“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Vancouver – the mighty Canucks are out…”
Yes, the piazza outside Rogers Arena is a lonely place this morning. Once filled with cheering crowds, painted faces, reeling drunks and burning cars, it has been abandoned to the waterfowl and a cold wind…
Oh, and there goes Ryan Kessler!
I’m sorry, Vancouver. I don’t mean to be cruel. I’ll let CBC News Network do that.
This morning a chipper young reporter said the Canucks loss was a good thing for Vancouver since it saves city taxpayers more than $1 Million earmarked for policing the Cup run.
It made me wonder if CBC realizes it could save all Canadians more than $200 Million by not buying NHL broadcast rights to begin with.
God knows, for those paying attention, the quality of the broadcasts on TSN and NBC have now surpassed those of their former mentor. And they don’t come with a game caller who can’t remember names anymore, a psychotic intermission blowhard nor his eunuch sidekick.
Am I the only one feeling the CBC is just tired of doing this and would rather be making a lot more episodes of “Marketplace”?
But the CBC and Vancouver are not the only mighty to have stumbled in the first round. Detroit’s out too. San Jose is gone (though they’re out early every year). And maybe hardest to bear for many Infamous Writers Poolies, so is Pittsburgh!
I’m not sure there was any recovering after Sidney Crosby’s “I don’t like them” Game Three petulance. Yesterday all 18,000 fans entering Philadelphia’s arena were handed orange T-shirts bannered “Guess what? We don’t like you either!”
Maybe this loss will mean that Sid the Kid will finally grow up. Because that would be great for hockey and its fans. Maybe it’ll mean the end of all those Crosby endorsement commercials for the rest of the playoffs. That would be good too.
No, huh? Too much to hope for? Oh, well…
At least hope still burns in the hearts of those still standing in the Infamous Writers Hockey Pool. And even those who bet heavily on the Penguins can find solace in a series that was so high scoring their final placement won’t be at all embarrassing.
Four more teams will fall by the time the next pool report rolls around on Friday. But we’ll still only be a quarter of the way to crowning our ultimate champion. It ain’t over yet.
Here are the standings as week three begins:
