Tage Thompson Is A Naughty Boy And In Need Of A Spankin'
This guy rules so frickin hard. He's like 9 feet tall and has hands you can typically only find on the silk road. His name is even incredibly sick. But at some point, someone is going to have to teach Tage Thompson his manners. I mean you just can't keep bullying people like this and getting away with it.
The spin move was one thing. But to then completely demoralize Brian Elliott and leave him flailing around like a fish out of water while you casually tuck it in the back of the net? That boy needs a spanking.
And keep in mind that this is less than a week after TNT nearly ended the entire St. Louis Blues organization.
Granted, the trade ended up working out for St. Louis because they got Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly out of it. But could you imagine if a 1st round draft pick you traded away ended up coming back to haunt you with a goal like that? St. Louis came inches away from total extinction on that play.
14 goals on the year so far for Tage Thompson and like 13 of them have been ridiculous highlights. 28 points in 22 games which is good enough to have him top 10 in the league.
The only issue here is the Buffalo Sabres are wasting their most crucial season right now. Tage Thompson is still on the final year of his current contract where he's only on the books for $1.4M. Guy had 38 goals last year, is scoring at well over a point-per-game this year. If ever there were a year to go all in, it's when your best player is making under $2M.
But an overtime loss to Tampa last night isn't going to help them climb out of the hole they're in right now in the Atlantic. They're the worst team (statistically speaking) in the league right now with a positive goal differential. All they have to do is use some of that $17M they have in open cap space right now to go out and get one or two difference makers while they still can. Do not rob us of Tage Thompson playing meaningful hockey games.