The Canucks are a gift you can’t open until 2020
At some point, Vancouver’s pain will need to provide some payoff in on-ice product
With Christmas just a week away, we offer both the joyful and triumphant musings and meditations on the world of sports.
I have this dream.
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In March 2020, Brock Boeser scores his 41st and 42nd goals of the season in a 5-2 Canucks win over Edmonton, which keeps his team in first place in the Pacific Division.
Bo Horvat will notch his 75th point of the season in that game. Elias Pettersson will add a goal and assist and Jake Virtanen will pick up his 24th goal.
In goal, Calder Trophy candidate Thatcher Demko records his 25th win of the season and lauds the work of his blue-line which includes Olli Juolevi, Troy Stecher and second-year sensation Rasmus Dahlin.
I want to believe this is possible, mostly because I want to believe there will be some payoff for this season and the two that preceded it. I mean, this can’t go on forever, can it?
Canucks fans will be relieved
■ that Boeser’s injury isn’t serious, but whatever happens next, the faithful shouldn’t lose sight of a couple of things.
Boeser is an elite goal-scorer. That much is self-evident. But the most impressive thing about him isn’t the shot or the release or the instincts around the net. It’s the total package highlighted by his off-the-charts hockey IQ. He reads the game the way a scanner reads a bar code. He’s a step ahead of the play in all three zones and while he might not be the fastest player, he’s strong on his skates and he has that one stride that buys him time and space.
In short, Boeser plays the game the right way and when you get that from your top offensive player it sets an example for the organization. In time, he’ll prove a worthy successor to the Sedins and he’ll be as good as ever when he returns from this injury because this is a quality kid.
We’ve only seen him for 40 games in the NHL, but we’ve seen that.
Speaking of things that can’t
■ get any worse, the 12s already needed weeks of counselling to erase the memory of Sunday’s 42-7 loss to the L.A. Rams. But they now have a Twitter thing between stars Earl Thomas and Bobby Wagner to process.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s humiliating loss for the Seahawks, Thomas opined that Wagner, who was severely hampered by a hamstring injury, shouldn’t have played. The Rams ran for 244 yards as a team in the slaughter and Todd Gurley accumulated 152 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns in three quarters of work.
Wagner, the Seahawks’ all-pro linebacker, was barely visible before he took himself out of the game in the second half.
Afterward, your agent was there for the end of Thomas’ scrum when the safety applauded Wagner for gutting it out on Sunday. But, at some point, Thomas also said: “The backups could have done just as good,” and that didn’t sit well with Wagner.
“E keep my name out yo mouth,” Wagner responded in a tweet. “Stop being jealous of other people success. I still hope you keep balling bro.”
Yes, a finely worded riposte. What, precisely, Thomas is jealous of is a matter of some interpretation and this isn’t the first time members of the Seahawks have made intemperate public remarks.
But it’s the first time following a 42-7 loss that imperilled the team’s playoff chances. In the good times, the antics made the Seahawks appear colourful. But now the core is aging, the lineup has been decimated by injuries and the whole thing seems to be held together with paper clips and duct tape.
The Seahawks will dismiss this latest eruption as one of those things and head coach Pete Carroll addressed it during his radio show Monday. But this is a bad look for a team that seems to be unravelling.
Can’t explain this other than
■ my enduring infatuation for underdogs, but I suddenly find myself invested in the Buffalo Bills, who haven’t made the playoffs since 1999 and have recorded two winning seasons in the last 18 years. As you must know, 1999 was also the year of the Music City Miracle in Nashville — or as Bills fans remember it, “The Rob F-Troopin Johnson Game.”
Still, they’re holding down a wild-card spot now and all they need is wins at New England and Miami in their last two games. Really, how hard can that be? And finally, don’t know when
■ the B.C. Lions become Edmonton’s West Coast division, but at least there is now structure and direction in the Leos’ front office.
On Monday, the Lions announced former Eskimos president Rick LeLacheur has been named the team’s president.
The good news? LeLacheur presided over a relatively stable and successful 10 years with the Esks from 2002 to 2011. He’s personable, outgoing and enjoys a close relationship with new Lions GM Ed Hervey, who held the same position with the Eskimos. And when you come right down to it, it’s hard to find executives with CFL experience who can walk into the president’s office.
As for the more realistic news, LeLacheur’s hiring seems to signal owner David Braley isn’t going to divest himself of the Lions any time soon.
That’s fine. It’s not like Braley has been very visible in Vancouver the last couple of years and if LeLacheur can build relationships with the business and football communities in this province, no one will care who signs the cheques.
But this isn’t going to work if Braley doesn’t invest in the franchise and continues to operate the Lions on a shoestring budget. There’s a new man in town, but if he sticks with the same tired game plan, nothing much will change for the Lions.