Post-Deadline

It had occurred to me a couple of times this year to try to come up with a nickname for 7-51-9, knowing full well that such things are lightning in a bottle and I'd probably used up my luck for a long while with last year's 15-24-58. I had the thought again Sunday but put it aside for the future.

Well, if ever, it'll be the distant future now.

I got Robert not long after the deal happened, and at that point he wasn't sure where Edmonton wanted him to report; he hadn't even talked to them yet. We didn't catch up again. WBS hadn't heard whether he might go there, but imagine walking in there Friday and seeing him on the other side?

A bit surprised to hear how far O'Marra had slipped in the Islanders' feelings. When I asked around last weekend about whether he'd show up if Saginaw finished before Bridgeport, there wasn't a lot of exuberance. Could have been a tip.

Here's the Oilers release on the Isles-Oilers trade. It read to me as something like, "Oh my goodness, we just did what?" Greg Logan comments on that tone in a piece on how it happened. Gare Joyce also comments on his blog. And I'm an idiot (that's not news): the story has Smyth as Edmonton's captain. Duh: That's Jason Smith.

Liked this from Damien Cox on his Toronto Star blog: "The new collective bargaining agreement, after all, was supposed to allow teams like the Oilers to keep their stars after losing them for years." Nope -- just make 'em work cheaper.

So now we'll wait on Clear Day. Early indications are that Bridgeport isn't looking to do anything. But there's a few hours left.

ATL: Hershey net-swapped Jonas Johansson to Grand Rapids for Scott Barney (all AHL assignments, no real trade). And Lindsay Kramer's blog has gotten more blog-like at blog.syracuse.com/crunch/.

(A little late after pinch-hitting on a desk shift. With Dave Agostino covering Kolbe Cathedral and yours truly on the phone, we were an Ian Powers away from making it 1999 again...)