rooneypoo wrote:Yes, now it's his back issues, my personal hate of him, and my inability to see what he's done the last five games.
You do remember how there's absolutely no documentation anywhere saying that his back was injured this year? and how I defended Spezza till I was blue in the face for two years, against Neely? and how I've said, repeatedly, that Spezza HAS played great over the last five games, but the issue is that that's what we need to see from him, game in and game out, for a long time to come?
How can you not see how you're letting emotion, not reason, dictate your response? I have nothing personal against Spezza. I have long defended him. And I will defend him if he can just do what he's doing now, consistently. He's given us all so much reason to doubt he can, tho'.
As to the rest of this post, it doesn't address the issue I brought up at all, which was that your previous post was totally off-base in it's "Phillips and Neil are putting up a PPG, either" position.
My bottom line is that I would like to see some patience shown with Spezza. I have never once denied the fact that he would have to be traded if he continued not producing - or turning over, or not playing the game the way we know he needs to. I have doubts, but at the same time, we always have to have a whipping boy here. If it's not Spezza, then it's Gerber, if not Gerber, it's Redden, if not Redden it's someone else. Spezza has shown to us all that he has the talent to be a gamebreaker, not only in the past five games, but every year since the lockout - with the exception of the last two horrific years. My point about Phillips and Neil wasn't that they should be scoring a PPG, it was that if you look at them and their stats and play in the last two years, you'd be hardpressed to say they were worth anything approaching what they were making. The team has been awful until recently, from top to bottom, with the exception of Alfie. Now that we've turned the corner a bit, I would suggest heavily to everyone that we relax with Spezza and see what we've got for the duration of the season and hopefully into the playoffs.
That's it. That's how I feel, emotion level fairly even keeled. Just don't compare Spezza to Crosby or Ovechkin or Zetterberg or Datsyuk etc., because you won't like what you see.
Also, you know that I've supported more than once trade proposal involving Spezza, I would never utter the phrase untouchable about him. I know you're concerned Rooney - and I like that, it shows you're a passionate fan, but we need to support Spezza and believe in Clouston and Murray to make the right decision if need be. Constantly complaining about his game isn't helping anything IMO.