Chairman How's Glorious Army
Significantly Lowering the Bar Since 2008.

Well now, don’t we have things to talk about.

In case you haven’t seen yet, two things went down today:

1) Defenseman Dylon Reese got traded to the Bridgeport organization in exchange for forward Greg Moore.

2) Defenseman Grant Clitsome got called up to Columbus. The length of time appears to be uncertain.

My gut-check instinct on this one?

Our blue line just got a whole lot weaker for very little gain.

As we’ve said the last few weeks, Reese has been one of our most consistent and best defensemen. He produces and he isn’t a liability. His +/- rating was usually one of the best among our d-men and his points were the highest on our blue line when considering Crunch-only stats. To me, he should have been paired with Bell the whole time instead of Holden and Clitsome getting that…uh…honor.

But now…oh Jesus. We’re stuck with a group of guys who couldn’t defend a meteor the size of Texas and there’s no Bruce Willis in sight. Other than this past weekend, our offense really hasn’t been a problem lately. I’m sure CBJ sees a lot of developmental potential in Moore–if they had any kind of developmental philosophy of course, which, as we have discussed, they really don’t–which is great for them. But my God, our bench is now overflowing with forwards. We have a plethora of guys whose job is supposed to be to put the puck in the net. Yay. The only problem is that we are seriously lacking–even more so now than ever–guys whose only job it is to keep the puck out of our own.

That’s quite the predicament our parent club has put us into, isn’t it? Is this another screw Syracuse trade? I must admit, it rather smacks of the Clay Wilson trade from last year, although granted that was worse considering we lost one of our best offensive defensemen and got…oh right, nothing. Not even a bad case of herpes. So yea, that was worse. But really, where does this leave Syracuse?

We’ve been crying for a defensive defenseman ever since it became apparent that Roy wasn’t quite the Dan Smith we were all led to believe he would be. (I think that was Opening Night, wasn’t it?) Reese was the closest thing we had and now he’s gone. Sure, our offense may be able to score 10 goals a game, but if our defense lets in 23 then it’s not gonna make a damn bit of difference. We’re still going to continue to lose.

Not only that, but uh…we really do have way too many f’ing forwards right now. I swear we could almost play the game without dressing any defenseman. Does this trade pretty much seal the deal for Jon Mirasty? Will Nasty ever play again for the Crunch? Rumors are abounding that he’s seeking employment elsewhere, on a team where he can actually get playing time. It will be interesting to see what this does in that area, as well as others.

I don’t know. I feel bad for this guy. He’s coming into a locker room with a bunch of guys who obviously don’t give a fuck, to play for a team whose fans have just about had it. I’m sure everyone noticed the lack of people at the Memorial all weekend. The Outdoor Classic should have been a new jumping off point for the organization, a new chapter in this team in terms of effort, push, and fan involvement. Instead, we got socked with two big events in the same weekend following the game and, even more damming and more to the point, a hockey team who wants the summertime to start early really, really badly.

All in all, I’m not impressed. The loss of Clitsome only puts an exclamation point on all this while also proving a different point that we’ve been saying all along: Clitsome was really the only person they had to call up. The problem is that Clitsome isn’t that great. He’s one of the better ones out there, I guess, but he’s not great. Given that, who else could CBJ have gone to? Certainly not Bell. Reese would have been the most logical selection, but they traded him. Holden has regressed something terrible. Sigalet sucks. Liffiton is okay, I guess, but he’s not a good fit for the NHL right now.

Yup, CBJ has dug us–and in turn themselves–an absolutely fantastic defensive chasm down here and, in true CBJ form, they’re just making it worse. Woo.

I ask again–is it April yet?