Tree n Me

Darren Dreger suggested in Inside Trading the other day that GMJB is looking to add a top six winger. Any guesses at who he might be targeting?

Markstrom is my number one. Without the games he stole, the Canucks would be done for the season.

A number of years ago I drove to Fernie from Cranbrook with three of my kids, all elementary schoolers, to watch an old timers hockey game. There were lots of players there who I had watched growing up like Frank Mahovalich and Eddie Shack. But the player I most wanted to see was Gilbert Perrault. I had brought a number of sticks for the players to sign and told the kids that we were leaving the game early to catch the players before they got on the bus. As the players were boarding the bus we got all of the players to sign except Perrault, who had changed and boarded the bus as the game was ending. The kids and I stood there and I asked the driver if I could get on to get Gilbert to sign my sticks. He told me he wasn't allowed to let me on. Just then Eddie Shack, who had overheard my request, told me, "Go ahead young fella, get on." I got on with my armload of sticks and as I walked down the aisle all of the players stopped me to resign the sticks. Gilbert was sitting in the very back of the bus chatting in French with Gilles Meloche and Gilles Gilbert. In my best UBC French, I asked him if he would sign for me. He told me that my French was very good and asked where I had learned it. I answered as he started signing and we started talking. All of a sudden the bas started up and began moving. I looked out the window and saw the kids waving goodbye. With visions of the trouble I would be in arriving hom without the kids, I bolted for the front of the bus, undoubtedly knocking a few of the players on the back of the head with my armload of sticks. I finally got the driver's attention and he stopped to let me out, right in front of my truck. As I was putting the sticks in the truck, the kids came walking up. We came to a quick agreement, Blizzards at the DQ in exchange for not telling Mom that Dad almost went on a road trip with the old timers without them. The forlorn looks on the faces as the bus began driving away haunts me to this day.

I absolutely agree. If your boss said to you, "You've done an outstanding job, but we are bringing in someone new to fill your position", how would you feel?

Exactly

Canuck fan have to be happy with the 6-2 victory over Nashville that ended a four game winless skid. Once again, however, they were outshot in a game that they went on to win. To be honest, I didn't see the game and am only getting my information from online media. But among Marky's 36 saves, 19 were in the second period, and four of them were described as "spectacular". How easily a 4-2 lead could have turned into a 4-4 tie after two periods, with Nashville holding the momentum going into the third period. My point is simply this: Jacob Markstrom has been a key component to the Canucks' successful season to date and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. While I agree that Thatcher Demko is the long term answer to the Canucks' goaltending picture, Canucks' management needs to find a way to keep both goalies in Vancouver until DiPietro is ready to step in as Demko's back-up

Do you remember the huge fuss about losing Luca Sbisa in the Vegas draft? Some posters felt this might be the beginning of the end for the Canuck franchise. But management had it all figured out. We lost Sbisa and the world went on. The point is that Benning and the rest of the management will undoubtedly have a plan to minimize the impact of the Seattle expansion draft. My personal bet is that we will end up with both goalies after the draft. Markstrom will be resigned to a contract that will cover the time until we are ready to go with a Demko and DiPietro tandem. And who in their right mind would complain about having access to Double Ds?

We go neither right nor left. We stay the course. How do you expect to win going forward without Markstrom? Have you checked out how many times we have been widely outshot and Marky has earned two points for us by standing on his head?Take away these points and there is no chance that this is a playoff caliber team. Your suggestion to reward this outstanding effort is to ship him out of town. How would you like it if you busted your ass at work and got shown the door for your efforts? Who would even want to play for the Canucks if they knew they were always one whim away from being traded. Why don't you do your job and let Benning and management do their job?

No to Subban. The Montreal trade is mindnumbingly bad. Whatever happened to: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

Born in Vancouver, raised in Marpole.. Used to take my wife to New West Bruins games. It's the Alberta part of BC because of the time, the fact that Calgary and not Vancouver is our gateway city, people here shop in Lethbridge and Calgary, and that most high school grads go to post-secondary ed in Alberta because of the proximity and comparative ease of transportation. In most of my elementary classes, the kids were split half and half between Flames and Canucks.. It was funny that my kids got BC Student Loans to go to SAIT and the University of Lethbridge.

Mikkim, I got a job teaching in Cranbrook (the Alberta part of BC) and never left. While I cheer for Canadian teams - all Stanley Cup parades should be In Canada, I too hate it when Leafs and Habs fans show up for Canuck games to cheer for a team other than the Nucks.

I get your point about each team being made up of a conglomeration of nationalities. I choose to support these multinational groups that represent cities in the country where I live (seven months a year)'.

I understand that natural rivalries exist between the Canucks and other teams. As a Canuck fan since before Barry Wilkins scored franchise goal number one against Dennis DeJordy, the Canucks are my team, in good times and bad. When the Canucks play a team like the Flames, I am solidly behind the Canucks, even though we live in the "Alberta" part of B.C. I cheer for my hometown team to beat every team, whether it is a Canadian or American based franchise. However, in a game between another Canadian team an ANY American team I always choose to support the Canadian team. I see lots of hate for certain Canadian teams on this forum, and to some degree I understand the feeling. But I have never once in all the years I have watched hockey cheered for Any American based team when they were playing ANY Canadian team. I'm still, and will always be, ticked that the Nordiques were relocated to a US city.

It was supposed to be an all Star game stick. I checked the line-ups and got some of the names, then check the sample on line of the other players, but nothing looked like a match. I will check all suggestions and I appreciate the efforts of those who responded.

I recently bought an autographed 1996-7 vintage goalie stick on eBay. I can recognize most of the signatures, but there are a few I can't make out. Any information or assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

When the hockey card craze was in full force a number of years ago I was teaching a grade five class. One of the required Language Arts concepts we were require to teach was letter writing and addressing envelopes. I decided to turn this into a fun assignment and had my students write letters to hockey players asking them to sign the three cards which were enclosed in each envelope. I suggested to one student to write to Jason Marshall who was playing for the Blues, but at one time had been a student at our school. I knew Jason fairly well and explained to Kyle that Jason would surely write back as he was a great guy. The kids waited with great anticipation each afternoon for the arrival of the mailman at the school. Letter after letter arrived, complete with the autographed cards, but Kyle got no response from Jason. As the hockey season drew to an end Kyle was the only student who had not received at least one response from an NHLer. The playoffs came and went and suddenly the hockey season drew to a close and no further letters arrived at the school. Kyle was really disappointed and some of the more generous kids in the class gave Kyle one of their extra autographed cards, but it just wasn't the same as receiving a letter in the mail with the cards he had sent away. One day near the end of the school year there was a knock at my classroom door and when I answered it Jason Marshall was there. He had brought bumper stickers, signed pictures and other Blues' memorabilia for Kyle (along with the three signed cards Kyle had originally sent). Jason was also very happy to take pictures with the kids and he spent at least an hour visiting with them answering all of their questions. Kyle was the star of the class and the kids all went home terribly excited at having met a real NHL player. It was one of the best days in my long career as an educator.

Several years ago my son and I did the Trans Siberian Railroad from Beijing to St. Petersburg. During the trip we either stayed with couchsurfers or met up with them and had them show us their city. When we got to Yekaterinburg we met up with Olga and her husband Dan who we had previously contacted on the Couchsurfing website. Olga had asked what we wanted to see during our visit and the first thing I mentioned was that we wanted to go to a KHL game. She was able to get tickets to the game against Omsk and told me that it would be no trouble to purchase a team jersey at the game. While we sere heading to the arena, she informed me that Dan actually was in charge of printing the programs for the game and because of their contacts, I would be able to get my jersey signed by the whole Avtomobilist team. When we entered the arena, Olga went off to talk to a lady that she knew. She came back to inform us that the lady was the arena manager and that, since I knew about Nikita Tryamkin, he would come out to visit with me for fifteen minutes after the game. He didn't speak much English and managed to express to me that he was pleased that Vancouver fans were happy to have him join the Canucks for the next season and that he was looking forward to continuing his career in Vancouver. Awesome experience