It is the shame of our national game that so many of our best and brightest are being reduced to quivering prone on the ice with their careers in question while we dither on whether the hit was from the blindside.
Auger thinks Burrows should consider the Olympic Diving Team
The Canucks’ Alex Burrows received a slap on the wrist and a $2500 fine for speaking out against NHL referee Stephane Auger.
Burrows claimed Auger skated next to him before the anthems to express his dismay over the December 8th incident that saw Nashville’s Jerred Smithson take a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for his hit on Burrows.
The league later revoked the misconduct, in a rarely seen move, claiming the video reply shows Burrows “selling” an injury. According to Burrows, Auger took exception to this and in their pre-game discussion, told him he would get him back making him look bad.
Auger did just that. Calling Burrows out in the third period for diving and then again for an (imo, total phantom) interference call, effectively costing Vancouver the game on a powerplay goal by Shea Weber.
No, I am not a green-laser-toting Canucks fan. I don’t give a shit about the team nor anyone on it. But I do like hockey – fair hockey. So in my unbiased opinion, the NHL is doing what the NHL always does; handing out retaliation penalties. The initial offender goes Scott-free, while Burrows gets in shit for pointing out the obvious (albeit through the media where he should have went to the coach or NHL execs first, but the obvious nonetheless).
From the video replay, Burrow’s story definitely fits the obvious and documented story he gave the media. A conversation clearly occurred, just as described, and those penalties were total horseshit. The glove fits.
However, from the NHL’s perspective, there is no hard evidence tying Auger to actually saying anything that Burrow’s claims he said. Yes, YouTubers everywhere are commenting balls out, saying that a conversation clearly did happen - agreed. However Auger could have been asking Burrows about his scoring streak, his French-Canadian upbringing, or his favorite color underwear. In a 110db arena during a pre-game skate, I doubt we’ll ever hear a clear audio recording of that conversation.
The NHL has no ground to stand on in suspending Auger, other than what could be an upset player’s word, moments after his penalty cost his team the game. Shit happens.
Footnote: No idea why SportsNet was so determined in getting multiple opinions from members of the Flames. Craig Conroy quoted, “Nobody likes a tattletale”, in regards to Burrows calling out Auger to the media. I’m sorry, Conroy, but I would much rather learn the truth of the matter from Burrows than listen to a (biased) 38 year old man call another man a “tattletale”.
As you may have heard in the news, well actually I’m quite certain you’ve read about this because on the evening news there are no less than 8-10 different stories related to H1N1. If you haven’t I’ll provide a brief coles notes version.
Last Friday the Calgary Flames organization were provided with their own private H1N1 immunization clinic. The clinic was open to all staff, players and their families including those from the farm team in Abbotsford, BC. A senior Alberta Health Services (AHS) staffer that approved the clinic was later fired for the serious ‘misjudgement’.
While the news first broke out on Tuesday that a private clinic was setup for the Calgary Flames, the actual clinic was put on before the weekend on Friday. This is important to note as the public outrage seems a bit overboard in my opinion. AHS announced on the weekend that the province would be changing the H1N1 immunization plans due to stronger than anticipated demand. Prior to this, all H1N1 clinics were open to the general public. Now the new plan is to only allow those that are deemed high-risk to receive the shots.
The planning for the private clinic no doubt took place well before the vaccine shortage was announced. So while I agree that the private clinic for the Calgary Flames should not have been put on, I believe the situation is being blown out of proportion by the media. An AHS staffer is fired over this private clinic in which 50-60 shots were given out (I’m assuming here that not everyone that was eligible to get the shots at the private clinic actually took advantage)? How many of you reading this know of people that are not in the high-risk group that went out and got shots? Are you chastising these people for jumping in front of those that need the shots?
“Hockey players are not at high risk for swine flu,” NDP Leader Brian Mason said in question period. “Some pregnant women and young children now face a greater risk of very serious disease or even death because millionaire hockey players got a vaccine they did not urgently need.”
What about Dr. Andre Corriveau? He is Alberta chief medical officer of health who urged all Albertans to get vaccinated. His decision to open clinics to all Albertans instead of just high-risk Albertans was a critical mistake but he still gets to keep his job. Wait, theres more. Dr. Corriveau himself who does not work face to face with patients and thus is not considered high-risk received the H1N1 vaccine.
Perhaps his boss, Ron Liepert the Health Minister should be fired too? The whole H1N1 vaccination debacle falls on him. Ultimately, some big mistakes were made from the get go and now we’re facing a vaccine shortage here in Alberta. Who gets fired? Some middle manager that approved a private clinic for the Calgary Flames? If there was no uproar would he still have his job?
To argue a different point, was it really a bad idea to vaccinate the Calgary Flames? We have a semi-large organization travelling to dozens of cities in a short period of time competing face to face with other players who are also travelling all over Canada and the United States. One cannot deny that this is an excellent transmission opportunity for the H1N1 virus. Immunizing those that are travelling frequently can only reduce the chance of the virus being brought in from another city. Is that not the whole point of this mass vaccination?
I hear there are people that are unloading their season tickets because of this incident. To that I say great!, more tickets for the rest of us.
Photo Credit: Malcolm Mayes, edmontonjournal.com
Fans of the Vancouver Canucks can sleep soundly now as Roberto Luongo finally put pen to paper on a 12 year contract extension that will take him right through until the 2021-22 NHL season. The contract itself is reported to be worth an astonishing $64M and will be broken down over the course of the next 12 years.
Next season the goaltender will earn $10M and then $6.7M up to 2018. In 2018-19 Luongo will pocket $3.3M and then an estimated $1M for each of his 3 remaining years.
It will come as a welcome relief to the Montreal-born player as he admitted to pondering his options in the off season; however it always seemed as though the Canucks were forever going to hold onto him.
“Once the season was over, I took a few weeks and it was a clear decision for me and my family,” Luongo said. “We love Vancouver and I think the organization has handled us really well and given us a chance to win.
“So we’re really ecstatic and I was really thankful that Canucks management and (General Manager) Mike Gillis had the confidence in me to give me this contract.”
Since his arrival in 2006, Luongo has very much been the centre piece of the team and has recorded 30 or more wins in each of the last 4 seasons. Not content with just domestic hockey, Luongo has represented Canada and won gold at both the 2003 and 2004 World Championships.
The 30 year old is also a hot favorite to make one of the goalie spots as Canada prepares for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. After 544 NHL games it seems that Luongo will be around for some time yet.
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