Best name for the Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Voyageurs! For the logo you put a sideways headshhot of some lumberjack looking dude with a red touque on, the same way the Blackhawks jersey is a sideways look of an aboriginal. You could also do a Washington Capitals style where you just have nice lettering and font, and write the text "voyageurs" across the jersey. I like Voyageurs because it appeals to a minority culture within the city in the sense that its a french Canadian word, however the voyageurs are an item of great historical lore amongst Western Canadians. It's very geographically specific as something that used to occur on Manitoba land. Voyageurs were the people involved in the fur trade that were responsible for transporting the skins from the red river area back to the Atlantic Coast to get shipped back to the Mother Country. They were big burly bear men of the back country, that could grow beards that made king Leonidis from 300 look like a 12 year old school girl. The Winnipeg crew has to make the name the Voyagers.

If at first you don't
succeed,then don't try the mother eff'ing jets ever again. if we're going to name it the jets, why not go out there and get Ken Dryden out of retirement to lace them up again. then we can really relive the glory days of the jets. oh wait! the jets always sucked and don't have a rich history of memories. its time to forge a new identity within hockey, and a clean slate is needed as far as a symbol for the franchise.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets be back bitches. Although it's only verified by a Globe and Mail editor, we at BoWC are going full throttle in naming the JETS

From Best to Worst

Winnipeg Jets - Classic. There is no doubt in my mind and every Canadian out there that the soon-to-be Winnipeg Jets should be called the Winnipeg Jets.

Winnipeg Falcons - This name has been tossed around, and if the legal issues prevent the Jets name, I say go with Falcons

Winnipeg Thrashers - Atlanta-Calgary Flames. Atlanta-Winnipeg Thrashers?

All the three above are decent .... now the brutal ones:

Anything with Manitoba in it - It just doesn't sound right. If the owners had any common sense they would not use anything with Manitoba and especially not ...

Manitoba Moose - Currently, the AHL team and Vancouver Canuck affiliate. There have been talks that they would just adopt the name, in which case we will riot and burn Winnipeg to the ground. Better to not have a city at all than be named after a fucking moose. Can't get lamer than that, unless they named it the Manitoba Does


That's what happens to dumbass moose

-Hal

Manitoba Moose and canucks update

Moose News

The Manitoba Moose won 2-1 in Double Ot last night. Bliznak scored the late ot goal and Desbiens tied it up with 2 minutes left. Someone named Gabriel Dumont scored for Hamiltion, who is know tied 2-2 with Manitoba, and the next game being played in Winnipeg.

Looks like Phoenix will be staying in Phoenix. Gary Bettman must really want hockey there. Maybe he plans on retiring in Phoenix one day. I think Gary Bettman really likes going to Phoenix.

The good news is that Atlanta sounds like it will be moving. This is good news for everyone except Vancouver fans, who will now have to see Dustin Byfyglien six times a season because it is rumoured Winnipeg will be in the NW Division. Some possible movements would be:



vancouver into the pacific division (this would only happen if phoenix moved, because there would be a hole in the pacific division.

Colorado goes to the Pacific Division, Dallas moves to SE Division, which would be the hole left by the thrashers. Dallas is just as close to Florida and Tampa Bay as it is to LA and Phoenix.

The AHL is also helping out the chances of Winnipeg landing an AHL team, by not putting any pressure on the Moose to declare if they will be playing in Winnipeg this year. The owner of the AHL is such a selfless guy and so awesome! I really wish he was commisioner of the NHL, however Gary BEttman approved his own multi-year extension back in December.

What the AHL comissioner is doing, is allowing the second most profitable franchise in the AHL (Winnipeg, second to only the Hershey Bears) to try an expand themselves into a more profitable organization. He is giving every opportunity for the owners of the Moose and the Investors of that team, to leave the AHL if they wish and make more money off the pursuits of an NHL team.

Canucks News

Canuck's have dominated this series. Nashville is lucky not to be down 3-0. At the same time Vancouver has shown an inability to finish. Peka Rinne has played spectacular, at the same time some of the canucks have to take responsibility for not capitalizing on their scoring chances. Case in point, Kevin Bieksa. The defensive pinch is supposed to be one of the Canucks key assets. However Bieksa has to play a little more aggressively on this play, it's in OT for Christs sake. I know he's timid of peka Rinne, but it seems like he's bowing in the footsteps of Rinne, when he flubs a shot at a wide open net, right into Rinne. There's a possibility that Bieksa is trying to shoot the puck under Rinne but it got off of him. But still Bieksa, you have so much open net and you decide to shoot it there! what were u thinking? Maybe you are not the clutch playoff player that you began to seem to be in the third round.

There's a lot of talk about how the Sedin's are being shut down. What's not being talked about is how the Canucks are shutting down Weber. Zero points so far in three games and Lou is seeing a lot of his shots from the point. First one to breakthrough out of the combo of Sedin and Weber will win game 4.

-Hark

March 30th: Canucks vs. Kings plus Manitoba Moose Update

It's going to be an awesome game tonight. Luongo starting for the Canucks and Quick starting for the Kings. Quick has a .919 save percentage this season and they have Bernier as a backup putting up decent numbers. Kings are in the same situation as the Canucks, two good goalies on the roster gives both of them the option to trade their backup for prospects in the offseason. If the Canucks do move Schneider, I hope they would try and get a second/third liner for him, and not draft picks. We've spent so much time developing Schneider it would be a shame to trade him for draft picks, which means more hardwork developing another player. If we move Schneider we have to fetch an asset that will be able to help us immediately in the 2011-2012 season. There's the possibility of keeping Schneider and having an excellent backup to Luongo, however we all know that Schneider will walk as a UFA at the end of the 2012 season, because god knows Gillis won't be able to afford him.

With Kopitar out, the Kings will be running a top line of Smitty-Lewis Brown. Interesting to note that in the Kings last game, Doughty was on the second PP unit. Not sure if Coach Murray was trying to tell Doughty something. If Doughty is in a power-play slump, there's no better team to come out against than the canucks, who he demolished on the power play last playoffs. It got to the point last year where every time the canucks took a penalty you knew it was going to end up in the back of the net. Thats part of the reason how everyone came to hate Alberts so much, because of the stupid penalties he took against the Kings that led to bad goals.

In other news the Moose beat the lowly Rochester Amerk's in a shootout. Hodgson was a -2 but only because the majority of the Moose goals were scored on the PP. Hodgson also had an assist and a shootout goal. Hodgson is still not dominating the AHL like Vigneault expects him to do before he gets the call up to the Canucks. Schroeder played for the Moose and coughed up the puck while on the PP to Bill Thomas again. It was the second time in two nights that Bill Thomas got a shorthanded goal on the exact same breakaway play. Two nights ago it was Hodgson who coughed the puck up to Bill Thomas while the Moose were on the PP. The Moose are now atop the North Division, but its a close race with a few games left so a lot could change. Yann Sauve scored tonight, coming up big for the moose again tonight. The way Sauve is playing he should be able to make the Canucks next season. If he hadn't got injured at the start of the season its possible that Sauve would be on the Canucks right now instead of Tanev. The other Moose defenseman that has been standing out is Mark Flood. He's outscoring Shirokov and Hodgson over the past couple weeks, all the while doing it as a defenseman! Not sure if the Canucks have the rights to Flood, but they should definitely lock him up because Hodgson has a knack for finding Flood, and Flood has a knack for shooting the puck into the net.

Enjoy the game tonight. And oh yah! Flames are done son!

-HArk

Manitoba Moose Update

The Manitoba Moose have been playing mediocre hockey for most of march. Sure they have won 9 of 14 games this month, however there was a stretch where they only won 1 game out of 5. Tonight they play the Rochester Amerk's in the second game of a double header. The Moose really have to take it to the Amerk's. The Amerk's have been hit by the casualty of having many of their players called up to the Florida Panthers late in the season. The Amerk's were competing for a playoff spot at the NHL trade deadline however have since lost 10 of 11 games. Dave Tallon (GM of the Florida Panthers is to blame) for trading away all his players at the deadline and then being forced to call players up from his AHL affiliate. Dave Tallon is an idiot that caused the Blackhawks to not be able to compete for the top spot in the league, by signing players to ridiculous contracts( Cambpell 7 mil a season, Huet 5 mil a season, Boland 3.75 million a season). It resulted in the blackhawks firing him, and having to trade away Versteeg, Ladd and Bifugly for virtually no return.

Tonight the Moose must take advantage of the Amerk's. It could be a great opportunity for players on the Moose to make a bid to play on the Canucks third line for the remainder of the season. The Vancouver Canucks are looking for a third line/fourth line player and a good night by Sweatt, Shirokov or Hodgson could go a long way in giving them an opportunity to take part in a long NHL playoff run. It's not something the Moose fans want to consider, losing one of their best players to the Canucks, but its something the Moose can afford to do because they have been scoring by committee all season. Shirokov, their leading goal scorer would be the biggest loss, but it is unlikely the Canucks would call him up because he is not a natural center which the Canucks are looking for. Eddy Lack will not be getting the start tonight, he will be rested as the Moose are on a stretch of hockey that see them play 6 games in eight nights.

I am expecting another great night from Rick Rypien. He has been playing with a lot of hockey smarts, always making smart first passes with the puck and getting involved any chance he can after the whistle, mixing it up with the other team. Cody Hodgson will have to have a better night tonight. With the Moose up 2-1 in the third period of last nights game, Cody Hodgson coughed the puck up while he was on the PP, allowing Thomas of the Amerk's to go in alone shorthanded on Lack and tie up the game late. Fortunately the combination of Yann Sauve and Bill Sweatt were able to combine for each of their second points of the night, and regain late in the game the win that Hodgson nearly threw away.

-Hark

Cody Hodgson Becomes a Right Winger

The Winnipeg Free Press have reported that Cody Hodgson will continue to play on the Right wing of Joel Perrault for the unforseen future. Hodgson has been a center for much of his career, however relished the shift last night against the Houston Aeros with a goal.

Alain Vigneault might have played into the decision to put Hodgson on the right wing in Manitoba. The former Moose Coach has stated many times that if Hodgson is going to make the Canucks team, he is not going to do it as a fourth liner but a second line player. With the Canucks all but locked up long term with the first three center positions (Henrik, Kesler, MAlhotra) it is likely that Hodgson will have to play the Wing when he plays his first Full Rookie Season for the Vancouver Canucks. Potential Lines:

Raymond-Kesler-Hodgson
SAmuelson-Malhotra_Hodgson

-Hark

What the long rest does for canucks?

Another defenseman got injured for the Canucks. Andrew NHlbert, injured his knee this week. The canucks next game is on monday. If Alberts does sit it out the canucks will not have to call up another defenseman because Hamhuis is supposed to be back in the lineup. If Alberts can play that means Parent might be sent down to the Moose (or it might be better to hold onto him for when the next canucks defenseman goes down momentarily). If Parent did go down to the Moose he would compliment an already amazing defense which has seen Kevin Connaughton and Lee Sweatt leading the Moose so far in goals this season, each scoring more than Schroeder, Hodgson and Shirokov combined.

Burrows is also supposed to be back next week after all this rest. Not on the Monday game however it is more likely that he will be back against the oilers on november 2nd.

with ballard's concussion we have to expect he will be out longer. At least this gives him more time to rest his knee which had surgery in the off season. When Ballard comes back he will be ready to go for a long haul for the rest of the season.

how the canucks will stay under the cap.

ok so. the canucks are 1.8 million over the salary cap. plus sami salo and alex burrows who make a combined 3.5 million can not go on injured reserved until after the first game of the season. so the canucks have to do something tricky to bring their roster down by 1.8 million in the meantime before the first game of the season. this is what they will do:

They will waive goalie cory schneider and forward mason raymond. reason being is that both are rfa's and can not be claimed off waivers by other teams. this will free up 3.4 million in cap space. then they will be replaced by cody hodgson and goalie eddie lack who combined make 1 million dollars.

boom!!!!we just saved 2.4 million in caps space. we will play one game without mason raymond which will suck, but at least cody hodgson will have a chance to play in the nhl for one game before the gets sent down to manitoba. And we have to prey to god that roberto luongo's sore groin doesnt act up and we have to put in eddie lack because he is not ready for play yet. then after the first game we will send eddie lack and hodgson down to the ahl and call up raymond and schneider who never really left but were watching the game from the pressbox all along.

Mike Gillis you are a genius! and so are u hark for figuring out his plan.

Michael Grabner

This guy is the real deal. In wednesdayt night's game against Edmonton he set up the game winning goal. He streaked into the offensive zone got past a couple defenseman and set up hansen. I've heard about this guy for about 2 years now. He was from Crosby's draft year and we got him 14th overall. In 06-07 he had 55 points in 55 games in the WHL. Last year he stepped up to the Manitoba Moose in the AHL and had an impact by scoring 22 goals and 22 assists in 74 games. I really think that Grabner is probably the best prospect that the canucks currently have. I would not be surprised at all if he cracks the roster.

-hark