At least til he's a UFA.
Two things strike me about this.
#1 is I'm sure the circle of people that *really* know what happened is actually pretty small. And they aren't talking; when they are it's all careful stuff. Smyth thanked everybody and their dogs on his way out; Lowe called Smytty "not elite" and that's about as far as he went in criticizing.
We're getting a lot of hearsay on this though, which should mean something to a lawyer like Tyler, but apparently doesn't, and if it doesn't to him I can't see how it means anything to anybody else either.
#2 is the deal is done. Over. Yes yes, "Oilogosphere", we know that most of you think Lowe and the EIG are lying bastards. We got it, yes we did. The reason why some regular news outlets aren't writing as much about this any more isn't because Lowe told them not to or he'd take away their press creds, it's because this is getting pretty goddamn boring. Lowe's a hero, no he's an idiot, Smyth's the best player to ever lace up Oilers skates, no he's useless.
B-O-R-I-N-G.
I realize that there's not really much else to write about. I watched the game last night and the best you could say is that they looked dangerous on the first power play but sucked out loud on the 5 on 3. As usual against Calgary, the mistakes Edmonton made wound up in the net; the mistakes Calgary made, Kipper mostly bailed them out. (Is Sykora always that predictable on a breakaway?) I said last night that if the Oilers gassed this one I'm officially giving up on them for the rest of the season - well, they didn't gas it, but they played same old same old, that's for sure.
So yeah, not much else to write about, but that doesn't mean we should keep saying the same goddamn things over and over again. Not only is that dead horse beaten, its corpse has gotten up again and is playing shinny with Petr Nedved, Adam Oates, and Jiri Dopita.
Wake me up when it's over, I'm not even bothering to read posts any more (never mind comments). For both "sides" in this "debate" (big old air quotes there, it's hard to debate when the most pertinent facts are missing or are coming from parties with axes to grind): did nobody ever tell you better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt?