I think I am losing it….
Maybe it’s because I saw Sportsnet related entries out there that said Burke was joining the Pittsburgh Penguins…. Maybe it was all the talk of kicking the tires with Burke that I believed it was just a passing fancy on the guy….
Well, correct me because I am wrong. Dead wrong.
Sean Burke has inked a deal to join the Bolts:
“Shortly after the new CBA was announced, Sean Burke was the goaltender we identified as we began formulating contingency plans for how we would proceed if Khabibulin left our team,” Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said. “We did a lot of homework on Sean, and we believe that not only will he come in and compete with John Grahame and battle for the No. 1 spot, but if he doesn’t win that contest, he will be a ‘team first’ player.
I was wondering what Bill Barber had been up to and this has his fingerprints all over it. At least in my opinion. Not that I mind too much – Bill hasn’t done us wrong yet.
This also continues to stress the “chemistry first” movement that has dictated the Lightning’s transactions very visibly in 2003-04. Daryl Sydor was only picked up after Brad Lukowich lobbied for him and answered some of Feaster’s concerns about Daryl’s locker room presence, Stan Neckar was the big trade-deadline acquisition by Feaster, who didn’t want to rock the boat when he added depth to the defensive core.
What I find sort of funny with this move is that there had been so much talk that John Grahame is going to be pushed in the #1 Goalie slot and not just handed the keys. The Lightning signing Philadelphia’s backup goaltender doesn’t exactly look like the Bolts are going to have Grahame pushed for the #1 slot… We’ll see about that in a couple of weeks at training camp though.
