Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Special thanks to our regular contributors including Jordan Moss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Ted Tait, Frank Sullivan, Peter Hucul, Glen and Bill Myles, Howard Steiss, Rob Wagner and John Dancause.

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.

Stanley Cup Final Takeaways – It was the longest season in NHL history. Nothing like wrapping it up on bad ice in Florida on June 24. Handling the puck was like playing shinny in a parking lot with an Indian rubber ball.

Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers were spared the ignominy of blowing a 3-0 series lead. Maurice has been coaching for 30 years. Only took him 1,985 games to get his name etched on the Cup. Glad he didn’t have to wear the choker label.

The Edmonton Oilers are left with what could have been. The ’42 Toronto Maple Leafs are still the only team in NHL history to have won the Cup after being down 3-0. We can celebrate the fact the Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Final and heroically pushed Florida to seven games, but unfortunately, the 31-year Cup drought among Canadian teams will continue for at least another year.

Here’s a few other observations:

• Both the Oilers and Panthers will have very little time to make decisions regarding next year’s roster. Leon Draisaitl is a year away from UFA status. A new deal will cost the Oilers around $15 million per season. At 28, do you really want to hand out an 8-year contract at that kind of money? It may make sense to auction him now and replenish the roster with young talent and draft capital.
• The Panthers have a number of players headed to free agency with new contracts for Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett on the horizon. Like most teams, Florida needs to open up cap space. Look for the Cats to try and unload defenceman Aaron Ekblad who has one year and $7.5 million left on his contract.
• The state of Florida – that cradle of hockey – has given us seven Cup appearances since 2000. That’s more than all the Canadian teams combined. Five Canadian teams have made six finals during that time. The Tampa Lightning have made five on their own. B.C., Quebec and Ontario have one appearance each. It’s pains to say it but the state of Nevada has more with two appearances in the final.
• The 80’s were the glory years for Canadian clubs. A Canadian team played in or won the Cup every year from 1982 until 1990. In ’86 and ’90, Canadian teams faced each other in the Cup Final.
• For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s been 57 years since their last Cup win. Since then, 21 different NHL teams have won Lord Stanley’s mug, 26 teams have made it to the Final. Only Toronto, Minnesota, Columbus, Arizona, Winnipeg and Seattle have failed to reach the Final. In the Leafs 57 years of futility, the Montreal Canadiens have won ten Stanley Cups and have been to the Final a dozen times.
• As you probably know, Florida has no state income tax. A player making $5 million in Florida will bring home about a half million more than a player in Toronto or Ottawa. You don’t think that provides a big advantage?
• The owner of the Florida Panthers is Vinny Viola. It begs the question? Didn’t he make his money in the garbage business in New Jersey with Tony Soprano? Does Big Pussy get a Stanley Cup ring?
• As good as Sergei Bobrovsky performed in the post-season, the straw that stirs the drink for the Panthers is captain Alexander Barkov. The guy is a horse. There’s no better two-way centre in the NHL. He’s a two-time Selke Award winner. All he did in the post-season was go head-to-head with Kucherov, Pastrnak, Zibanejad, Panarin, McDavid and Draisaitl. Only McDavid scored a 5-on-5 goal.
• It was painful watching Oliver Ekman-Larsson hoist the Cup knowing that the Canucks were basically paying him to play in Florida. And how about Roberto Luongo? How long did the Canucks pay him to get a tan?
• Poor old Leaf fans had to watch a Cup Final showcasing five former Leafs in Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Cody Ceci, Carter Verhaeghe and Evan Rodrigues and a former Leaf coach in Paul Maurice. Think they might have helped the Leafs get out of the first round this year?

The Ultimate Anti Climax – Have you noticed that the NHL and NBA playoffs seem to fizzle out almost every year? We took a close look at the NHL and NBA Finals over the past ten years and each league had produced only one seven-game series. The NBA hasn’t had a seven-game final since Cleveland knocked off Golden State four games to three in 2015-2016. Until this year, the only seven-game final in the past decade in the NHL came in the 2018-2019 season when the St. Louis Blues went the limit with the Boston Bruins.

What does it tell you? You guessed it. The season is too long and the playoffs are too long. When it comes to the NHL, it seems like one team ends up either gassed, or so banged up they are unable to perform at their top level. How many players are going to need surgery after this year’s seven-game final?

Slow Play the Market – The Canucks are reportedly chasing a top-flight winger as free agency approaches on July 1. Landing a scorer like Jake Guentzel appears to be at the top of the priority list. After signing Filip Hronek to a rich extension, the Canucks still have a good chunk of cap space. Not sure that’s the best road to travel. Why not stay patient and see how things play out in the market over the course of the summer? You don’t need to have your roster set in the next two weeks. Remaining conservative worked last year.

The Canucks would be smart to set a hard deadline in the next 48-to-72 hours on their key UFA’s. If they can’t get deals done with Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm, then trade their negotiating rights prior to the start of free agency on July 1. Maybe recoup a mid-round draft pick. It’s better than losing both of them for nothing.

If the Canucks are unable to reach an extension with Dakota Joshua, there are some low-cost forwards who could be targeted next week. Here’s seven names to keep in mind – Kevin Stenlund, Jordan Martinook, Brandon Duhaime, Yakov Trenin, William Carrier, Michael Amadio and Danton Heinen.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. We’re reminded that the Canucks were unable to acquire a scoring winger at the trade deadline this year because they lacked cap space. Don’t make the same mistake again next season. Maintain flexibility so you can act when the opportunity presents itself.

There are a couple of moves that would improve the situation significantly. The Canucks have reportedly given the agent for Ilya Mikheyev permission to seek a trade. Moving off even part of his $4.75 million dollar contract would be a major plus. Unloading Tucker Poolman’s contract off LTIR would allow the team to toll cap space during the season, another positive when the trade deadline rolls around. Not every move needs to be a home run, especially when cap space is so tight.

NHL Notebook – Get ready for a crazy few days in the National Hockey League! There should be a non-stop flood of news as teams prepare for free agency on July 1. We now know exactly what they are working with. The salary cap for next season has been set at $88 million, a $4.5 million dollar hike from a year ago. That’s a larger increase than the last five years combined.

The population of the United States is roughly ten times larger than Canada. Game 1 of the NBA Final between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks drew ten million viewers. Game 7 of the opening round series between the Leafs and the Bruins was viewed by five million people in Canada alone. The new TV deal negotiated by the NBA is expected to be somewhere just under seven BILLION dollars per season. The NHL’s television contract pays the league a mere $625 million a year. The NHL is getting fleeced.

Looks like the NHL is finally prepared to do something about the controversy over use of LTIR. Many general managers around the NHL have voiced their displeasure with the use of injured reserve rules when it comes to the salary cap at playoff time. The Vegas Golden Knights have been criticized for activating captain Mark Stone off LTIR just in time for the playoffs each of the last two years. While the NHL may be prepared to make changes, it’s doubtful anything will happen until the next collective bargaining agreement is finalized in two years. At least the NHL has recognized it’s a problem.

Another inspired coaching hire in the NHL. The San Jose Sharks have selected Ryan Warsofsky, whoever he is, to replace the fired David Quinn. That should help Macklin Celebrini make the decision to return to Boston U.

Looks like Nik Ehlers days are numbered in Winnipeg. He’s a year away from free agency and it appears as though the Jets are not interested in an extension. Even at $6 million, Ehlers should draw interest.

Do you think anyone in the Boston Bruins front office wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the 2015 NHL Draft? The Bruins had three consecutive first-round pick between 13 and 15. They drafted – in order – Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn. The next three players selected were Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot. Things could be so different for the Bruins had they even hit on two of the three.

The situation in Ottawa reminds us of the mess left behind by Jim Benning in Vancouver. The Sens management group is trying to dig out from under the damage inflicted by Pierre Dorion. But don’t make it worse by continuing to act like this is a playoff team that only lacks goaltending. We will wait and see how Linus Ullmark performs behind that defence. He’ll probably end up with an .895 save percentage just like all the goalies who end up in Ottawa. The Senators need to add two solid NHL defencemen or nothing will change.

The Senators seem to think its necessary to send out daily updates on what they may or may not do. Does Bruce Garrioch work for the Sens communications department? It’s a continuous plethora of buzzwords. “They are having dialogue with almost every NHL team.” “They are in advanced talks on several potential trades.” “They have the framework of a trade with the Flyers.” Until the Ullmark trade, the front office had done nothing but talk since the ownership change. The Sens big recent announcement had been signing Angus Crookshank to a new contract. You’d have to be a pretty serious hockey fan to have ever heard of this guy. Sounds like he should be the bagpiper on Robbie Burns Day.

Few teams have more cap flexibility than the Detroit Red Wings who are sitting with 32 million in cap space. Trouble is, the Wings have only six forwards and four defencemen currently under contract. They also have a handful of contracts they would love to shed including goalie Ville Husso (1 year, $4.75 million), defencemen Ben Chiarot (2 years, $4.75 million), Justin Holl (2 years, $3.4 million), 36-year-old Jeff Petry (one year, $2.34 million) and forward Andrew Copp (3 years, $5.6 million). That’s about $21 million for a whole lot of nothing. No wonder the Red Wings failed to make the playoffs.

Do you think Sheldon Keefe will feel a little more relaxed with Jakob Markstrom in net instead of Ilya Samsonov?

Can we now close the book on the Arizona Coyotes? Alex Meruelo has reportedly given up trying to build an arena. The whole sorry drama was a hoax to begin with. He had a five-year window to finalize an arena deal and reactivate the franchise. It would have required Meruelo to return the one billion he received when he sold the team. As if he was going to do that after escaping like a bandit.

In the category of misbelief, Colin Campbell was just named to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder. Which means there’s still hope for Gil Stein.

The Say Hey Kid –  Growing up as a child, my favourite baseball team was the San Francisco Giants. My favourite pitcher was Juan Marichal. Loved the high leg kick in his wind-up. My favourite ballplayer, without a doubt, was Willie Mays. My pal Ian MacPhee and I used to try to make basket catches in the outfield, just like Willie. When I found out Willie was born on May 6, the same day as me, well, I was over the moon.

The Say Hey Kid died this week at the age of 93. He was the oldest living Hall of Famer. Was he the greatest centerfielder in baseball history? The best all-around player? It’s open for debate but one thing we do know is, Willie had a legion of fans. His over-the-shoulder catch in the ’54 World Series is one of the most iconic plays in baseball history. Mays first played in the old Negro League before becoming the 10th black ballplayer to break the colour barrier and join MLB.

Mays is the only player in MLB history to have a +.300 career batting average, +300 stolen bases, +300 home runs and +3,000 base hits. Remarkable.

Before the 1954 season, Giants manager Leo Durocher predicted a .300, 30-home-run season for Mays, and he reached the second of those milestones by midseason, playing the first half of the season on a home-run tear. With Mays batting .326 and ahead of Ruth’s 60-homer pace when he hit his 36th on July 28, Durocher asked him to stop trying for the fences and go for base hits for the good of the team. Mays hit only five more homers the rest of the year, but batted .379 down the stretch.

The Giants were in fifth place in a tight race on May 22, but took over the top spot by June 15, and led by 5½ games at the All-Star break. Although the Dodgers hung tough all season, the Giants clinched the pennant in the final week and won by five games. Willie Mays was back in the World Series, this time as a certified star.

And batting champion. Going into the final day of the season, teammate Don Mueller was hitting a league-leading .3426, the Dodgers’ Duke Snider .3425, and Mays .3422. Mueller finished 2-for-6, Snider 0-for-3 and Mays 3-for-4. After the games, Mays was batting .345, Mueller .342, and Snider .341. In addition to his batting title, Mays hit 41 home runs, drove in 110 runs, and led the league in triples (13) and slugging percentage (.667). To put this statistic into perspective, consider the period from 1931 through 1992, bracketed between two live-ball eras. In those 62 seasons, only two other National Leaguers topped Mays’ slugging percentage: Stan Musial (.702 in 1948) and Henry Aaron (.669 in 1971). Mays also played in his first All-Star Game, and after the season, sportswriters named him the league’s Most Valuable Player. He was just 23. He is still the third youngest National Leaguer to receive the award. Source:  ESPN

Blue Jays Notebook – Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro has done a great job overseeing the renovation of the Jays minor league complex in Dunedin. He’s done a great job overseeing the renovation of Rogers Stadium in Toronto. He’s done a horse-bleep job building the major league roster.

What the Blue Jays have right now is a disgruntled fanbase. It’s reflected in declining attendance. They are demanding change. They are cheering for more losses just so the organization can get moving with major changes to the roster.

As if things weren’t bad enough, top prospect Orelvis Martinez was slapped with an 80-game ban for using a banned substance. He claimed he took a fertility pill that included Clomiphene which just happens to be the same drug that nailed Manny Ramirez. There’s no excuse. There’s a ton of information available to players now. This should not happen unless you ARE cheating.

Want to know why the Blue Jays can’t produce offensively? This season, the Jays have seen fastballs nearly 60 percent of the time. That’s the highest rate in baseball. The Jays slugging percentage against fastballs is .375, the lowest in the majors. If you can’t get around on fastballs, you’re going to be one of the worst offensive teams in major league baseball. Full stop!

Over the winter, Jays general manager Ross Atkins kept insisting the Jays would get better offensive seasons from several players. It hasn’t happened. George Springer and Alejandro Kirk have gone from bad to worse. Springer has two more years to go on his contract at $25 million per season. Time to swallow hard and send him packing.

With his batting average sitting at .200, Cavan Biggio was designated for assignment. Remember when Biggio was supposed to be one of the foundational pieces of the future? The team should DFA a couple of more guys.

Signing Justin Turner for $13 million and resigning Kevin Kiermaier for $10 million was a complete waste of money.

Did it occur to you that Vladdy and Bo may be looking at Teoscar Hernandez and Cavan Biggio in a Dodger uniform and be thinking…that could be me?

Can someone please wake up Edward Rogers? Is he paying any attention to his sagging ballclub?

MLB Notebook – Get used to it. The bat flip and the ponderously slow home run trot are here to stay. Witness Vladdy Guerrero Jr. against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Monday night. Vladdy slammed a 471-foot moonshot over the Green Monster, the longest home run of his career, and proceeded to take about twenty minutes to round the bases. He pointed to the sky, did a little stutter step around third before prancing to home plate. It was quite the show. It gave the Jays a 6-2 lead. You don’t think the Red Sox noticed? Boston roared back to walk it off 7-6 in the ninth. Vladdy was left looking pretty foolish.

One of the hottest targets at the MLB trade deadline figures to be Chicago White Sox center-fielder Luis Robert Jr. Wouldn’t he look good in a Blue Jays uniform? Robert is a dynamic talent. Trouble is, he’s always injured. His best season was 2023 when Robert cracked 38 home runs and stole 20 bases while providing Gold Glove defence in center. Any team making a pitch is going to have to surrender some top minor league talent, of which the Jays are in short supply.

One team that has the assets is the Seattle Mariners. They have five players in The Athletic’s Top 50 minor league prospects. The M’s also have young pitching to spare which is always valuable at the trade deadline. Look for the Mariners to add a middle-of-the-lineup bat. How about Guerrero to Seattle?

In the hotly-contested AL East pennant race, expect both the Orioles and the Yankees to be active. Baltimore just loss ace Kyle Bradish to season-ending Tommy John surgery. The O’s had already lost two starters, lefty John Means and righty Tyler Wells, to elbow surgeries. Yankee first baseman Anthony Rizzo is out for at least six weeks. New York is looking for an upgrade at both first and second base.

U.S. Open Takeaways – In his still rather short career, Bryson DeChambeau has gone from brutish to barely tolerable to mildly annoying. What an improvement! He’s painful to watch with the anal-retentive upright swing and frigid putting posture. He takes slow play to a whole new level. Hey, but it works. Anyone who can win two U.S. Opens is doing something right. Just ask Walter Hagen. By the way, we maintain DeChambeau’s putter is illegal. The rules say the putter needs to have a ten-degree angle off the head. His putter does not meet that standard and nobody is doing anything about it.

In the final round of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst #2, DeChambeau was in the native area more often than a Yukon moose. Somehow, he kept getting decent lies and extricated himself from constant trouble. DeChambeau’s wedge play and putting were outstanding. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy drove the ball much better and appeared ready to exorcize his major demons. Three bogies in the final four holes including a pair of muffed short putts left Rory with heartbreak again. Lament the missed putts all you want. Anyone who has played golf on fast greens knows a downhill three-and-a-half footer with break is not a gimme. The putt on 18 was as nasty as it gets. Social media paints McIlroy as a choker. Sorry, we’re not buying that narrative. Rory was blistered for leaving the grounds without meeting the media. Can you blame him? He was shellshocked. How much pain do you expect one man to tolerate?

The Golden Bear – In honour of Jack Nicklaus hosting the Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, we offer up a few rarities and fun facts that add to the legacy of golf’s 18-time major winner.

• Jack used the same 3-wood 1958 to 1995. A 37-year span which included each of his amateur championships and all 18 major victories as a pro. He only re-gripped the club one time in 1983, despite having his other clubs re-gripped regularly.
  • He’s the first living person to appear on the five-pound note that was not a member of the British royal family.
• Nicklaus played a round of golf on the morning of his wedding with three of his friends at Scioto Country Club.
  • Not only does he hold the most victories in major championships (18), he also holds the record for most runner-up finishes in majors (19), and the most top-10 finishes in majors (73).
  • The Golden Bear’s first professional paycheck was for $33.33 at the 1962 Los Angeles Open.
  • He played golf with three pennies in his pocket. One to mark his ball, a second if his opponent needed one, and a third in case he loses the first one.
  • In college, he planned to become a pharmacist like his father, Charlie, who operated a chain of drugstores.
  • He’s colour blind.
  • For the entire decade of the 1970s, Nicklaus finished in the top-10 at the majors 35 out of 40 times. During that stretch, he had more wins in majors (18) than finishes worse than 10th (5).
  • Nicklaus won the first, third and fifth-ever editions of the Players Championship. He is still the only man to win the event three or more times.
  • He teed it up in every major championship contested from the 1962 Masters through the 1998 U.S. Open, a record run of 146 played in a row.
  • In 2005, Nicklaus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
  • He has been designing golf courses for over 55 years. His first design was Harbour Town Golf Links.

Random Leftovers – The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal should be on every sports fan’s bucket list. The driver’s love it. The fans love it. Rain or shine it never disappoints. It is the best annual single-day sporting event in Canada. The Grand Prix regularly draws over 350 thousand fans to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the man-made island of Notre Dame. The island site was created for the world’s fair held in Montreal in 1967 and later used for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It was turned into the F1 circuit in 1978 and fittingly, the first race was won by hometown hero Gilles Villeneuve. The circuit would later take his name following Villeneuve’s unfortunate death. The race is certainly a favourite of World Champion Max Verstappen. He’s won in Montreal each of the last three years.

The only way Canada’s men’s national soccer team is going to improve is by playing the top teams in the world. It appears to be paying dividends. Yesterday, Canada earned its first-ever Copa America win, 1-nil over Peru, thanks to a late goal by Jonathan David. Yes, it’s true. They scored a goal! Yahoo!

It’s been a whirlwind for Canada who survived a couple of brutal tests in Europe in the lead-up to the Copa America tournament. After getting spanked 4-nil by the Netherlands, Canada bounced back impressively by earning a scoreless draw with second-ranked France. Canada then opened Copa America with perhaps their stiffest test yet against World Cup champion Argentina. Although dropping a 2-0 decision, the young Canadian squad acquitted themselves well. Next up is Chile. Bring it on!

Let’s see. Maple Leafs legend Bobby Baun once played a game with a broken ankle. French superstar Kylian Mbappe’ has a broken nose and was not in the starting lineup for a key UEFA Euro 2024 game against the Netherlands. Don’t you love soccer?

Greatness in sports doesn’t happen by accident. Yes, it takes incredible talent but it also takes hard work and commitment. This probably explains why Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is yet to make an appearance in the Super Bowl. Jackson has failed to show for the Ravens voluntary OTA workouts this off-season and stands to lose $750,000. He apparently doesn’t care about the fines (he signed a five-year extension worth $260 million) and sees no need to participate. Meanwhile, three-time Super Bowl MVP Pat Mahomes has shown up for every one of the Chiefs voluntary OTA’s. He’s also held his own private workouts with teammates in Texas, paid for on his own dime. Mahomes gets it. Jackson is clueless. Oh, and guess who missed important practice time with the New York Jets? Yes, you know who!

As if the Kansas City Chiefs needed any added boost in pursuit of a three-peat. Get ready for their new secret weapon in the form of Welsh rugby player Louis Rees-Zammit. The 23-year-old played for Gloucester in the English Premiership before signing with the Chiefs. He’s got 4.2 speed and is obviously tough. The Chiefs plan to use him as both a running back and a receiver. They think he can become to Mahomes what Julian Edelman was to Brady. Add in first-round receiver Xavier Worthy and the acquisition of Hollywood Brown and Mahomes has a whole new set of toys to play with.

Former Blue Jays outfielder Jayson Werth finds himself in the horse racing business in a big way. Werth is the co-owner of Dornoch, the horse that pulled off an upset win at this year’s Belmont Stakes. Dornoch was a 17-1 longshot. Werth earned a World Series ring with the Phillies in 2008.

They’ve kicked reigning champion Joey Chestnut out of Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hotdog eating contest. Seems Joey has signed an endorsement deal with a rival brand so organizers gave him the boot. What a miscarriage of justice! It’s reportedly a line of vegan sausages. Just what you need, Joey Chestnut pimping healthy eating habits. Joey owes the hotdog-eating record, having ingested 76 franks and buns in ten minutes.

Did you know that the tallest teenager in the world is a Canadian? Olivier Rioux stands 7-feet-9” and he’s reportedly still growing. He was 6-feet-10” at age 12 and 7-feet-5” at age 14 when Rioux first set the Guiness record. Yes, he’s a basketball player. The Montreal native just committed to play at the University of Florida this fall. He can probably dunk without leaving his feet.

Canada has announced its roster for the men’s basketball tournament at this summer’s Olympics in Paris. It’s without a doubt the most talented team we have ever assembled. The team features a dozen current NBA players including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins. There’s some debate about including Wiggins who hasn’t participated in the program since the 2021 qualifying tournament here in Victoria. The Olympic training camp opens Friday in Toronto. The team will play exhibition games in the U.S. before final cuts are made.

Did you hear that ESPN has offered Stephen A. Smith more than $18 million a year on a long-term contract? And he claimed it’s not enough! This is a windbag that said Connor McDavid didn’t deserve to win the Conn Smythe Award.

Is there a more moribund sports franchise than the Detroit Pistons? A year ago, they signed two-time NBA coach of the year Monty Williams to a six-year contract worth $78 million dollars. He became the highest paid coach in the league. Williams was going to lead a Pistons revival. One year later, he’s out the door. The Pistons are now on the hook for the final five years of the contract and the nice round sum of $65 million. What a joke!

Is there anyone in tennis history who has served as hard as Milos Raonic? In a recent tournament in England, Raonic fired 47 aces, an all-time record for a three-set match. One of the aces was clocked at 232 kilometres per hour. At 33, Raonic’s game may be fading but his serve is still a huge weapon.

Speaking of fading games, the PGA Tour has awarded Tiger Woods a lifetime exemption into all future signature events. The special exemption will allow Woods to compete in all eight annual signature events for the remainder of his playing career no including majors. Can’t wait to see him fire 78-76 and miss the cut!

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since Jim Nabors was doing a turn as Gomer Pyle, the dim-witted gas station attendant on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’

And lest we forget, our favourite social media princess, Paulina Gretzky, just spent a fortune on hubby Dustin Johnson’s cowboy-themed 40th birthday bash. Frankly, we think it was just an excuse to bring out the handcuffs.

https://canoe.com/entertainment/celebrity/yee-haw-paulina-gretzky-ropes-up-cowboy-fun-for-dustin-johnsons-40th-birthday/wcm/73f473e4-18d2-435a-9b2c-09715c9c41e3

Laughing – In tribute to all our great friends from Winnipeg including contributor Peter Hucul, here’s a clip from a Howard Stern podcast featuring Winnipeg’s favourite son Burton Cummings telling the story behind the song ‘Laughing.’

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMr8MhF6d/

Hot List –  The Teskey Brothers made a tour stop in Vancouver last week. The opening act was a band from Seattle called The Dip. The band was formed in 2013 by a group of music students at the University of Washington. They combine funk and R & B to form a unique sound that includes a 3-piece horn section. We recommend the track ‘Working Man’ off their self-titled LP released in 2015.

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