EAGLES MOVES LOOK POSITIVE

I would like to make a comment on the recent positive news coming from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

It’s not difficult to see the moves, which include the hiring of a new general manager and assistant general manager, are positive.

I have several times criticized in this paper the team’s former general manager/coach for trading off great first rounders and moving great players out for little or nothing. We must now live with such moves and hope they don’t come back and haunt us.

However, enough about the past. It’s in the past. Now I am confident that the new coach, whoever he is, will move the team forward. The main reason I feel this way has to do with the team’s ownership. The new majority owner, Irwin Simon, shares our core value as a community and wants to make things happen. That’s the right stuff and I like it.

I do wish to make further comment regarding the rebuilding of the team. Admittedly I am not an expert but I view the team in the same vein as the movie “Moneyball.” Only we could call it “Hockey Ball.”

The main reason the NHL’s four semi-finalists got that far was not because of star players. Rather, it was each player combining into one solid team. Each player has a plus-minus rating and the defencemen were all pluses.

The St. Louis Blues were in last place at mid-season. What changed? And why did the Toronto Maple Leafs exit the playoffs in the first round. My theory is defence, but that’s just me.

Back to the Screaming Eagles where I’ll be hoping the team makes some wise picks in next month’s midget draft and that the new coach is a darn good one.

My best to the team. I feel they are on the way up.

Lorne MacKinnon

Sydney