I was all set yesterday to write a snarky post this morning about Trevor Linden night here in Vancouver. Linden was a class act for a lot of years, but he never won a thing and he certainly will never be counted in the pantheon of All-time greats. Yet he’s a god among men around these parts, which says a lot about the kind of teams that have come and gone out here on the west coast.

But I can’t muster much snark for the Canucks after last night’s back alley abortion at Rexall. The whole thing reminded me of playing NHL ’94 on the Genesis back when Roenick was an unstoppable, pixelated force and the Oilers were absolute garbage (I think the top line had Klima and Ciger on it). Last night Joel Q. and the boys were playing the computer with the offsides turned off.

Kane and Toews (anybody know if he’s related to author and fellow Manitoban Miriam?) are for real, certainly more so than the young “talent” the Oilers are mustering. I took a lot of shit at HF last year for saying in one of my frequent fits of pique that Ganger is going to top out as a second liner, but he’s making me look like Nostra-fucking-damus thus far this season. Seems to me that if you’re going to run with as many infants as the Oilers are this year either they need to be world-class talents or have a veteran supporting cast that can mask the folly of youth. Edmonton has neither and the results pretty much bear that out.