With 45 year old Jaromir Jagr's exiting of the NHL I was left hoping against hope a veteran hockey player would come out of retirement and save me from the embarrassing fact that there is no current NHL player who is older than me.
Days later a faint hope was raised as Mike Fisher announced he was coming out of retirement to return to the Nashville Predators. It was good try Mr. Underwood, but while at the age of 37 you are ancient in hockey terms, you are far too young for my situation. Thanks anyway.
I think Nashville is as strong as any team in Western Conference and stands a good chance of returning to the Stanley Cup final in 2018. They are deeper at center this year, with a healthy Ryan Johansson and the addition of Kyle Turris. Mike Fisher's return gives them a good 4th line option capable of playing some third line minutes. Teams that are deepest down the middle tend to do very well in any era of hockey history.
Its a nice story in Nashville, but it seems the Predators learned nothing from the Jaromir Jagr/Calgary Flames experience. The Flames brought in the graying Jagr after the season started, hoping his legendary devotion to fitness would override the fact that he missed training camp.
But it was the fact that Jagr was not with the team from the very start that derailed their story. It is nearly impossible for any player of any age to miss training camp and the beginning of the season, due to injury or contract situation or whatever, and be able to keep up, both literally and figuratively.
It was Jagr's undoing in Calgary. Fisher will be expected to play a much smaller role but it will still be interesting to see how this plays out.
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