Shanahan tries hand at being a Mr. Fix-It

Page 3 of 4 -- Consolation prize?
Three pals in Edmonton have cobbled together a "Save Stanley" website (savestanley.com) in hopes that the Cup will be awarded to a team in the spring of 2005, even if it isn't an NHL team. "We think fans of the Stanley Cup should not be deprived of Stanley Cup excitement," said Mark Suits, one of the site's co-founders. "If there is no NHL, we think it should be offered up as a challenge cup." Suits and his Alberta buddies, Tom Thurston and Michael Payne, are open to suggestions, but they'd prefer the non-NHL Cup to be awarded to one of the following: 1. the Canadian university champion; 2. the Memorial Cup (top junior team) winner; 3. the Allan Cup (top senior team) winner; or 4. the top Canadian minor league team, most likely an AHL club. NHL officials, obviously, are just thrilled that someone is out there hoping to chisel in on what the league considers hallowed ground. League vice president Bill Daly: "We don't deal in hypotheticals." Meanwhile, Suits, Thurston, and Payne are asking fans to nominate some new Cup trustees, from among the likes of Jean Beliveau, Don Cherry, Hayley Wickenheiser, and rocker Neil Young (who better than a guy with a "Heart of Gold" on his resume?). Canadian-born but US-raised Brett Hull got a write-in vote last week. The last time the Cup was not awarded: 1919, when a Spanish flu epidemic left many players too ill to compete, and ultimately took the life of 26-year-old Habs defenseman Joe Hall. The British-born Hall died in a Seattle hospital on April 5 -- less than a week after play was suspended with the Seattle-Montreal series tied, 2-2-1 . . . Some faithful fans of the spoked-B recently received an early holiday present from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The RMV sent owners of Bruins vanity plates (approximately 3,500 total) tiny stick-on R's, to denote that the club's logo is a registered trademark. New plates will be issued with the stickers attached, or the "R" stamped into the metal. NHL headquarters in New York insisted on the fix. Faithful Sunday notes reader Rich Conley of Lincoln emailed to say that it was a roundabout, costly repair -- a true Bay State moment. "Why do I care?" wrote a frustrated Conley. "Because there is no [expletive] NHL hockey. It's Strange-lovian! Is Peter Sellers going to appear out of the fog in a wheelchair to twist the story even further?" . . . So, worn out your copy of "Slapshot" yet? . . . Patrice Bergeron, keeping his legs warm with the Providence Bruins, will swap his spoked-P for Team Canada threads tomorrow when he reports to Winnipeg for World Junior training camp.   Continued...