Reports are now coming out saying that Mats Sundin may wait half a season before he decides whether he’ll play or not, or which team he’ll play for.

Mats Sundin needs an exceptionally good public relations man to fix the damage he’s done to his image. He’s not only pissed off way too many hockey fans, but general managers too.

In fact, Sundin may never fix the damage he’s done to his image.

Most every hockey fan on the west coast knows that Vancouver Canucks’ coach Alain Vigneault is on the bubble. For him, it’s either the Canucks get off to a reasonably good start, or the guy, who coached the Habs for three years in the late 1990’s, will be filing for his unemployment papers.

The problem has been that the coach likes to keep his players under wraps, to play defensively and conservatively. It didn’t sit well with Markus Naslund, and it isn’t sitting well with Canucks’ fans.

These comments were posted in the Vancouver Sun a couple of days ago, regarding the release of the new Canucks’ TV broadcast schedule:

“Why waste time watching this season. They’ll be lucky if they win 40 games.”   Aldo M

“Great. This shame/sham of a hockey team will be broadcast live in living colour.”  vancouversredwingcountry

82 games of boredom….Watching paint dry is more exciting than watching the Canucks!”    Bob from Saanich

“If they continue their boring old neutral zone/defensive crap, I could care less if they win or not. Show me three minutes of highlights.”    Bob

“I’d rather sit in a chair and stare at my wall.”      David Puddy

Lots of readers know who der Habinator is. He was a regular reader and commentor here, but he’s gone away. The story’s been told. It’s all quite interesting.

I was at work the other night on the ferry, giving my 120 percent as usual, and a couple of passengers who know me called me over. They said they were just in Canmore, Alberta at a Home Depot, and another customer there overheard them mention they lived in Powell River. The guy went over to them and asked them if they knew Dennis Kane, which they said yes.

Tell him hello from der Habinator, said the guy. 

Yes indeed. This unsuspecting couple ran into the one and only der Habinator.

I thought this was fantastic and i know several people, like Danielleia in Buffalo and Mike in Toronto, and Lawrence in Powell River, who might get a kick out of this.

For the rest of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I suppose you had to be there.

Der Habinator’s colourful comments are peppered throughout this blog. You can’t miss them.

Marc Crawford Joins Hockey Night In Canada

Marc Crawford is joining the Hockey Night In Canada crew as a between-period analyst. This comes just after the announcement of Mike Milbury joining the show and doing the same job. Both former players and coaches are expected to give important tips about what conditioners to use, how to detangle, and how to apply lemon juice for natural highlights. 

Scotty Bowman Leaves Red Wings For Blackhawks

Scotty Bowman is leaving the security of his job in Detroit for a new one in Chicago. A Detroit spokesman said the team was sad to see him go, and that he had done a great job with the Wings. When asked what Scotty had actually done for the Wings, the spokesman replied that Scotty had done, uh, well, uh…”he sat in the owner’s box and offered advice about, uh, well …..he told us to play Nick Lidstrom quite a bit and he also told us to play Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk quite a bit also, and we really appreciated that.”

Patrick Roy’s Son Faces Assault Charge

Patrick Roy’s 19 year old son Jonathan will appear in court in September to face assault charges stemming from the on-ice incident where the goalie skated the length of the ice and pummelled the other goalie after it appeared that coach Patrick had waved his hands to motion his kid to do this. It’s expected that Patrick will be in the courtroom on this day, and so the judge, obviously worried for his own safety, has ordered that Patrick sit on his hands during the proceeding. Jonathan has also been warned to refrain from giving the finger to the judge, police officers, defence counsel, prosecution, clerk, reporters, and friends and family of both his and the other goalie, Bobby Nadeau. Speculation is that young Jonathan will also be ordered to sit on his hands.

Senators Re-sign Antoine Vermette

Antoine Vermette has agreed to continue playing for the Ottawa Senators after interest was shown for him by the Vancouver Canucks. This normally wouldn’t be a big news item, but the Canucks had strongly felt that with Vermette in the lineup, it would’ve made the team a legitimate Cup contender. As soon as the Canucks’ statement regarding being a contender was made, the hit series Last Comic Standing was quickly cancelled. “None of our comics could compete with such a hilarious line as that,” a Comic spokesman said. 

Business people in Vancouver have decided to sweeten the pot for Mats Sundin, as if twenty million just might not be enough for this aging star.

People who make in a year what Sundin tips at his favourite restaurant are offering, among other things, free luxury cars from two different dealers, and a lifetime of free dental work, including all the fancy stuff like bridgework and dental surgery. Another has offered a lifetime of cosmetic work for His Worship’s girlfriend, like facials, nails, and whatever else it is that women get done. Then there’s the usual free meals, free drinks, free clothes, free this, free that.

In fact, it looks like an absolute free ride for Sundin if he chooses the Canucks.

Montreal, on the other hand, has offered seven million dollars a year, but their extra enticements seem a little more tempting. There’s that chance for Sundin to finally win a Stanley Cup. There’s the opportunity to wear the fabled Montreal Canadiens sweater. He can hang around with Jean Beliveau and Dickie Moore. If he did excel, he’d join the list of great Habs like Richard, Beliveau, Harvey, Moore, Lafleur, and Mahovlich, instead of a list that includes Smyl, Linden, Rota, and Kurtenbach. He’d play in the most exciting rink in the best hockey city in the world. And he’s three thousand miles closer to Sweden than Vancouver is.

Surely that should be more than enough.

But if he decides to play, wherever he goes, he’d better be good. It’s getting a little silly.   

I work with a woman named Sandy who likes hockey. She’s a Canucks fan, but she’s still a nice person. Her and I have an annual bet on who will finish with the most points in the season, the Habs or the Canucks, and I collected a sweet five bucks from her last year.

But the thing that Sandy really is is outspoken. She says what she thinks. Her father taught her to say what’s on her mind as long as she doesn’t hurt anyone. She’s fun. Sometimes outrageous. She reminds me of an old friend, Frank, in Ottawa.

And things will bother her. 

Sandy said this to me yesterday, with more than a hint of anger in her voice. ”i want you to write in your blog about who does Mats Sundin think he is? He’s waiting like this, screwing up a bunch of teams (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) who don’t know if he’ll choose one of them or not, and so they’re all in limbo. I mean, this isn’t Wayne Gretzky here. Sundin’s good but he’s not God.  How hard can it be to decide about something like that and not keep these teams hanging? It’s ridiculous. Who does he think he is?

“And another thing,” she went on. “You should also ask, who does Markus Naslund think he is, saying what he said after he left the Canucks. All that about he didn’t have anybody good to play with. He’s finished anyway. He was a lousy captain. And he’s not Wayne Gretzky either. In fact, in my opinion, he was never very good.”

(I didn’t have the balls to tell her Naslund didn’t have anybody good to play with last year.)

Bob Gainey’s recent decision to sign great big defenceman Ryan O’Byrne to a multi-year contract means Gainey and coach Guy Carbonneau feel O’Byrne could turn out to be a force to be reckoned with, which he hasn’t shown yet in his handful of games with the Montreal Canadiens except very briefly here and there.

Patience is being shown here. That’s why Gainey and Carbonneau are hockey bosses, and not working in a supermarket.

O’Byrne has shown that he knows how to party, which landed him in hot water in Tampa last year, but he hasn’t yet shown signs that he going to be the next Larry Robinson. But this kid could be a huge asset to the Habs. All he has to do is play with more of a chip on his shoulder.

O’Byrne is 6′6″ and 228 pounds, a size that other General Managers would trade their wives and kids for. And now, with a brand new three year contract under his belt, O’Byrne can relax, get mean and nasty, and throw smaller players trying to score on his goalie up and over the glass.

I’m also sure that with this new contract, O’Byrne and his parents are going “WHEW” after the fiasco in Tampa that could have possibly blown his career. (For those unaware, O’Byrne and his teammates had their annual party where rookies pay the shot, in Tampa Bay two days before a game, and around three or four AM, police were called when O’Byrne was somehow left standing there holding a few bucks and a purse belonging to a young woman in the restaurant. It was all very odd, but the team backed him, and now, with this contract, he can put it all behind him and step it up a notch.)

Montreal also signed a young player out of the University of Michigan with the great name of Max Pacioretty. And what a great name it is! Sounds like he’s out of the 1930′ or ’40’s. Sounds like he could be a pulp fiction private eye.

But what Max brings to the table is a big, young power forward who, as Gainey explains, isn’t far off from making the big club. And we all know that Montreal needs a big power forward.

Max says he models himself after the Canucks’ Ryan Kessler, which could be a great thing indeed. Kessler plays a big mean game with the Canucks, and is one of their most important players. Other GM’s drool about this guy. Pacioretty is 6′2″, 203 pounds, while Kessler is 6′2″, 205 pounds, which means, after I did the math, that they’re pretty well the same size. 

So Bob Gainey probably decided against signing someone like Todd Bertuzzi, a power forward on the big downside of his career, because he had planned all along to ink Max P., a babes-in-arms power forward.

In my book, you have to really like these two recent signings. And add Georges Laraque to the mix, and the Montreal Canadiens have gone from one of the smallest teams in the league to one of the biggest. meanest machines around.

October can’t come soon enough.

The North American agent for Mats Sundin, above, denies a claim that the centre will play play for the Vancouver Canucks next season. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)A Swedish newspaper has reported that Mats Sundin has agreed to a deal with the Vancouver Canucks, but the centre’s North American agent has denied the claim.

J.P. Barry, Sundin’s North American agent, has confirmed to CBCSports that the report by Dusan Umicevic in Sweden’s Daily News is false.

In an interview with a Vancouver radio station earlier this week, Canucks general manager Mike Gillis expressed confidence that Sundin, who became an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career on July 1, would still accept the club’s offer of a two-year contract valued at $20 million US.

Sundin has been the subject of intense interest from several other clubs including the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers. A return to the Toronto Maple Leafs also remains an option.

The Swede has posted 555 goals and 766 assists for 1,321 points in 1,305 NHL games with Toronto and the Quebec Nordiques. He was selected first overall by Quebec in the 1989 draft and traded to Toronto five years later.

Sundin, 37, has yet to play in a Stanley Cup final. He earned $5.5 million last season on a one-year deal that included a no-trade clause.

Maple Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher had given Montreal and the New York Rangers permission to talk to Barry prior to July 1 in hopes of working out a deal.

The Vancouver offer would make Sundin the highest-paid player in the NHL. Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh and Alexander Ovechkin of Washington currently top next season’s salary list at $9 million US apiece

A year ago today, July 17, 2007, Gary Lupul passed away. He was 48 years old.

Gary Lupul was an ex-Vancouver Canuck, a proud Powell Riverite, a friend to people from all walks of live, and a great friend of mine. He was a scout for the Canucks when he died, and his beat was Ontario and the northern US, and he would phone me from Kitchener or Ottawa or even while driving through my old birthplace, Orillia, just to check in, to ask how I’m doing, and to say all was well with him.

Gary had lived several lives. Along with being a great athlete, he also had personal demons which ended his career prematurely. He told me once that there were times when he’d get a couple of hours sleep after a big party at his house in Vancouver, get up, walk over a bunch of people sleeping on the floor, and go to his Canucks practices.

He was such a colourful character, and it seems like he was just here a few days ago, and now he’s gone forever.

When I heard the news that Gary had died, for a minute or so I thought it had to be another Gary Lupul. It was shocking. It’s still hard to sort out.

He was the friendliness guy I think I’ve ever met. He only wanted to talk about you, never himself. And he was always genuinely interested. And he could be best friends to the most down and out folks, all the way up to the movers and shakers. Everyone loved him, and he loved everyone.

I would just like you to know that Gary was a real hockey player, not just a fringe player. Drugs and alcohol hurt his career and he never really had a chance to show what he could do.

Here’s some examples;

He was a crowd favourite, and the Pacific Coliseum faithful used to chant ‘Loop, Loop, Loop’ thoughout the game. They loved him.

He was a star from the beginning. In minor all-star, he once notched 70 points in 16 games. At 16 he was rookie of the year with the BC Hockey League Nanaimo Clippers. And he racked up 300 points in three years with the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League.

He was a force to be reckoned with in the 1981-82 Stanley Cup finals against the Islanders.

He played a total of 300 games, with 70 goals and 75 assists. All while he did too much partying.

Mario Lemieux’s first fight in the NHL was against Gary.

Gary played for Canada in the 1979 World Juniors in Sweden.

Twice he was picked as a three star selection in an NHL game. And twice he was interviewed on Hockey Night in Canada.

In a game against the Montreal Canadiens during his first season, he scored twice against Bunny Larocque and I wasn’t happy about that.

And he scored on his first shot in the NHL against Rogie Vachon.

Gary is missed by many people. He was a friend to all.

I’m not like Mats Sundin. I have to go to work today. So do you.

I think Mats Sundin will sign with the Montreal Canadiens. And it’s only because the main rival to the Habs for Sundin’s services are the Canucks. Thank goodness it’s the Canucks. Everyone else has spent their allowance.

And even though Vancouver has offered Sundin three million a year more than Montreal, the bottom line is, Sundin wouldn’t mind winning a Stanley Cup, which the Canucks won’t be doing anytime soon. And his previous team? There’s a thousand jokes about that.

But the Habs will. Maybe even next year. Sundin knows this, of course, and anyway, what’s a lousy three million? Sundin lights his cigars with that kind of money.

I do however, think it’s a little rude on Sundin’s part to make teams wait. He’s a good player but he’s not the Rocket. And I’ll bet he’s enjoying the attention.

Just retire at 40 or 41, Mats. Consider yourself lucky that teams like the Montreal Canadiens are willing to pay you seven million dollars and give you a chance to win the Stanley Cup, something that was only a hallucinatory dream in Toronto. And of course, Mats, that along with your aging birth certificate comes aging bones, and if you go on the injury shelf, Montreal still pays you your millions.

So it’s a win-win for you. You probably don’t play a lot, you win a Stanley Cup, and you make your seven million. WHAT”S THE PROBLEM? 

Retire at 38 years old and turn down millions of dollars? Imagine?

How many of us can do that?