The opening ceremonies in HD:

Wow!

Not even Ron McLean can ruin this show.

Most inane comment so far (it's still early): Confucius  was the "number-one celebrity of all time."

Who's second? Madonna?

•  •  •

How come this tai-chi chick looks so much better than the goofballs in the park near my house?

•  •  •

I've done a quick count: The number of performers in this ceremony exceeds the  residents of Nashville who've ever seen a hockey game.

•  •  •

The finale: a huge globe, rising out of the floor of the stadium.

Maybe as the music reaches a crescendo, Mats Sundin will come floating out of it.

And now Sarah Brightman will attempt to shatter every pane of glass in Beijing ... Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Céline Dio sticks pins in a Sarah Brightman doll.

•  •  •

Could the guy singer with the hockey haircut have maybe work a proper shirt?

•  •  •

Shoot me now: McLean is  explaining Taoism (which he learned from  Don Cherry).

• Doug Gilmour – A FORMER TORONTO CAPTAIN WHO ENJOYED PLAYING FOR THE CANADIENS –  has been named assistant coach of the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs' AHL team.

• John Paddock, fired when his inability to handle Ray Emery sent the Senators' season south, will coach the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers' top farm team.

• Sean Hill, who played for the Canadiens whe they last won the Cup, will pursue his career in Switzerland.

• The NHL has named John Collins, a marketing expert whose CV includes working for the Cleveland Browns, its Chief Operating Officer.

Brett Favre is a New York Jet.

Manny Ramirez is a Los Angeles Dodger.

Mats Sundin is a ...

Hey, maybe the Canadiens' Plan B is Chad Pennington.

•  •  •

Meanwhile, life in Toronto goes on without him.

From the Sun:

"When I find out for sure about Mats Sundin, then I'll worry about life with or without him," said Ron Wilson, in town for summer meetings with general manager Cliff Fletcher.
"Cliff and I just roughed out some lines, but a lot can change between now and Sept. 19 (when training camp opens)."
Sundin remains non-commital about playing or retiring, with agent J.P. Barry saying in recent days that the captain's indecision could be a hint he's not coming back.

The Canadiens have signed free-agent defenceman Chad Anderson.

What a surprise! He's  from Minnesota.

The team release:

Montreal Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey announced today the signing of free-agent defenseman Chad Anderson to a one-year, two-way contract (2008-09). As per club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Anderson, a three-time WCHA All-Academic selection, captained the Seawolves for 15 games during his senior season.

A fulkl page of today's Journal de Montreeal is devoted to a "publireportage" (at English papers we call it an "advertorial") on Guy Lafleur's new restauarnt.

The Bleu Blanc Rouge Resto Bar is in Rosemere. If you're in the 'hood and get a hankering for steak, pizza or pasta, the two-story eatery is at 399 Labelle Blvd. in Place Rosemere, across from the golf club.

The grand opening this week drew an impressive collection of Lafleur's former teammates and Canadiens immortals. Beaming out from badly reproduced Journal photos are Jean Béliveau, Henri Richard, Gilles Tremblay, Ken Dryden, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, Pierre Mondou,  Pierrre Bouchard, Guy Carbonneau, Jacques Demers, Ronald Corey, Réjean Houle and ubiquitous party guy Yvon Lambert.

Fashion notes:

Wearing ties: Lafleur, Robinson

Jackets but no ties: Dryden, Béliveau, Richard, Bouchard, Houle, Tremblay

No jacket: Lapointe, Mondou, Carbonneau, Demers

Hawaiian shirt: Lambert

When he played for the Canadiens, Cristobal Huet was a stand-up guy, taking the blame for losses and sharing the credit for wins.

Le cousin, as the French press call him, is that kind of person: a gentleman and a diplomat.

No surprise, then, that Huet is saying all the right things about sharing the workload with Nikolai Khabibulin.

Huet told the Chicago Tribune he is looking forward to battling for ice time during the 2008-09 campaign before taking over the No. 1 job the following season when Khabibulin's contract expires.

"We're going to push each other to play and to compete," Huet said. "It's going to benefit the team. He's definitely a great goalie. There's going to be competition, obviously, [but] it's always like that with any NHL team. This year is going to be a little more than the average team, but it's great. We're going to work together and make it happen every night so we can [get] some wins."

•  •  •

In his Foxsports.com column, Lyle Richardson – aka Spector – looks ahead to the 2009 free agent market.

Here's his take on the Canadiens:

C Saku Koivu, D Mike Komisarek, RW Alex Kovalev, LW Alex Tanguay
Komisarek has emerged as one of the league's best shut-down defensemen so expect the Habs to re-sign him before next summer. Koivu has long been a Canadiens mainstay but might have to accept less money to stay in Montreal, while contract extensions for Kovalev and Tanguay depend on their performances this coming season. 

•  •  •   

TSN has a feature on Canada's Under-18 team, which will play at  the Ivan Hlinka tournament in Slovakia.

The one to watch if you've started thinking about the 2010 draft: Windsor Spitfires forward Taylor Hall.

Former Hab Michael Ryder will head to Boston soon as he searches for a new place to live and a few answers to what went wrong last season, his toughest in the NHL.

The Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont met with Ryder in Newfoundland recently and writes about Ryder's hope to be the Bruins next sniper.

Read the article here.

Those wild and crazy guys at Four Habs Fans have outdone themselves.

Enjoy:

http://fourhabsfans.blogspot.com/2008/08/like-us-jews-havent-been-waitin...

•  •   •

OK, it's just an excuse to post her picture.

Chantal Machabée is in Beijing. She was hired by the Chinese Olympic organizing committee as the stadium announcer – for field hockey.

As she relates in her RDS column, Machabée was told they  wanted her "Because you hockey specialist."

When Machabée pointed out that she knew nothing about the Summer Games variety of hockey, she was assured: "No problem. You experience, you good."

What they meant was:

"You blonde. You hot. You hired."

Everyone fed up with the Sundin Summer Bummer?

As a fun exercise for all you La-Z-Boy, chaise longue and barstool general managers, let's fast-forward and look at the challenges that will be putting more furrows in Bob Gainey's expansive brow during the spring and summer of 2009.

Agent  J.P. – for J(ust) P(utting) you on –  Barry has told TSN his client is "not close" to making a decision about his future.

"He's avoiding a Favre-like mistake by taking his time," Barry said.

•  •  •

How old does this make you feel?

John Van Boxmeer, who moved to Switzerland two years ago to coach the Bern club, will spend the next month recovering after suffering a heart attack.

The 55-year-old van Boxmeer's condition has improved since falling ill on Friday, the team said in a statement.

He is expected to be back behind the bench when Bern plays the New York Rangers on Sept. 30 as part of the inaugural Victoria Cup tournament. The Rangers will play European club champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk of Russia the following night.

Van Boxmeer was the Canadiens' first-round draft choice in 1972.

His illness may be Van Boxmeer's first near-death experience since being one-punch KOed by Dave Schultz.

•  •  •

Mike Johnson will play in Germany this season.

Red Fisher, the Living Legend of Sports Journalism, is tanned, rested and ready to offer some thoughts on Scotty Bowman joining the Chicago front office:

"... while the Sundin story is all about money, Bowman's is all about family. It's about what really matters. It's about Scotty's son, Stan, 35, who's entering his second season as assistant general manager in Chicago. It's about a father supporting his son on the ice - and a lot more off it."

•  •  •

Jack's back. 

Todd advises Canadiens fans to temper their enthusiasm if they think the addition of Mats Sundin would clinch the Cup. But he thinks the team will be better regardless.

Even without Sundin, the Canadiens are, on paper, one of the top five or six teams in the league - and they do need another impact forward to get over the hump and stage another parade. (It says here that they also need another stud defenceman and they will have to pray that Carey Price's psyche wasn't permanently damaged by the roughing-up he suffered in the playoffs but that's another story.)

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Sidney Crosby says his alcoholic beverages of choice are Crown Royal and Jack Daniels.

On Thursday Crosby turns 21, the legal drinking age in Pennsylvania and most other states. In Nova Scotia it's 19 – as is the case in every Canadian province except Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba, where it's 18.

Crosby also talks about Marian Hossa's decision to sign with Detroit:

"To be honest, if you look at (the Red Wings), they haven't lost anyone. We came within two games, but they won, and they haven't lost one guy. Maybe on paper they have the best chance to win the Cup and, in his mind, that is what he thinks. If you ask anybody else, that's the way it looks. I'm not mad at him or anything like that. That's just the way it is."