Neely4Life wrote:
The fact you think Thornton and Spezza are the same player is laughable.
The only reason Boston could make those moves is because Thornton was gone. If you think BOyes is all that great, he isnt, McDonald was the guy that turned him into the 40 goal guy, nothing else. Boyes wouldnt come close to doing that alone.
Boston built their team from the blueline out, the way it should be done and they way teams win. You basically said because they did the smart thing for their organization and made good choices, they were lucky... If only you guys knew what kind of person and team mate Spezza really was, and what the opinons of the players in the NHL were about him. Ive told ya, but you guys wouldnt believe me, just like I said a lot of things last year that actually happend.... Ive proved I know what Im talkng about and people I talk to. Say what you want, you can think Spezza is the greatest player in the world, the Sens will NEVER win with him here.
This is totally re-visionist history.
Boston got the room to sign Savard (in 2006) and Chara (also in July 2006) because the cap ballooned that year from $39 mil to about $45 mil. Thornton was only making $6.5 mil at the time, and only had a 1 1/2 left on his deal. The Savard signing was to replace Thornton. The Chara signing was done with the money opened up by the increase in the cap, not the money Thornton's leaving freed up -- especially when you consider that the Bruins took back something like $5 mil in salary (Sturm = $2 mil, Stuart = $2 mil, and Primeau = $1) in that deal, which means they really only freed up about $1.5 mil in cap space, and had to turn around and sign Savard to replace him.
In short, Boston didn't need to dump Thornton to make room for Chara. Plain and simple. The math doesn't lie.
In any event, history shows us that a) Thornton always was and is a great player, and any team with him on it is a better team for it, b) the only way to replace that kind of talent (as with the Savard signing) is to spend big on July 1, and c) that the Sens have never, ever spent big on July 1, so the scenario doesn't really apply to us.
People said, btw, the same stuff about Yzerman when he was young -- that he lacked heart, that he'd never win, etc., etc. The point is NOT that Spezza is just like Yzerman was AT HIS PRIME, but rather that there are startling similarities between the situations of Spezza NOW and young Yzerman THEN. Don't try and twist that into a "Spezza's not Yzerman" argument, because that's not what I'm saying.
Finally, I simply can't take at face value your comment that "if only us guys knew what Spezza is really like...," because that statement suggests that YOU do while the rest of us don't. Sorry, but I trust his coach's and his GM's and his teamates' opinion on him over that of any fan claiming to have insider knowledge. You're not talking to Spezza on a daily basis or subjecting him to monthly psychological reviews or sitting on the bench with him game in and game out, so don't pretend that you about these things any better than the rest of us do.
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