View Mats' Home Debut From The Snob Seats

Today, I get in the e-mail from the Canucks Insider, the following:

"SPECIAL GAME DAY TICKET OFFER

Tonight is your first opportunity to see Mats Sundin make his home debut in a Canucks sweater, and we have a great offer for you to watch the game from the Sports Action Lounge! This hospitality suite features comfortable seats, flat-screen TV monitors, cash bar and private washrooms making it one of the most popular premium seating areas in General Motors Place. Don’t miss this great opportunity to watch the Canucks from a suite without having to book the entire room. Only 16 pairs remaining!

DETAILS
Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues
Friday, January 9 @ 7:00pm
2 tickets in the Sports Action Lounge
$100.00 per ticket, plus applicable service charge

Purchase online at ticketmaster.ca/canucks, Charge-by-Phone 604.280.4400 or at the General Motors Place Box Office."

Now, to the average Yaletownie, this might be a great deal but to those of us who like our fan experience to be less living room amentities and more "get me upclose and personal," how is $100 (plus the usual tixmonster fees) a deal when single tickets for this same game are going at half-price?

Let's review:

• Comfortable seats? Is this saying the seats pretty much in the rest of the arena aren't comfortable? Are we talking La-Z Boy recliner rockers in the Sports Action Lounge? Ergonomic bean bag chairs?
  
• Flat-screen TV monitors? Well, there's a giant HD TV screen above the rink so unless these monitors in the lounge allow you to tune in other games or change channels if the game gets dull, are they saying I'm supposed to help the NHL out with video review or some such?
  
• Cash bar? Oh, great, not only can I spend more dough on overpriced alcohol but by "cash" does that mean they don't accept credit cards?
  
• Private washrooms? Yeah, that's my "major" complaint at GM Place--no privacy to pee.
  

To sum it up, basically I can fork out $100+ for what I get at home watching the game on TV for free. Sign me up!

Cody, Mats and La-LaBarbera

These are heady times in Canuckland as we all are desperate for some news other than about the weather.

GM Mike Gillis, after realizing Cory Schneider is most definitely not as advertised (now, don't you wish Nonehead had traded him last year when he had a shot at the deadline?), snagged Jason LaBarbera off the LA Kings for a measly 7th round pick to cover for an injured Curtis Sanford. LaBarbera in his short three-game stint has shown he can do the job with an outstanding .943 save pct. in a Canuck jersey. That and hailing from Burnaby can't hurt the local pride.

Then 2008 first round draft pick and now a Hockey Canada gold medalist Cody Hodgson led all scorers at the recent World Junior Hockey Championships held in Kanata (sorry, folks, the final was not really in Ottawa as that would be like saying the New York Islanders play in New York City). This could be both good and bad news. The big question is whether Hodgson is the next Nigel Dawes, Jeff Farkas or Pavel Brendl? Or is Hodgson more of a Phil Kessel, Peter Forsberg or Jarome Iginla? Yes, all of these players led the WJC in scoring over various tournaments. So grain of salt on Hodgson's future as of yet.

Lastly, tonight marks the end of the Mats Sundin: Hostage Off Ice saga(fjord) as he apparently will debut vs. the Oil in Edmonton. I think fans are most curious mainly as to who his linemates will be. It's looking like Kyle Wellwood will play on one wing but the other seems open to all takers. If we're talking skill alone coach Alain Vigneault might be thinking Pavol Demitra, health permitting. If he's thinking a Dave Semenko to a Wayner, they might want to slot Darcy Hordichuk in there. Stay tuned.

The Sainthood Awaits

Apparently, Trevor Linden is on the Pope's shortlist for sainthood.

Getting his #16 retired is a great honor for a wonderful human being especially for someone whose career was basically that of Wendel Clark West with the
added bonus of not choking in Conference Finals. Of course, in this town to suggest Trevor was anything but average will probably bring the Spanish Inquisition around to my door.

Beam me up, Captains Kirk and Trev!


I'll just let the stats speak for themselves then:
Trevor Linden (drafted #2 overall by the Vancouver Canucks)
regular season: 1382 GP, 375 G, 867 pts, -64
playoffs: 134 GP, 34 G, 99 pts, +7
Canada/World Cups + Olympics: 14 GP, 1G, 3 pts
All-Star Games: 2
Team honors: Stanley Cup Finals (1994)
Int'l team honors: World Cup Final (1996)

The "other" 1st rd stars of the draft class of 1988
Mike Modano (drafted #1 overall by the Minnesota North Stars)
regular season: 1343 GP, 537 G, 1300 pts, +136
playoffs: 174 GP, 58 G, 145 pts, -1
Canada/World Cups + Olympics: 36 GP, 7 G, 21 pts
All-Star Games: 6
All-Star Teams: 99/00 2nd team
Team honors: Stanley Cup (1999), Finals (1991 + 2000)
Int'l team honors: World Cup winner (1996), Olympic silver medal (2002)

Jeremy Roenick (drafted #8 overall by the Chicago Blackhawks)
regular season: 1345 GP, 510 G, 1349 pts, +156
playoffs: 148 GP, 53 G, 121 pts, +22
Canada/World Cups + Olympics: 18 GP, 5 G, 12 pts
All-Star Games: 9
Team honors: Stanley Cup Finals (1992)
Int'l team honors: Olympic silver medal (2002)

Rod Brind'Amour (drafted #9 overall by the St. Louis Blues)
regular season: 1349 GP, 434 G, 1128 pts, -4
playoffs: 141 GP, 50 G, 107 pts, +12
Canada/World Cups + Olympics: 13 GP, 2 G, 6 pts
All-Star Games: 1
Team honors: Stanley Cup (2006) + Finals (1997)
Int'l team honors: World Cup Final (1996)

Teemu Selanne (drafted #10 overall by the Winnipeg Jets)
regular season: 1092 GP, 565 G, 1181 pts, +87
playoffs: 92 GP, 31 G, 66 pts, -10
Canada/World Cups + Olympics: 41 GP, 25 G, 46 pts
All-Star Games: 10
All-Star Teams: 92/3 + 96/7 1st team, 97/8 + 98/9 2nd team
Top NHL goal scorer: 76 G (92/3), 52 G (97/8), 47 (98/9)
NHL scoring: 109 pts (96/7 runner-up)
Team honors: Stanley Cup (2007)
Int'l team honors: Olympic silver medal (2006) + bronze medal (1998), World Cup Final (2004)

Hopefully, the day will come when the greatest Canuck player will get the same honor but I feel that once spurned, there is little love for the most exhilarating player to ever lace 'em up here. Then again Pavel Bure is not a "humanitarian" who fell in love with the city or its people. In his defence, Vancouver isn't Moscow no matter how many times the term "world-class" is mentioned and let's just say the Trevor and the Pavel are coming from oposite ends of the spectrum. Not everyone can fall in love with Vancouver, right, Don Cherry?

So I'm betting the next number you will see hanging from the rafters will be Roberto Luongo's #1 which will hopefully mean the Canucks do indeed win a Cup in his (and any of our) lifetime(s). Otherwise, if Luongo's #1 gets retired here and there's no Cup to show for that, I feel extremely sorry for this "world-class" athlete not to have achieved the ultimate crown such goaltending luminaries as Cam Ward, Mike Vernon, Chris Osgood and the Michelin Man of Anaheim have in their trophy cases.