Helene Elliott of the LA Times has more (of the same) from Kings GM Dean Lombardi on the Colin Fraser situation. […] Elliott tweets: “Lombardi also said Colin Fraser is in LA and being xamined by Kings’ doctors. said xpects to get doctors’ opinions w/in 24 hours and still possible he will file official grievance w/the NHL, depending on what final doctor report is.”
[David Staples, Edmonton reporter:] I’m not sure where we are in this grievance process, having lost track after Lombardi’s second or third threat. I’m not sure what went on here either […]. But I do know this: Lombardi has been whining and theatening [sic] over this matter for an awfully long time now. There’s no telling if he’s going to get anywhere with his carrying on in public, but it’s made for a strange spectacle.
Yeah, the problem with that is, the so-called spectacle is Lombardi supposedly carrying on in the press, but the only one reporting this carrying-on is…the Edmonton Journal. Some spectacle. Unless tweeting counts as reporting, which it kinda sorta does, except that even Helene Elliott didn’t see anything story-worthy in those tidbits from Lombardi. Can’t we just assume that this is what reporters like Elliott do all the time. “Hey, Dean, by the way, what’s up with Fraser?” “Doctors are looking at him tomorrow.” “Are you going to file a grievance?” “Don’t know. We’ll see.” (disclaimer: I made all that up, based on HE’s tweets; but it’s far more likely than Lombardi frothing at the mouth in a perpetual Fraser/Tambellini rant.)
Also, David Staples: I don’t see why it’s so hard for you to keep track of “where we are in the grievance process.” Per the tweets you quoted, the Kings have not yet filed a grievance with the NHL. The Kings are waiting for the doctor’s report. If this seems confusing, it’s because an outside doctor examined Fraser a couple of weeks ago and advised that we should check back in a couple of weeks to see if the four-month old injury spontaneously healed itself. So, here we are, a couple of weeks later, doing what the impartial doctor suggested. Why is that so hard to understand?
The reason there hasn’t been a grievance yet is that a league lawyer (Zimmerman, I think is his name) was attempting to mediate the dispute, but could not broker an agreement.
Every time I hear an Oiler fan (or newspaper) going on about Lombardi’s “whining,” I find myself thinking about a 25-year-old Garry Shandling joke. It seems off-topic, but I don’t think it is.
“I met a new girl at a barbecue, very pretty, a blond I think. I don’t know, her hair was on fire, and all she talked about was herself. You know these kind of girls: ‘I’m hot. I’m on fire. Me, me, me.’ You know. ‘Help me, put me out.’ Come on, could we talk about me just a little bit?”