Notable Quotable of the Day

“It’s timing, where you come in and shoot, you jam yourself a little bit. And when you’re trying to make a pass it goes over a stick. It felt exactly like where you are at the start of a season, where you’re trying to get it back, but the only way to get it back is to play games.”

- Mats Sundin on how it felt to make his long awaited return to the ice in his debut with the Vancouver Canucks. In his first game in 9 months, Sundin had 15 minutes of ice time over 24 shifts, no goals, no assists, no shots on net, one hit and 9-for-18 on faceoffs.

Sundin Signs With Vancouver!

The Sundin Watch has finally come to an end as Mats Sundin has officially signed with the Vancouver Canucks. After six long months, I never thought this day would come. Somebody get me a box of kleenex, I'm going to get emotional.

The Canucks offered Sundin a two year, $20 million deal in the summer but it's still unclear if that is the deal he has agreed to or if it has changed at all. Though according to the Canucks' official website, no terms of the deal will be released as per club policy. A mystery eh? Get me Columbo on the phone!

"I am truly excited to be joining the Canucks,” said Sundin. “Once I made the decision to return to play a few weeks ago, the Vancouver opportunity was simply the best overall fit. I want to thank Mike Gillis and the entire Canucks organization for their professionalism throughout this entire process."

Of course those with the Canucks are happy to have landed The Big Swede after a six month battle with many other clubs.

“We are very excited to have Mats join the Vancouver Canucks,” said Mike Gillis, Vancouver Canucks General Manager. “Playing previously in two Canadian markets and consistently being among team and League leaders in scoring, Mats has proven that he can excel under pressure. He adds a wealth of experience, leadership and skill to the Canucks.”

Mats is excited, Mike Gillis is excited, and I'm excited. Not as much as those guys though. I'm not being paid millions of dollars or signing somebody who may help me win a Stanley Cup. I'm just happy to not have to write about this again. Now if only I could figure out a way to get somebody to pay me millions of dollars to not write about it and to give me the Stanley Cup, then maybe I'd be just as excited as those guys are. Or if somebody just got me a bag of Oreo's, that would do the trick too.

[Source]

False Alarm

So remember that whole report that was circulating where Mike Gillis, GM of the Vancouver Canucks, said that Mats Sundin would for sure make a decision on Thursday. Apparently that's not the case.

Rogers Sportsnet is reporting that Sundin's agent J.P. Barry says that he's very confident that Mats will make a decision on Friday.

TSN however says that Sundin plans to stick to his original schedule of making a decision by Christmas and no exact date has been set.

For the love of God just make up your mind already Mats. I honestly don't know how much longer I can take of this will he or won't he sign today business. I think they might need to invent some new form of psychiatry for bloggers who are frustrated with indecisive bald Swedish men. You know somewhere in Sweden there's a lady who writes a blog with an indecisive bald husband who is nodding her head in agreement with me even though it's for two very different reasons. Because let me clarify, I am of course not married to a bald Swedish man.

Story Update [6:08pm EST]: Never mind. He signed with Vancouver. Thank you Baby Jesus!

Thursday Is The Big Day

For months now, Mats Sundin has been taking his sweet time deciding on if and where to play for the 2008-09 season. People have speculated and rumouralated (not a word?) on where the big Swede would end up. By now, most of the 30 teams have been linked to Sundin.

Here's the good news. According to Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis, who recently met with Sundin's agent J.P. Barry, Mats is expected to decide if he will sign with the 'Nucks or the Rangers on Thursday.

"He's going to make a decision Thursday about the final destination," Gillis told reporters. "We re-iterated our position in all of this and formalized our offer moving forward. We feel good about our team and where we sit and what we have to offer. We will see how it plays out."

Back in the summer the Canucks made an astronomical two year, $20 million offer, though at this point in the season the deal would be prorated to be around $5 million. Last year Sundin made $5.5 million with the Leafs. That's right, he'll get paid pretty much the same amount to play for a few months as he did for all of last year. Maybe Mats is smarter than I thought.

It's unclear what the Rangers have offered Sundin but they would need to make some deals to clear up cap space to add him to their roster as they have only about $1 million available under the cap.

Even though math isn't on the Blueshirts' side, that hasn't stopped notorious radio show host/blowhard Bob McCowan from claiming that he spoke to an angel in his sleep and was told that Mats would for sure, 100%, undoubtedly sign to play in NYC.

Either way I'm glad this will be all over on Thursday. This has been going on for six months now! There have been two elections (Canadian and American) in that time. Voters were able to make up their minds on who to lead their country quicker than Sundin has been able to decide on what city to get paid millions of dollars in. That's how prolongued and ridiculous this thing has been.


[Source]

Notable Quotable of the Day

"He was outspoken, he was opinionated and he was a good leader. If you had 16 Trevor Linden’s on a team, you’d win most nights.”

- Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bob McCammon on Trevor Linden, who will have his number 16 raised to the rafters Wednesday night in Vancouver.

Fin Gets Around

It looks like somebody forgot to feed Vancouver Canucks mascot Fin, as during Tuesday night's game he got hungry and tried to devour actress Anne Heche.

Sources say a crisis was diverted when Fin's handlers got his attention with some fish.

This isn't the first incident Fin has had with a famous actress. Around this time last year, he was spotted canoodling with Pam Anderson.

At least this time around Fin didn't contract an std.

Canucks' New (Kind Of) Clothes

Even though the season is underway, yet another team is coming out with their third sweater. And it's the Vancouver Canucks who are the latest team to show up late to the party.

That picture above is the rumoured sweater which looks just like the third sweaters that the Canucks wore before the NHL and RBK introduced the Edge jerseys last season.

So it's a sweater we've seen before, and is being introduced well after most teams have revealed their third sweaters. It's like those God awful Scary Movie, Epic Movie, and Disaster Movies. It's been done before and nobody is terribly excited about it. Except perhaps the accountants who work for the Canucks who will be happy to see all the dough that poor saps pay for this copy cat creation.

Morning After Meltdown: Vancouver Canucks

It was not a good game for the Vancouver Canucks in their 5-1 loss against the Washington Capitals on Monday.

The night started out on a good note with the Canucks scoring on their first shot, but after that everything went downhill fast.

The Caps scored five unanswered goals and we're able to hold Vancouver to only 10 shots all game long. Two in the first period, one in the second, and seven shots in the third.

The frustration especially got to Canucks player Willie Mitchell who threw his stick at Caps forward Michael Nylander who then scored on the resulting penalty shot.

Even in net the Canucks were shaky, as the usual rock solid Roberto Luongo was pulled after 40 minutes and back-up Curtis Sanford played the third.

So congratulations Vancouver Canucks! Out of everyone in the entire NHL, you stunk the most last night to win the Morning After Meltdown.

Sanford's New Mask Designed By Fan

Vancouver Canucks back up goalie Curtis Sanford is sporting a new mask this year.

Normally a mask change for a back up goalie wouldn't be much of a story but this time it is because Sanford's new mask was designed by a fan as part of a contest the Canucks held this summer.

The designer of the winning mask gets an autographed Sanford Jersey, a meet and greet with Curtis himself, and of course, the adulation of Canucks fans and mask and uniform obsessed bloggers like me! Congratulations!

If I were at all talented at art instead of being a gifted writer and ridiculously good looking, I would have designed a mask which would feature a classic scene from the Sanford and Son with Red Foxx as Sanford calling his son a dummy. I really shouldn't have brought up that show. Now I'm going to have the theme song stuck in my head forever. It's so damn catchy.