First, thumbs up to Grant McNeill.  I caught up with G-Mac this week upon his   return to central PA, and I’m here to tell you he looks to be in the best shape   I’ve ever seen him.  He’s still   recovering from knee surgery and won’t be ready for game action on opening   night, but he told me he’s on target for a mid-November return.  You have to believe that if the Capitals need   to add someone that can drop the mitts, Grant and Brandon Sugden are where they   would turn down here on the farm.  It   would appear that G-Mac will be poised to pounce on any opportunity that comes   his way.

Now it’s time for the thumbs down portion of the   program.  I know a lot of you read us in   Washington (especially now that I see our web stats every day, my thanks to you   for that), so if you know anyone at the Department of Transportation, please do   the great game of hockey a favor and tell them to wake up.  According to a report by TSN  http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=289982 the USDOT has banned Air Canada’s charter planes from   flying from one American city to another.    Why, you may ask?  Because it   seems this sinister airline has been changing the passenger manifest while it is   in this country and before it returns to the land of the maple leaf.  Or to put it a simpler way, they’re not   coming back to Canada with the same people that left with.  Hey USDOT (headquartered on New Jersey Avenue   in southeast DC), it’s pretty obvious that you don’t know anything about the   pucks (by the way, the greatest player in the world lives in your town, plays at   Verizon Center, they have sellout crowds every night this season coming up, and   his team has real uniforms and everything.    You might want to look into what all the fuss is about).  What sinister behavior is going on here?  For fans here in central PA, this is an easy   one.  Guys are getting CALLED UP.  HELLO!    The Calgary Flames fly to Los Angeles, and a guy gets hurt.  They call someone up to replace him.  Oh no, the manifest has changed.  Those smuggling, system dodging folks at Air   Canada have CHANGED THE MANIFEST!     Democracy as we know it in this country is most certainly being   threatened.  Seriously, doesn’t the USDOT   have anything else they could be doing?

So here’s where hockey could hurt from this.  I present to you the Vancouver Canucks, and   their November road trip to Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, Detroit and   Colorado.  All of which without returning   to the great white north.  What are they   supposed to do, touch down back in Canada before they go to every city on the   trip.  Fly to Winnipeg to clear through   customs in Canada, and then go to Dallas.    Then Toronto to go to St. Louis?    There’s a good job of saving fuel and resources.  This seems to me a clear case of someone   making a ruling that has no idea what they’re talking about.

And why should American teams care about the trials and   tribulations of Canadian-based teams?    Because Canada is considering the same act on US charter flights if the   USDOT doesn’t get its act together.    Think about Washington’s next trip to Calgary/Edmonton/Vancouver and how   that would look.  It drives up the costs   for every NHL team, which means ultimately fans are going to pay the price.

Clearly, the folks at the USDOT don’t know a   hockey puck from a donut.  Clearly, we   need readers in DC that might know   someone there to help out.