the 4th star

This evening on the Hustler & Lawless show, Manitoba Moose play-by-play voice Brian Munz suggested the existence of a gentleman’s agreement between the American Hockey League club and the parent Vancouver Canucks. According to Munz, Canucks management has promised to ship an NHL quality forward down to the farm at the end of training camp.

OK. Speculation time.

The player would obviously be on the lower end of the pay scale. Here are the options:

LW Mason Raymond — $760,000
RW Jannik Hansen — $550,000
C Rick Rypien — $550,000
L Darcy Hordichuk — $775,000
C Kyle Wellwood — $1.2-million

Though he’s as slow as an AHLer, Wellwood is out of the mix due to his contract. Period. Rypien is battling Ryan Johnson for the fourth-line centre spot. Johnson is a killer penalty-killer when healthy, while Rypien is an incredible spark plug who is always day-to-day. Or month-to-month. Johnson makes $1.2 million and is a veteran, so he’s not going anywhere. Same deal with Darcy Hordichuk. Thanks but no thanks. The Moose aren’t in the market for a tough guy.

So Rypien is still in the mix, along with Hansen and Raymond. Hansen hasn’t stuck as a regular in the Canucks line-up the last two seasons, while Raymond found himself no longer part of the regular rotation. With hot-shot wingers like Cody Hodgson and Sergei Shirokov coming up the pipe, things can’t be comfortable for the Hansens and Raymonds on the club. Maybe Shirokov is the player that Munz is talking about. Who knows?

My guess is Hansen. Based on absolutely nothing.

If you were smart, you would have picked the opposite of what I put out there last week. That way, you would have finished in the black and felt good about yourself and your new financial windfall — no matter how stiff the breeze. What am I talking about here?

My picks blow. While I enjoy turning up the heat on a game with a little monetary pressure, the bottom line is that I usually struggle to meet a bottom line. Betting on sports has always been a losing proposition for me.

I remember sitting through at Jets games with friends. To help pass the time, we used to bet on what the next whistle would be. Everyone would put a quarter on their knee and declare the next stoppage a goal, an offside, an icing, or a penalty. Sometimes there would be a carry-over, say if the puck went out of play but if someone hit the whistle right, they would get the change and we’d do it all again before the action started up again. Hey, what do you want? The Oilers were up by three after the first. We had to entertain ourselves somehow!

It’s not like I’m losing a tonne of dough. The small amount lost is like a personal cover charge I pay for to ensure added enjoyment. You should see me at the track — throwing away money on longshots, pretending to know how to read the racing form, doubling up because I like the shine of the coat. Don’t even get me started on the grays. I should just let the horse eat the $20 right out of my hand before he loads into the gate.

The message here: Don’t use this site as your future financial plan. Go the other way or better yet, save your money. Chances are I’ll need to hit up one of you for a loan before this is all done. The three picks, each a $10 wager, as follows:

Washington at Detroit
Lions plus-6.5
Here we go again. This week’s sucker bet brought to you by the 4th Star. The Lions burned me last week by not being able to score a late TD against the Vikings, so the gamble here is that they won’t be able to screw me two weeks in a row. The Redskins aren’t strong in any area and Detroit can’t keep losing forever. Or maybe they can if I keep picking them. mark my words: If they don’t pay off this time, I am never taking them again. At least not until next week.

Kansas City at Philadelphia
Chiefs plus-8.5
Upset special? Donny McNabb is listed as doubtful. Kevin Kolb is not the answer. Mike Vick returns, but who knows where his game is at? I see the Iggles cobbling a decent game, but I’m not convinced they will blow the doors off a KC team that needs a win to remain hopeful in the brutal AFC West.

Jacksonville at Houston
under 47.0
This might be the easiest of the bunch. Who thinks the Jaguars will break the 10 point barrier? No one. Who thinks the Texans will put up 40 on a defence-first, low-scoring team? No one. I’ve already spent this $9 victory…

For those Winnipeg Blue Bomber believers out there, Saturday welcomes the biggest game of the season. A pair of awful teams, Winnipeg and the Toronto Argonauts, just trying to cling to a piece of wood in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in hopes that someone is on the way to rescue the 2009 campaign. A win gives the Bombers a tie-breaker advantage should the clubs end up even-Steven (and ahead of the last place finisher in the west). As it stands this afternoon, though, the B.C. Lions hold a four-point advantage over the Bombers and Argos in the cross-over format. Things don’t look great for either eastern promise.

There are seven games left. If the Bombers want to make the post season dance, they need to at least find a tie with the Lions. That mean if Winnipeg can go 5-2 down the stretch, B.C. has to be a 3-4 operation. Everyone around these parts will say that this is the CFL and anything can happen, making the prospects of the Lions stumbling a very real possibility. However, those same people will hum and haw when asked if the Bombers can put together five wins over the next seven weeks. Sadly, win or lose tomorrow, things do not look good in Bomberland. On to the questions…

Toronto Argonauts (3-8) vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (3-8)
Saturday, Canad Inns Booze Can
8pm

1. Who will throw the ball?
Damon Allen Michael Bishop will get the start, but the real game starts when he gets yanked. Casey Bramlet will probably be next in line, followed by the Ricky Santos Experiment. Bramlet has a bad case of the happy feet, which doesn’t make coach Mike Kelly very happy, but he’s probably too busy laughing with Bishop to even notice. Santos may be a decent prospect — did you hear that he tore it up in Division II? — but getting thrown to the wolves in front of a drunken, Saturday night home crowd that is looking for some anger release might not be the best way to nurture seeds. According to my math, the Winnipeg back-up (Bramlet) will have a total of eight attempts of CFL experience if Bishop goes down early. Quite a lack of depth heading into the biggest game of the season. Who knows what’s going on over there in Bombers camp?

2. Who will catch the ball?
As “Lawless” points out today, Fred Reid will be a busy man. Before I get to that, thank God he didn’t refer to Reid as ‘Fred-Ex’ in the story. It’s a terrible nickname and highly unoriginal. Dear Winnipeg: ‘Fred-Ex’ is Freddie Mitchell, the former Philadelphia Eagles receiver. Let’s come up with something better. Thanks. Back to the question now. Terrence Edwards is out. Romby Bryant is gone. Aaron Hargreaves is in his second-year and the longest-serving Bombers receiver. At least the guys they traded Bryant for won’t play this week. Yikes. I would explore why Kelly would leave himself so short-handed at the pass-catching position heading into the biggest game of the season, but what’s the point? That drum has been hit so many times…

3. Are the fans really speaking out?
Ticket sales for the Hall of Fame game are reported to be at the 20,000 mark. Those factor in season tickets, and some older holders have told me that they will not be attending the game to avoid the liquor-fueled *new* Bomber fan that will no doubt make the most of a Saturday night start time. Factor in the last warm Saturday of the year, and some will be at the lake. Plus, there’s a sold-out Keith Urban show at MTS Centre that night. Plus, some of us have to work. Sprinkle in a match-up between 3-8 teams, and you have to wonder if they’ll hit 24,000. Could look pretty bad on television. Oh, don’t worry. It will probably be blacked out in Winnipeg. And for the biggest game of the season, too.

Not sure what the better moment was.

It might have been when Tim Hoover, also known as DJ Co-op, went completely crazy for the song Most People are DJs at The Hold Steady show last night. He was a few bodies ahead of me as the stage grew larger and his excitement certainly captured the moment many of the middle-aged men felt as the show wore on. That’s what happens when you get an older nerdy guy churning it out on the stage: The older nerdy guys in the crowd relate to the receding hairline and glasses, and for that one evening, that one split second, believe that they are up there being a rock star. That was a solid moment, when Hoover stole that spotlight. Pretty sure most on the floor knew what was happening. The high five to Uptown editor John Kendle was certainly worth the thirty bucks.

That great exchange was quickly replaced by the next one, when Craig Finn started into his mockumentary on DJs. How he would go to places like the DMV or the laundromat and find a guy with a couple tables in the corner “trying to find the right mix.” Most people were laughing at Hoover. He was right in front of Finn. It was almost like the DJ was set-up — the timing was just so perfect. Co-op took it like a champ, though. Good for him. Not the best show I’ve seen them play, but you can’t mess with Texas.

And there’s your show review.