In Vancouver, Harrison Mooney wondered why the Canucks have "done little" to instill confidence in their rebuild among the fanbase. Are the fans actually "part of the problem?" Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman on Tuesday "implied as much, suggesting the vitriol the management group is facing these days is having an impact on the team's business." Friedman said, "The way it's going there in Vancouver, it just seems so edgy and so nasty every day that it affects the ways things get done there." Mooney noted Friedman "never went so far as to say the fans are to blame," but he did "go on to suggest that the toughness of the Vancouver market could be 'one of the reasons they've never won'" (VANCOUVER SUN, 2/28).
STUCK IN NEUTRAL: In Montreal, Stu Cowan wrote the Canadiens are "going nowhere" in Year 6 of Exec VP & GM Marc Bergevin's "five-year plan, so fans -- and especially season-ticket holders -- might not be happy to know there's going to be a Year 7." The sixth year of Bergevin's plan has "been a disaster," as the team currently has the third fewest points in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens started this season $8M under the $75M cap after losing two key players, and Bergevin "never did anything to fix that situation as the season went off the rails." Additionally, season-ticket holders who have "given up on the Canadiens this season have a hard time getting face value if they want to dump those seats" (MONTREALGAZETTE.com, 2/27).
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote the Blues at the trade deadline "could have attempted to buy in an attempt to win a playoff round," but President of Hockey Operations & GM Doug Armstrong "saw more problems than answers and made a choice to sell" C Paul Stastny to the Jets to better his team's future. Too many times, NHL execs "look at their rosters and get a little delusional." That was "not the case with Armstrong, who knows this team is more than a player or two away from contending for the Stanley Cup." The Stastny trade was a move "clearly aimed at making an already impressive prospect list even better." That is "probably not what long-suffering" Blues fans "want to hear, but it's the truth" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 2/27).
