1) When the San Jose Sharks announced late last summer that they were signing UFA forward Jeremy Roenick we at FAUXRUMORS believed that to be a very poor decision by GM Doug Wilson. At the time we not only believed that JR was about 'done' in his career, but more importantly would be a bad influence on the relatively young Shark lineup. Upsetting their chemistry, and any meager input offensively would be significantly negated by his locker room presence.
2) We are not afraid to call ourselves out when we are wrong, and in this instance anyway, we believe our initial assessment was apparently inaccurate/wrong. Thus far Roenick not only has been anything but a distraction, but in fact has been a POSITIVE influence in the Shark locker room. Our source in the Bay area tells that JR has been doing a great job taking the young guys under his wing. He has NOT had a negative attitude, and been supportive of Ron Wilson's defense-first approach, and been the guy to talk with the media to take some of the pressure off the younger guys in the room earlier in the season when things weren't going as well as they have recently.
3) Add to that the fact that JR has put up some very respectable numbers. Not in our wildest fantasies did we see JR scoring double digits in goals(he has 13) The HUGE number that sticks out is the fact that of those 13, 9 are game Winners! That's simply an incredible figure and no one is even on the same planet with respect of % of goals to game winners as Roenick. Which means that not only is JR contributing offensively, he's doing it when it counts most.
4) Of course we have to temper this enthusiasm about Roenick's accomplishments with the fact that every team/player' season is defined these days by how they do in the post season. If you have a great regular year and flop in the playoffs, it usually is remembered more by folks than if the reverse played out. Therefore we will wait to see if JR can continue to contribute and be the consummate team player he has been this regular season for the Sharks. We have to say that thus far, we have been unexpectedly surprised!
3 comments:
In addition to the 9 GWGs, JR also has three shootout game deciding goals.
1) Thanks for the input GJ. That enhances JR's significant/ unexpected contribution this season!
Nice post there faux. i was gonna tell ya that yesterday but I had one of those dam colonoscopies and i wasn't feeling too good after. Anyways i think that jeremy has been a good add on for us. We needed an older guy to add some leadership.
Post a Comment