He was mean to me!

So this summer Lowe made headlines with his two contract offers to RFA's. Its not the first time its been done (Kesler in '06 and then Federov in '98 IIRC) but definately made waves in the "New NHL". We all know he ended up signing Penner, and how mad Brian Burke got, but at least its behind us as we start the new season. Right?

If you don't watch TSN 24/7 then you better watch this video. In short, Burke states that he's not talking to Lowe and if Anaheim and Edmonton need to do a deal his assistant Bob Murray can talk to him. He is genuinely hurt and acting very immature in this clip, quite humorous to watch.

The next day Kevin Lowe wades in on the subject on 630 Ched. Dan Tencer posted the important parts on his blog, but I'll give a few good ones here:

What he's insinuating, to me anyways, is that I shouldn't do this to him because he's my friend. In other words I shouldn't try to improve the Edmonton Oilers because I'm his friend. The reality is that I have very few friends in the game. You know what life's all about you get a little bit older and you have your family and a couple of friends and then life ends. I didn't play the game to have friends, I don't wanna have friends. I just try to be a respectful person, be an honest person and treat people properly. If they wanna be my friend that's fine

I suspect that through all this, all the barbs that he's throwing at us and at me, is that he's sort of insinuating that Dustin Penner isn't a very good hockey player. Time will tell. I hope that Dustin Penner is reading between the lines and is using that as motivation to shove it to you know where

I find the last comment very interesting, because I believe its almost as though Burke is upset at Lowe for taking one of his good players and not nessicarily that Penner is a bad player. I believe that Burke is thinking Penner is overpaid (and lets be honest...he's probably right) but the fact that he is taking this so personal has to contribute to the idea that Penner was a very good commodity for his team and Lowe 'stole' it.

If anything Burke should be remember what he stole from Lowe just one short year ago. A Stanley Cup.

But just incase Lowe was too professional in his response, MacTavish waded in:

He reminds me of the Wizard of Oz where you comb his hair and put a white shirt on him and wheel him out in front of a camera and he'll say whatever you guys want. Clearly it's a crusade of self-promotion at this point.