Goodbye J.R.

It may be a day late on here, but my favourite player while growing up, Jeremy Roenick, called it quits on Wednesday. He even did it in comical fashion; text messaging a Philadelphia newspaper with the message "I'm retiring, is that still news?" Well, at least I got a good laugh out of it.

Starting his career in Chicago before moving on to play in Phoenix Philadelphia and Los Angeles, he amassed handsome career totals of 495 goals and 675 assists for 1170 points despite suffering more than the occasional concussion. The only American-born players with more goals than Roenick, a two-time Olympian, are Mike Modano (507) and Joey Mullen (502). Which isn't saying too much considering the U.S.'s hockey talent pool, but it still sounds impressive.

Roenick played last season with the Phoenix Coyotes under Wayne Gretzky, who surprisingly, didn't have any bad blood with J.R. over the whole "making 99's head bleed" scene from the cult classic movie Swingers. He wasn't the same J.R. of old and only came up with points over 70 games. It should also be duely noted that the J.R. in NHL 94, was rated as one of the best sports video game characters ever. He was truly legendary.

Meanwhile, the Islanders, who had already been rocked by departures, brought in some players to shore up their roster. After signing Bill Guerin to a two-year deal of which terms were not released. Guerin started last season with the Blues before being dealt to San Jose for their Cup run where he didn't show up on the score sheet very often.

Later in the day, the Isles also grabbed Mike Comrie off the wire. He had 20 goals and 25 assists in 65 games with Ottawa last season.

While these additions may help out a bit, I'm not expecting Long Island to go very far this year after the turnover their roster's going through.