12/21/24
July 01, 2015
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Phil Kessel traded from rebuilding Toronto Maple Leafs to Pittsburgh Penguins for picks, prospects
posted by tommybiden at 05:01 PM on July 01, 2015
Phil Kessel traded
So now all of the players/draft picks that were part of the original trade between Boston and Toronto are no longer with their original post-trade team. Seguin is in Dallas, Hamilton is piling up the Loonies in Calgary, and now Kessel goes to Pittsburgh. At the time, it looked like Boston had committed highway robbery. Now this appears to be a trade that truly benefited neither team, at least for the long term.
posted by Howard_T at 10:03 PM on July 01, 2015
Somehow, in some way, the English women's national team has come up with an even more ENGLISH (heartbreaking) way to lose a World Cup match than their male counterparts could have imagined.
posted by grum@work at 10:37 PM on July 01, 2015
The last time the English were in a semi-final Paul Parker charged down a free kick which spooned up about a mile into the air off his foot and looped in over Peter Shilton.
I hope Laura Bassett doesn't take that too hard. She had to make a play because of the Japanese striker right behind her. The shame is that she's 31, so she probably won't get a chance to come back to another World Cup.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 08:26 AM on July 02, 2015
Now this appears to be a trade that truly benefited neither team, at least for the long term
Well - the Bruins now have Loui Eriksson (22 goals last year despite underwhelming), Jimmy Hayes (a 25-year-old who scored 19 goals last year who they picked up for Reilly Smith from the Seguin trade), Joe Morrow (a perpetual prospect D), Zachary Senyshyn (15th overall this year) and two second-rounders this year from the assets they got in the trade.
That's still substantially better than what the Leafs have coming back to them from the Kessel deal, which should have a bit of an asterisk attached to the value they got due to the stupid contract they gave him and needed to eat to get rid of him.
posted by dfleming at 09:34 AM on July 02, 2015
The Leafs get rid of one of 2 pillars of their defensive problems, clear some salary cap, and create an opening for a younger player to develop.
Penguins get a talented guy who shoots the puck as good as anyone to mix in with an already offensively talented lineup. Penguins won a cup in a year when they essentially played with complete disregard for defense. A great fit for Kessel and I'd expect a lot of 6-5 type final tallies in Pittsburgh games next season.
posted by cixelsyd at 01:39 PM on July 02, 2015
It was announced that Sepp Blatter, the self-proclaimed godfather of international women's football will not attend the WC final. Perhaps the decision had something to do with having to cross too many time zones, or the extended length of summer daylight at higher latitudes. Or the relaxed fit of the players' shorts in defiance of his stated preferences. No mention of any concerns with regard to the RCMP, CSIS, or any possible USDOJ indictments waiting to be unsealed.