The Buyout Line & An Ode to Jake Virtanen | Dude, Where’s My Towel

Expensive fourth liners and lovable meatheads. Just another day in Canuckland.

Another great episode of Power Of The Towel is out now featuring guest was Grady Sas, formerly of TSN and Bardown. You probably know him as a popular Canucks Twitter personality but he’s also an all-around great guy.

Jake’s Back On the Hot Seat

This writer/podcaster has previously described Jake as a “lovable meathead” before, and I stand by that. Being a Canucks fan and a person trying to create content surrounding the team, it would be a lot less fun if Jake wasn’t being Jake.

But by all reports, Zack MacEwen has replaced Jake as that third line right-winger. And we’re relying on these reports from the Capital J Journalists out there, because unless you’re accredited you likely haven’t seen any of these scrimmages save for a short video recap afterwards.

Under normal circumstances, I would say this is classic Canucks related overreactions. I’d have Allen Iverson’s monologue about practice all queued up. We talking about practice?

But these are not normal circumstances. If you’re Travis Green, in less than two weeks you are playing for your season. You have to go with who’s playing right this second. No time to play through things.

That’s why it is time for Jake Virtanen to show why Canucks fans have been so patient with him. His game presumably translates well to the playoffs — he plays a north-south game, he’s a great skater, and he can hit.

For Jake’s sake, I hope he gets the chance to show what he’s worth.

The Buyout Line

Grady Sas and I had a great discussion on what you’d want the Canucks lineup to be against the Minnesota Wild Game 1.

Grady brought up some great points, but I want to see a Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, Brandon Sutter 4th line to start the playoffs.

The Buyout Line would have a combined $13.375 million dollar cap hit, and would be able to do it all. Loui would be an empty net lock, Beagle would give the team that #intangibles and #leadership, and Brandon Sutter would do whatever Brandon Sutter does.

Plus, the memes would be incredible.

Gambler’s Paradise

I’ve been harping on this for a long time, but sports gambling will be a big part of the sports experience going forward.

It has a bit of an underground feel to it now, but in the future I’m sure we’ll see spreads, totals, and other prop bets discussed openly on sports broadcasts.

I’m at the point now personally where I need some action on a game not involving the Canucks to feel something. Grady and I have a great discussion on where sports gambling is going in the future on the podcast.