Martin Havlat thought his summer jaunt from Minnesota to California would be nothing but fun in the sun. The trade started out great: shortly after arriving, Havlat found a lamp amidst the sands of a Bay-area beach, rubbed it on a lark and was promptly granted three wishes by the long-incarcerated genie.
Havlat made every man-child’s wildest dream come true and wished himself invisible. He did not, however, consider the repercussions his new state might have when hockey season began. It has not been good so far: the formerly-prolific winger has scored one goal in 24 games.
“I’ve been camped out right in front of the net all year! Nobody can find me,” said Havlat. “These genies, they don’t tell you things. Sometimes I think they are in the bottle for a reason.”
Havlat summoned the genie again and used his second wish to become un-invisible. He fears he may now have to use his third to correct more damage, as his sticks and equipment are still nowhere to be found.
Havlat suffered through three injury-plagued seasons with the Blackhawks from 2006-2009 and only mildly improved his ability to stay on the ice with the Wild. But the skater commented that wishing for good health would be “boring.”
Said Havlat: “I wanted to save sensible wishes for later genies. This one should be Marty-time.”
By Dan Bradley
