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”.
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.
In a low cost effort to reduce the number of people speeding along dangerous stretches of roadway, Vancouver Police are deploying cardboard cutouts of police officers pointing a radar-gun down the road.
The idea to use these tricky methods to trick drivers was probably stemmed from the highly successful Bait Car Program also used in B.C. to catch car thieves. Vancouver Police plan to rotate 8 of these cardboard cut-outs around city streets along with real officers to help nab speeders and reduce fatalities.
And these mock-ups are so realistic that while being tested on a Vancouver street this week, “a tow-truck driver pulled up and started talking to it,” Staff Sergeant Ralph Pauw told a press conference on Thursday.
Something new has quietly crept into place in the court system of British Columbia. The Violation Ticket Center opened in May of this year in the Robson Square Courthouse in Vancouver and services the entire province. The Center’s only business is to act as a centralized administrative service to support the processing of Provincial Violation Tickets.
What does this mean to anyone that receives a Violation Ticket? Quicker service from a single point of contact is the goal. By calling 1-877-661-8026 anyone who has been issued a Violation Ticket will be able to check on the status of it, most commonly in relation to the progress of a dispute. The Center aims to decrease all delays related to tickets by moving the processing from many court registries to a common location.
Dispute and request for adjournment forms may be downloaded from the Court Services web site and mailed to the Violation Ticket Center or presented at a court registry office. The court registry will forward those documents to the center for you. I see that a fax number of 1-604-660-4868 is listed for the center and you may wish to inquire about faxing your documents instead of using the mail.
Disputes will continue to be held in the courtroom that has jurisdiction over the location that the Violation Ticket was issued in and payment may be made in the usual manner. Finally, the court registry will still be responsible to record the progress of those disputes and receive applications to adjourn a dispute from the police.
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