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The Morning Skate, Boxing Day edition: Spengler Cup, nostalgia, give us a luck-less win, Canucks – and more!

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Happy Boxing Day, friends.

I hope you all spent a lovely day or two with friends and family. I ate too much turkey last night – let’s just leave it at that.

With the World Juniors starting today but the Canucks are still off, they don’t play until Sunday in Anaheim.

So that brings us to the Spengler Cup.

It’s not as exotic as it once seemed – I always loved watching it for the team names and the atmosphere in the Davos arena and just how different it all seemed.

For Team Canada, this year’s edition gets rolling today at 11:15 a.m. against the hosts. The rosters sports a bunch of names familiar to Canucks fans: Jeff Tambellini, Byron Ritchie, Steve McCarthy and Ryan Parent are there, as are former Canucks farmhands Drew Macintyre and Jim Vandermeer. It’s on TSN2 today.

Alright, on with your Morning Skate…

The Home Team

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As you know, the NHL made the Christmas break a day longer in the last CBA. They get 3 now, instead of the previous two. Because of a schedule quirk – a five day break between games – the Canucks gave their players four days off. It will be interesting to see how things go on Sunday against the Ducks.

HKN Coyotes Oilers 20141223

As we wait for the return of the Canucks, Tony Gallagher takes a peek down memory lane. A Western Canada road swing used to be tough, the G-Man points out. Now, not so much. The Canucks are in that bunch, but at least they’re beating them. Show me a win that’s absent of luck, though, Tony asks.

Vancouver Canucks fans were used to seeing Claude Noel in this spot, behind the Winnipeg Jets bench in visits to Rogers Arena. Vancouver Giants fans will become accustomed to him guiding the home team at the Pacific Coliseum. The WHL club is expected to unveil him as their bench boss on Monday. (Getty Images.)

Claude Noel is running the Giants’ bench. That we know. He’d coached 11 teams. But he hadn’t been in junior hockey in two decades – dealing with growing boys was a new concept for him.

“You’re not sure about the penalty killers or the power play. You’re not even sure who the 17-year-olds and the 19-year-olds are. But I think my lack of knowledge was a good thing,” Noel tells Ed Willes.

The NHL Classics series Sportsnet has started running this season as part of their NHL rights package is fun. Last night they showed a certain game familiar to Canucks fans:

Which prompts some fun thinking from an ex-Province intern:

That prompts our poll question:

Boxing Day inspiration

Dacious 1

In case you missed it in the Christmas eve hubbub, Howard Tsumura’s profile of Dacious Richardson deserves a look. The young man saw some awful stuff as a child in Liberia – but now he’s a veteran leader on the Guildford Park wrestling team.

Bang yer drum, get it on

Johnny Powless is a name you’re going to hear a lot over the coming months. Steve Ewen isn’t shy about describing the kid’s talent. Wayne Gretzky-like, he told me earlier this year. The Stealth season will be upon us before you know it, and the team is taking a fresh approach to marketing. Their debut season was pretty terrible on the court, but the new lineup is getting plenty of hype and so will the off-ice product.

There’s going to be a First Nations drumming group, for one:

Canadian Content

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The Edmonton Journal have launched their top stories of the year series with the revolt of Oilers fans.

As I’ve written many times in the past five years: oh, to be an Oilers fan in the spring.

The AHL’s been trialling a new OT format – it might soon be the NHL’s too. It’s getting results and avoiding shootouts. Personally I never had a problem with ties, but if we can find a way to settle hockey games using actual hockey plays, I’m all for it.

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There’s a giant playing for Team Canada at the World Juniors. (It all gets rolling tonight on TSN at 5 p.m. PT)

The Herald asked Flames players to reminisce about the World Juniors. It’s cute.

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Milos Raonic is your two-time Canadian Press male athlete of the year.

The year in sports

Look, we made a video:

Nice work, J-Mac.

Laugh it up, Fuzzball

The mystery of Danny Watkins

West Kelowna's Danny Watkins at Eagles camp this summer: Making the grade in the NFL isn't as easy at it might seem

West Kelowna produced an NFL player. Danny Watkins, remember him? Highly-rated lineman for Baylor who crashed out from the Eagles?

The Monday Morning QB featured him last week, and they found the reason his NFL transition didn’t work out: he was moonlighting as a firefighter. Or maybe it should be said he was moonlighting as a football player. The guy was a freak – but when you read the profile, it’s hard to say he ever enjoyed the sport.

Seahawks!!

Are the Seahawks the greatest defence of all time?

A little video preview for you, since you can’t wait until Sunday.

And Marshawn Lynch

Last Lap

Am I shocked? No, but maybe I should be.

It was snowing in England today, making for some interesting Premier League conditions.

Bale to United would be quite the pickup:

This is a fun idea but it would never work, you’re right about that Mr. Adande.

Today’s reminder that hockey tickets are cheap, just about as long as it’s not in Vancouver:

Shampoo!!

Corey Hirsch is turning into quite the pundit:

I love it when football turns into rugby. I get why teams are afraid to try the offload, but really, you’d score a whole lot more often if they actually practised it:



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