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Upon reading a few articles today, I have two very differing thoughts on two of the pieces, both of which can be summed up with quotes from Blazing Saddles.

EXHIBIT A: "Authentic Frontier Gibberish"


The first involves something that, were it in print, would be classified as little more than toilet paper. It is poorly written, with no clear points and the thrown-together nature of the initial rough draft of a 9th grader's "What I Like Best About..." essay. It would seem the series title of "Campbell's Cuts" is a bit too appropriate, as it seems this article was taken from the trash bin. He has one or two salient points throughout the entire piece (and I use the word "piece" for a reason...). Quite frankly, it is so poorly written, so obtuse and non-linear, this thing that must have bypassed its editors completely, I'm surprised he could remember the aforementioned salient points well enough to put them in his piece, despite their being stated ad nauseum for six or eight months now. Judging from this piece, and I am so mortified that such a piece was allowed to exist that I likely won't waste my time on another unless I need to feel good about myself, Ken Campbell is to hockey journalism what Colin Campbell is to NHL discipline: totally arbitrary. If Ken Campbell had any credibility beforehand, and a rotten egg like this is not often laid by mistake or only once, it should be seriously questioned after submitting that... thing.

EXHIBIT B: "Well Put!" (This is such a classic scene I had to include the whole thing. That, and I couldn't find a video of only the revelant bit. Fast-forward to about 2:30 for the actual line)


The second article is a better-written, far less biased, and MUCH more coherent article with far superior groundwork on (more or less) the same thing, though Wysh doesn't descend into a rabbit trail whose essence is anti-salary cap diatribe. Wyshynski examines the options the Thrashers have and gives an apt analogy in order to put the situation into something easier to understand among the huddled masses, lists some pros and cons and possible consequences, and, most importantly for a writer or editor or any kind, DOESN'T STRAY FROM HIS SUBJECT AND ACTUALLY EDITS FOR CONTENT.

Take good notes now, Kenny boy. That's how one should write about something.

Even Campbell's comrade over at The Hockey News (which is quite often a joke of journalism in my opinion, but that's neither here nor there) is ready to admit that his conjecture is... conjecture. He also writes a much more fluid piece, doesn't write from a position of bias and doesn't trash anybody, and actually does enough groundwork to come across as sober and at the very least half-witted, and more likely in possession of a fully functioning brain that has not taken a vacation. Not to mention Boylen actually makes a trade proposal that might, just maybe, make an ounce of sense or more for both teams involved. If Boylen usually writes less-than-stellar pieces, this one is far above his average. I wouldn't know either way because in general I don't keep up with The Hockey News, but this Boylen piece actually is worth reading, actually.

Maybe Rory convinced Kenny that today was Casual Friday...