Friday, March 03, 2006

No for Nolan

The name of Owen Nolan won’t be appearing on an NHL lineup card as the season winds down and the playoff wars begin anew. Nolan who last saw action in the 2003-04 season, is recovering from reconstructive knee surgery and the healing time is taking a bit longer than he thought, his plan was to get back into action after the Olympic break but things haven’t worked out as planned.

With little chance that he’ll able to get medical clearance to play this spring, he felt it only fair to declare himself off the market for the spring stretch run. He now will turn his attention to rebuilding his strength and conditioning for a September start and will entertain offers for his services in the off season.

One team that no doubt won’t be in the running is the Toronto Maple Leafs; his time in Toronto was checkered by injuries and grievances. Nolan has had a number of run ins with the Maple Leafs over his injury status, so to say that the well is poisoned in TO would be an understatement.

Rumored destinations for Nolan prior to the announcement yesterday were San Jose and Ottawa, the Ottawa one offering up some tasty thoughts of a motivated Nolan returning to smite his former team with their arch enemy. Alas it wasn’t meant to be, Nolan like many other hockey fans will have to watch his hockey from the television rather than the bench.

It will be with interest that hockey fans watch to see where he ends up once he clicks off that television and returns to the rink in September!

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