RWG

We have five Game 7s this weekend! I feel like most years we're lucky to have 2 or 3 in the first. Given that we've had crappy weather all May, I guess it's just as well I stay in and watch hockey all weekend. Well, not too much optimism, since there will be a Game 7. I only caught the 2nd half of Game 6, but it was Dallas's best game of the series, so maybe that's a bit concerning for the Flames. I did not think the Stars would be able to last this long with Calgary. Stars fans really love to stand up during play. I think Markstrom and Kiprusoff are pretty equal. Markstrom may be on a better Flames team now, but his stats from Vancouver all from playing behind teams that were never sound defensively. The main difference is I always find Kiprusoff seemed pretty cool whereas Markstrom can get emotional. The Canucks are usually one of the most injured teams in the league. People usually chalk it up to the fact they have to fly more miles than most of the other teams, but maybe the new management thinks it's something to do with trainers. Look at how often Tanev was injured over a decade in Vancouver, and then he goes to Calgary and suddenly never gets hurt. He oddly got injured in Game 6 today though. Giordano's house is actually pretty modest for an NHL player. Street parking, no driveway or garage, and just about a meter in the alley separating his house and his neighbour's. Is Gio down with new urbanism? Someone noticed Jim Benning had listed his condo in Olympic Village in Vancouver a few years ago, and noted it was the only time one of his acquisitions had appreciated in value from when he bought it. Louis Domingue is a fun story but truthfully I think it's going to be hard for Pittsburgh to win another game with him in net. Some of those goals he's letting in are bad. Crosby having a concussion doesn't help either. I wonder if we should be worried about how many concussions he's had now.

I don't really know what the NDP expects to get out of it politically. If anything like pharmacare or dentalcare that the Liberals have to capitulate on as part of the deal ends up being popular, the Liberals will just steal credit for it. I guess the NDP literally can't afford another election anyime soon. I do think it underscores the fact that the Conservatives may need to win a majority in order to form government, and should inform what kind of leader they choose. Not that I think it will. If Dougie wins another majority in Ontario, you'd think being a conservative who's twice won majority gov'ts in the country's largest province and the one with the battlegrounds the CPC needs would make him a pretty formidable candidate for leader. But the membership seems to prefer the cowboy MPs.

I was surprised how many people the Flames had watching their game outside the arena in Game 5. Probably wouldn't be my ideal way to watch a game, but that's a huge crowd for the first round. The Canucks games on Sportsnet used to have a post-game show. Now the horn sounds and within 10 seconds, the announcer says goodnight from Vancouver and they throw back to the Death Star in Toronto and go straight into the Leafs highlights. Leafs have to play Game 7 against Tampa. This shot from after Tampa scored in OT. Gary has talked about betting as an important revenue stream for the league, so I don't think the ads are going anywhere until the regulations catch up. They have the one Bet365 ad between whistles where the guy says he doesn't have a job and just bets on sports for a living. They are going to hook a lot of kids watching. There's also the Wayne Gretzky hologram where he is holding a phone with the Bet MGM app. I don't know if Wayne is a great spokesperson for this given that his assistant coaches and wife were subjects of a federal investigation into an illegal gambling ring. I like the otter a lot better than Markstrom's ears. Both those goalies have been very good in the series. I think the Flames are probably going to wrap up Dallas tomorrow, and Edmonton has forced a Game 7 for which they will be favored. A Battle of Alberta seems more likely now. I wonder who Sportsnet would have call it. Rick Ball has been doing the Calgary and Harnarayan Singh has been doing the Edmonton series and both have been massive homers for their respective teams. Bruce now says he wants to come back and thinks it should be "settled" soon once they talk about a couple more things. I don't know. It's an odd situation. Usually they just say the coach is back and that's it. Rutherford's made the point that he and Boudreau have been friends for 40 years, but you could fool me. I don't think I have to worry about Torts coming back. The names we've heard as hypothetical replacements for Boudreau are Rikard Grönborg, Mike Vellucci, and Paul Maurice. But now Barry Trotz is available too. Edit: Canucks announced Bruce is coming back. But they also fired more people from the training/athletic/medical staff. Some who had been there a really long time.

Game 3 was pretty good. Calgary finally looked closer to what they were in the regular season in Game 4. The series sort of reminds me of the 2007 Dallas-Vancouver series. Very low scoring, had a 4OT game and went to 7 games. What happened to Nashville is a good retort to "anything can happen if we just get in!" Edmonton is on the ropes suddenly now. They came back to tie the Game 5 4-4 to OT and the building looked electric. Then LA scored early in OT and deflated it. The Leafs also won their Game 5. I am praying Tampa comes back in that series because I won't be able to handle a second round of Sportsnet acting like the Leafs are our national team. The other weird thing about the Sportsnet broadcasts is the constant barrage of sports betting ads. Not just commercials, but spots worked into the game and broadcasts. I don't care if people bet but it feels completely over the top for family programming. Yeah, I don't know what Bettman is crowing about. I think people are getting tired of this racket of the richest people in society intimdating underfunded cities into building stadiums for them. Calgary feels like the first city to sort of put its foot down.

I'm not even sure Boudreau will be back. Jim Rutherford said they will have Boudreau back on the option year of his contract, but he also criticized the way the team plays and said they rely too much on goaltending and would need to work with Bruce on some things if he comes back. Tough crowd. I think the crux of it is that Boudreau is a laissez-faire coach and they want someone more detail-oriented and analytical. Rutherford is quite the presence, I'll give him that. He also talked about how the scouting department now has to have reports filed on time and such. And today they fired four scouts, including Benning's son. The Dallas/Calgary series is a great melatonin trigger. It goes great with my peppermint tea before bed. Just 3 goals in the 2 games? Even with 10 minutes left when Dallas was up 1-0 you could tell Calgary wasn't going to tie it. LA looks to have come undone so I think Edmonton will advance. The playoffs have been weird so far in most of the games have not been that close or exciting, but the series are kind of close. Only Colorado/Nashville seems decided right now. Gary Bettman went to Edmonton and Calgary and said Edmonton's Ice District and new arena area awesome but that Calgary's facilities suck and they're not hosting all-star games or drafts until they build a new one. If that won't motivate the mayor I don't know what will.

I'd heard under the previous Panthers owners, if you went to a restaurant in the area, there would just be a bunch of tickets in a basket on the host's stand at the front and you could just take a bunch. The new owner put an end to that. Their reported average this season is 14,000 (it's probably not that high), but that's also with one of the best offensive teams of the last 20 years. It's sort of funny how the top prosepcts in this year's draft who currently play junior are probably playing in larger rinks and in front of more people now than they will be in the NHL if they get drafted by the Coyotes. The Royals didn't make the WHL playoffs this year. Which means they're bad because 8/10 teams in the conference make it. They had a few decent stretches but also lost 18 in a row at one point and missed the playoffs by one point. It's the first year they've missed since they moved to Victoria in 2011. I hope you're right. It's going to be tough for them to be a much better team next season, but I think there's a chance they could be a strong team the year after. The new management group will have to make some tough decisions and be bold and creative to turn the team into a contender. The Canucks still have bad contracts, little cap space, and no prospects. Being the GM after Benning is like being a hotel maid in a room after Motorhead has checked out. Vegas was very unlucky with injuries, and there's probably the main reason they missed. But it does seem like there is an abnormal amount of drama and chaos there. They mucker with the culture too much and are always shipping out guys who played hard for them so they can get the shiniest new player who's available. Last year, Fleury's agent posted a picture of a sword that said "Deboer" going through his client's back, and now this year Deboer has a public feud with the other goalie. I can't ever remember a team that didn't even make the playoffs being this universally hated. Edmonton is going to play LA in the first round, and Calgary will play Nashville or Dallas. If Saros isn't 100%, I don't think Nashville will be tough to beat, and Dallas isn't a good team imo. They only won 30 games in regulation and have a negative goal differential. It looks like a decent chance we're going to get a Battle of Alberta in the 2nd round. Good luck to your Flames in the playoffs!

You have to laugh at how they are trying to make this work. They're admitting the team won't be competitive (probably a mashup of AHL players and aging veterans on their way out of the league, like the current roster) and moving it into a junior rink, and expect people to pay these prices? The owner says it's because all the seats are on top of the action, but I don't think it will matter if the product is bad. And it is. I guess I'll believe this when I see it. It would be one thing if there were shovels in the ground on the Coyotes' new rink, but the local city council hasn't even approved the project yet. And that can take time, and these projects usually have delays and overrun. They will likely be in this little rink for more than three seasons, and it's hard to believe they're even going to do it for that long. The Canucks' fate for this season is sealed and they will not be going to the postseason. I've gotten used to having no emotional investment in the playoffs with my team never in it, and it's great for my heart and mood. They did have a great second half with Boudreau but were just in too deep of a hole to get of. Elias Pettersson does finally look as dominant as he did in his rookie season. Apparently Robin Lehner is upset with the Golden Knights because he's playing injured to help keep their season alive, and he is criticized by the coach and pulled after one goal, so he is threatening to get season-ending surgery. I wonder how much longer free-agents continue wanting to flock to Vegas. It is satisfying to finally see that organization squirm. It looks like they're going to miss the playoffs.

I only saw the second half of that Canucks/Flames game. The puck just kept going in Calgary's net. It's not often a goalie is important in a 7-1 game, but that game was closer than Demko made it look like. The black skate jerseys sure are cool. There's always rumors they'll dump the whale and go back to those full-time, but I kind of like how they're kept as a treat we only get to see once or twice a year. It's quite a run Calgary is on right now. A rocket to the top with 13 wins in 15 games. I watched them go to overtime with the Avalanche tonight and it was a very good game. Would be fun to see that as a playoff series. Maybe Treliving shoud hire Benning to be an assistant GM. Toffoli seemed like a natural move, since he knew the Vancouver guys as well as Sutter. It still amazes me how healthy Tanev has been for Calgary. He got injured all the time with us, and is only older now. I guess he's playing with the puck and not blocking so many shots in Calgary. Bettman is so stubborn with Arizona. You'd think he could point to Vegas/Nashville/Seattle/Columbus as successful expansion projects and take this one L, but he can't. The Canucks beat the Leafs 6-4 tonight. Their first win in Toronto since 2011, amazingly. After leveling off from the 8-0-1 start under Boudreau, they've come back with another run of 8 wins in 11 games. They have their next seven at home now. The math is still against them, but they aren't folding easily. The new management likely wants to sell off some pieces, and it's got to be getting harder to sell that to the owner and fans. It's sad to see the position Russian NHL players have been put in by this mess in Europe. I don't really feel bad for Ovechkin though. He made his bed with Mr. Putin.

lol. Try parking a bunch of trucks and partying and hottubbing in Tiananmen Square for 3 weeks and see how far that comparison gets you. I don't support the government's use of the Emegencies Act on its own dissidents, or the general use of anti-terrorism measures on these people. It's an awful precedent. Just arrest people breaking the law. It's not that complicated.

I'm probably never going to vote Liberal, and it wouldn't matter in my riding, but as hypothetical prime ministers, I guess Anand seems like the most competent of the ones mentioned. I really don't like Chrystia Freeland. Freeland vs PP would be our Hillary/Trump.

lol @ this thread The Liberals simply have a very efficient vote. Warts and all, Trudeau is still able to get a plurality of votes in Ontario and Quebec, which makes the Liberals hard to beat in terms of national seat count. If I were a Liberal party partisan, I'd probably think twice about getting rid of him. If he doesn't run in the next election and is replaced by someone like Freeland, Carney, or Anand, that's probably at least 10 seats in Quebec automatically gone.

Another image problem I think Poilievre will have -- like Scheer -- he's never had a career outside of politics. He graduated with a BA and was an MP by 25. He's a conservative in favor of limited government, in the current client, whose campaign announcement is specifically about reclaiming your life from the government, and he's never wanted to do anything but be in the government. It doesn't work. Not that I think members or voters will necessarily parse that, but there are reasons these type of guys who deliberately go for the Trump moment fail at it. One thing I do think PP has going for him is that he's very vocal on the housing crisis. The Liberals are kidding themselves if they think an entire generation being locked out of home ownership from large pockets of the country isn't going to come back to kill them at some point.

I would probably give Leslyn Lewis better odds at replacing O'Toole than Polievre. She may not be that many peoples top pick, but she's up there, and as *Chris says, the way the cookie crumbles through the rounds of voting often doesn't result in the person with the initial plurality of votes winning. Her strategy of registering members through faith groups can be effective, like it was for Singh (then relatively unknown and inexperienced) in the NDP leadership race. Polievre is like the Ted Cruz of Canada. He's just so wormy and unlikable that to most people he kills whatever message is coming out of his mouth. I feel bad for the people who live in Ottawa. Now 5-6 days of constant honking, kids/pets scared, pestering people on the street, businesses closed, shifts cancelled, wages lost. I'm not against anyone's right to protest, but driving around a city honking constantly is such a childing way of trying to get your way. I say the same thing about the environmental protestors who block the highways in my region -- using the general public as your fodder is not going to win you any support.

The Canucks hired people. Patrik Allvin is the new general manager. He's the first Swedish GM in NHL history. He worked with Rutherford in Pittsburgh. We have had a lot of people from Pittsburgh come over, but it's at least a successful franchise. I'd rather hire a bunch of people from there than from, like, Edmonton. They also hired Émilie Castonguay to be an assistant general manager. She'd worked as a player agent in one of the Quebec agencies. She was really impressive in her introductory conference. She doesn't seem much interested in the fact she's the first woman assistant GM since the 90s. They also hired Rachel Doerrie as an analyst. None of the front-office hirings have floored me, but I really like the sum of the parts. It's a group with a diversity of backgrounds, and they all seem smart and decent. Impressed with Rutherford so far. It is SUCH a breath of fresh air after that 8 year nightmare with the last group. The team is still playing decently, but the hole they're trying to climb out of is just too great to make the playoffs. They will be sellers, and I'll bet the trades start soon. The new plan for the Arizona Coyotes is for them to play in an arena at Arizona State University that holds 5,000 people. Friedman said after they do the necessary upgrades to make it up to code for the NHL, the capacity will be closer to 3,200. Most junior teams play in front of more people than that. And this is to happen for four years -- assuming the Coyotes' Tempe project gets approved, which it might not. Bettman is barking mad with this. It will be an embarrassment for the league. Sounds like the owners already don't like it. It won't shock me if the Board of Governors tells Bettman he can't do this. I was watching the Canucks/Flames games on Saturday and wondering how there were so many Vancouver fans there with seats only available for season-ticket holders. Someone posted a picture of Tina sitting behind Darryl Sutter in the early 2000s, contrasted with a recent one of them from this year. It was eerie. Darryl definitely aged worse than her. I saw they asked Kane to comment on how all the Sharks players wanted him off the team, and he just said that these rumors got out speaks to how bad the Sharks leadership is. The common thread with Evander is that for all the trouble he gets in, nothing is ever his fault. He seems like a complete narcissist. Hope the Oilers enjoy. So lame the fans did that on Henrik's night.

I'm sure that's possible. There are probably more people getting it who don't know it with this strain. Though it sounds like he lives with others and presumably would have given to them if he'd had it earlier but not known it. I got the booster the other day. Compared to the first doses, the reaction was pretty bad. Headache, muscle aches, chills, fatigue. They're all listed as expected side effects, so I'm sure I'll bounce back in a day or two. I'm not worried about dying from the virus or the vaccine, but the virus seems more likely to give you long-lasting symptoms, so that was my decision. I don't have many. At this point, if you don't want to get vaccinated, go with God, I don't care. It's a minority of truckers, and the people yelling at the traffic are the same ones who've been as loud as possible since day 1 of this. I've just learned to not care.

I don't think the Covid approaches in Canada and the US are that different at this point. Provinces are adopting "live with it" verbiage and generally acknowledge that restrictions are very harmful and need to minimized. We have fewer hospital beds per capita than the US and a public system, so even though the government would like to motor through and just accept more deaths like the US is, it is still forced to bring in some restrictions to prevent the system from completely collpasing. (Even so, very serious procedures/surgeries for non-Covid patients have been postponed for months.) There are people here who are furious about the most recent round of restrictions (including liberal types and normies who'd been cautious throughout the rest of the pandemic). And there are people who are furious that schools re-opened after Christmas at all and that the government is telling them to learn to live with the virus. People on both sides are mad. The US situation is stranger to me. From what I can gather, it looks like everything is open and there are no restrictions anywhere, and it seems like the majority of people agree you just have to mitigate your own risk and live your life. Yet people are still very heated about it. I think "living with it" is not what many anticipated. It's still there and you have to hear about it constantly. A good chunk of the population is at least one of elderly, immunocompromised, or obese. Co-existing with the virus could mean high death rates, lower life expectancies, stagnated population growth, etc. for a while. It's not really back to normal. That's lucky you didn't test positive. I've heard other stories about people baffled they didn't get it despite everyone else at their house/work testing positive after they'd spent hours around them. The current vaccines aren't very effective at blocking infection from Omicron, but I also don't think the efficacy is 0.

There is obviously ego/emotion involved. The Flames owners let their GM give Troy Brouwer $18 million to play hockey for them for four years (contract was bought out after 2). But $9 million for a LEED certification? No. For her part, the new mayor probably doesn't want to be seen as a pushover, contrasted with her predecessor. I wonder if they'd just pay the $9 million if not for the financial damage covid has done. It's interesting that the deal died right as NHL capacity limits came back unexpectedly. So basically, TSN has to give away its Super Bowl ad space for free. It probably hurts more that their Grey Cup ratings were noticeably down this year too, and the CFL didn't even play in 2020. I suppose no one likes being in a bubble, but I'm sure the players would have taken it over no tournament at all. Bob McKenzie said the IIHF's excuse is the same as every government/institution: this variant came out of nowhere and they couldn't react in time. A bubble needs to be planned months in advance. And the 1 test = forfeit rule is because the players are unpaid teenages, so, according to McKenzie, the IIHF has to take the health and safety more seriously than the NHL does. Let's be honest, the NHL doesn't care at all if the players get it. I was going to post that about the Russians lol. I've heard the Russian program is very severe in terms of discipline, but apparently the Russian coach himself was vaping on the plane. So I guess they're easier going with air travel. The Russian team was actually kicked off a flight in 2011 too, but that was after they'd won the gold in overtime. This was after a tournament that got cancelled. Poor Czechs. I was wondering why "Red Deer wedding" was trending on Twitter and then I found out it was the World Junior teams complaining about it. I am also curious to know what kind of couple gets married at the Red Deer Marriott in the middle of winter. Canucks don't play this week cause their only game got moved because the provvince will only let them have 50% fans right now. I mean, if you can't sell out the game, why even play it??

The Canucks returned from the break with a 2-0-1 road trip... wins in Anaheim and Seattle, shootout loss in LA. It's not like under Green where they'd win some close games if Demko stood on his head. They are actually generating more offense than the teams they should be beating. Under Travis Green, the Canucks won 8 times in 26 games. Boudreau's won 8 times in 9 games. Under Green, it felt like they were always playing to cover up their weaknesses. Under Boudreau, it feels like they are playing to their strengths. The latest reason the fans love Bruce Boudreau is his Christmas mask he wore to the Anaheim game. It says "Merry Christmas!" on it. He said it was just the only one his wife gave him for the road trip. Even if he wasn't trying to be festive on purpose, he is still a jolly old fat man who brought joy to BC this December. The Kraken really are not good and will probably be sellers at the deadline. It's odd they'd make Giordano the captain when he was on an expiring contract, and is now a pretty obvious piece to move for assets. The mayor does not seem worried. I don't get why the Flames owners won't take the deal and run. Except for the Oilers, all the other Canadian teams' arenas were built with private money. Edit: Naturally, right after I posted that, they announce the deal is really dead, and the arena is for sure not happening. So there's that. The IIHF president responded pretty poorly to the criticism over the women's tournaments with a weird rant they put out as a press release. There, no hockey for anyone, happy? Of course, they already started about trying the World Juniors again in the summer. I wonder if that's because the lost ad revenue from all the cancelled games is goinig to cost TSN a boatload of money. They had a strict rule where one positive test = forfeit, but they also had the teams out mixing with the public. The hotel the teams were staying at in Red Deer had a big wedding reception the players had to go through the leave the tounrnament. So it's no wonder this didn't work. A huge disaster by the IIHF.

Ugh. This again? The amount of money they're haggling over is equivalent to the revenue from a handful of Flames home games. Imo this is just billionaire owners trying to shake any last pennies out of the piggy bank. I bet in a few weeks they'll be like "nvm the arena is back on." The schedule is going to be a royal mess. They've added taxi squads now, but I'm not optimistic January will be much better than December in terms of testing and postponements. If the cancellations continue much longer, imo they are either going to need to play into the summer and push next season back, or admit they're not going to get all 82 games in... neither of which Bettman wants to do. Sutter's style is similar to Travis Green's. "I thought he was good tonight. The team played well in parts... No... Likely, yes... No, I haven't talked to the doctor yet." Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hopefully 2022 is less crappy for hockey. And everything I guess.

This clocks with what we're seeing in the pro sports leagues. Because they're tested regularly, many are testing positive with mild symptoms many normal people wouldn't bother getting tested over. No... in BC it has to be six months after your second dose.

^ Yeah, after xmas will be bad, at least for cases. We have to hope the theories about it being milder for most people bear out. I doubt we'll be back in lockdown, cause they're not sending out more cheques. But you never know I guess.

Boudreau-manic continues in Vancouver. The Canucks have won six in a row! Boeser has scored 5 goals in 6 games with Boudreau. He scored 4 in 22 games with Travis Green. It's come out that Boeser and Green didn't have a good relationship. The Canucks hired Derek Clancey, a pro scout with Calgary, to be their assistant general manager. The Flames gave him permisssion to leave. Finally someone leaving the Flames for the Canucks. You have Tanev and Markstrom? Well we have Derek Clancey. The NHL is really in the soup with Covid. We all are I guess. But I don't know how the NHL proceeds from here. Every time you check, there are more teams having outbreaks and more teams testing positive. They can't keep going with the players and coaches dropping like flies like this. They could take a break, get everyone negative, and restart, but the Covid situation in North America will be worse in two weeks. The only other option is to let players who knowingly have it and aren't super ill play, but that is sort of irresponsible given there risks. There are a handful of players who had severe cases. Brandon Sutter still hasn't played this year because of long haul symptoms. Just last week, Bettman was saying it looks like the players are going to be able to repay the escrow faster than thought. Now we're back to empty or half-empty arenas in Canada. It's tough when an outbreak takes down the whole team like Calgary's has. When the Canucks had theirs, the league wasn't accomodating at all after and made them play an insane amount of back-to-backs to get all their games in. Boudreau is like the opposite of Sutter. They ask him a question and he just talks and talks and talks. I guess that's why they call him Gabby. I bet part of the reason Gary keeps going is he knows the next commissioner will probably just pull the plug on his baby, the Coyotes. He has to believe Glendale is bluffing about kicking them out after this season, but if they're not, I think they'll be out of options and have to move.

Well. The Canucks have started 4-0 under Boudreau. He's the first Canucks coach ever to win his first four games. They don't look like they're playing that much better than under Travis. Thatcher Demko is playing very well, and they're getting more bounces. So now they keep winning by one instead of losing by one. The team obviously seems to have much higher morale under Bruce. They beat LA, Boston, Winnipeg, and Carolina this week. The fans chant "Bruce there is" during the game and Boudreau hates it. He says "I wish the fans would stop singin' that stupid song." He said people were doing it in a restaurant when he went out to eat one night and he shushed them. I'm not getting excited yet. They were in such a big hole for the playoffs. Even with the Oilers losing five straight and the Flames winless in four, the Canucks are still very far back. Oh yeah. They hired Jim Rutherford as the president of hockey operations and interim GM. He's going to hire a GM. Rutherford is not the most exciting hire, but I think it's a good one that will bring a level of competency back to the organization. They also changed the goal song to "Don't You Forget About Me" from Breakfast Club and it's probably their best goal song ever. I feel like Bruce could have done a line brawl with Calgary a decade ago. He seems a lot more mellow now compared to his Washington and Anaheim iterations. Mind you, we haven't lost with him yet. Wait until the first three-game losing streak and maybe we'll get to see him mad. The Coyotes aren't paying their bills or their taxes now. They paid $1.5 million in taxes this week after the City of Glendale said they had missed 14 straight scheduled payments dating back to 2020. The Coyotes said it was a human error, which Glendale said was preposterous. Gary Bettman said there's nothing to worry about here, that Glendale has an "agenda" against the Coyotes (by asking for the taxes it is owed), and that the organization is very healthy. Ok. It also sounds like the owners gave Bettman an extension to stay on as commissioner for even longer. I'm sure fans will be very relieved to know this. He's almost 70. In 2050, Bettman's head in a jar will announce the next Chinese city to get a team. Olympic participation for NHL teams looks like it's in doubt. Unless the protocol changes, any players who tests positive for the virus would have to be quarantined for 3-5 weeks. After what went on with the Huawei CFO and the Michaels, I am pretty sure McDavid would be kidnapped and we'd never see him again.

It finally happened. After 8 seasons, the Jim Benning era is over. The end of the line was Saturday night against Pittsburgh, a 4-1 loss that ended with jerseys on the ice and "Fire Benning" chants in the stands (and "Sell the team" in the concourse after). Supposedly people saw Benning moving boxes to his car the next morning. Travis Green, John Weisbrod, and Nolan Baumgartner were also fired. Sad to see good men fired, but these were all deserved and long overdue. Especially Benning's. The team has been so horribly managed for so long. I feel bad for the way the organization treated Green, but he had to go too. As bad as the roster construction had been, they were still underachieving by an unacceptable margin, and it was obvious the players had quit on him. He will get another head coaching job soon. I'll be surprised if Jim Benning is an NHL GM again. He looked exhausted and defeated by the end. I bet he'd rather just be a scout. There were actually some rumors he was close to quitting about a year ago. Stan Smyl will be the interim GM until new management is hired. He has worked for the Canucks for decades and there's really no one else with experience in the big chair. I thought they'd just pick an interim coach, but instead they hired Bruce Boudreau! Everyone likes Bruce Boudreau. He was bored working for the NHL network and says he jumped at the opportunity to coach in a Canadian city, even though the team's not in a great spot and there's not even a real GM yet. It's refreshing how honest and upbeat he is. They played their first game under him tonight with a tidy 4-0 win over LA at home. The Calgary one looked more dystopian because it was in the middle of a big downtown. But it was also summer, so it drained faster than this one. If you put into Wayz or another driving app how to get from one part of Abbotsford to another, it took you on a 16-hour trip through the Okanagan, southern BC, Washington State, and then Greater Vancouver. I sure hope Benning doesn't come back to coach. I don't even want him to come back if it's to sell beer in the aisles. Brady Tkachuk did have a great post-game takedown of Lemieux where he used the fantastic G-rated insult "brick head." It seems like an accurate descriptor based on some of the things you hear about Lemieux.

If these early and tentative observations hold true, we may as well hope that it's more infectious than Delta and outcompetes it. A mutation that is highly infectious but not virulent (like a normal flu strain) has always been posited as an offramp from the pandemic.