Fan In Van

Bieksa Update, Patriots Talk

Dave Nonis hopes that Bieksa will be ready to play in January - two months ahead of schedule. Once Bieksa’s boot is removed, he will focus on strengthening the muscle and reconditioning his body.

Encouraging news to say the least. It’s amazing to know that when Bieksa first cut the tendons, a lot of medical experts believed it was possible Kevin Bieksa’s career could be over. There have been cases where careers have ended to cut achilles tendons, and Bieksa’s case was quite similar to it. Luckily for Bieksa, he did not attempt to skate off the ice when he sustained the injury, otherwise it was quite possible he could’ve killed his career right then and there.

Now the big question is when Kevin Bieksa returns to the lineup, where does he fit? With the outstanding play of Alex Edler in his absence, it would be very difficult to move him back to Manitoba. And with defensemen in Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo, Willie Mitchell, Lukas Krajicek, Aaron Miller and Edler already in the lineup, it’s very difficult to see any of these defencemen being moved to the press box or to Manitoba. However, barring injuries, it seems only right that Edler is sent back to Manitoba, despite his great play. However, the play of Aaron Miller is definitely expendable…

________________________________________________________

Anthony Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers opened his mouth four days ago and guaranteed victory over the 12-0 New England Patriots. Now, he’s probably wishing he hadn’t.

The cornerback made the costly mistake of guaranteeing victory over the now 13-0 Pats and not only did it fuel the fire for New England to steamroll the Steelers, it’s probably given them enough motivation to get them through a perfect season. Once the Patriots clinch AFC home-field advantage they may rest their stars, however.

But back to Smith. What an idiot this guy is, what a boneheaded move to open his mouth like that. I still believe that had he not fired up Tom Brady and Randy Moss and co., the Patriots may be entering the week 12-1 and not 13-0. But here we are, with the Patriots being only the fifth team in NFL history to be 13-0 in the season.