"A Tale of Two Cities"

This is my first ever blog, so please e-mail me and let me know your feedback. How can something that is equal be so different? The Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers finished the 2007-08 season tied with 88 points, but the roads they took to get there couldn’t be more diverse. The Canucks finished the season with a pathetic display of hockey, losing 7 of their last 8 games on way to backing themselves right out of the playoffs. Look no further than the top for the problem. Markus Naslund is the Captain of this team and making 6-million in the final year of his contract. He scored a mere 3 goals in his last 22 games. That desire and leadership was fully on display Saturday night in the team’s final game of the year (insert eye roll here). Sure, it has to be hard to play when you know that you’re done tomorrow, but how about having a little pride in the jersey you are wearing or the fans you are playing in front of. I’m convinced the only reason CBC didn’t cut to Coronation Street was because they felt it was Trevor Linden’s last game. Even that wasn’t enough to motivate this sad bunch. Where is the leadership on this team? Where is the hope if you are a Canuck fan? On the other hand is the Oilers. A team that had been eliminated before their last game, and what did they do in their finale, oh yeah…knock out the anemic Canuks. Despite losing captain Ethan Moreau, Shawn Horcoff, Sheldon Souray and Raffi Torres to season-ending injuries, the Oilers fashioned a record of 14-5-1 in their final 20 games. When the Oilers were cleaning out their lockers this week they should all have received a pair of sunglasses, because the future looks so bright, they gotta wear shades with the likes of Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson, etc... A team written off for dead when their leading scorer went down, the extremely young Oilers blossomed into a force to be reckoned with in the West and sent a message for next year, giving the fans at Rexall Place a lot more to look forward to than those at GM Place. But hey, those are just the thoughts rattling around in ‘My Big Head’. Derek Meyers – CJDC-TV Sports