Thursday, June 25, 2009

Lost in the Shuffle

Ethan Moreau. Ethan Moreau won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy (the Vancouver Canucks are going to start winning this award all of the time now that they can quantify and project leadership talent better than everybody else...) at the NHL Awards last week (I'm like the Christmas you have with your grandparents in Edson the week after Christmas Day) and it's time that I congratulate him. Judging by the number of stories about potential trades at the draft, this may be one of his final days as an Oiler. This season, many Oiler fans were busy lambasting the man for stealing faceoffs from Marc Pouliot after Cogliano was kicked out of the circle, or not giving Pouliot credit for that amazing third period passing play early in the season, or for not passing to Pouliot because he didn't trust him, or for kneeing Pouliot's uncle in the stomach and yelling "MandelBAM!" "MandelBAM!" "BAM! BAM! BAM!" The last one was actually Todd Bentley (and probably not actually Pouliot's uncle)... but at times this season it seemed like Oiler fans thought that Moreau's leadership this year was on par with Bentley's (so, terrible). Thankfully, it's not.

Moreau's leadership in the community of Edmonton is evidenced most clearly by his work with the Stollery Children's hospital but he also helps with several other charities in and around Edmonton. This includes the Gags Cogs And Gilby Bachelor Pad Foundation (I noticed Pouliot was left out here too... man, Moreau HATES that guy). So what I'm trying to say is that even when Moreau is injured or struggling on the ice he has never wavered as a wonderful contributor to Edmonton as a city. From a salary cap perspective it's probably best that Moreau be sent to play hockey in another city but from the perspective of wanting to have Oilers that live in Edmonton and care about the community, Ethan Moreau is a star. Thanks Ethan, for all you've done to help make Edmonton a better place.

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