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Translated from Corus Sports.com, a Montreal sports site: Bob Gainey said: "It's hard to be optimistic. We haven't had much contact with him. It appears he's not interested. He hasn't asked many questions about the organization." "We haven't spoken to Sundin's camp for at least a week. There's nothing new, he hasn't decided anything yet. He told me he'd decide in August and today's the 26th. We'll know, provided he respects his own due date, his decision should come sometime throughout the next week. " "We're going to wait for his decision until September if we have to. On paper, we have the perfect team for him. There's certainly room for him with our team." "I know that certain other teams are presently over the salary cap. We'll have to see...If Mats doesn't join us, maybe we'll discuss things with those teams." Bwaha! I still don't see Sundin going to Montreal anyway. Never have believed he'd go to the most fierce rival of the Leafs.
I wonder if Gillis is feeling the same way that Gainey is.
Sundin, as Gainey had mentioned, had said that he would make his decision in August. Well, there are only 5 days left in August, Mats. Hope you got your ducks in a row.

Also, the Canadiens have unveiled a logo for this season celebrating their 100 year anniversary. The logo will be displayed at center ice and as a patch on Canadiens jerseys. It is pictured below.




T Tags: Sundin+not+talking+to+Canadiens no+decision August+deadline

…Consider what it costs to attend games in New York.  Now admittely, these aren’t prices for the Rangers, but rather the Jets, Giants, Mets and Yankees, but it’s not hard to imagine that the Rangers tickets aren’t similarily priced.

According to the New York Times, “Tickets for the best seats at the 85-year-old Yankee Stadium, which sold for $1,000 a seat this season, will jump at the new ballpark to $2,500; in other areas of the stadium, they will range from $135 to $500 for season tickets. Prices for single-game tickets, which ranged from $14 to $400 this season, will be released later.”

Yes, you read that right.  $2500.  Per seat.  For a *baseball* game.

One Yankees fan has four season tickets in the fourth row at Yankee Stadium.  When the Yanks move to their new digs next year, those same seats will be 650 bucks.   A piece.  Per game.  To watch the Yankees play the Kansas City Royals.

Where the hell do people get this kind of money???

Another spends six figures *annually* for seasons tickets to the Jets, Giants, Yankees, Knicks and Rangers.

Actually, according to Andrew’s Dallas Stars page, only Leafs fans pay more than Canucks fans for tickets - $88 at the ACC versus $71 at GM Place.  Then comes Montreal.  Notice a trend here?  None of the Canadian teams are under $60.  The best bargain?  St Louis at $25.48.  The league average is $48.72.

And you can forget the “it’s small market, we have to charge more” line, too.  Both Edmonton and Calgary are smaller, with significantly cheaper tickets than Vancouver.  They seem to be getting better results from the money they raise from their fans, as well.

So, yeah, even though $70 a piece is expensive, be glad you’re not paying for Yankees tickets.

"Here you can't go five or 10 games without a point without anyone noticing and there you can go under the radar a little bit," Bertuzzi said. "That's one thing that I think is going to benefit not just myself but this team. I think you are under the gun here and under the pressure of having to perform." Big Bert is looking forward to the extra ice time he'll get in Calgary. He stated basically that he couldn't get his game going in Anaheim while playing only 10-12 minutes per game.
So what do you predict Bert will do in Calgary playing with Cammalleri and Iginla?
I guess about 25 goals and 50 points. Nothing boosts a player's output like playing with Iginla.
But we'll see. Bert has been on the decline. This is his big chance to re-stake his name as a premier power forward.
Canucks fans are going to see a lot of him this year.
Notice how he's wearing #7. A changeup there. Jim Vandermeer wears #4 and Rhett Warrener wears #44.
Mike Cammalleri, Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross and Andre Roy were also introduced today.
More on the Bertuzzi intro plus a clip at TSN.

T Tags: Todd+Bertuzzi+introduced+to+Calgary+media Flames news+conference

My French is not perfect… errr… somewhat poor… well, really freakin horrible, but I can pick up the broadstrokes of these two stories today (Corus Sports and RDS) and the news is essentially this: Gainey hasn’t completely given up, but he’s not optimistic that Sundin will play for the Habs this season. Forgive my parched translation (actually, it’s less of a “translation” and more of a “paraphrase") but here are his comments: “It is difficult to be optimistic because we haven’t had much co

Based on personal opinion mostly, in regards to off season acquisitions or losses, or just potential to turn it all around this coming season.

1. San Jose Sharks. Plenty of talent up front plus adding Boyle, Lukowich and Rob Blake on defence AND a new coach gives the Sharks a new feel and outlook, plus a feeling of a complete team. Will Thornton take his game to the next level in the playoffs though?

2. Detroit Red Wings. Adding Hossa has everybody jumping on the wagon for a repeat. But not so fast. I am not one of those people. Detroit may kick teams' butts in the regular season, but come playoff time I think hungrier teams will come into play, like San Jose and Dallas, and we'll see if Detroit can match that hunger after having just won the Cup. It's tough to repeat in today's NHL.

3. Dallas Stars. Pushed the Wings almost to the limit in last year's playoffs. The Stars continue to excel every year. A healthy Zubov in the post season will help, and I don't care what anyone says....the addition of Avery was a good one. Giving Brad Richards a full season with the Stars under his belt will help him.
These guys are my super early pick to win the Cup this year. I'd pick San Jose, but Thornton has yet to really step it up in the playoffs.

4. Philadelphia Flyers. Just keep maturing and getting better and better. I got these guys making the Finals this coming season. Bold huh?

5. Montreal Canadiens. Tough call here. A lot of pressure will now fall upon the shoulders of a young Carey Price. Can he handle it? The rest of the team is solid. I like the acquisition of Tanguay, a francophone. Francophones play hard for their home province. Montreal doesn't even need Sundin, really. They will have to keep Kovalev happy for another year and Koivu healthy.

6. Carolina Hurricanes. Ready to erase last season's disappointing performance. These guys boast a heavy offence, but can the defence core help out Ward enough? My answer to that is: look at the not-so-big names that were on their defence when they won the Cup. You don't always need big-name players on D to succeed.

7. Boston Bruins. I hope Ryder finds his scoring touch back in Beantown. Add a healthy Patrice Bergeron and my god, the Bruins have no excuses anymore. They should make some noise.

8. Edmonton Oilers. Adding Cole and Brule and Visnovsky just proves that Lowe is the man for the job in Edmonton. Add a healthy Souray with Visnovsky on the PP and that is one massive blueline presence. The Oilers' PP is going to be awesome. I really doubt that Sam Gagner or Andrew Cogliano will suffer from a sophmore slump. They should only get better. And Horcoff needs to stay healthy. I really like the Roloson/Garon combo in net as well.
The Oilers seem to be headed down the same path as the Flyers had when they revamped their team and gutted it.

9. Pittsburgh Penguins. Once again, I'm not buying into the hype. Sure, Crosby and Malkin are on the team and that counts for a lot. But losing Hossa, who was a playoff monster and adding Satan and Fedotenko just doesn't translate into playoff (or maybe even regular season) success in my mind. Or, I should say that it doesn't put the Pens over the hump to make the Finals again.

10. Chicago Blackhawks. The Windy City fans SHOULD be excited about the Hawks. They boast a solid core of youth complemented by the sweet additions of Huet and Campbell.
Finally, a Hawk playoff berth is attainable at long last!

Other Power Rankings out there:

- Davis21Wylie at Armchair GM.

- Ross McKeon at Yahoo Sports

T Tags: NHL+Power+Rankings projections

I think it's fortuitous that I'm off this week. Ironic that it still took me over twenty four hours to pull my ass off of the sofa with a thought long enough to poke at some keys and make this post, but meh, I need the break from the physical grind of slavery otherwise known as work. Fortuitous in the sense that when I'm at work, for convenience sake, I have sandwiches with deli meat. Gods, when will they ever devise a microwave for a five-ton so I can reheat my meals dammit! Still, for us 'deli meat' eaters, we've had to deal with this. Mmmm. Sweet Listeria monocytogenes. Well, I can handle pasta all week. Even with crappy store bought sauce.

The initial plan was to be away. Then $1.50 per litre happened. Not really feasible with my not-so reliable car. Bah. And with a potentially very rainy week, the idiot box is the main source of entertainment. But in all reality, I hate television in the summer. Everything's a repeat (not that the vast majority of programs are shit). And if it weren't for the Olympics, the only sporting fare for most of the summer is Baseball. I used to be more passionate about Baseball. Now I just follow the standings until September, and then start watching, so long as it doesn't interfere with anything else. But to watch a regular season game now is the equivalent for me to watching Darts or Competitive Snooker.

But we did have the Olympics. Just finished in time for it to NOT be on for the week off. Rather, in terms of the Olympics, I got to hear Jim Rome slam the Canadian Olympians for having an 0 for in the first week of Olympic competition. How we're the embarassment of the G8 by being the only nation uncompetitive in the games. It was good to see the local personalities on Team 1040 comment back and stick up for the Great White North. Though with the call ins, the defense of our great nation turned into a dick fight about how to fix the problem.

And it's the solutions the proletariat come up with that start to identify the problem. People will call in constantly and call for more money. We just need to pump more money into better facilities and the problem will just go away. And in that answer, the problem is inherent. We just don't care. Put it in perspective. An Olympic champion just doesn't all of a sudden wake up at age 18 and say 'I want to be a 100m track champion.' Those who succeed start young. Very young. Building a world class facility does not make up for that 13 year gap.

And to boot, let's look at this. To be a runner, does one really need that world class facility? We have roads. We have tracks at schools. Weight machines all over. To be a swimmer, can't we start in our local pools? Other athletics? Football? Diving? Cycling? Obviously what is missing here is passion and leadership, not facility. We need to give a shit about more than just hockey. Fuck me, do we ever care about hockey. The attitude is right there. Gold or bust. It is a slam against our national character if we can't beat every other country at the game WE made. We need to care. We need a system that grooms athletes for other sports at an earlier age.

Still, having said that, we got 18 medals, finishing 19th by Gold medal count, and tied for 14th by overall medal count. As a whole, our best showing since 1996. And if you look at it this way, if we did as well in the first week of competition, we'd have shown 36 medals, for 8th place overall in medal count. What was really funny though was Rome just happened to be on vacation the week Canada did well. Coincidence?

Still, all of this gave us something to talk about for two weeks. For the six weeks prior to it, all we heard was Sundin, Sundin, Sundin. Where will he go? The 'Nucks offered $20 million for two seasons, which he balked at. Nearly two months later, and nothing. The latest rumour is that the New York Rangers are the front runner, though they can't offer him even close to Vancouver's money.

But the Rangers effectively lost Jagr to get Naslund. Gave up a two cup captain for a zero cup captain. If this is Mats' team of choice, I wonder. Wonder if he's going there to win a cup. Avery-less, I don't see the Rangers doing much more than making the playoffs, as the roads will this year once again in the east probably will go through Montreal and Pittsburgh. Has Mats played for the Leafs long enough to suffer permanent brain damage?

Or have Canuck fans, some of whom still believe Mats is coming here, believe a Leaf will not only come here, but will take a mediocre at best Canucks squad and lead them to the promised land? Here's a hint. No matter what Mats decides, come April '09, his hockey desires will take a back seat to hitting the links, whether or not his team of choice is in the post season.

Leaf Damage, or Maple Leaf listeriosis, you decide.

Interdum vos ut volvo ferrus six.

Witnessing The Spaghetti Cat the other day, I knew I had to drop him an email and tell him how impressed I was by his TV debut. And then much to my surprise a miracle happened: turns out The Spaghetti Cat is a Vancouver Canucks fan. Fortunately he agreed to a videotaped interview and so here is our conversation on the state of the Canucks franchise: Continue reading "The Spaghetti Cat, the Vancouver Canucks and the Music of ABBA"

From the Vancouver Province: "It's a hit or miss with me," Wellwood acknowledged Monday after skating with a few of his new teammates at Burnaby 8 Rinks.

"I'm either going to bounce back and play really well and put up points and they'll have a player they are looking for for nothing, or I'm just not going to do it. It's all in my hands and I know training camp and the start of the season is going to be pretty big for me." Now now, Kyle. Keep your chin up! Be positive. Good boy.

T Tags: Kyle+Wellwood+interview Vancouver+Province

From the Vancouver Province: "It's a hit or miss with me," Wellwood acknowledged Monday after skating with a few of his new teammates at Burnaby 8 Rinks. "I'm either going to bounce back and play really well and put up points and they'll have a player they are looking for for nothing, or I'm just not going to do it. It's all in my hands and I know training camp and the start of the season is going to be pretty big for me." Now now, Kyle. Keep your chin up! Be positive. Good boy. T Tags: Kyle+W

The Vancouver Canucks may not lead the league in on-ice performance (like the Wings), or corporate branding (like the Leafs) or pretty much anything else, but it seems like they’re always on the cutting edge when it comes to new ways to make money. In Forbes, I saw this today: [Two] major league sports franchises, baseball’s New York Mets and hockey’s Vancouver Canucks, have signed deals with Nortel Networks to upgrade their in-house voice and data systems, likely leading to instant conce

Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere...

First, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, then the London 2012 Olympics chose Nortel technology. One ... and then two golds. Then General Motors Place in Vancouver, the home of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team, decided to go with Nortel to deliver a UC experience to their fans. That's a hat trick. Now the New York Mets baseball club is loading up the bases in their new 42000-seat Citi Field stadium with Nortel technology , making it a technology showpiece. That's a grand slam for Nortel and

The Canucks broadcast schedule from the Vancouver Sun: This year’s regular season TV schedule includes 45 broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific, 25 games on national TV (CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada or TSN) and 12 games on Canucks TV Pay Per View. Canucks play-by-play broadcaster John Shorthouse will make his Sportsnet debut on Oct. 17 at Buffalo alongside analyst John Garrett and host Dan Murphy. A schedule of games available in High Definition will be announced at a later date. Every gam

Eighty six games.  If you subscribe to CanucksTV, that’s the number of games you’ll be able to watch on the tube this season.  Of the regular season games, 70 will be broadcast between Rogers Sportsnet, the CBC, and TSN.  Twelve will be PPV, and four pre-season games will also be broadcast - 3 on Rogers, and 1 on TSN.

The breakdown is like this: 45 games on Rogers, 25 on national TV (15 to the CBC, 10 to TSN) and the remaining 12 on CanucksTV.  It’s disappointing, though, that the “big” games against teams that we rarely get to see play the Canucks (ie, Washington, Montreal, New Jersey and Tampa Bay) are all PPV games.  The Leafs on November 15th, though, is programmed specifically for the East (it’s a 4pm Saturday start), but at least it’s on the CBC.

All in all, it could be a lot worse.

Thanks to John Bollwitt of the Crazy Canucks podcast for dropping this announcement into Twitter.

Slow news day, but here are a few more links and laughs to check out.

Terry Frei is reporting at the Denver Post that Joe Sakic will address the media this coming Thursday and will take on any questions. But don't get your hopes up. He will probably be talking more about his charity golf tournament than whether or not he has decided to play this coming season.
Blue Jackets' GM Howson to Nikita Filatov: "Stop playing exhibition games in Russia."He doesn't want his rookie star to get hurt.
Oh sweet lord in heck...check out this photo.....



Ahem...**choke** Check out Sex, Sports and Rock n'Roll for some form of explanation of this, en francais.

I am not glorifying the Red Wings as potential repeat Cup champs again this year. The Ottawa Citizen's James Gordon provides one example of why this is, and I agree. Something to do with a hangover.

T Tags: Sakic+press+conference+Thursday Filatov+stop+playing+in+Russia Celine+Dion+Canucks Red Wings+repeat+Champs

The Nigerian-born Aliu scored 28 goals and 61 points in 60 games with the London Knights last season, ranking him 3rd on the team. He also had 133 penalty minutes.
He was drafted 56th overall by the Hawks in the 2007 Entry Draft.
Aliu is one tough customer. He will become a household name this season, probably more for his rough antics.
I profiled him lastJune. Check that article out here. It has a pretty good Aliu clip as well.

T Tags: Blackhawks+sign+Akim+Aliu three+years profile fight+video

This past Friday, Chelios reportedly sounded "pretty darned good" singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at the Cubs game, but when given the honor of throwing the first pitch, he threw it high over guest catcher Eddie Vedder. He was given a second chance and threw that pitch a little high as well. However, Vedder reached high and least caught that one. The crowd gave Chelios a "rousing" ovation when he was introduced. He even had the Cup beside him on the pitcher's mound.
But that isn't the really big news of the day of Chelios in Chicago. What Chelios said after the ball game (a lopsided loss by the Cubs by the way) is what is somewhat controversial.


"I know I bring it (Stanley) with the wrong team, but at least I brought it home." "You don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. I've found a new home with Detroit, but Chicago is always going to be home and my parents are here," he said. "I intend on coming back here someday and living the rest of my days whether it's as a player or just somehow maybe involved with the Blackhawks." Well, Chelios is 46 now, the oldest person to win the Stanley Cup, and reportedly already has a verbal deal in place with the Red Wings that just has not been announced by Wings' GM Ken Holland yet. His agent has confirmed that. The former Hawk had great things to say about the current Blackhawks team.


"They've made all the right moves," said Chelios. "They've got a great young nucleus with this team and the management, with what they've done is just tremendous for the fans.
It's been a long time coming since you felt that buzz. I can't say I wish I was a part of it right now because I'm a Red Wing, but it's great to see the fans excited about Blackhawks hockey."So, as careful as Chelios may have sounded, he just couldn't avoid some Blackhawks and even Sox/Cubs fans' backlash by bringing Lord Stanley to a city that is the enemy of his current team Detroit. Examples:

- This writer from the Chicago Sun Times suggested that Chelios may have brought bad karma with him, as both the Sox and Cubs lost their games. Funny, but I don't believe in Karma.

-Fan Backlash #1: ...just remember the nasty,deliberate, try and knock him out hit he made last season against the Hawks' Kane.
He lost me there, he should have been booed Friday by any hawks fans attending fridays game at wrigley.

-Backlash #2: Class is Hull, Makita and Esposito not a cheap shot artist like Chelios, i remember his first game back after the trade when he was booed off the ice, the same thing should have happened at Wrigley. Hopefully he will never be associated with the Hawks again in any capacity.

-Backlash #3: He could take it to schools to friends, but to use it as a Chelios congratulatory party at Wrigley showed chelios doesn't care about us..he cares that chelios is still in the limelight. He didn't cause the Cup drought but he doesn't feel our pain either.
I tried to hear Detroit sucks in the background, but didn't. You don't know how much I wished that I could have be at Wrigley because HE WOULD HAVE HEARD ME yelling DETROIT SUCKS!

-Backlash #4: CC can stick the Cup where the sun don't shine. He wants to come back to Chicago? Yeah when he's in his 60's...The Hawks can use him like they're using Hull,Makita and Espo...I don't care what he's done he's a fricken Red Wing...

The above comments are from the Daily Herald.

I can understand the bitterness of the fans. They have endured so much shit over the past decade or so. When Wirtz Sr. traded Chicago-born Chelios to the Wings in 1999 in exchange for Anders fricking Eriksson and 2 first round picks (one turned out to be Sandy McCarthy), it was just another added blow. Two years earlier he had traded Ed Belfour to the Sharks for Chris Terreri, Ulf Dahlen and Michal suck Sykora.
The previous year, he traded the man Jeremy Roenick to Phoenix for Alexei Zhamnov, Craig Mills and a 1st round pick: Ty "who?" Jones.
Years of mediocrity ensued. But to trade the great Chelios to the enemy was a serious blow.
And that creates hate. Long-lasting hate. Especially when he has success with the enemy.
As an outsider, I would think that Chelios' presence on the Hawks' young team would be welcomed. He can still play. But this scenario is becoming more and more unlikely. Chelios looks to finish his playing years with the rival Wings and it will take years for some fans to get over the 'hate' part. That's what's beautiful about hockey and sport. Rivalries are awesome! You can be a star and saviour for your team for years, but damn you if you ever choose or are successful with an enemy team!
Personally, I know Chelios is easily hated on the ice. But I was a major fan of his especially when he played for Chicago. But I didn't like him going to the Wings either. I hate Detroit!
Regardless, here are some great Chelios memories from his days in Chicago (plus a few others):

CheliTube

-Ooo. Caught on tape, Chelios says to a host of a show that he would NEVER play for Detroit.

-Chelios fights Recchi in 1996.

- Chelios fights Glen Anderson (?). Never seen Anderson fight before. Looked like a boxer here. Landed nothing though.

- Chelios, with the Red Wings, had 4 assists against Vancouver this night. Watch him gloat to the fans in GM Place when he was given #1 star of the game. Sorry Nucks fans, but that was pretty funny.

-Chelios as a Hab destroys Brian Propp with a viscious elbow. Dirty, Cheli.

-Ron Hextall can't contain his anger anymore and attacks Chelios in an act of revenge for the Propp hit.

Images from the Chicago Tribune.

T Tags: Chris+Chelios+Wrigley+Field Stanley+Cup Chicago 2008 first+pitch

via The Province: Hodgson is working this summer in London, Ont., under the eye of Dave Gagner, the Canucks’ new director of player development and father of Sam — and guess who his workout partner is? That’s right: Sam Gagner. “The first day there they did full body assessments,” says Hodgson. “I almost have the same body type as Sam, the same flexibility, so we need to work on the same things. I just follow what he does.” There’s more. Hodgson has been staying with the Gagners in London

Here are the morning papers for Sunday the 24th of August: Canucks prospect Cody Hodgson has really enjoyed his summer training with Sam Gagner and Co., writes Jim Jamieson of the Vancouver Province. Sitting at home without a contract, Andrej Meszaros still is not sure if he will be at Senators training camp, explains Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. As Bill Beacon of Canadian Press tells us, the QMJHL has come down with strict rules for brawling, but fighting has not been banned in the leagu