Curmudgeon

Not only accurate, but Brock' shot actually breaks things. Here's what he did to the target:

Hits five targets in less than 12 seconds. Broke the final target. Can hardly wait for what he can do in a no hitter with tons of open ice and no obstruction.

I wouldn't worry about Pettersson's weight. He is slippery and elusive and has superstar potential oozing out of every pore. He is going to be the kind of player that will drive opposing defencemen crazy because he'll deke them out of their skates then either pick a corner or pass to the far side guy for the tap-in. The most elite offensive talent comes from an elite offensive mind, and Pettersson has that in spades.

Only looking for anyone else who was at the Pacific Coliseum on December 28, 1968. It was cold as I ever experienced in Vancouver, somewhere around 2 or 3 degrees Fahrenheit, so the Coliseum had only about 3000 people to see the headliner, Vanilla Fudge. The warmup band was a group that nobody had ever heard of, and in fact it was only the second time they had ever played in public, after a December 26th concert in Denver. That band's name was Led Zeppelin and when Robert Plant staggered around the stage in a grey satin open shirt and cascading blond hair, the audience was stunned. Nobody had ever seen anything like it. Then Plant introduced the band and my ears perked up when I heard that the guitar player was Jimmy Page, whom I knew from the "way ahead of its time" Yardbirds. Zeppelin came back as a headliner in May, 1969 and played the Exhibition Gardens. The warmup guy was Jamie Brockett whose claim to fame was a long, talking blues song about the Titanic and how black boxer Jack Johnson was not allowed to sail on the ship. Is there ANYBODY out there who was at either concert?

Y un otro cancion....

Saw these guys at the end of September at the Hardrock in Coquitlam. Rick Vito is a great guitar player and Mick Fleetwood is an awesome drummer. All of the musicians are smooth as silk.

Joe Bonamassa. 39 years old, been playing professionally for 27 years. Though this is kind of a rocker, he is a bluesman of the highest order.

Just a few thoughts from a long time investor. Widely diversified. Moderate risk. 1. Ask yourself why are you wanting to invest. Are you looking to play the market like it was a kind of casino game? Are you investing a significant chunk of your income with the expectation that because you never really had the money, you won't miss it while it stays invested and grows? Experience talking: You can't consistently time the market, so your goal of buying low and selling high will be hit and miss due to the dark magic of volatility. Volatility is a technical term, but for our purposes, consider that it means the market soars and plunges for no frickin reason, at any time. If you want to gamble, go to a casino or play online poker. Your odds are about the same and you'll have more fun doing it. Plus you won't have to pay commission. 2. If you want to invest for the long term, go to a respected investment firm. Ask around for recommendations and search online for firms in your area. A good investment firm does not try to sell you particular products. They will recommend certain stocks, bonds, preferreds, ETFs and mutual funds but you decide which ones you will invest in. You will pay an advisor to manage your accounts, which can include sheltered accounts like TFSAs and RRSPs and RESPs if you are saving for your kids' education, and straight investment accounts, which are not tax-sheltered. Your advisor will work with you to devise a balanced portfolio so you don't put all of your money into high-risk stocks. Is it worth it to pay somebody to manage your investments? Absolutely. These people do this every day, they know the markets and they know how to balance a portfolio according to your needs, your age, your goals and your tolerance for risk. 3. Mutual Funds are not your best option because of the relatively low return that is mostly eaten up by high managment fees. ETFs (exhange traded funds) are very similar to mutuals, but are bought and sold like stocks and have a far lower management fee. There are a lot of good ETFs that cover various indexes or sectors. You can buy ETFs that track the S&P500 or bond funds or metals or technology and on and on. Some investors hold six or eight different ETFs that cover most of the stock market, albeit ony fractional pieces, but the risk is spread out and a rising market raises most stocks, so your returns are modest, but reasonably steady. 4. If you must buy common stocks, buy solid, blue chip companies that pay dividends, which is an amount per share paid to you just for owning the stock. Over the years, that annual 200 or 300 dollars adds up. You might also consider DRIP (dividend re-investment plan) stocks that pay you in additional stock rather than cash. I prefer the cash, but you may not. 5. If you must buy stocks, ask yourself if you'd be happy holding on to it for five or ten years. This will get you past the impulse to buy a stock because the company is about to come out with the latest and greatest new thing. A lot of folks deeply regret buying Blackberry stock at the height of the Crackberry craze or Sirius when it was $50 (now just over $4) or Nokia at over $50 when today it is barely over $5. That's why boring things like Kraft-Heinz, Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft and most Canadian banks are steady, reliable and will be in business for a long time, as will their dividends. 6. Max out your TFSAs but realize that you probably can do better than the 1% or 2% you would be getting for depositing it at your friendly bank or credit union. You can hold stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and even bullion in your TFSA. That money has been taxed already so it will never be taxed again, no matter how much you earn on your TFSA investment. If your income is temporarily lower, you likely won't need the tax shelter of an RRSP, so you are better off to top up your TFSA. RRSP's start making sense when you are paying a moderate or high rate of income tax, because you can reduce your taxable income now by deferring tax until later, when you have retired and your taxable income is probably lower. Your advisor can explain the details. 7. The US dollar exchange rate really hits hard when you want to buy stocks on the New York markets. Some companies have a Canadian listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, so you can pay Canadian dollars for stock in the same company, although the price will be adjusted to its American value expressed in Canadian funds. On the plus side, once a stock begins to make money, or pays a dividend, that will also be in US funds, adding roughly 30% to the Canadian total. If you have read this far, good for you for persisting. I am not a financial expert and have no connections to any investment firms, other than the one whose services I employ. Don't mean to sound preachy, but I wish someone had told me some of these things when I started out investing.

Saw Alice Through the Looking Glass. I don't know why, either. 2/10. Johnny Depp hasn't made a decent movie since From Hell in 2001, and in this mess of talking animals and an exceedingly grotesque, big-headed Helena Bonham Carter, Depp is hideous and mostly unintelligible.

Great rebuttal to a post that wasn't about McCann. I was writing about Virtanen, but go ahead, fill your boots.

First, nowhere did I say anything about top line minutes. I did say I'd like him to be mentored by the Sedins, but that doesn't mean playing on the same line. Mentoring is showing, leading, tutoring, assisting and helping a younger, inexperienced person to become better at his or her craft. Second, I stand by my contention that he should remain in Vancouver. He has shown enough to demonstrate he can play at the NHL level, so to send him to the AHL would be a backwards step. Third, I said nothing about Travis Green not being able to teach the Canucks system. Don't jump to conclusions, please. Fourth, if you want to put Virtanen, McCann, Boesser and Demko in Utica for two years, go ahead, but they will still have to adapt to the NHL, they will still need mentoring and it is less likely they'll have the Sedins as role models after they have served your mandatory two year stint in the minors. But you will have proved your point, whatever it is.

That's just a horrible idea. Benning is on record as wanting the team to be younger, faster, stronger and bigger. Jake hits all four needs, so if you send him to Utica, who else steps in that fits the mould? He is in Vancouver so the club can best control his development, fitness level, diet and work habits. I believe he's better off being mentored by the Sedins than by some career AHLer in Utica. Besides, there is way more to his game than scoring.

Don't know where you are getting the 10 games from. On the UND website, the schedule says that their final regular season game is this Saturday night. Next week the conference playoffs start. I believe UND is ranked third in the NCAA, but I could be wrong.

All Gaunce has done since being drafted is improve his game. He is a highly intelligent kid who is coachable, reliable and always looking to improve. He has NHL size, his skating has improved and he's a far better two-way player than Shinkaruk will ever be. I see him making the Canucks next season at left wing behind Daniel and Baertschi, but that is only my opinion. I don't get people on these boards thinking Benning will trade him. Why go to all the trouble and expense of developing a player only to turn around and trade him for unknown quantities when he has developed to the point where he can contribute at the NHL level? Too many video game General Managers around here.

Attaboy, Chilli. Don't let facts deter you from proclaiming your truth. If you yell loud enough, long enough, somebody is bound to agree with you. Just not today.

Okay, how about they prefer Gaunce to Shinkaruk at left wing? Oh, and Boeser plays the right side.

Seems to me that all the Canucks pro scouts were meeting over the weekend, presumably to 1) evaluate what the system has in the way of prospects, 2) to identify players from other systems who might fit and 3) to decide who they can reasonably give up. Monday rolls around and JB moves Shinkaruk out for Granlund. This was clearly not a one man decision, but a consensus. Shinkaruk is a finisher and with Daniel and Sven ahead of him, he wasn't going to get much of a chance to play above the third line. Brendan Gaunce has played a lot at left wing and has the smarts, size, speed and skills to be a solid third line left winger who can also play centre and right wing. Don't know if Granlund is the answer though.

Because they are both blond goal scorers, or because they play opposite wings?

Here's the deal: Vancouver comes to Demko sometime this Spring or Summer and convinces him to forego his final year at Boston College and turn pro. Money, lots of it, will change hands and Demko will be handed the starting job in Utica, What? A starter already? Yeah, because that's how Benning rolls. I see them fast tracking this kid, building his confidence and giving him all he can handle. By halfway through his second pro year, Demko will debut in the NHL, on the very night that Vancouver plays New Jersey and he faces Corey Schneider at the other end. New Jersey finally wins 1-0 in the 13th round of the shootout. Or something.

Nah, trust me, you don't want to fast forward. You'll get there soon enough. Besides, watching the kids develop is all part of the evolution of the team.

Hope I am wrong, but I see JV getting injured a lot. Big body, hits hard. Gotta be tough on shoulders (already has had one surgery) back, neck, knees, even head. The day he begins to pass up big hits, his usefulness drops off. Then you have a big body who doesn't score very much. I think he'd be better off back in the WHL; he needs to be dominant.

He's not big enough, physical enough or strong enough to play in the NHL. Otherwise, he'd be somewhere in the league right now. Would you play him ahead of Gaunce, Shinkaruk, Baertschi, Daniel, Higgins and Prust? Didn't think so. With luck, everyone finds his niche in the game. Rodin has found his with Brynas, where I'm sure he'll live happily ever after. Now if some NHL team wants to acquire his rights from Vancouver, he'd be worth a conditional draft pick.

The more I see of Virtanen, the more I am thinking his upside might be Dustin Brown. A tough, phsyical winger who can score big goals at important times. I really don't see him as a superstar. Now Boeser, on the other hand, has that which can't be taught: an unerring knack for putting the puck where the goalie isn't.

I'd be willing to wager that it will be Markstrom who is traded. Benning stated unequivocally that Markstrom was ready to play in the NHL right now, and that if the consensus was to trade him, they wouldn't have any trouble finding a trading partner. Sounds to me like a classic sales pitch, especially now when he is the centre of attention in the only other league still playing. Say whatever necessary to persuade others that Markstrom is a hot commodity and someone will bite.