from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,

The Vancouver Canucks might be headed for a five-day break but the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports never rests.

• The media, like nature, abhors a vacuum and the longer Jim Benning’s contractual situation goes unresolved, the louder the conjecture will grow about his future.

As of this writing, the most popular scenario is Detroit GM Ken Holland, who’s also on the last year of his deal, moving to Vancouver as the hockey overlord in a restructured organization. That would leave a role for Benning in player personnel. It would also add that thing which has been missing from the Canucks’ front office since Trevor Linden and Benning were hired: the experienced voice of an executive with championship experience.

Now, we can argue the relative merits of this move from now until doomsday but if the Canucks continue to hover around 28th-place in the NHL change would appear to be inevitable. This has become less about the plan and more about consumer confidence in the brand. Bringing in Holland would go a long way toward calming the masses.

The problem — and this wouldn’t be a Canucks’ story if there wasn’t a problem — is the native of Vernon might be at the top of the wish list for the new Seattle franchise. But barring a dramatic turnaround in the next couple of months, it appears the status quo is no longer an option for the Canucks.

a few more hockey topics...