Everywhere you turn, someone is pointing out the obvious.

Hey, newsflash: Rexall Place is going to be an emotional cauldron when #94 steps onto the ice for the first time wearing — gasp — Colorado Avalanche duds. Pass out the hankies and wait for the flood of tears.

Grown men will weep and children will shriek as if Santa's sleigh was t-boned by a 767 at 30,000 feet. Or so one would think based on the media overkill.

Gag. Talk about hyperbolic.

Now, I know what Smyth meant to the fine denizens of the Alberta capital, but, unless I've lost two decades somewhere, this isn't 1988. Wayne Gretzky isn't gearing up in the visitor's dressing room.

I'll admit the city of Edmonton and Ryan Smyth had a special tryst going on. So,

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