ASHIPP said:
Someone is thanking him and O'Connor for 'uniting the fan base after a very slow off-season, the organisation quietly going about its business'. :lol: (it hasn't united everyone because there are still differences and divisions on Steeltalk)
HELLO? A quiet off-season? How many of last year's key players have left? How many 'will he sign, won't he sign' stories have the masses been fed (Ling, Koening, Bolibruck etc)? The Steelers have possibly had more column inches and media announcements and hype than any other team this Summer!
It's still been a relatively quiet off season though IMO. With so many re-signings it doesn't get you as excited for the start of the season as bringing in 6 new imports. Having tracked that Ling 'rumour' it appears that the only person to actually rumour it was a very unreliable poster, whose unreliability was soon found out. Only Reiter, Morgan, Bolibruck and Hutchins are new, and 2 of them have already worn our colours before. Also we know what to expect from Reiter and Hutchins, whereas there's that new unpredictability with new players to the league like Michel, Romfo and to some extent Miller. It's hardly 'ex-NHL' excitement, or 'check out this new AHL D-Man' (Steve Munn). In fact, I would go as far as saying we've had two successive quiet off seasons. We've not had any big name, exciting forwards like Smith, Deniset or Mann since Tessier left, and most people don't get excited about good, stay at home defencemen (apart from me! :lol
At least with the Devils signings this summer there's something to get excited about and discuss, whereas Steeltalk has been extremely quiet this summer, apart from the fuss over the name change. Steeltalk went nearly a week without a new topic! Just because the Star has written lots of non-stories doesn't necessarily mean there's plenty going on, or a busy off-season. With the majority of the team signed up in the first couple of weeks, apart from Hutchins, we have been drip fed most news. There's nothing like a bit of 'bad' news to get the fans talking, and there's probably as many posts on that name change thread as have been posted over the entire summer on the other threads!
I do think there's a subdued atmosphere from the Steelers fans, but then we had that at the start of last season and look how that turned out! Another solid team without anything to get excited about.
Essay over for a Monday morning. :lol: