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Really! Is this good marketing? Maybe. If the Montreal Canadiens are selling this -- I mean, haven't other NHL hockey teams been walking all over the Toronto Maple Leafs for years? True, historically, the second-greatest hockey team team ever -- 13 Stanley Cups -- but they won the last of those Cup in 1967. This year, the Leafs did make the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004. I was excited, but it didn't last long. Click the image to enlarge it.

I see a Bud logo, and I see a Vancouver Canucks logo, and that red thing looks like a goal tender's mask, so, some sort of ice hockey-themed beer dispenser, I'm guessing. I'm blank on exactly how, or why. I left it where I saw it, by some blue bins, and went to get a coffee, and lo and behold, it had followed me -- another binner had it stuffed in a blue Ikea bag, so I'm guessing, and hoping, it found it's way to the informal second-hand store that is the Downtown Eastside: "Psst, wanna buy a hockey, beer-dispensing thing, cheap?" Click the images to enlarge them.

On Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens (Can-uh-d'yens) beat the Toronto Maple Leafs quite convincingly; reportedly they wanted to send a message. Had Toronto won, they would have clinched a play-off spot; as it is, their fate seems to depend on other teams now. But, the possibility still exists that Montreal and Toronto might actually meet in the NHL Stanley Cup play-offs, for the first time since 1979. Woo-hoo!

As a 30-year resident of Vancouver, I care about the Vancouver Canucks, but, I grew up in Saskatchewan, rooting for Montreal. To me the Habs are hockey, and always will be.