pure science with a splash of black cat

QUEBEC CITY—Quebec’s premier is confident the NHL wants to bring a team back to Quebec City.

Jean Charest told The Canadian Press on Thursday that he discussed the issue with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at the Montreal Canadiens’ 100th anniversary game on Friday.

The premier, on a trade mission in Moscow, said Bettman seemed sincerely interested in bringing pro hockey back to the provincial capital a decade and a half after the Nordiques left to become the Colorado Avalanche.

Charest said the commissioner appeared convinced of two things: the economic viability of a team in Quebec, and the prospect of finding investors.

Bettman has said in the past that he would consider Quebec City as a possible home to an NHL team if it followed through on plans to build a top arena and if a team were for sale.

Could you imagine if they tried to invalidate the contracts? The NHLPA would stir up a massive shitstorm.

The NHL is so very very poorly run. It’s almost comical, if it wasn’t so sad.

“This is the new rules.”
“Sweet, this is a new contract under those new rules.”
“We don’t like the new rules and hate your contract, and your face.”
“But you made those rules.”
“AND WE HATE THEM AND YOUR FACE! INVESTIGATION! INVESTIGATION! I HATE YOUR FACE!!!!!”

Brendan Shanahan tells a story, which he repeated Thursday on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s satellite radio show, about growing up as a Maple Leafs fan and meeting former Toronto captain Rick Vaive during the summer of 1983.

“When I was 14 years old I was skating in the summertime at a rink in Toronto,” Shanahan recalled. “Rick Vaive happened to be skating at an adjoining rink and we were actually in dressing rooms that were right next to each other.

“I went in when he was sort of settled and asked him for an autograph. I didn’t get the best response from Rick Vaive at that time.”

It was not a moment Shanahan would forget.

The Devils made him their first selection and the second overall pick in the 1987 entry draft and he went straight to the NHL as a rookie with the team in 1987-88.

“Fast forward four years later and Rick Vaive is waiting for a meaningless faceoff in Buffalo,” Shanahan said. “He’s now playing for the Sabres. He’s lined up next to some 18-year-old kid from New Jersey. When the puck dropped, I attacked Rick Vaive.

“It was a quiet, uneventful game. He couldn’t believe the rage I had, not only in attacking him, but it took two (linesmen) to restrain me afterwards and throw me in the penalty box.”

Vaive was dumbfounded.

“He said to one of my teammates at the time, Jim Korn, ‘By the way, what’s wrong with that kid and why was he coming after me?’ ” Shanahan recounted. “Jim Korn said, ‘Apparently he asked you for an autograph when he was a little kid and you weren’t that friendly to him. So he’s harbored those feelings since then.’ ”

[…]

There is a postscript to the Vaive story.

“Three years ago, he came up to me at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and introduced me to his 14-year-old son,” Shanahan said. “I signed the autograph, took a picture and gave him a piggy-back. I didn’t want karma to come back and get me.”