First of all. OK, who’s supposed to compete with this item from Vancouver Canucks social media on Tuesday?
Forget about it. Winner, winner, chicken dinner, and I’m talking about a dog.
There’s nothing like “man and woman’s best friend”, and the Canucks are crushing it with “Ryp”.
All of us who realize dogs are probably the greatest critters on the planet couldn’t help but watching this one over and over.
Canucks Announce Upgrades
The Canucks organization and Rogers Arena are pumping up the technological advancements for this season, including a new and improved video board above centre ice. It’s being referred to as part of ‘Phase II” of building renovations, with Phase I presumably being the lockerroom improvements last season.
According to the club “the highlight of Phase II is the installation of a new state-of-the-art ‘bigger and brighter’ video board.” It’s described as four times larger than the old screen and curved on the corners to allow for viewing from any angle or spot in the rink.
There’s also been a high-priced club added at ice level called “The Experience”, where upscale fans can eat and drink and watch the players from both teams walk by as they go to and from the ice. This has become common fare around the league in recent years.
The downstairs/ice-level area will also see new benches, dashers, glass, and penalty boxes at some point this season.
The summer 2024 plan, a.k.a. “Phase III”, includes changing out all of the seats in the lower and upper bowls.
Big Bucks
In the “Vancouver Canucks fans really don’t care” department, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Auston Matthews to a four-year contract extension this week worth $13.25-million per season.
The former Calder Trophy winner as NHL rookie-of-the-year has twice won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer and holds the Maple Leafs record with 60 in a single season. He’s one regular season goal away from 300 for his career. The 25-year-old also won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award in 2022, that’s both versions of league MVP.
Take a stab at how many playoff games he’s played in.
Eleven. Over that span of games he’s contributed exactly 11 points.
An early re-sign via agent Judd Moldaver and new Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving, the new contract kicks in next summer.
If anything, this story may just re-aggravate the question, “So when do the Canucks re-sign their best player?”
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