RWG

The Flames have been among the leaders in buying out big player contracts too. They did that and gave millions to Darryl cause they're friends with him, but they walked away from a deal for an arena that would ostensibly benefit the city (and make them more revenue every game) over mere millions. It's the billionaire mindset. It's too bad they lost Treliving. I think he is one of the more impressive GMs in the league even if he didn't have much postseason success with the Flames. The Leafs' offseason drama sounds like an episode of Succession. It seems like Kyle Dubas tried to make a play for more power but Shanahan was one step ahead and fired him. I don't think Bettman is ever going to bring himself to admit defeat on Arizona. Though he is saying that now, I do think losing the Tempe vote has brought the Coyotes much closer to relocation. They make it sound like they simply need to move the arena to another suburb of Phoenix, but get a new plan designed and approved is going to add years. The Mullett Arena situation is an embarrassment to the league imo. They shouldn't even be doing it for one year. Gary also says the league has "never been stronger." Even though the salary cup is only going up by $1 million for the third straght year. Congrats to Vegas on what looks like is going to be a stanley cup in their first like 5 years. Their fans suffered so much!

The Flames are definitely making a lot of noise post-humously. I wasn't too surprised about Sutter. There was just too much smoke. If I'm following the story properly: the Flames ownership basically goes around the management to install its own coach, gives him an extension without the GM's consent, the GM quits, and it comes to light that a the Flames players can't stand Sutter and a bunch of impending free agents will refuse to continue playing him. And now the team's owners that have been nickle-and-diming the city over an arena deal for a decade now have to pay someone $4 million to not work. Sutter is from another era and basically found out the hard way that the players are much more valuable nowadays. Eric Francis was on the Vancouver station today going on about how it was all mind games with Sutter the players got sick of being belittled by him. Congrats on your new arena. That's exciting. The amount of Leafs and Oilers car flags in BC right now is really annoying. I'm cheering for whoever is playing them. The Leafs had to win a series eventually. It is funny that their fans were chanting "We want Florida" after they beat Tampa and have now just lost Game 1 to the Panthers. Boston losing to Florida was one of the most shocking upsets I can remember but also hilarious. All the teams left are teams that haven't won the cup in a while. I'm enjoying another Canucks-free spring. Beautiful relaxing weather. Sometimes I honestly don't miss having a team in the playoffs and being a nervous wreck all the time.

The Flames finally start stringing together some wins at the last minute to maybe save their playoff chances, then they go and lose to... Chicago. Ouch. Luckily for them, they have a chance to make it up tomorrow with a game in Winnipeg, but if the Jets win that one I think that will be it. Calgary has been brutally unlucky with all the SO/OT losses and one-goal losses, but at the same time, it does look like last year might have been their last chance for a while. They just lost too much talent, the players they got aren't as good as the ones they lost, and Markstrom does not look like the goalie he once was. It will be interesting to see what happens if they miss the playoffs. Lots of rumors about issues with Sutter. But he is backed by ownership and just got an extension. Whereas Treliving's contract is up. The Canucks have been mathematically eliminated. Realistically, they have been out of the playoff race for months, but they continued to play their best players 30 minutes a game and have players play through injuries because they are a delusional organization that lives in fantasyland. They nearly played themselves out of the lottery for the top pick too, but it now looks like they will have a very remote chance at drafting Connor Bedard. Which is the only way I can see this turning around. I don't know who I'll be cheering for in the playoffs. I guess whoever's playing the Leafs and Oilers. There are rumors the Canucks might change from the whale to the 90s skate officially after this season. I wonder if Fin the orca would remain the mascot. Spring! It's light out! And playoff hockey soon!

Yes there are two! The Tanevs are great. Quiet, hard-nosed boys. The Canucks are going to have to trade Bo Horvat because they can't re-sign him because they are capped out as usual. If the Flames could trade for him it would be the ultimate piss off the Vancouver fans move by this time taking their captain. Although the Flames do not look certain to make the playoffs, so maybe they won't be buyers. Markstrom does seem like himself of the last couple years. Of all the mistakes the Canucks have made, I never minded not signing Markstrom. It seems like nowadays a lot of the great goalies have just a few dominant years then kind of lose their hold on the league. In other Canucks news, they have finally fired Bruce Boudreau. It is very sad to see Bruce go. He is such a lovable figure, and you never hear anyone say a bad word about him. I don't think he did a great job coaching the team this season. As lame as the roster is, they should not be as bad as their record indicates. But even if the firing is warranted, the way the organization did it, by leaking out that they had hired Rick Tocchet to replace him and then leaving Bruce in charge for another 2 weeks, was awful. They made him walk the longest plank ever. And Jim Rutherford has been going on the radio and criticizing Boudreau's coaching since last year. And then Rutherford does a press conference where he basically claims he did nothing wrong. I knew Rutherford could be a bit eccentric but he's also quite arrogant. The next contestant is Rick Tocchet. They will probably fire him in a year when the team still sucks and there's nothing else they can do because they don't have any cap space or players they can move. Another miserable season. I'm praying they can keep playing this bad in the second half, because Connor Bedard feels like the only thing that might save this team. Happy new year! Is it ok to still say happy new year in late January? My 2023 started with a coronavirus infection. Luckily it was pretty mild and I'm all recovered. My work and personal lives are quite busy, so there's limited time for the Canucks to drive me insane lol. At least the NBA required that sponsor logos on the jerseys had to be adapted to suit the colour scheme of the colors already on the team jerseys. RBC was just allowed to blink its blue/white/yellow logo on the Canadiens' jersey, supposedly the most storied one in the league. It looks awful.

I remember from last playoffs the Flames just seemed to fall apart in the games Tanev was out injured. He is often injured though I think less in Calgary than in Vancouver because his team isn't playing without the puck all the time anymore. I thought it was weird that Tkachuk got an ovation from the Flames fans. The Flames' black jerseys are basically the same colour scheme as the 90s black skate Canucks jerseys. And the Vegas Knights have one that's nearly an exact copy. He also said the digital ads are working "extraordinarily well." LOL. Gary Bettman really sounds like Donald Trump a lot of the time. You'd think he could say something like "The digital ads are an important revenue stream for the league, it's a new technology and it will improve." But no, he just has to say the criticism isn't real and the countless fans complaining about the pixelating don't exist. The Canucks somehow won that game. 4-3 is actually a tight game for them. They've actually won 10 out of 14 games but have had to score 5 or more goals in most of them. Bo Horvat is probably going to be traded and it's probably going to be for a mediocre center in his 20s and not assets that could actually help the team in the future. As long as we're stuck with this team it's always going to be a middling roster whose goal is to host 2 or 3 playoff games every year. Yay! Flames have had a pretty mediocre start. And the Huberdeau contract kind of looks like it might be a problem.

I don't much care for Elon Musk, but if he were to rid the world of Twitter it would definitely be a positive contribution to society.

We're supposed to get snow tomorrow. But unlike in Calgary, when it snows here everyone stays home from work/school and the whole city basically shuts down. The Canucks have sort of turned it around. They won 5 of 6 and just swept the road trip against Vegas, Colorado, and San Jose. They are 9-5-1 since the first road trip. The trend doesn't look that sustainable tbh, but they are kind of back in it because of how abysmal the Western Conference has been. That sounds familiar about Tanev. And he gets injured a lot. Still, he was such a fearless player for us. The way he'd just throw his body in front of pucks travelling 100mph every game. It was obvious the team really missed him when we lost him. I heard Flames fans are now arguing about whether Vladar should start over Markstrom... the Canucks are sort of having that debate, though it's largely because the team seems to score a lot more when Spencer Martin is in net than when Demko is. The Panthers jerseys are a sight to see. I guess they're copying the Atlanta Thrashers and wearing them against the Flames because of their connection to Atlanta? Do you mean the digitally enhanced ads on the boards? They are awful. Players do disappear in the corners and the pixelating is awful. The technology doens't seem ready for TV yet, but the NHL doesn't care because Bettman is willing to make up revenue any way possible. Ads on the helmets, the digital ads on the boads, the mini commercials between whistles, the gambling stuff. They may as well have the coaches dress like NASCAR drivers at this point. Well Canada is already dead in the World Cup, but oh well. Go England I guess.

Sorry to hear covid found you, but glad it was mild. Hope the rest of your family is ok too. I had it in like January and am sort of surprised I haven't gotten it again yet. Muscle aches were the main symptom for me too. Wow it is early for snow. We've had an insanely dry fall and set records for the least amount of precipitation. It was also in the mid-20s for much of September and half October. But finally we're getting rain and wind and dark now. Two-year contract for Darth Vader! It must be nice to have a team that wins sometimes. The Canucks have started 0-5-2 lol. The season is basically shot; mathematically it is going to be very difficult for them to recover from this and make the playoffs. The hilarious part is that they had multi-goal leads in all of the first 4 games, and a one-goal lead in the 3rd period in another game. This team has been hopeless for so long that I honestly don't even care how much they suck anymore. The failing does absolutely to my mood these days. It's less of a team I'm a fan and more of a soap opera I sort of follow for entertainment purposes. Also, the NHL has turned its broadcasts into utter garbage. Sportsnet's have always sucked but now it is borderline unwatchable. They have digitally enhanced ads on the boards, which glitch constantly and cause the players and puck to disappear when they go into the corners. And gambling commercials every instant, even after icing calls when it's not even a commercial break. Insane.

This summer wasn't too bad for smoke, but we got some in September. It's exhausting. I went to bed at 8 on the smokiest day we had. I am ready for some cooler weather. And hockey. With Kane I understand the deal you're making with the devil, but Virtanen is not worth the PR hit. There are better players than him that haven't gotten PTOs. I don't get the Oilers' calculus. But it sounds like he hasn't been very good so probably won't make the team anyways. I feel like Tkachuk got off easy from Calgary. Because it happened right after Gaudreau, whom they got nothing for, Flames fans seemed to be like "oh well at least he was honest unlike Gaudreau." Usually a player becomes pretty unpopular in a city when he says he has no interest in re-signing in said city. Darryl seems to agree with me. The Canucks are off to a terrific start. Two of their top-six forwards and a defenseman have already gotten significant injuries. Oh yeah, Francesco Aquilini, the owner, is in pretty big doodoo. He's in court with his ex-wife over child support payments for his kids' tuition, and it's come out that his adult children want no contact with him because he abused them. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canucks-owner-child-support-payments-1.6598208 I've thought before, more than once, that the Aquilinis would replace Francesco as chairman, but he always survives the scandals. Maybe he's really on his ninth life this time.

Definitely a crazy offseason for Calgary, but they did stick the landing. I'm surprised Treliving was able to get that much for Tkachuk. I thought the only way he'd get that much was if it was known the main piece wouldn't want to re-sign in Calgary, but that's clearly not the case. Meanwhile the Canucks do nothing. Oh, they are renovating some things in the arena and at the Abbotsford facility. I read that Huberdeau and Treliving went to Boston Pizza cause T's dad owns it but that can't be serious. I guess it can be offensive to firefighters, but the article talks about it being insensitive to town's 1864 fire which I find a bit silly. It's not like they can do a video of it being safely extinguished. I heard a lot of things about Virtanen during his time in Vancouver... basically none of them positive. The most charitable thing you could say about him was that he was too immature for that much fame. Kind of a tragic figure. It seems like we are going to know the names of the players involved in the incident at some point. Who knows how many are in the NHL. It's clear this is just how Hockey Canada dealt with these things; it's ludricrous the people who were in charge for this now say they want to "lead the change." Speaking of which... the World Juniors are starting now, in August, for some reason (without any of the players who were drafted into the NHL participating), and I don't know anyone who cares.

Well, it looks like Treliving managed to flip the script on Calgary's offseason a fair bit with the Tkachuk trade. That is a really big return for him. I guess they don't know if Huberdeau will re-sign (and he is 30), but they still got a lot from Florida considering they didn't have much leverage. I have to say the Glen Falls controversy over the ember seems like a bit much. It's not like anyone there now or their ancestors were around for that. Lots of teams are named after disasters (fires, hurricanes, earthquakes). The story about Katz and the underage ballerina is icky. There is also Hockey Canada currently very embattled over two separate abuse scandals involving the 2003 and 2018 World Juniors teams. Jake Virtanen is on trial in a BC court this week. And there are people who think hockey doesn't have serious culture issues.

That's tough for Calgary. He took less money to go to a team that's worse than the Flames, not close to his home, and not really a city that's considered desirable. Supposedly Gaudreau likes quiet and is a "homebody" but that kind of flies contrary to some of the things you hear about him. From the outside, it always seemed like he was going to leave. There were rumors about it over a year ago. I guess he strung the Flames along and convinced Treliving he'd consider it. The Flames probably thought this year would be their best shot at a cup. People say he doesn't owe anyone any explanation, but I also think Flames fans have a right to be mad about the position he left them in. I heard Eric Francis on the Vancouver radio station and he was very upset. When the new Canucks mgmt came in they said they were going to make big changes and to expect fireworks, but so far they are just re-signing everyone and not making many trades. They signed Mikheyev and Lazar and some other people I don't know. It's been leaked all over that JT MIller would be traded by now, but he hasn't been. I think the Canucks are feeling pressure about his value declining, and may end up keeping him now. Jim Rutherford got pressed about it in an interview today and snapped at the host. Bruce Boudreau got to meet one of his favourite wrestlers on live TV in the latest issue of wholesome Bruce Boudreau content. https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/canucks-boudreau-gets-surprise-wrestler-kevin-owens/?show_id=15237 That's cool about Monahan's park. I always forget about Monahan... he's completely faded from prominence from when it was the "Gaudreau and Monahan" Flames many years ago.

I'm with Telus, so I was good. But it's incredible how much of the country comes to a standstill because of one company's mistake. This just happened with Rogers a year or so ago.

John Horgan is stepping down as premier of BC in the fall and retiring. Not especially surprising given the current climate and the fact he just fought off cancer for the second time. There have been rumours about this for month. The frontrunners to take over are probably Ravi Kahlon and David Eby. Likely Kahlon if Horgan is playing kingmaker.

I'm happy it's gonna be Lightning vs Avalanche. Those are just the best two teams imo. Colorado is the deeper roster and the team that has looked stronger imo, but Tampa has a big edge in net and is emotionally/psychologically a very strong team. Hopefully it goes 6 or 7. I think it's sad how little the Oilers have done in all the years since McDavid fell into their lap. Little support outside of Draisaitl, mediocre defense, no goalie. The thing Ken Holland did to improve the team the most was Kane, a 40-goal scorer who just fell out of the sky that they didn't have to trade anything for or pay very much. He posted a message thanking Edmonton so I guess that means he's gone. Mike Smith also gets credited as one of the great goalies at playing the puck but I don't know if that's accurate. He's maybe the most daring, but he makes a lot of mistakes. Soccer fans in other parts of the country (Toronto) were making fun of the crowd iof 17,000 in Vancouver for the match against Curacao. Although it looked like less than that. They do know soccer fans in Vancouver got screwed over twice by cancelled games in the last week, and that Curacao probably isn't the biggest draw? Imo, that's probably more than they deserve after kaiboshing the game 90 minutes before kickoff. The issue is all this money Soccer Canada gets from FIFA for qualifying for the world cup. The president says they wouldn't be able to fund the rest of the programs if they were to give the players so much, but it's like how had you been funding them previously without the world cup money. The coaching carousel is crazy right now. There are so many jobs and so many big names out there. Trotz is going to pick a team soon. I bet it'll be Vegas. Tortorella could be going to Philadelphia. Dallas, Winnipeg, Detroit, and Boston have openings too.

And then there were 3... farewell to the 2021-2022 Edmonton Oilers. They were entertaining, I'll give them that. They're also a team that had McDavid and Draisaitl, 2 of the best players alive, playing historical point totals on the same team at the same time, and they still got swept. I know Oilers fans don't like hearing this but the rest of the roster is not great. Interested to see the end of the Lightning/Rangers series. Every time the Lightning look like they're out of gas, they seem to claw their way back into the series. I love how for literally every goal Smith lets in, he immediately raises his arms and looks around like it's not his fault or shouldn't count. Like he let in 20 goals in the last 4 games. Even the one he let in from centre ice against Calgary it was like his instinctual reaction was to blame someone. Kadri is kind of a dirty player but seems kind of likeable sometimes. Like you can buy that he doesn't necessarily mean harm but makes dumb decisions. Whereas Kane is just a bad person. I know every NHL city has biased people in the media but Edmonton's media are basically just glorified fans. Especially the guys left over from the 80s runs. Like Brazilian soccer reporter level of cheering from the press box. The Canada World Cup team was supposed to play two friendlies in Vancouver and they both got cancelled. The first they scheduled against our pals Iran without checking with the federal government (oops), so that one had to be cancelled, and then to make up for it they were selling $30 tickets to a replacement game against Panama and that got cancelled because of a labour dispute between the players and organization. Very stupid given that they didn't even cancel it until 90 minutes before it was supposed to start. I know people who took the ferry from Victoria and others who drove from the interior and had hotels.

Not surprisng that Ford won a majority. I'm a bit surprised the NDP did so well seat-wise. I didn't expect them to get more than 25. Disaster for the Liberals. Their leader didn't even win his seat. Happy trails to Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca.

At this point I think teams just don't say No anymore if an injured player wants to play in the playoffs. Alec Martinez played for Vegas with a broken foot and then described the team doctors as "awesome." Their careers are not very long and I get how hard it is to sit out the playoffs. This is the year of the backup goaltender. So many teams are relying on them to win series. And then there's Mike Smith who is kind of backupish quality anyways. It is cool that the East has come down to Vasilevskiy vs Shesterkin though. Edmonton against Colorado is what I thought Edmonton vs Calgary would look like. Oilers finally thoroughly overmatched and McDavid on his own can't change that. It feels like the Oilers just to take as many penalties as the game is ending so they can wrack up the minutes and their coach can complain about "the discrepancy" after. Evander Kane got suspended a game for hitting Nazem Kadri from behind into boads, and ending his series (likely playoffs). Not that is is really related to the hit, but I can't stand Kane. I would be so embarrassed if it was my team that was so desperate for scoring that it was willing to revive that guy's career. I hope the Oilers lock him up for 7 years so he can immediately go back to his normal behaviour and the headache he has been for every team that's had him. It is getting harder to watch with the games starting no later than 5 my time and it being so nice out around that time. I wish they moved the season up so the playoffs wrapped up in May or something.

It's crazy how Carolina still hasn't won a road game in the playoffs. Though I guess they haven't lost at home either. It was weird listening to the Sportsnet panel debate the call after the period. It was like a philosophical discussion about what it means to kick something, and what it means for the motion to be distinct. That's the problem with the rule. Everyone seems to interpret it to mean it's not a distinct kicking motion if the player didn't mean to kick it, and now we're getting into what's inside Coleman's head. Only he knows whether he meant to kick it, and after the heat of the moment he probably doesn't even know. I didn't think they'd overturn the call on the ice. The evidence has to be overwhelming for that to happen, and the fact it took them a long time to review it means it probably wasn't. Some people said it was the universe evening out Calgary's karma from the 1989 Game 7 overtime against Vancouver, becuase Joel Otto's goal was definitely kicked in. We don't know how allowing the goal would've affected the time-space continuum, but I don't think the Flames can point to one call and say it's why they lost a series in 5. They just had too many things go wrong at the same time. No team is winning in the 2nd round with a goalie getting .852 goaltending. Apparently Tanev played with a torn labrum, separated shoulder, and a sprained neck. It's insane to play in that condition imo. Felt very desperate although the Flames did look more organized when he came back. It will be interesting to see how Calgary sorts out their cap crunch now. Their fans are delusional if they're re-signing Gaudreau for less than $10million per. It reminded me of the goal Cloutier let in from centre ice against Detroit in the 2002 playoffs. Of course the broadcast immediately showed that. Every time I see Dan Vladar's name spelled out I see Darth Vader.

Unfortunately, covid was in the room for this event of the leaders yelling at each other for 2 hours. Horwath and Schreiner both tested positive after (Ford didn't get tested). I'm sort of interested in ridings like Toronto-St. Paul's, Toronto city ridings that are safe Liberal seats federally and provincially and went for the ONDP last time because Wynne basically punted. Agree they are just playing for 2nd now. PCs look like they will probably get a majority.

Wow, that's a brutal ending for Calgary. That their 5-4 goal was overturned was very surprising. The "distinct kicking motion" rule is ultimately semantic and subjective, but with a play that close, I'm shocked they'd overturn the call on the ice.

A better one? But not good enough. They looked more organized with Tanev back, but he's nowhere close to 100%. Markstom maybe shouldn't give the puck to Nugent-Hopkins three feet away from the net in the first minute of the game. You can't really say Markstrom hasn't been a probelm for Calgary at this point. I'm not saying he won't rebound, but he doesn't look good. The goaltending guy on the Vancouver Sportsnet station says he looks to like he did when he first got to Vancouver. "Too stretchy," sprawling all over for pucks and opening up too many holes. Which he thinks is a symptom of Markstrom being tired and overplayed. Everyone said all year that Sutter was overplaying him. Gaudreau and Tkachuk need to do stuff too. Edmonton's best players are. It does suck seeing Kane have so much success. He didn't earn the situation he's fallen into, and the Oilers don't deserve to be rewarded for giving him a contract. But that's life sometimes. Hopefully Calgary wins tomorrow. It would kind of be a bummer if this only went five games. Goodbye to the Florida Panthers. I didn't think they'd get swept. They didn't even look interested in the series. Apparently a bunch of the team went to an adult entertainment establishment the night before Game 3. So there's that.

I thought the series was probably over when Calgary went up 3-1 in Game 2. Then the Oilers came back with four unanswered and the Flames just looked stunned. The Flames look like the better team 5-on-5, but they're making a lot of mistakes and leaving Markstrom out to dry. I don't think Game 2 was Markstrom's fault, but he wasn't good in Game 1. The 9-6 score certainly is bizarre for the second round of the playoffs. Is defense illegal in Alberta or something? Seeing Lucic hulk around the ice kind of makes me chuckle. He is so slow compared to the rest of the players on both teams. I'm honestly surprised any team has still been able to find a role for him in 2022. Sportsnet definitely loves McDavid. They also love showing us the Tkachuks in the stands every time Matthew touches the puck, to even it out. It was funny seeing him chirp Kane over his bankruptcy. I saw videos of Flames fans dropping $5 bills over the glass onto the Oilers bench for Evander. I'm really enjoying the Battle of Alberta. You can feel how much the rivalry between the teams and fans is heating up. I see so many car flags for both teams around Victoria. I feel like all the advertising they are doing for the betting is going to be cancelled out by the officiating. Why would anyone bet on the outcome or how many goals will be scored or who is going to score in a game where two goals have been called back only because the ref couldn't get in position? Gary can say the officiating is amazing like always, but performances like Chris Lee's on Friday actually has the potential to cost the league money now. Hockey is a terrible sport to bet money on -- way too random and bouncy. In the other series, Nazem Kadri took Binnington out of the game after a collision at the net and then Binnington threw a water bottle at Kadri while he was doing an interview after the game.

I'm not there, but from afar it seems to be broadly PCO: vote for us if you like the way the province is being run, also more highways. LPO: similar budgetary goals, here's a bunch of ticky tack rebates to differentiate us. ONDP: more spending and bolder policy proposals ($20 minimum wage), made by a party that knows it won't win and is fighting to hang onto 2nd.

It's kind of funny how every year, they say "nothing the Leafs do in the regular season matters -- they will be judged only on whether they can get out of the 1st round." And then they lose in the 1st round and say no changes because the regular season was so good. Their fans and media make it sound like there was nothing they could have done -- the Lightning are just too good and it was an unlucky draw. The Lightning were very beatable -- they spotted the Leafs the first game, Vasilevsky was human for much of the series, and the effort in Game 4 from the Leafs was a joke. Excited for the Battle of Alberta. My only prediction is that it will go 6 or 7 games. Calgary has the deeper roster, but McDavid is McDavid, and he looked absolutely possessed in the last two games of the LA series. Most people are giving the Flames a major edge in net, but if you by most models, Smith was actually better than Markstrom in round 1.