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| Thursday, October 28 | |||||
ESPN.com | ||||||
Before the season, the consensus was Vancouver would toss its youngsters into the NHL cauldron and let them season in time for the savior Sedin twins to arrive next year.
That may have been the franchise's intention as well; however, the results do not resemble a team in the rebuilding process. Instead, coach Marc Crawford's squad, 6-3-2-1 after beating the Flyers 5-2 Tuesday night, sits atop the Northwest Division.
Speaking of the Canucks, Messier quietly -- and somewhat dubiously -- passed Mario Lemieux for the sixth spot on the all-time goal-scoring list with 614. The tying and passing goals both were empty netters. "I keep saying, I never considered myself a natural goal-scorer," Messier said. "My game is more honed to finding ways to win. Mario (Lemieux) was a great player, and we all know he did it in half the games I did." Sens for sale? The Ottawa Senators may be the next Canadian team to flee south of the border. According to the Canadian Press, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has received at least three verbal expressions of interest in buying the team and moving it to the United States. Reportedly, the purchase offers are worth between $122 million and $130 million. Bettman received the overtures because owner Rod Bryden won't entertain offers until all options for keeping the team in Ottawa are exhausted. "I have consistently said that I am not discussing with anyone movement of the team from Ottawa," Bryden said in a released statement. "When this issue first gained public notice early this year, there were a number of unsolicited inquiries to which we provided no substantive response. "I have not had discussions with any potential buyer to move the team from Ottawa, nor are any such discussions planned at this time."
Brian A. Shactman is the NHL editor for ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE NHL West: Canucks have a good Mess
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