my hope for edler has always been that he'll turn into the player ohlund would have been if not for the eye injury.
that hope crested in the 2010 playoffs, when edler beasted all over LA's faces.
since that spring, i've come to more and more to accept that ohlund was like a viking with his quiet but feared presence, taking what he wanted, and felling trees with his bare hands; while edler is more like alexander skarsgård playing a lumberjack: he looks good in plaid and probably smells nice but disappoints on more substantive levels.
but every now and then edler will have a game like last night and...
you guys all remember that story on edler early on that explained how thomas gradin found him playing in a beer league? in that article, linden said:
Trevor Linden said:
I come up with all kinds of stuff to call guys. Alex Edler -- Edler. Eddie. Eddie the Eagle. What's an eagle? Big, majestic bird. But he's not big and majestic yet, so I said he's Eaglet.
and here we are seven years later, still holding out hope that he puts it together. but then again, here he we are in 2015, with all of the other defense prospects from that draft either already on the downswing (green), busted (barker, valabik), or average guys where they know what they are and that's the end of it (smid, meszaros, jeff schultz, emelin, polak, even goligoski), and there's still a glimmer that says edler could be something special.
http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=e8061608-f3ff-4ffa-bef8-0b5113a2ca86
