Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Instead of Mats: Better Ways To Spend The Cap Money

I don't know about anyone else, but I am thoroughly impressed with Michael Phelps.

Early this morning in China, he became the best Olympic athlete of all time capturing his 10th gold medal. Oh, he then got his 11th an hour later...

Not astounded enough yet. He has set a world record in every event he has swam in. In 8 individual swims, he has set Olympic records in 6, before going of course to bettering all those for world records when he was going for the medal.

Now, obviously the Canadiens are running into trouble using up their $7 million in cap space. It would be a massive shame to leave it unspent just so the Colorado ski chalets could get bigger.

The Canadiens should get a hold of Michael Phelps' coach, psychologist, anyone. Any person associated with this guy must be a hell of a great motivator. To take nothing away from Michael himself, it does take some help to stay focussed through your long training 3 years ahead off an Olympics. But, the way he has revolutionised swimming and rewritten the rules of speed, he clearly didn't miss a beat over the last 4, 8, who knows how many years.

As good as the Scott Livingstone's of the NHL think they are, NHL athletes have come nowhere near the fitness of Olympians at any point in the history of the league. Heck, it was seen as a revolution a couple of years ago to see players doing fitness work on a game day. Get some serious coaching going and 45 second shifts could be a thing of the past.

Millions are a lot to spend on coaching, but it would be better than keeping it for deadline pipedream or throwing it at a couple of eighth defencemen...

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