Being Canadian and working in the sports section of a Canada-wide chain of papers, you get to (read: have to) watch a lot of hockey. Every Saturday night, there is a show called Hockey Night In Canada, you might be familiar with it even if you aren’t Canadian or a even a hockey fan. Well, every week of the fall/winter/spring when it’s on, one team will be shown no matter how shitty they are: The Toronto Maple Leafs. I hate the Toronto Maple Leafs and everyone who has played for them recently. Why do I bring this up? Because my boys, the Colorado Avalanche, apparently never caught a night of HNIC. They signed two former Leafs – who were so bad they were bought out – to deals. Darcy Tucker and Andrew Raycroft signed with the Avs. My only consolation in this is that Tucker will be paid far less than what he was making in Toronto and hopefully Raycroft never hits the ice.
Elsewhere on the ice, I said this the second I heard the rumour that Brian Campbell might be headed to Chi-Town: He better wear No. 22 in honour of the movie Wayne’s World. If you can’t remember the famous street hockey duel between Wayne and Garth, you’ve never seen the movie. Now that he has signed, let’s hope he ditches that lame No. 52.
ESPN.com said it best with their headline, “If you can’t beat them, join them.†Marian Hossa has left the Penguins to join the Cup champion Red Wings. Really, Detroit really felt it was necessary to go out and get more scoring? They led the league last year! Pencil them in as 2008-2009 champions right now.
What are the Canucks thinking? Two years at $10 million each for a 38-year old? I don’t care how good Mats Sundin is, he should not be the highest paid player in the league. He makes Ovechkin seem like a discount at $9 million.