Wake With Elias: A New Slogan and Dahlen-gate

Canucks News

• Tickets for the upcoming Canucks season are now available, and they come with a new slogan. Apparently. It’s “We’ve Got Unfinished Business”, moving on from the “We Are All Canucks” mantra. It’s kind of strange, in my view. It sounds awkward, and it’s not super clear to anyone who wasn’t following last year’s late surge what it means. Oh well, though. I doubt it makes a big difference either way, but let us know your thoughts in the comments.

• The Jonathan Dahlen wars are back on, baby. Yup, the Jonathan Dahlen from the 2017 Alex Burrows trade. He’s signed in the SHL after a respectable rookie campaign in San Jose. You’ll recall that Dahlen left Vancouver after not being pleased with their development program. Some are using this to justify the fact that Jim Benning traded him away (for Linus Karlsson). To this I say, that’s rather silly. Look, they screwed up his development, sold low, and it just so happens that they accidentally got a win out of it. It was still bad process. Take the L and move on, Benning supporters.

• CanucksArmy on how the Canucks can accrue cap space. In my estimation, this is the most pressing, and perhaps most challenging step facing Rutherford et al., and likely explains their lack of activity so far.

• Some long weekend listening for you, as Jeff Paterson and Andrew Wade return with the Rink Wide podcast.

• The latest episode of Canucks Conversation. Apparently Vasily Podkolzin’s English has really improved, and that’s huge for him. I’m glad he’s getting used to the city and culture and language, and think this increased comfort could portend big things for the Russian winger this season.

• And here’s Fin doing some dances. Good for him!

Hockey News

• The Buffalo Sabres are bringing back the Buffalo head logo. Honestly, I’ve always liked this one, even though their standard logo is pretty solid. If only there was another third logo from another local hockey club that would come back. #FreeTheSkate

• Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A New York Rangers forward’s development is not going well. This time, Nils Lundkvist (defenceman taken 28th overall in 2018) is looking to be traded. Lundkvist was prominently featured in JT Miller trade proposals, if that’s notable. We’ll see where this goes, but man it feels like this stuff happens a lot with the Rangers.

• Jayna Hefford on the current state of the women’s hockey scene and where there is room for improvement.

• And Mike Sullivan, former Canucks assistant coach (and head coach while Torts was suspended — good times!) has received an extension from the Pittsburgh Penguins. A coach who does not enough credit, in my opinion. He’s been wildly successful with oft-injured rosters.

BC Place Bulletins

BC Place Bulletins is a Friday WWE feature summarizing scores news from the local Vancouver sports scene.

• After a series of quarterback injuries, the BC Lions have added a new one in Vernon Adams Jr. Watch his introductory press conference here:

• Some sentencing news on the Vancouver Whitecaps front. The news relates to sexual assault charges against former women’s coach Bob Birarda. Disturbing stuff, but glad justice is being had at least to some degree.

• And if you missed this from a few days ago — LeBron James was in Vancouver!