This little nugget came to us courtesy of our old pal and fellow Flames fan, Drew;
“The whole secret behind why Dion Phaneuf got the boot to Toronto is because the dirty dog was caught shooting pucks at Craig Conroy’s Wife. Not only has this has affected Conroy personally, but it affected the whole Flames season.”
This was seen on the website TheDirty.com, which totally means it must be true *rimshot*
But seriously folks…it does kind of make sense. It would somewhat explain Dion’s seemingly sudden fall from grace and the speed at which the trade with TDot was engineered. It may even explain Conny’s “injuries”.
If this story has any element of truth to it, the thing it illustrates to me is how young most of the NHL players are. We tend to forget that they’re in their early 20’s and they make decisions most other people in their early 20’s make. Just because they’re pro athletes doesn’t make them any less dopey than a typical 22 year old. In fact they may even make worse decisions because of their financial situation and the constant ass-kissing they get from fans (N.B. – I’m not a psychologist. I don’t even play one one TV. But I was 22 at one point).
Obviously Mrs. Conroy deserves an equal share of the blame – maybe more – if this rumour is true. However I’m left with this thought; Phaneuf is a shitty team player.
In a sport that seems to have such a well-defined code of honour, it’s amazing to me that a guy would “shoot pucks at” a teammates wife. Especially a guy as well respected as Craig Conroy. That is known as “shitting in your own back yard”, and it has never been cool and has never been smart.
Truth be told, I was getting very frustrated with Dion Phaneuf’s style of play long before this came to light. He just seemed very arrogant and lazy on the ice. Definitely not worth his salary, and looking less and less likely to ever achieve his legendary potential.
I’m glad he’s gone. I wish the Flames could have received more in return, but if the rumour about him and Mrs. Conroy is true, then Darryl Sutter was left with no option but to get him out of Calgary ASAFP.
In the end, we did OK I think. If you do a direct comparison between Dion Phaneuf and Ian White since the trade, White wins in every significant category; SOG, Goals, helpers, etc, etc. And he did it at about 1/7 of the salary. And he did it with a pretty tricked-out pornstache.
Enjoy #3 Toronto. I predict it will take less than a year for you to tire of his BS and his inability to be the perpetual Norris Trophy winner almost everybody predicted he’d be.