Bullet Saturday: Nords

•  Lions in Kruger National Park, South Africa from aubtudotbiz

•  Sure, someone go and tell those cats that they are lazy and to get off the road...

• The Vancouver Canucks miss the playoffs once again. They had some success last year, but historically never seem to build on some success to continual contender and championship success.

• In my humble opinion, problems begin with ownership and management.

• There is no serious, major league sports competition, to influence the Vancouver Canucks to be better.

• There is no serious threat to the club's dominance in the British Columbia sports scene. No second National Hockey League (NHL) club in Vancouver or Surrey (which does not have the infrastructure of a major city), no National Football League, Major League Baseball or English Premier League (hypothetically) clubs to challenge the Canucks' dominance.

• A 'Vancouver Blazers' or like, National Hockey League scenario would in my humble opinion be helpful. It would push both clubs to be excellent for survival. But, it will not happen in this era, at least...

• Media critiques of the ownership are limited and muted as the media is usually connected to the Vancouver Canucks and National Hockey League as business partners.

• Serious negative media critiques are generally avoided, for positive spin on the future.

• Rogers Sportnet is promoting the North Division, National Hockey League playoffs.

• The beginning context of a current television advertisement is 'Kings of the North'...where of course there is no Quebec Nordiques, having moved to Denver in 1995. Strange advertisement. This video starts with only Canadian teams: Canadiens, Jets, then the Nordiques, actually Colorado wearing a Nords retro jersey. Then back to Canadian teams. American teams are only shown briefly at the end. 

• Are Rogers Sportnet and the National Hockey League using the Quebec (Quebec City) fan base without the NHL allowing a team? Again I have seen this in other contexts, such as with League product sales on Facebook. Various 'Nords' gear is being advertised by the National Hockey through business partners, not just the Colorado retro jersey.

 • Supposedly Quebec is too small of a market for an NHL club, and the Canadian dollar too low, but it is constantly appealed to in Canada at large. 

• If Quebec actually has a national fan base, then it is likely a more attractive market than its own metropolitan population suggests.

• Amazing how financially relevant a 'dead' club since 1995 is today to the National Hockey League in Canada.

• My sceptical side thinks the 'grow the game in America mainly', NHL, where there are obviously more people than in Canada, did not want Quebec entering the League with the much more favourable expansion draft rules.

• These rules provided to Las Vegas and Seattle, that were accepted for NHL franchises while Quebec's bid was deferred.

• Yes, imagine if the Nords became the first Canadian club to win the Stanley Cup since 1993...