Don't get me wrong, I am a PK fan, but I'm also a Weber fan. I think Weber brings things that PK didn't and vice versa. Weber will be more stable, can clear the net, hit, score, and even fight if he has to. PK can carry the puck up the ice where Weber doesn't really. But like I said, he played as an individual a lot and that didn't start only last year. He also got on his team mates nerves and you can especially see that in an episode of 24CH where PK's reading out the lineup to make his show. You can clearly see some of the players rolling their eyes and not playing along. He took a lot of stupid and selfish penalties as well. Just look at last year when the linesman got in the way of the puck at the end of the game and the opposing player scored in an empty net. PK stopped playing and screamed at the linesman instead of chasing the puck. Talent wise, I think PK is the better player. Overall, I think Weber will be better for the team, especially in the leadership area.
I can agree with that assessment. Weber is the better all-around dman, but when PK is on he is on. And he still obviously has some growing up to do, but he means well. He's still a class-act, but also is a big kid at heart. And in any profession, you need to tame the kid inside of you. I just don't like Weber's contract term and age.. but it's not like he's going to hurt the Habs right now... he has plenty of years left. So those extra 4 years PK has on him, don't really matter at this point in time. And nobody knows what will happen between now and then. I mean who would have thought a guy like Jagr would outplay guys who are 10 years younger than him. I didn't.
We can come back to these posts in a few years, but I just don't buy a lot of this.
And I'm far from alone. This one, written by a Habs fan, is especially
damning.
PK's personality is going to be the crutch people rely on for softening the blow of the trade. As a fan, I'll easily forgive the occasional tantrum and ego trip in exchange for on-ice brilliance and a personality to bring fans to the rink (see: Gretzky, Quick, Rask, Henrik, etc). Does he show signs of immaturity? Yup. Though, they are decreasing - but still present.
I would say PK is the better player - significantly, in fact. But if you want to say they're equal, okay. Even still, this trade just shows Montreal wants to live in the Old Boy's world for another decade. Don't show personality, or anything beyond "Yes sir let's play hockey sir (translated from French)", or you're out. I remember someone with a VERY big personality who conflicted with the team.. Wah or something. But at least trading him netted the team a huge bounty of... Jocelyn Thibault. (And this is from someone who, literally, ranks TBO as his second favorite goalie ever (that Levevre Koho setup with the Dryden mask... oh man)).
I'm shocked Price wasn't traded after being completely drunk at the ASG draft a couple of years back.
The trade specifics aside, PK is going to be amazing for growing the sport in NSH. Nashville's growth in talent has increased fandom, to be sure, but PK will increase that further, due to his personality and community activism.
Don't get it confused - I really like Weber. But I don't like him for PK. And despite being a Toronto fan, I actually like a lot about the Habs. Probably because I'm not actually from Toronto, so the rivalry means nothing to me. As a hockey fan in general, I'd love to see Canada bring the Cup back, but I think Montreal has, somehow, moved further away from that. Not to mention that Shaw signing - a mediocre move at best, and it could get worse.
Canada's best hope for the Cup is now... I don't even know - Ottawa? Jeez. But no matter who you are a fan of, one thing we can all agree on - at least we're not fans of Edmonton. They've been a laughingstock for a while, but Vancouver was starting to creep into their "what the **** is the ownership doing?" territory. But the Hall trade brought EDM to the top again - especially if/when they vastly overpay for Lucic.
And the reason for the Pens success? Waves of scoring depth!
