common mid-season as they used to be. They traded away Dion Phaneuf, a flashy but bone-headed young defenseman because they had a massive deficit in offense, and they added two forwards who can score, a good locker room leader, and a defenseman who can be as offensive as Phaneuf without the stunning lapses in play. Sounds like a good deal, and it is. There’s just one problem – it will take patience. They new offensive boost joined the team tonight, and they proceeded to get shut out 3-0 by the Flyers. If one shakeup isn’t enough then maybe the second one will do the trick – rumors are flying hot and heavy that the team is about to announce another big trade, with Olli Jokinen heading out of town. If and when that deal happens Calgary will have traded away two of their four highest pad players in two days. GM Darryl Sutter can see the writing on the wall, and he knows that he’s in serious trouble if the team doesn’t win a playoff series. You have to give him credit for boldly trying to make that happen. He’s truly going big or going home with this one. I’m sure that I’m not the only fan of the team who is uncertain which outcome I prefer – I’d love to win a playoff series, but I’d also love to see the Sutter regime draw to an end.
Related posts:
- A Cloudy Sunday Night What a strange day of golf that was to watch....
- Random Wednesday Thoughts I’m posting late because I was at the Calgary Flames...
- The Injury Bug Bites Hard Someone up there has a seriously twisted sense of humor....
Tags: Calgary Flames, Darren Collison, Dion Phaneuf, New Orleans Hornets
February 5th, 2010 at 10:23 am
This should end up being a great game. Each of those squads are very well matched. I believe Indy has the edge due to the fact that Manning is virtually unstoppable. If he can play, Freeney and Mathis ought to be capable of getting more than enough pressure on Drew to make him to get rid of the ball earlier than he really wants to. If the saints defense fails to make a few turn overs the colts probably will win.