Flyers' Zen Thought for the Day...

[SantaMonicaFlyer]

OK, I admit, living in LA I probably drink too much of the Phil Jackson zen cool-aid...

I know a lot of folks - me included - are still a bit confused [and in some cases angry] about the Shelley signing and the fact that we only re-signed Leighton instead of [fill in any other UFA goalie's name].

Still, I wanted to offer another take on the Jody Shelley / not-signing-a-goalie-other-than-Leighton happenings by offering one of my favorite stories. Here is a story of the Taoist farmer:


There was once a Taoist farmer. One day the Taoist farmer’s only horse broke out of the corral and ran away. The farmer’s neighbors, all hearing of the horse running away, came to the Taoist farmer’s house to view the corral. As they stood there, the neighbors all said, "Oh what bad luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."

About a week later, the horse returned bringing with it a whole herd of wild horses, which the Taoist farmer and his son quickly corralled. The neighbors, hearing of the corralling of the horses, came to see for themselves. As they stood there looking at the corral filled with horses, the neighbors said, "Oh what good luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."

The farmer’s son then embarked on training the wild horses. One day, he was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. "Such bad luck!" they said. The farmer replied, “Maybe.”

At that same time in China, there was a war going on between two rival warlords. The warlord of the Taoist farmer’s village was involved in this war. In need of more soldiers, he sent one of his captains to the village to conscript young men to fight in the war. When the captain came to take the Taoist farmer’s son he found a young man with a broken leg who was delirious with fever. Knowing there was no way the son could fight, the captain left him there. A few days later, the son’s fever broke. The neighbors, hearing of the son’s not being taken to fight in the war and of his return to good health, all came to see him. As they stood there, each one said, "Oh what good luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."


OK, so the point here is that we have NO IDEA how things will turn out with these [non-]signings. Things that look to be great could turn out to be bad for the Flyers, while things that look to be bad or don't seem to matter could end up saving out season [see Leighton, Michael, circa 2009/10]. Only time will tell. Personally, I am going to take a wait-and-see approach to the signings, even if my first reaction is BOOOO!!

Have a nice weekend, folks!

 

[TOX1]

Good post. +1 in the rep dept for you!

 

[Vadered]

We all realize that everything in pro sports is a gamble. Hell, everything in life is a gamble. Every time you eat something, you are gambling that it hasn't been contaminated by something that'll give you a stomachache. Every time you go outside you are gambling that a plane won't fall from the sky and kill you. Every time you make a post on the internet, you are gambling that some nazi won't call you a racist term and be a general jerk.

Fortunately, most of the time, that stuff doesn't happen. And when it might, we can minimize risk. We can cook food to kill most of the bacteria. We can avoid going outside when there are flaming planes falling from the sky. We can move to forums like these which are aside from Tox are virtually nazi-free.

Every move a hockey team makes is a gamble, a gamble that what we give up isn't worth as much as what we get. I argue that giving up 1.1 million and getting Shelley is a terrible gamble. It might work out, but people win the lottery, and that's a terrible gamble, too.

 

[SuperFlyer13]

I guess my general reaction is why? What role could he possibly have on this team? I hope to god they don't think he is the answer to Asham! Anyway, Maybe he will be traded in another upcoming deal.(Holds breath). It' just seems like a real confusing signing..