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Here's a copy of the article:

No, Canada: Don't count on Canadiens getting MarleauTHIS TRADE RUMOR HAS A BIT OF HUMOR

Article Launched: 12/13/2007 01:52:09 AM PST

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San Jose Sharks right wing Steve Bernier, center, is hugged by... ( Marcio Jose Sanchez )

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The Montreal rumor mill has been grinding away this week - and the Sharks have been front and center in much of the trade gossip.

First, San Jose was supposed to be sending forwards Patrick Marleau and Steve Bernier to the Canadiens for forwards Saku Koivu and Michael Ryder. Then it was Koivu and Ryder for Marleau alone, or Bernier and center Joe Pavelski. Other names were tossed into the mix.

It was the kind of speculation that easily could be ignored - except it was said to originate from a radio report by respected and well-sourced TV analyst Bob McKenzie. One big problem: McKenzie never linked the two teams in a trade.

"That's Montreal in a nutshell," Sharks defenseman Craig Rivet, who played there for 11 years, said Wednesday. "There's no secret about that city and the way it works."

If nothing else, it provides an example of the crazier-than-here conditions NHL players have to deal with in Canadian cities like Montreal and Toronto.

"It certainly affects you a bit in a way," Rivet said. "But as you get older, you start to learn the ins and outs of the city and I don't think that type of stuff concerns most."

Here's McKenzie's account of how things started:

"What I said on my regular appearance on the TEAM 990 on Monday morning," he wrote on his blog at TSN.ca and e-mailed to the Mercury News, "is that even though it's next to impossible to make a trade in today's NHL, some teams - notably Anaheim for obvious reasons

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as well as the Sharks, who were destroyed by Buffalo on home ice on the weekend, and the Canadiens, who are in a swoon - are working extra hard to make something happen. "I noted that Sharks G.M. Doug Wilson probably isn't sure what to make of his team - win almost all the time on the road, lose most of the time at home - but that he would be constantly evaluating it and if the Sharks continue to lay eggs like they did against Buffalo, it would only be a matter of time until we hear the next round of Patrick Marleau rumors," added McKenzie, former editor of The Hockey News.

He said he never mentioned trade talks between the Sharks and Canadiens because he had no idea if they were taking place.

His point, McKenzie wrote, "was simply to say that several NHL teams . . . are working extra hard to make something happen in an environment where it's almost impossible to get a deal done and maybe, just maybe, we will get some trade action prior to Christmas."

McKenzie added it was "absolutely beyond my comprehension" how that turned into a specific trade rumor.

The story grew and the trail continued through several radio stations as well as French and English Web sites, including one operated by the Montreal Gazette. Bloggers spread it even further, often citing McKenzie as the source for added credibility.

Marleau, the Sharks captain who has been at the center of trade rumors for several months, said: "I have a job to do on the ice and that's all I can worry about and take care of. It's a hockey country, a hockey hotbed, so there's always talk up there. There's always rumors."

Read David Pollak's Working the Corners blog at
blogs.mercurynews.com/
sharks. Contact him at
dpollak@mercurynews.com
.

BTW, if you need passowords for pages like that and you don't need/want to create an account, here is a very useful website www.bugmenot.com

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