Week 15 Line-ups

{The Week 15 Shadowmen Line-up contains scenes of violence, coarse language and suggestive material; viewer discretion advised...}

Highlander commentary on the Shadow's FP swap -> "bob , the also-ran":

Fantastic trade Cam. Malkin and Luongo for the next decade. Nice.

You lose at left, draw or win at center, give up pts and toughness on D and, even if injured until the WD, still win now in net. Futures it is no contest - Luongo is a top fp and is still early in his Hall-destined career. Barring any concerns about Luongo's groin long-term, this is a Severed Heads coup.

Cam doesn't even cripple his run this year and with Heatley (an fp slot reserved for Malkin) and Tavares (no longer destined to be a Severed Heads fp) the Predator Cup is very much in view for this season. Well done sir.

Bob gets what? Elias is having a great year but is he really on the same fp level as Luongo? No, but it is still a win for now on left. Maybe Lecavalier turns it on in the second half and outshines Savard so let's presume a win at centre too. Bieksa is a win on D and in the tough guy department as well. With Luongo still hurt, you can - if you squint really hard - see how your goaltending can survive the hit in net for the short term. Still, was this the best that Luongo could garner?

The problem, IMHO, for Bob is that Bob is not in the fight for the Predator Cup this year, in part because he has been rebuilding since his last cup win. He's been fighting the future so long that he's now fighting the recent past and the distant past is on the sched for next season. So if this was a trade for this year the goal is what? A top-3 finish? Luongo is a lot to give up for a few places in the standings.

As for the future? Did he even get a Tavares for the top-rated goalie fp in the league? No. What he got was another in a long line of mediocre fps to replace next season. The The nailed it: "And the whole, goddamn thing starts all over again." Last season with the acquisition of fp Luongo and prospect Backstrom the Shadowmen suggested that the was a new commitment to ending the culture of mediocracy surrounding the team - so much for that dream.

The Shadowmen will finish ahead of many teams this year. Bob is too solid on draft day and too on top of day-to-day changes to fall in the standings to the basement but there is clearly no plan to challenge the top franchises in a serious, ongoing way - which is disappointing because the Shadowmen should be a perenial contender and they are just a perenial also-ran that make frequent trades.

The Joker playing with his deck of cards and playing Russian roulette with Sylar and then asks him, Why so serious? Is it because YOU HAVE NO PATIENCE!?

The Shadowmen finally blows the injured FP LUONGO [again] out the Airlock [perchance a wee bit too early?]...Sylar needing that trade fix like a heroin junkie may cause the Shadow pain long-term because of that trade with the return of FP ELIAS [again]...Sylar then makes a trade with one of his harsher critics [see above for the critique of the bob the also-ran], we'll see about that one...Moriarty wonders about that too...