I have to start off by saying that I’m a big Primeau fan. Christ, I have a framed picture of the guy in my basement. In fact, I believe that Primeau’s playoff run in 2004 belongs up there with the all time great Philly postseason performances including the clutch hitting of Nails in the 93 playoffs, AI’s dominance in 2001, Hexy’s sublime goaltending in ’87, Gang Green’s suffocation of Michael Vick in the 2005 NFC Championship Game.
However, I really feel like he owes it to the team to team to retire so they can move on in another direction. If you’ve missed it, the Captain is still experiencing concussion related headaches 9 months after getting crushed by a cheap shot from some pinko Commie bastard up in Montreal. The Flyers did the right thing last year and waited for their Captain to heal and gave him every opportunity to make it back for the playoffs. The time for waiting is over. If Preems can’t make it back, the Flyers have to cut the cord on his comeback attempt and use his cap space to help improve the team. Plus, there is no guarantee that even if he does come back, one hit won’t put him back out of the lineup for the entire season. The Flyers simply can’t afford to carry his nearly $4 million on the cap and get nothing in return.
There is still time to improve the team for next year if Primeau retires. Mike Peca is available and he should be able to sufficiently replace Primeau’s leadership, penalty killing and defensive presence. He won’t be on the open market forever though, so the Flyers should force their Captain to come to his senses and call it a career.
The Orange and Black did get some good news this week when they announced that Peter Forsberg will not need surgery on his left ankle and could possibly be ready to play by the beginning of the season. This sounds great, but the pessimist in me says that by February we’ll be wishing he had the surgery.
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