Ghost-Ryder

Under the watchful eye of Michael Ryder, Lord Stanley's Cup took a spill and suffered a minor head injury.  The Cup is conscious and responsive, but is listed day-to-day.  Now Ryder didn't drop the Cup himself nor actually knocked it over, but this has to be a sign from the hockey gods, right??  At first I was upset by his reaction, just standing there with his usual "I don't care" look on his face.  Any normal human being would've rushed to the aid of the Cup, performed CPR, or at the very least a little spit shine.  But after a second watch of the video, I actually find it funny.  He turns to the policemen that are suppose to be guarding the holy grail and has that "Are you serious?? Are you friggin' kiddin' me?? Did you really just let the Stanley Cup crash to the ground like that, eh?" look on his face.

With Wideman off the team, Ryder became my scapegoat.  He's slow, overpaid, and I don't understand why he got as much playing time as he did.  I'm pretty sure Handsome Ralph has some sort of man crush on him.  "But Dome, he had an amazing playoff run!"  That is true.  His glove save against the Habs was a thing of beauty and he did score 8 goals throughout the playoffs.  With that said, I'm still not a Ryder fan.  He was getting paid $4M a year!!!  If your dubbed a sniper and you are getting $4M a year, I better see 30+ goals.  He didn't hit that once in the 3 years he was here (27 the first year was the closest he got, he didn't even break 20 the other two years).

At the end of the year, Chia-pet said he was talking with Ryder and I got nervous.  If he came back for 2-years $2M per, I wouldn't have LOVED it, but I'd be okay with it.  It just meant I had another 2 years of screaming awful profanity at him from up in the balcony.  Luckily the Stars only watched his playoff performance and offered him 2-years $7M.  Maybe he needs more of a Western Conference type offense to flourish.  Who knows...   Who Cares...         Adios Ryder.