Doyle Retires

To quickly dispense with the mess from last night Dallas beat us in the first 10 minutes and then just ran the remaining 80 minutes off the clock with no threat they would ever lose.  The Rapids are now officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Moving on to more important news, Kevin Doyle announced his retirement today, effective immediately.  Continuing issues from his second concussion of the year combined with what we now know about CTE and the effects of on-going concussions has made him realize its time to step away before permanent damage is done.

Doyle was possibly the most professional player the Rapids have had the last couple of years.  Regardless of what was asked of him or what he felt about it he showed up and put in 100% effort to do what was needed.  He was probably a better player than anyone gave him credit for, stuck in a system that revealed his weaknesses without ever playing to his strengths.

Doyle was also a member of the Irish National Team up until the moment he retired as he was called in for Ireland's qualifiers next week.  National team manager Martin O'Neill has already said he wants to honor Doyle at a match in Ireland when the time is right, if that's not in next week's games I'm sure it will be in the near future.  Hopefully Doyle feels up to coming out to the Dick on Saturday so us fans can give him the send-off he deserves.

As far as what this does for the Rapids its not that much different than what was expected.  Most people (me included) felt that Doyle wouldn't be back next season or if he was it would be at a significantly reduced number.  Obviously now we know he won't be back so that frees up abput $450k in cap room for next season.