Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Regular contributors include Jordan Moss, Rob Wagner, Howard Steiss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Peter Hucul, Ted Tait, Bill and Glen Myles, Frank Sullivan, Mark Hughes and Iqbal Grewall.   

Spanning the digital ether to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is Under Further Review.

Canucks Notebook – Here’s some breaking news. The Canucks are not very good. The Canucks have lost eight of their last nine games and sit dead last in the NHL standings. They haven’t won a game in regulation since December 19. The draft lottery beckons.

Thatcher Demko is hurt again. That’s six injuries in two seasons. It’s already apparent the Canucks made a huge mistake giving him a contract extension last summer. Looks like Demko is going to become the Canucks Carey Price. Destined to live out his career on LTIR.

What concerns Canuck faithful is whether the current management team can be trusted with a rebuild. How many times have we stated that you cannot accelerate a rebuild? The Leafs are a prime example. They committed $11 million to John Tavares before they had completed the heavy lifting. The Leafs never really built the foundation of a Cup champion.

Look no further than the Montreal Canadiens for a blueprint on how to rebuild properly. The Canadiens have been uber patient and have avoided trying to accelerate what can be a painful process. Montreal now has a deep lineup, organizational depth and a surplus of draft capital. That’s exactly how its done. The Canadiens have also been very disciplined managing the salary cap.

The Canucks management team is being dragged kicking and screaming into a rebuild. The Canucks should also look to how the Bruins went about their business prior to last spring’s trade deadline. The Bruins made a series of transactions that are paying big dividends already.

Boston dealt bottom-six forwards Trent Frederic and Max Jones to Edmonton for second and fourth-round picks. Neither player has panned out in Edmonton. The Bruins sent defenceman Brandon Carlo to the Maple Leafs for a top-five protected 2026 first-round pick, a fourth-round pick and centre Fraser Minten who’s been a pleasant surprise in Boston. Brad Marchand went to the Florida Panthers for what turned out to be a first-round pick after the Panthers won the Cup. Charlie Coyle was packed off to Colorado for a second-round pick and prospect William Zellers. The Bruins could end up with two picks in the top ten this year. Pretty good way to kick-start a retool. Hopefully, the Canucks have been paying attention.

NHL Notebook – You could make a pretty strong argument that the three best teams in the NHL all reside in the Western Conference Central Division. A look at the standings shows Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota leading the league in points and points percentage. Thanks to Gary Bettman’s steadfast refusal to go to a 1 vs. 8 playoff format, two of these teams will again have to face each other in the opening round of the playoffs. Just not right.

Bettman wanted parity and he’s certainly got it. At the midway mark of the season, 15 teams in the Eastern Conference are in the playoffs or within five points of the final wildcard spot. In the West, 13 teams are in a similar situation. Do you think the NHL would agree to go to a three-point system? Of course not. That would make too much sense.

The standings are a bit of an aberration. No chance all of these teams are true contenders even if they hang around the playoff bubble. The smart teams will take a realistic view of where they are and act accordingly at the trade deadline. It would be foolish to trade off assets for one fruitless playoff run.

As we move into the second half of the season, a few teams are starting to create some distance in the standings. The Montreal Canadiens have had an impressive recent run to the top of the Atlantic Division. The Habs are probably a year ahead of schedule in their rebuild cycle. The lineup is solid throughout despite having had seven bodies on injured reserve. Alexandre Texier has been a revelation since being picked up on waivers. Marty St. Louis will have some tough lineup decisions once some of the players return to health. Where does Patrik Laine fit in the lineup?  The Canadiens will have plenty of ammunition if they choose to deal at the deadline.

The way things are going in Ottawa, the Senators may be selecting in the top ten in next summer’s NHL Draft. Oh, yes, about that first-round pick? That’s the pick Gary Bettman plans to take away from the Sens as a result of the Evgeni Dadonov trade fiasco. A little punitive, don’t you think? Sens owner Michael Andlauer should consider a lawsuit if Bettman actually goes ahead and strips the team of the pick. Andlauer didn’t even own the team when former GM Pierre “Comb Over” Dorion screwed up the transaction. And according to reports, Andlauer wasn’t even informed of the possible punishment when he purchased the team. That’s just BS. The decent thing to do is to reduce the penalty to a third-round pick and be done with it.

It’s absolutely shocking what’s happened in Winnipeg this season. The Jets have gone from first to last in the course of a calendar year. The team finally ended an 11-game losing streak. Scott Arniel may be in trouble behind the bench. No one saw this coming. We’ve never seen a team get so old and so slow so quickly.

The lemmings in Toronto keep coming up with trade scenarios to bolster the Maple Leafs lineup. Our question is simple. What can the Leafs realistically offer to acquire a difference-making player? Sorry, the well is dry. Good luck getting Rasmus Andersson or a top-six forward.

The closer we look at the omission of Sam Bennett from the Canadian Olympic team, the more it traces back to the blood feud between the Tampa Lightning and the Florida Panthers. What other explanation can there be? Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper must have a hate-on for Bennett from all the nasty battles between the two Florida rivals. We’re talking about a Conn Smythe winner who was lights out at the Four Nations tournament. Still don’t see any justification for leaving Bennett off the roster.

Tough blow for Team Sweden if both Victor Hedman and Gabriel Landeskog are unable to play in the Olympics. Both are out with injuries and it’s questionable whether they will be available when the Winter Games get underway.

Were the Philadelphia Flyers not supposed to be rebuilding? Why would they sign 29-year-old Christian Dvorak to a five-year contract extension for over $25 million? Makes no sense. Sure, you need to insulate young players with veterans but that’s a head-scratcher. Keep him around? Yes. Extend him? Maybe. But five years? No chance. You deal guys like that at the deadline and add assets.

When we chronicled Team Canada’s exit from this year’s World Junior tournament, we left out the part about why Canada continues to fall victim to upsets. Sorry, there’s no excuse for bowing out to Czechia three straight years on goals with 11 seconds to go, 40 seconds to go and 1:14 remaining. The real reason is hockey in Canada has become a game for the rich. If your parents don’t have the means to dish out big bucks, good luck rising through the ranks of elite AAA programs. Gone are the days of the hard-working kid from a broken family having a chance to make it. Today’s player comes from a wealthy family who can afford to write big cheques every year. What you have are a bunch of entitled kids with zero heart. Canada never got out-worked. Can’t say that anymore.

And in other news, they named the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team.

Mr. Goalie RIP – Sorry to learn of the death of Glenn Hall, the Hall of Fame goaltender who passed away at the age of 94. His nickname was Mr. Goalie and it was well deserved. Hall was a first-team all-star seven times and won two Stanley Cups during his distinguished career.

Hall will be remembered most for his remarkable Iron Man streak that saw him start and finish 502 consecutive games between 1955 and 1963. During that streak, he also played 50 straight playoff games. Every one of them without a mask. In a 1957 playoff game, Hall took a shot that required 23 stitches to close a gash on his lip. As the story goes, he returned to the game after urging the doctor to speed up the repair job.

The Team Canada ‘B’ Team – Now that Canada has made the selections for this year’s Olympic team, many hockey fans are wondering what a ‘B’ team of players might look like. There’s certainly a long list of players who were omitted and deserve serious consideration. Here’s our ‘B’ team from players who failed the make the grade. Would the team have a chance to medal? Yes, but lack of familiarity playing together would definitely work against them.

Forward Lines:

Zach Hyman – Mark Scheifele – Dylan Guenther

Adam Fantilli – Connor Bedard – Morgan Geekie

Carter Verhaeghe – Wyatt Johnston – Seth Jarvis

John Tavares – Sam Bennett – Travis Konecny

Extra Forwards: Nazem Kadri, Drake Batherson

Defence:

Matthew Schaefer – Brandon Montour

Jakob Chychrun – Evan Bouchard

Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson

Extra Defencemen: Aaron Ekblad – Mackenzie Weegar

Goaltenders:

Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood, Jet Greaves

In case you were wondering, the Tampa Lightning has the most players going to the Olympics with ten. Florida will send nine. Minnesota. Colorado and New Jersey will send eight each. Two teams, the Blackhawks and the Islanders, have the fewest players going with just one. As bad as the Canucks are right now, they will send five players to Milano Cortina including Teddy Blueger, Filip Hronek, David Kampf, Kevin Lankinen and Elias Pettersson.

NFL Wildcard Weekend Notebook – Buckle up for the rubber match. The Seahawks will host the 49’ers in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs next Saturday. The teams split a pair of games during the regular season with the Seahawks winning decisively to clinch the division title just two weeks ago.

San Francisco went into Philadelphia and took out the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles on a late Christian McCaffrey touchdown. The Eagles were completely inept on offence. Don’t be surprised if Nick Sirianni is not the next NFL coach to be fired. The Niners lost tight end George Kittle to an Achilles injury. (is he ever healthy?) Expect the Seahawks defense to dominate again.

The Los Angeles Rams will face the Bears in Chicago on Sunday in the other NFC divisional matchup. The Bears advanced thanks to one of the biggest choke jobs in NFL history. Green Bay held an 18-point lead at halftime but surrendered 25 points in the fourth quarter to lose it late.

The big takeaway from the weekend is quarterbacking still matters. Matt Stafford and Josh Allen stepped up and got it done with the game on the line. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts, Jordan “Dirty” Love, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence all came up short. Love and Herbert are gaining a reputation as players who can’t get it done in the post-season.

If Sam Darnold bombs out in the playoffs, the Seahawks could have an easy out in the off-season. Financially, it wouldn’t be too painful. If the Seahawks designated Darnold as a post-June 1st cut, they would save $27.5 million against the salary cap while absorbing only $6.4 million in dead money. We don’t expect it to happen. Just saying.

No doubt, Mike Vrabel did a great job in New England this season. The team won 14 games but enjoyed a cupcake schedule. The Pats beat division deadbeats Miami and the New York Jets twice each. They also posted wins against Carolina, New Orleans, Cleveland, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Baltimore and the New York Giants. The only legit win they had was against Buffalo. The Patriots will now await the winner of the Monday night matchup between Houston and Pittsburgh. The Bills will travel to Denver for a showdown with the Broncos on Sunday.

Two more coaching vacancies opened in the NFL over the past week. That makes eight openings at the moment. John Harbaugh is out in Baltimore after 18 years. Looks like he could end up in Miami after the Dolphins bounced Mike McDaniel. The big question in Miami is what to do with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa who is guaranteed to earn $54M next season. Cutting him outright in the off-season would cost the Dolphins $99M in dead money. As rich as NFL owners may be, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

How bad were the New York Jets this season? The Jets were 32nd in points differential, 32nd in turnover differential and 32nd in yardage differential. How’s that for a trifecta? The Jets are the only team in NFL history to rank dead last in all three categories. And they kept Aaron Glenn has head coach. Go figure.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre says he’s given up hope as he battles Parkinson’s Disease. According to Favre, he battles stiffness on his right side, has difficulty swallowing and deals with terrible tremors daily. Favre is only 55 years old. He estimates he suffered more than 200 concussions during his NFL career.

The Brady Bunch – If Tom Brady is advising the Las Vegas Raiders, he’s doing a piss-poor job. The results are about as good as his performance in the broadcast booth. Brady invested in the team as a limited partner and is reportedly providing input on some of the major decision-making.

Since Mark Davis took over as controlling owner of the Raiders in 2011, the team has had two winning seasons and no playoff wins. They’ve drilled through six head coaches and five general managers. Now that Pete Carroll is one-and-done in Vegas, the Raiders will be spending $50 million next season on coaches who were fired by the team. The Raiders owe $8 million to Antonio Pierce, $10 million to both Jon Gruden and Josh McDaniels, $6 million to former OC Chip Kelly and $16 million to Carroll. The Raiders take dysfunction to a whole new level. Upon leaving the Raiders, Carroll admitted he had been “blindly optimistic” about the talent on the roster. It took you a whole year to figure that out?

CFB Playoff Semifinals – If we learned anything from the two college football semifinals, it’s that experience matters. Hoosiers star quarterback Fernando Mendoza made 19 starts in three years at Cal before landing in Indiana. When he plays in the national championship game, it will be his 35th college start. Miami quarterback Carson Beck has spent seven years in college. It should come as no surprise the two will meet for the national title.

Contrast that to Dante Moore, the Oregon quarterback who’s just 20 years old. He struggled in the CFB semifinal against the Hoosiers. Moore is contemplating entering the NFL Draft after just one year as a starter. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson has declared for the 2026 draft after only 15 college starts. In the last 10 years, only three quarterbacks have been drafted after only 15 or fewer starts. Their names? Anthony Richardson, Mitch Trubisky and Dwayne Haskins and you know how that has worked out.

Indiana will play in their first ever national championship game after filleting the Ducks. In two playoff games against Alabama and Oregon, Mendoza went 31-for-36 for 369 yards and 8 touchdowns with no interceptions. Mendoza is the odds-on favourite to land in Vegas as the NFL’s top draft pick and for good reason.

What a finish to the other semifinal! There were four lead changes in the final quarter between Ole Miss and Miami. Beck scrambled for the winning touchdown in the final minute to send Miami to their first national championship game in 23 years. After seven years on campus, Beck should have a doctorate by now.

The Hurricanes will play for a national title on home turf in Miami four years after Mario Cristobal arrived on the scene as head coach.

MLB Notebook – The dominos are starting to fall on the MLB free agent market. Alex Bregman has signed with the Chicago Cubs. Looks like Bo Bichette is closing in on a deal with either the Phillies or the Red Sox. Cody Bellinger is at an impasse with the Yankees according to reports but don’t rule out a return to the Bronx.

If the Blue Jays sign Kyle Tucker, it’s going to be mega-expensive. The Jays are already above the highest luxury tax threshold. Their penalty rate is 90 percent. A $40 million AAV for Tucker will cost them $76 million.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the poster child of luxury tax offenders. A $40 million annual contract for Tucker would cost them $84 million. Their signing of free-agent closer Edwin Díaz for $21.1 million will actually cost them $44.3 million.

What were the Detroit Tigers thinking in offering Tarik Skubal $19 million in arbitration? The guy is a two-time Cy Young award winner. Skubal is asking for $32 million. Chris Bassitt earned $22 million last year with the Jays. Guess who’s going to win that case?

The Court of King James – You are not going to believe this. LeBron James told assembled media recently that “If I don’t make the NBA All-Star team, I’m confident All-Star Weekend ticket sales and global viewership will take a hit.” You don’t say! Is there anyone on the planet with a runaway ego like this guy? Memo to LeBron. You won’t be missed!

LeBron has always had a high opinion of where he ranks in NBA history. He honestly believes he’s the GOAT. Naturally his numbers are good. What’s he played? 30 years? Charles Barkley was asked to name his top five players ever. He listed Michael Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kobe and Tim Duncan. Charles made the point that those players didn’t need to move around and try to put together super teams in order to win an NBA championship. Duncan stayed his whole career in San Antonio and won five titles. Highly underrated player. If you go back further, Russell and Chamberlain would rank ahead of LeBron. We’ll place him near the back end of the top 10. That’s it. And could you just retire so we don’t have to listen to your blathering?

Random Leftovers – What can you say about Lindsay Vonn? She just won a women’s downhill in Austria and is a favourite to win gold at the Olympics in Cortina, Italy. Did we mention she’s 41 years old?  She’s won 84 World Cup races, three Olympic medals and eight world championship medals. Did we mention she’s still skiing despite knee replacement surgery in 2024? In six World Cup races this season across downhill and super-G, Vonn has been on the podium five times and is the overall leader in the downhill standings. Pretty amazing, don’t you think?

Players from the Central Penn Panthers Youth Ice Hockey Club had the opportunity to entertain fans during intermission of an AHL game in Hershey on Saturday. Pretty exciting for a kid. Mite players are eight and under.

Seems they’ve started an investigation because the intra-squad game turned into a brawl. Fighting broke out between teammates including the goalies. The crowd cheered them on. Don Cherry would be proud.

The Memphis Grizzlies are reportedly entertaining trade offers for All-Star guard Ja Morant. In reality, they can’t get rid of the punk quick enough. Morant is eligible to sign a three-year, $178 million extension this summer. Why would you even consider it? His play has been declining and he’s one more gun incident from another lengthy suspension. The Grizzlies traded Desmond Bane to Orlando last summer for four unprotected first-round picks and are sitting on a treasure trove of draft assets with a total of nine first-round picks and six second-rounders in future drafts. Dealing Morant will only add to the bounty.

Top 10 Playlist for January –

1. “Highway 61 Revisited” – Bruce Springsteen (featuring Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt) from the release Songs Under Cover Vol. 2
2. “Come On” – Randall Bramblett from the album Paradise Breakdown
3. “No Place to Go” – Roger Glover from the album Snapshot+
4. “Take Another Step” – Payson Lyon from the album Long Day’s Journey into Light (produced by Colin Linden)
5. “Sittin’ on Top of the World” – The Flatlanders from the album Treasure of Love featuring Joe Ely and Jimmy Dale Gilmore
6. “All Just to Get to You” – Joe Ely from the release Letter to Laredo
7. “Love Me” – The Little Willies featuring Norah Jones
8. “Wind Machine” – Diane Birch from the album Flying on Abraham
9. “Singin’ the Blues” – Mitch Woods from the album Friends Along the Way
10. “Down Along the Cove” – Thea Gilmore from the album John Wesley Harding

YouTube Music Videos of the Week – The album Raising Sand with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss won Album of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Check out this performance featuring T Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller on guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPggeBUVZmI&list=RDoPggeBUVZmI&start_radio=1

Here’s Plant and Krauss four years ago performing ‘Can’t Let Go’ at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZ575AC3wQ&list=RDMPZ575AC3wQ&start_radio=1

“Evil Ways’ is a classic Santana tune. It was reprised by Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band 12 years ago with original Santana member Greg Rolie sitting in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diqMnAebo4g&list=RDdiqMnAebo4g&start_radio=1

We hope you are enjoying Under Further Review. If you have friends or family members who enjoy sports, please take a moment and direct them to the website at https://underfurtherreview.ca/ and encourage them to subscribe at no cost.