Junk

I’m skeptical because CBC’s regular employees are presently locked out. There’s been little local, regional or national news coverage for over a week now on CBC TV or Radio, and certainly no sports coverage of this nature.

Otherwise, my skepticism is fuelled by the very comments you’ve made, John. Hey, I’m a Habs fan and I’d love to see Richards playing for the Canadiens, but I know that’s not going to happen with that kind of return for a player that, as you correctly point out, is considered as vital a piece of the Lightning roster as Lecavalier, St. Louis and Boyle.

I think the reason you’re seeing these rumours out of Montreal was because of the hope of some local area pundits and fans that Lecavalier would foresake the Bolts to return home to Montreal. When that didn’t happen, they looked at the Bolts potential cap space, saw that Richards is a restricted free agent next summer, and started stoking the rumour fires.

The Montreal rumourmongers aren’t just setting their sites on Tampa Bay. The rumour that refuses to die has Ryder and Jose Theodore going to Florida for Roberto Luongo, for no other reason than the skittishness of some in Montreal that Theodore might not re-sign long term and that Luongo, yet another Quebec native, is having contract difficulties with the Panthers.

I’m just happy that Teemu Selanne signed with Anaheim to FINALLY put to rest years of rumours that Saku Koivu was trying to influence management to sign Selanne. I’m also glad that Pierre Turgeon signed with Colorado to put to rest that stupid rumour that, because he’s French, he wanted to return to Montreal, never mind that his last experience there wasn’t a good one.

Now if only someone will sign Vinnie Damphousse to stop that dumb rumour of his being a French Canadien and former Hab who wants to come home, blah, blah, blah.

Habs fans are the French equivalent of Leaf fans. For them, any player with any kind of french connection obviously wants to come to Montreal, and any other team will take their overrated crap so these players can come “home”.

Usually these fabricated rumors come from CKAC radio in Montreal, which has about no credibility. I’m not really surprised that the inventor of this “rumor” didnt pay attention to the fact that most CBC workers are locked out.

Keith: there may be some Canadiens fans that are the “French equivilent of Leafs fans”, but don’t go lumping us all into that category. There are also some English Habs fans who’d buy into that nonsense, too.

Some in the French media stirred up the Lecavalier stories, because of their nationalistic feelings toward Quebec and Quebec-born players.

There are also plenty of Habs fans in Montreal who’d love to see Lecavalier come back home, but didn’t buy into the BS being fed them via the aforementioned Quebec media.

Most Habs fans understand that there is no way the Bolts would let Richards go, let alone for that offer. Indeed, unlike a lot of Leafs fans lately, most Habs fans are content with the roster of their team, given the depth in promising young talent and the improved coaching and management.

Finally, while Ryder certainly isn’t worth Richards, he’s not “over-rated crap”. He was runner-up for the 2004 Calder and, given the fact that Raycroft, the winner, had over thirty games of NHL experience and Ryder had none going into 2003-04, should’ve been the rightful winner.

Hainsey, on the other hand, has this season to prove that he’s not worthy of that label.

Obviously I was generalizing. However, there are more than enough fans who do buy into these bogus rumors for me to suggest that it is not always an unfair generalization.

I wasnt talking about Ryder specifically in talking about the overrated crap, merely the nature of these trade rumors in general.

Incidentally, the rumor says that it came from 640AM in Bonavista, NF. Bonavsta is 750AM. The least the person who invented this rumor could have done was get the right frequency on the station he attributed this to.

Keith: I agree. The sad thing, as you pointed out, is just how many fans actually bought into this without doing a tiny bit of research. Thankfully one of the regulars over at Hockeytraderumors.com did just that and saved me the leg work. Google is a wonderful thing….

Someone’s a bit touchy ain’t he?

Richards to the habs, that is awesome. I beleive it.