How long before Canucks are champs?
MONDAY MUSINGS: Whitecaps need a star-level player to excite the Vancouver market Ed Willes
Following an eventful sports weekend, here are the largely uneventful Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:
Didn’t think I’d live long enough to see the Red Sox win a World Series, Cleveland win an NBA championship, the Cubs back in the World Series and a vice-presidential candidate, thank-you Tim Kaine, name The Replacements as one of his favourite bands.
That leaves the Canucks, who are rapidly closing in on half-a-century without a championship.
True, there are other teams ahead of them in the drought queue: the NFL’s Browns and Lions, the Maple Leafs and, my personal favourite, the Sacramento Kings, a franchise that’s been located in five different cities and hasn’t won a title since 1951.
But when it’s your town, it’s personal. When it’s your town, the joke isn’t quite as funny.
Right now, everyone loves the Cubs and that’s how it should be. But is it too much to ask when it will be the Canucks’ turn?
You can tell David Braley is back on his game because, during a 10-minute phone conversation, he didn’t reveal one detail about the future of the B.C. Lions. He did say the team’s sale would be revisited in the off-season. He added there are interested parties. That part of the story hasn’t really changed.
Still, after a case of blood poisoning threatened his life six months ago, Braley is on the mend and is talking about attending either the Lions’ final home game of the season against Saskatchewan in two weeks or, preferably, the West Division semifinal at B.C. Place.
If this is his final year as owner, that would be a fitting sendoff for a man who cares passionately about this team and this league.
From the broken-record department, there were 22 penalties in the Lions’ win over Edmonton on Saturday and afterwards both Jason Maas, the Eskimos’ head coach, and Leos coach Wally Buono registered disbelief over some of the calls.
This has been going on as long as anyone can remember, but this season it feels like CFL fans are finally fed up with the level of officiating. The CFL charges big-league prices for its tickets then puts on that amateurish display. If they want to be taken seriously as a league, they’ll take this issue seriously.
The cynic in you wants to ask where all those goals were for the Whitecaps when it mattered, but it’s a moot point now.
The Caps, it seems, will always have a devoted band of followers, but, to grow their fan base, they have to remake the team from the top down and their biggest need, unfortunately, is the most difficult to fill.
They have to bring in a star-level player who can drive the offence and excite this market. Clearly, that player isn’t Pedro Morales and the Whitecaps haven’t had that guy since Camillo blew town three years ago.
As the Canucks know, it’s one thing to be a losing team.
It’s another to be a boring, losing team. Time for the Caps to change the channel.
Ryan Phillips played his 200th game as a Lion on Saturday, which is an extraordinary achievement for an import defensive back. Phillips’ level of play speaks for itself over his 11 seasons with the Leos.
But he’s also been the consummate pro; a class act on and off the field and that was exemplified on Saturday when he was asked about his big day and referenced a couple of men who’d helped him along the way
“I’ve played with some great guys and made some great friends,” Phillips said. “I mean, it was great timing for me to have something like this with Mike Benevides (the former Lions defensive coordinator and head coach who’s now Edmonton’s defensive coordinator) and (former teammate) Barron Miles here. I told them before the game, there are as much a part of this as I am.
“Honestly, man, this journey I’ve had has been beyond remarkable.” Nice.
And finally, as the entire world noted, it’s the ultimate irony that an outdoor game in Winnipeg was delayed because the weather was too nice, but, for anyone invested in the Jets, the Heritage Classic outdoor thingy was special.
Indulge me for a moment because I happen to be one of those people.
The Jets’ history, of course, doesn’t play to a huge audience outside the 204, but for hockey fans in Manitoba, the weekend offered a chance to celebrate all those great, and goofy moments, which are unique to the Jets: Teemu’s rookie season, the 1990 playoff series with Edmonton, the Hawerchuk-led teams of the ‘80s.
Sportsnet even dug into the archives and told the amazing story of how close the Jets came to landing Wayne Gretzky in the final year of the WHA. Someone should write a book about that.
But the most amazing story connected to the Jets is the mere fact that they still exist.
When they left for Phoenix in ‘96 and left a hole in the city’s heart, it was impossible to conceive of a set of circumstances that would bring the Jets back to Winnipeg.
But it happened because a) owner Mark Chipman and his group put in the work to lay the foundation and b) the Jets could always rely on the irrational passion of their fan base.
On Friday, over 6,000 of those fans took in the old-timers’ practice. On Saturday, there were over 31,000 for the old-timers’ game.
On Sunday, another huge crowd cheerfully endured a two-hour delay waiting for the real game to start.
This weekend was for those fans and their team. It’s OK if you don’t get it. They certainly did.