With the Vancouver Canucks trailing 2-0 in their series with the Los Angeles Kings, Tiger Williams told the Calgary Herald’s George Johnson: “People look at me as if I’m a two-headed cow, but to me it’s a bit of karma, for what happened after the seventh game in Vancouver last year. The Hockey Gods making them pay. If they don’t know that the Jedi with the sword is not in their favour, well, they’re going to have to cut the head off the monster and take that sword back.” . . . Williams also told Johnson: “Unfortunately, that riot killed off any Canucks fans living east of Field, B.C. I’ve got guys in Swift Current who always cheer for Canadian teams telling me ‘I can’t . . . just ’cause of the riot.’ ” . . .
Why doesn’t the NHL seem to understand that its system of discipline has turned into a coast-to-coast laughingstock? Slam a head into the glass and get fined $2,500. Criticize the officiating, no matter how accurate the criticism, and pay $10,000. . . . “I don’t know if it’s embarrassing, but it’s probably not the way we want to get ourselves on ESPN,” Detroit Red Wings defenceman Brad Stuart told Dave Waddell of the Windsor Star on last weekend’s mayhem in the NHL. “I’m watching ESPN and they showed one goal from the Philly game and then three or four fights and all the other hits and (cheap shot) stuff. That’s probably not what we want as a league.” . . .
Goaltender Liam McLeod of Kamloops, who was selected by the Blazers in the ninth round of the 2011 WHL bantam draft, has committed to play next season with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings. McLeod made the decision after attending the Spruce Kings’ spring camp earlier this month. . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “What does Tiger need more — a coach or a couch?” . . . One more from Ostler: “Ky Laffoon, a notoriously blow-top pro in the 1930s and ’40s, lost a tournament because his putter betrayed him. Laffoon got a long piece of rope, tied one end around his putter and the other end around the rear bumper of his car, and drove 500 miles to the next tour stop.” . . .
If you’re into drag racing, you may want to think about a trip to Spokane County Raceway. They’ve revamped the racing surface and are planning three days of drags, April 27-29. . . . “Canada is getting rid of its penny,” notes Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald. “Imagine if the U.S. got rid of the penny. How would Mitt Romney pay his taxes?” . . . Why is Canada getting rid of the penny? “Because it’s Canada,” Dickson writes, “there’s nobody notable enough to put on the penny.” . . . One more from Dickson: “The NRA convention was just held. It’s the second-largest annual gathering of gun lovers, right after the Alabama spring game.” . . .
After watching the Blazers beat the Portland Winterhawks 7-6 on Monday night, how is one supposed to go back to watching Scrum City (aka the NHL playoffs)? . . . “The refereeing tonight was a disgrace,” said Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville after his side lost 3-2 in OT to the visiting Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday night. And hockey coaches everywhere nodded in agreement. . . . So American skier Lindsey Vonn found out early this month that she owed the U.S. government $1,705,437 in back taxes for 2010, which was the year of the Vancouver Olympics. “The money owed . . . has been paid in full,” she wrote on her Facebook page. . . . Which makes one wonder just how much money she made in 2010. . . . Forget raising your child as a left-handed pitcher. Let’s go skiing. . . .
Here’s the Left Coast Sports Babe: “Fired Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino, 51, apparently exchanged 4,300 texts with Jessica Dorell, 25, in the last seven months. Shocking! A 51-year-old man knows how to text?’’ . . . One more from the Babe: “Nervous times in heaven this week, as they hear the words ‘Mike Wallace is here to see you.’ ” . . . What does Brian Burke think of the early mayhem in the NHL playoffs? “This is like people complaining about the rain at Woodstock,” Burke told Kevin Allen of USA TODAY. “Yes, there was lots of mud, but it was the greatest music gathering in history.” . . .
After Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended for telling Time magazine that he likes Fidel Castro, Richmond blogger T.C. Chong noted: “Outraged Cuban-Americans have protested. To clear the air, Guillen said it was all a big mistake and that it is Kim Jong-il he admires.” . . . The U of Alabama had 78,000 folks attend its spring football game the other day. The Penn State Nittany Lions will hold their spring game today, the first one since all that transpired there last fall. . . .
A Thursday night tweet from sportscaster Gene Principe: “Phx broadcaster Tyson Nash has received death threats after saying hit by Torres on Hossa was ‘as clean of a hit as you’re going to get.’ ” . . . Nash, of course, played with the Blazers back in the day. . . . Here’s Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, in a profile on HBO’s Real Sports: “I have one rule among the position players: I want you to run hard to first base. That’s it.” To which Phil Mushnick of the New York Post noted: “Imagine that, big leaguers running hard to first. Radical.” . . . One more from Mushnick: “In this town, if teams gave away game tickets, all the invented tack-on charges still would make them expensive. Kinda like paying $250 a ticket to see Oliver! — a play about the miserable lives of poor children.”
(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca,
gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score returns in May.)
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