Sports in the News – March 11, 2014

Habs land big fish on deadline day

Montreal hasn’t been known to make huge deals at the trade deadline but this year was an exception. The Canadiens have consistently been criticized for not having enough big guys on forward who could score, but they may have solved that with the acquisition of Islanders forward Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth round pick in exchange for Habs prospect Sebastian Collberg and a second round pick in this year’s draft. Vanek has been in the league since being drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 2005 and has been a model of consistency, scoring at least 20 goals every season. This is Vanek’s third team of the year after being traded from Buffalo to New York earlier in the year. The Islanders offered Vanek a seven year, $50 million extension, which he rejected. This put Islander general manager Garth Snow in a vulnerable position and forced his hand to trade Vanek and get something in return. Vanek will be wearing number 20 for the Habs, which was last taken in 2013 by Colby Armstrong.

Trouble in Vancouver

The Roberto Luongo era in Vancouver has come to an end. The Canucks traded Luongo and prospect Steven Anthony to the Florida Panthers in exchange for goaltender Jakob Markstrom and forward Shawn Matthias. This is the second consecutive year that Vancouver has traded a starting goalie away after trading Cory Schneider at last year’s draft to the New Jersey Devils. After publicly trying to trade Roberto last year but unwilling to pay a part of the contract to do it, Vancouver decided to trade Schneider. It was assumed Luongo in turn would continue to be the number one guy this year. However, things turned ugly when backup goaltender Eddie Lack was given the start against the Ottawa Senators in the big Heritage Classic game earlier in the month in Vancouver.

Carleton Ravens CIS champions

This past weekend in Ottawa the Carleton Ravens beat the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the Men’s university basketball championships 79-67. It is their fourth straight championship and 10th win overall in the past 12 years.

In the bronze medal game, the Alberta Golden Bears beat the Victoria Vikes 61-53. The only Quebec team in the CIS top eight was McGill and they lost both of their games to Saskatchewan and Victoria.

Montreal Impact season opener

The MLS 2014 season is underway and Montreal started its season this past Saturday in Dallas. Montreal got off to a great start with a strike from Sanna Nyassi in the first ten minutes of the game, yet saw Dallas rally with three straight goals. The Impact made it an interesting game with a goal from forward Andrew Wenger but couldn’t find the net again to equalize, falling 3-2.

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