to move up and down
Ah yes, famous people come out in droves for playoff games — especially since ticket prices are off the wall. Last night’s example: Glee stars Lea Michele and Cory Monteith (who is Canadian) took in the Canucks vs. Sharks game in Vancouver. ARE THEY BAD LUCK? (Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
NHL is ahead of its time after partnering with You Can Play
“This is evolution for us,” says Gary Bettman from his office in New York, after an afternoon spent running the media gauntlet. The National Hockey League and the NHLPA had formally announced a partnership with You Can Play on Thursday, becoming the first league to partner with a group dedicated to fighting homophobia in sports, and the commissioner had toured the major networks. Now, Bettman sounds happy. He sounds proud.
“The way it will do the league good is it will create the right environment for the league and our fans,” Bettman said. “We have been very clear in terms of what we believe is the right thing.” He’s on speakerphone, and he says to hold on for a second so he can look up and read aloud the anti-discrimination language in the 2005 collective bargaining agreement. It included sexual orientation. This is a bigger step, though.
It’s been a little more than a year since You Can Play was launched in the wake of the death of Patrick Burke’s younger brother Brendan (pictured above with the rest of the Burke family, far right), who had come out to ESPN a few months before he died in a snowy car accident in Indiana. It has been a year of patience, even as things moved fast. Burke has been very careful not to shame sports into changing for the better, but instead has worked to convince them that YCP could be trusted. No angry press releases, no PR stunt. Just methodical work.
You Can Play already had a significant presence in the NHL, with over 60 players in its PSAs, from Zdeno Chara to Steven Stamkos to Carey Price. But now it’s part of the playbook, and that’s progress. (Photos: PNG/Files/Matthew Sherwood for National Post)
WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE: Top row from left, Vancouver Canucks’ Cam Barker, Zack Kassian, Andrew Alberts and bottom from left, Kevin Bieksa, Daniel Sedin, of Sweden, and Ryan Kesler wear replica Vancouver Millionaires uniforms while posing for a team photograph in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday.
The team will sport the uniforms during their NHL hockey game against the Detroit Red Wings on March 16. The Millionaires played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the Western Canada Hockey League between 1911 and 1926. (Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
It’s Wednesday. You’re almost over the hump. So close. Why not pick yourself up and check out what happened in last night’s hockey action? (Photo: Trevor Hagan/The Canadian Press)
The NHL lockout is over. Now back to Roberto Luongo-to-the-Leafs speculation:
Goaltending, is that an important question? If the answer is yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs face a very important question. And there are plenty more — first-line centre and the top-four defencemen among them — facing the team as it prepares to join the rush to training camp this week.
Will it be James Reimer (pictured, top) or Ben Scrivens in net, or will Toronto look outside the organization for help? Click through for a look at five pressing issues as the Leafs return to the ice. (Photos: Abelimages/Getty Images, Mark Van Manen/Postmedia News)
![Ryan Kesler traded in his stick for a referee’s whistle in Vancouver on Wednesday, but not to worry — it was just for one night during the NHL lockout.
About fifty road hockey players laced up their skates under the Cambie Bridge on Wednesday in a game organized by the Canucks star, featuring an appearance by the fan-favourite “Green Men” and anthem singer Mark Donnelly. Kevin Bieksa played on one of the teams, and defenceman Jason Garrison joined Kesler as another referee.
“It’s just something we wanted to do to have some fun,” Bieksa said to the Vancouver Sun. “Every time we’ve been talking hockey lately it’s been serious and [about] the CBA and all that, so we’re just going back to our roots for a fun road hockey game. In the pouring rain.” (Photo: Ian Lindsay/Postmedia News)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_memclq83pA1r1thtao1_1280.jpg)
Ryan Kesler traded in his stick for a referee’s whistle in Vancouver on Wednesday, but not to worry — it was just for one night during the NHL lockout.
About fifty road hockey players laced up their skates under the Cambie Bridge on Wednesday in a game organized by the Canucks star, featuring an appearance by the fan-favourite “Green Men” and anthem singer Mark Donnelly. Kevin Bieksa played on one of the teams, and defenceman Jason Garrison joined Kesler as another referee.
“It’s just something we wanted to do to have some fun,” Bieksa said to the Vancouver Sun. “Every time we’ve been talking hockey lately it’s been serious and [about] the CBA and all that, so we’re just going back to our roots for a fun road hockey game. In the pouring rain.” (Photo: Ian Lindsay/Postmedia News)
It’s over. The Vancouver Canucks couldn’t dig themselves out of a 3-0 series hole, and now the Presidents’ Trophy winners will be practising their golf swing for the next few months. The No. 8 Kings are onto the next round. Maybe next year?
The Vancouver Canucks began the 2012 NHL playoffs with a home game against the Los Angeles Kings on April 11, 2012. A 4-2 loss was not what the fans had in mind.
Photos: Andy Clark/Reuters, Gerry Kahrmann/Postmedia News
Whistler says goodbye to Sarah Burke
The dull grey skies over Blackcomb Mountain were punctuated by the staccato rhythm of helicopter blades Tuesday afternoon in a solemn flyby tribute for fallen freeskier Sarah Burke.
It was her “moment of noise” rather than silence — a salute to the 29-year-old who lived life larger than most, defying the odds of gravity in the superpipe and setting new heights for women freeskiers around the world.
Close to 200 of Burke’s family and friends, candles in hand, lined Blackcomb’s superpipe. It was their private goodbye in Whistler to the world champion and four-time X Games gold medallist who died three months ago to the day, after a fall in a superpipe in Utah. Photo: Bonny Makarewicz for Postmedia News
Three against one? Oh well. The Canucks have been pushed around too many times in the last three seasons and now they are finally starting to get aggressive. As long as hockey is a violent contact sport, that will be a necessary part of the game. Two seasons ago in the playoffs, the Canucks capitulated in the face of the Hawks’ aggression. Has this week been a sign of things to come?
