Addition by subtraction

courtesy of DeviantArt

Tim Connolly has signed a two year/$9.5 million deal (insert laughter here) with the Toronto Maple Leafs (insert hysterical laughter here). At this point, all I can say is, “better them than us”.

I have been very critical of Tim Connolly throughout his tenure with the Sabres, as anyone who knows me will attest. It has been beaten to death his perceived lack of heart, his unwillingness to go to the dirty areas of the ice, his uninspired play and his aloofness. Not to mention his arrogance, and I have a personal connection to that last point.

The thing that bothered me the most about the “Tinman”, however, was the fact that he has million-dollar skills, and seemingly no desire to make the most of them, or what I like to call a “ten-cent heart”. I have been told by a very credible source that what you see Tim do in the games, as far as slick moves, stickhandling and his cannon for a shot, isn’t even the half of it. The guy could stickhandle through a plate of spaghetti.

And that is why it literally boils my blood to even look at him.

He could have, and should have, been a perennial all-star with skills that ridiculous. He has hands that Gretzky would have killed for. No, he doesn’t have Gretzky’s vision, but who does? It seemed that when he got the puck at the point on the power-play, and he decided to shoot, the puck would go in. With authority.

He has never been a leader, even though he was the longest tenured Sabre to date. He should have owned that dressing room. Instead, he alienated some teammates and infuriated fans of the team. Sure, he would collect his goal or his assist by the end of the night, but you still wondered if he was even dressed. His showing in the playoffs was more of the same, only worse. In 36 career playoff games with Buffalo, he has 5 goals. They all came in ONE YEAR. Which means that, in the last 28 playoff games, he has zero goals. ZERO. For all of you out there counting, that means less than ONE.

July 2nd, 2011. The day Tim Connolly officially became a member of another franchise. Another organization. Another sweater. A day that finally came,  a day that this Sabres fan can describe as, “Addition by subtraction”.

Don’t let the gates to Oz hit’cha in the ass, there, Tin Man.