One of the beauties of being a writer/commentator for an online forum such as the one you have surfed your way over to, is that I don’t have to have a filter for bad language. I don’t have to temper my words for an all ages audience. I can, if I so choose, work blue, as they say in the comedy industry. Rarely do I actually do so, preferring instead to dazzle you with my command of the English language, and my pompous and highfaluting tendency to use five syllables when two will do. This past sentence is a perfect example of that.
Unfortunately, there is a situation currently going on in the NHL that can only be properly articulated by using one of George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on TV. That is namely the Dany Heatley saga in Ottawa.
My take, in five words; Dany Heatley is an Asshole.
The Ottawa Senators, when they acquired Dany Heatley threw a lifeline to a player who was in an inconceivably bad position (of his own making). He had just killed a teammate of his through his own reckless activities, and while he avoided incarceration in the penal system, he certainly could have and arguably should have been sentenced to play out a number of years in the hockey purgatory that is Atlanta. Ottawa bailed him out, sacrificing a player of (arguably) greater skill in Marian Hossa to acquire him, and allow him to leave the ghosts of Atlanta behind him.
How does this ingrate repay them? By bailing on his team-mates and the franchise at the first sign of trouble and personality clash.
Beyond my comprehension as to why, Dany Heatley escaped the wrath of a vengeful sports world after the death of Dan Snyder. I don’t know why that was. Perhaps it was because people believed his sorrow, real as it seemed at the time. (Not for one second do I believe that he wasn’t truly sorrowful and remorseful.) We really can’t comprehend the pain and mental anguish that Dany Heatley suffered and I am sure continues to suffer. All I know is that when Dany Heatley could conceivably been viewed as persona non grata, the Ottawa Senators were there to lend him a hand. When they in turn needed Dany Heatley to lend them a hand and grow with the team through a moderate rebuilding effort, he turned his back on them. For that, he is an asshole.
For Illegal Curve, I am Drew Mindell.
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