HELLO VANCOUVER!

Just got back from a strenuous hour and five minute jog (or yog, it may be pronounced with a soft "J" here in Canada) around the Stanley Park Sea Wall on a crisp, gorgeous West Coast morning. How nice was it? So nice that even the homeless were getting a quick 5K in. Seriously.

Anyway, the endorphins and the scenery yogged my creative, and a steady stream of pre-playoff ponderings mused in my mind as Incubus massaged my eardrums.

Here are those that I can remember.

• Hockey players have this weird follicle fixation come playoff time. Shaved heads, dyed hair (remember when Sydor went blonde in 2000?). Well this year is no different. I saw Steve Ott in the elevator, he looks like an albino version of Bob Deniro in Taxi Driver, wild eyes and all. "You lookin at me Sedin"? And that isn't the most bizarre coif. Mike Smith, he of the rollicking locked, sandy-blonde hair climbed aboard the plane last night with a Jet Black mop that would make Trent Reznor envious.
    
• Swedish Twins? Even though its just half of the pair I give the edge to Joel Lundqvist over Henrik and Daniel Sedin, there just seems to be more meat to his game.
  
  
• Staying with the Swedes, there is a place here in Vancouver called The Swedish Touch. Not sure what it is, but I believe it is an off-shoot of IKEA and has something to do with Nordic decorating.
   
• I've layed down a bet with my brother-in-law, Canuck center Brendan Morrison. Stars win, I get a bounty of smoked, candied salmon. (delish!!!). If by some fluke or accident the Canucks prevail, I owe him Texas beef.
  
  
  
• The Canucks employ a player with the NHL's most difficult name to pronounce (according to the amount it gets butchered by "broadcasters" around the league) Kevin (that's not the tough part) Bieksa. I agree, not that tough. (Bee-ek-sah)

If Ralph or I mess it up it will because of the time zone change.      

• Vancouver is named for Captain Vancouver who floated in here in the days when all you could do was float. (Dallas? I believe Aaron Spelling named it, right?)
  
  
• Roberto Luongo is a dead ringer for Sasha Baron Cohen. Come to think of it, ever see the two of them in the same place? Great Success!
  
  
• Our award-retardant TV crew brought enough cameras, editing facilities and tape to cover a Discovery Channel gestation special. Producer, Jason Walsh, is now known merely as Coppola.
  
  
• How taxing is it that two of the three teams who rack up the most travel miles year after year are meeting in the opening round!? It felt like we flew down to Antarctica and then up over the North Pole in order to get here last night. Can't wait for the 1-1-1 section of this sure to be seven game series.
  
  
• Bet you didn't know but Mike Modano has a different name in Canada where he played his Junior hockey and was almost drafted by the Canucks way back in 1988. In America, where he is the greatest goal scorer ever, he is Mike Moe-don-oh. Here in the North he is Mike Moe-dan-oh. Now depending on his effectiveness in the series he may have a "@#&*ing" as a prefix to his Canadian name in Vancouver.

Wow, running is good for the mind, eh? I was just givin' er...later.