Wait a minute, Benning did what?
MUSINGS: These latest, hard to understand moves are not exactly inspiring confidence in the Canucks
With the Women’s World Cup now over, it’s sad to see our good friends at FIFA leaving. Just one word of advice: Don’t let the door hit your rear on the way out of town.
With that, here are the musings and meditations on the world of sports.
We understand we set impressive new standards for back flipping last week — give Jim Benning a chance; he did what? GAWWWKKKK — but there was something about the cumulative effect of the Canucks’ moves that didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
There’s no need to recap them here. But, one after the other, it seems the team was either trading assets for 70 cents on the dollar or firing capable and devoted Canucks. It could be Benning is right in all his judgments. It could be this is the start of a newly imagined organization. But sitting here in July 2015, it’s hard to see where this is the start of anything except more disappointment.
Two things stand out after all the dust has settled. The four most influential positions in the hockey department now belong to Trevor Linden, Benning, John Weisbrod and T.C. Carling.
Of those four, Linden has held his position the longest.
There’s also something troubling about the construction of that front office. Loyalty is one thing but you wonder who’s going to stand up and say, “This is a bad idea. Let’s think about this.”
Carling was Linden’s first hire. Benning is Linden’s guy. Benning hired Weisbrod and the belief in Canucks circles is that Laurence Gilman and Lorne Henning were let go to appease Benning and Weisbrod.
In a healthy organization, there is room for dissent and differences of opinion. It’s reasonable to ask who will ask the tough questions in the new Canucks front office.
One other thing. No matter where you fall out on the trades or the front office cleanout, firing longtime Canucks trainer Mike Burnstein makes zero sense. Burnstein spent 20 years on the job, was loyal and hard-working, and you couldn’t find anyone who had a bad word to say about him. To be done like that after two decades of devoted service sends a terrible message about this new direction.
And then there’s the Lions. Maybe it says something about our expectations but there were some positive developments to take out of their season-opening loss to the mighty Ottawa RedBlacks: 1. Travis Lulay is healthy. 2. Travis Lulay is healthy and the Lions moved the ball.
3. Travis Lulay is healthy, the Lions moved the ball and there seemed to be some chemistry between Lulay and his new group of receivers.
For the Lions, it all starts with the quarterback, and as long as that position is stable and productive, they can figure out the other stuff.
Yes, you’d like to see more of a ground game, especially when they’re starting three imports on the offensive line. And the defence looked confused. But they’ve got the Saskatchewan Roughriders at home on Friday and 16 more games after that. If we’re saying the same things about Lulay in October the Lions will be all right.
NHL free agency didn’t deliver many blockbusters but it’s always fascinating to watch the Chicago Blackhawks try to manoeuvre around the salary cap.
The Stanley Cup champs are still trying to unload Patrick Sharp (two years left, $5.9-million annual cap hit) and Bryan Bickell (two years, $4-million hit) while RFA Marcus Kruger and UFA Johnny Oduya wait for new deals.
Winning the Cup has already cost the organization Brandon Saad and that was a huge price. With $21 million committed to Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane annually, you wonder how they’ll fill all their holes, but they’ve been down this road before and they always seem to find a way.
And finally, at its best, the Women’s World Cup was a transcendent event which brought this country right back to the 2010 Winter Olympics while producing the same kind of national glow.
The atmosphere for the England-Canada quarter-final was unlike anything seen at B.C. Place. The emotional outpouring for the women’s national team was equally powerful. For a while there, it seemed the impossible was possible, that Canada could end up meeting the United States for the world championship.
It didn’t happen, of course, but the mere thought of a final with Canada was so exhilarating that it engaged this country in the way only an Olympic hockey tournament can fill our imaginations.
As for the downside, enough has been said. FIFA came as advertised. They’re clowns of the highest order and it’s inconceivable that their act is tolerated.
But for soccer fans, especially American soccer fans, there was enough magic over the last month to make this a great World Cup. In the end these are the images which will endure — Carli Lloyd’s hat trick, those shocking first 16 minutes of the final, the great American team holding the trophy and, for Canadians, that wonderful, unattainable dream.
The tournament wasn’t always great but it supplied enough of those moments, and those moments will be its legacy.