Sports

September 08, 2008

Former Vancouver Giant making a mark But Tampa Bay the real story of the off-season

By Garth McLennan

(je a member of the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants, 22-year old defenseman Andrej Meszaros has a new team, a big new contract and a new chance to revitalize his NHL career.

The Ottawa Senators selected Mezaros in the first round of the 2004 NHL entry draft, 23" overall. The 6’2”, 220 lbs offensive blueliner then left his home country of Slovakia to hone his skills and become acclimated to the North American game. The Giants were all too happy to have him and Czech goaltender Marek Schwartz, both of whom were selected in the foreign WHL draft.

Meszaros would only play for the Giants for one season before going professional and landing in Ottawa full time with the Senators. However, he was one of Vancouver’s best players while he was here. He played 59 games with the Giants, scored 11 goals and added 30 assists for 41 points while also compiling 94 penalty minutes.

Meszaros was particularly impressive in his rookie campaign, where he was a plus- 39, leading all NHL rookies and finishing third in the league overall.

After signing the three-year entry-level deal with Ottawa, Meszaros played out all three years with the Senators, putting together three strong seasons of 39, 35 and 36 points while establishing himself as one of the game’s best up-and-coming defensemen. While his own game never stalled, playing for a strong team like Ottawa had both its advantages and disadvantages. Meszaros got to go to the Stanley Cup finals in just his second year in the NHL, where his team would fall to the champion Anaheim Ducks in five games. The Senators were decent the next year but not quite as successful, as the eventual Cup-finalist Pittsburgh Penguins swept them.

In the off-season this year, a crowded Ottawa blueline combined with the city’s fans screaming for change led to Meszarsos’ trade from Canada’s capital. He was shipped out to the rebuilding Tampa Bay Lightning, who immediately awarded him a generous six-year contract worth an estimated $24 million, a healthy four million dollars per season.

Meszaros was given to the Lightning in exchange for Filp Kuba, prospect Alexandre Picard and Tampa Bay’s first round draft pick at the upcoming draft next summer.

After finishing among the worst teams in the NHL last season, Tampa Bay has been the story of the NHL this off-season for their blockbuster summer. Desiring to get back to the days of 2004, when they won the Stanley Cup, they selected superstar-in-the-making, Steven Stamkos first overall in this year’s draft, and wasted no time in getting his name on a three year contract. They then signed franchise cornerstone, and one of the world’s best players, Vincent Lecavalier to a monstrous 11-year, $85 million contract extension, basically assuring that their elite superstar will be there to lead the club for the rest of his career.

The Lightning then dipped into the free agent talent pool significantly by raiding the Pittsburgh Penguins, inking one of the summer’s best available unrestricted players, Ryan Malone, to a seven-year deal worth $31.5-million, and veteran Gary Roberts, who agreed to

a one-year contract. They fired their long-time head coach, John Tortorella and replaced him with Barry Melrose, and then signed another veteran, Mark Recchi. After signing backup scorer Radim Vrbata, they picked up the services of aging star goaltender Olaf Kolzig and dealt longtime superstar defenseman Dan Boyle to the San Jose Sharks for Matt Carle, prospective star Ty Wishart, and first and fourth round draft picks.

The start of next season will also be new ground for the Lightning, as they open the year against the New York Rangers in Prague, Czech Republic. They will also compete in a pre- season contest against Eisbaren Berlin of the German elite league.

If Meszaros was looking for a fresh start after his tenure with Ottawa began to grow stale, then he couldn’t have found a better location than in Tampa Bay, where the smooth- skating defenseman will be able to play a very prominent role on an up and coming team that is looking to contend for the Stanley Cup within the next two years.

Tampa Bay has clearly sent out a message to their fans, coaching staff and especially their players, that losing will not be tolerated any longer, and that the time to win is now. That must be music to Meszaros’ ears.

"2 M aniput

Why is Wie so special?

Kite Michelle Wie? The 6’1 female golfing giant who took the sports world by storm a few years ago when she began playing on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour (LPGA) at the tender age of 16.

Remember how virtually everyone rooted for her, the sponsorship dollars poured in, and she played in all of those men’s events?

Well, she’s 18 now; she’s still never won an event on the women’s tour, yet she is set to compete in her ninth professional men’s competition via a sponsorship exemption. What is really astounding is that her play on the ladies tour has been so poor lately that she failed to qualify for the women’s British Open, one of their majors that takes place the same week as the Reno Tahoe Open, the PGA tour event that Wie is playing on instead. How exactly does that make any sense? It’s not like she’s good for the game. All she’s doing is being an attention seeker who doesn’t deserve what she’s getting.

Look at her track record on the various men’s tours she’s competed on. She gets absolutely annihilated. In her eight men’s tournaments so far, she has missed the cut every time but once. The only time she made it was on the Asian tour, which is the fourth tier men’s tour. She came 35" in a relatively untalented field and raked in a cool $4000.

Now, its not for a second that I’m against women competing on the men’s tour. When Annika Sorenstam, the best women’s player of all time, made the jump to play in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial Tournament, becoming the first women’s player to do so in 53 years, I thought it was fantastic. However, Sorenstam truly earned her way to play

By Garth McLennan

there, and as such, she really competed. Sorenstam recently slammed Wie’s decision to play another men’s event without any success whatsoever on the LPGA.

“T really don’t know why Michelle is continuing to do this, I mean, we have a major this week and if you can’t qualify for a major, I don’t see any reason why you should play with the men.” Sorenstam said in an interview with the Associated press.

I also have no problem with teenagers playing pro sports. I just think that that should only occur when they are good enough to be there, and let’s face it, Wie isn’t. The only reason she’s been permitted to play on different men’s tours so often is because she’s a publicity stunt. She often gets invited without doing a thing to earn a spot. That takes away from a guy who’s been slugging it out trying to earn a spot legitimately.

Consider this, Wie played two men’s events, one on the Japan Golf Tour and one on the PGA Tour, after playing only one LPGA event as a professional, from which she was disqualified. Of her first ten pro events, four of them were on men’s tours. That is absolutely ridiculous. She’s never won on the LPGA tour!

Aside from her tendency to continually embarrass herself on the pro men’s tours, Wie has also displayed a remarkable lack of professionalism for a pro golfer. Due to the fact that she hasn’t really accomplished much of anything on the LPGA tour, Wie refused to go to LPGA qualifying school when she turned 18, she has gotten into the vast majority of her events by sponsorship exemptions, meaning that she doesn’t have to maintain any sort of performance standards to remain on the tour, unlike normal golfers.

She has been accused of faking injuries to take a break, and has dropped out of events

Continued on pg18

17