Scotty Bowman on June 25: “As long as I’m healthy and there’s no change in ownership in Detroit, there will be no change.” Delightfully, it turns out he’s a liar. And I dig that. The endless deification of Scotty “Wings God” Bowman gets a bit boring for some of us. (Well, for me.)


Unfortunately that same news is causing my sailor friend to have a seizure.

Steve Tambellini jumped this ship for the salvation of the dark side. Can’t say I blame him, but I might have my own seizure soon.


Upon hearing this announcement, J.J. told me that Trevor Linden is his first guess for the next assistant GM of the Canucks. It’s an idea I like but does Mike Gillis? Given my recent cynicism, I’m more inclined to believe they’d offer the gig to freakin’ Mark Messier...

Jonathan Roy has finally done his fair share to contribute to the stereotypes of the rapper genre. (Vancouver related? Not really. But perhaps “peripherally”, given how I’ve spent so many years despising his father…)

Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini is said to be among those—including the NBA’s Steve Nash—seeking to bring Major League Soccer to Vancouver.


Good for Aquilini. Maybe soccer fans will like him more than I do.

P.S. One more thing to add here… Adam Proteau’s post in The Hockey News today mentions something I was also thinking about this morning. He comments:

I never was fully prepared to deal with the hate mail that is virtually guaranteed to come your way as an Internet-era sportswriter. Thanks to the tribalism involved and inherent in pro sports, the level of vitriol and sheer rage displayed and conveyed by those whose technological savvy is limited to knowing where the “on” and “send” functions are located on their computer would send a shiver down the spine of even the most desensitized misanthrope.

Or, to put it in my own words: Some people sure can be dicks.

On the other hand, many thanks to the majority of readers who make the jackasses worth the headache. :)

P.P.S. (1:35pm PT) Matthew Sekeres at the Globe & Mail considers the Sundin matter a bit further, in reponse to J.P. Barry’s comments yesterday that there are 6 teams total interested in Sundin.

Here’s betting one of the three [other than Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal] is Colorado. The Avalanche has roughly $10 million in available cap dollars and uncertainty at centre ice with both Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg unsure about their playing futures. Both are also unrestricted free agents.

Keep in the mind that the Avalanche drafted Sundin, before the team was relocated from Quebec, with the first pick in the 1989 draft. This came two years after the team selected Sakic with the first pick in the draft.

Hmm. They may have made an offer, but will Sundin end up there? I can’t see how. If I’m reading NHLnumbers.com correctly, the Avs have $10 million in available cap dollars only IF Sakic doesn’t come back.

While I imagine Sundin would sign for less than the Vancouver offer to play for the team he wants to be with, I sincerely doubt the Avs have enough charm to seduce both Sakic and Sundin for $10 million in total. And since Sakic hasn’t yet made up HIS mind either, I’d say the Avs are stuck in too much of a holding pattern to have offered Sundin very much at all.

One more thing—Sekeres, like many others, figures that the best bet is that Sundin goes back to Toronto. In my lone opinion, no way that happens. But I guess we’ll see…