Brian Bickell rising ever more out of reach of the Montréal Canadiens

Regarding trade-deadline acquisitions in April, Marc Bergevin was pretty clear that he wasn't looking for rentals, and that he wanted character players.  The names bruited after the deadline were Mike Rupp, Kyle Clifford and Brian Bickell.

I'd never heard of the latter before, but checked him out online at the time, and noticed he was UFA in July, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that the Marc Bergevin-Chicago connection would play in our favour, that he could do a Brandon Prust-style sales job on him.

Now, with the solid post-season he's having, and the fact that his name is commonly brought up by talking heads, our chances of landing him are becoming ever more remote.  Our little secret is out.  Back to the drawing board.

They had a graphic on Hockey Night in Canada last night, and it showed that he played four seasons in the AHL.  That's patience, on both parts.  The team for letting the big man learn the pro game, and the player for sticking to it, not giving up and getting frustrated.  They're both being rewarded now.

At the pub last night, we were discussing him, and the Canucks fans were comparing that treatment with Zack Kassian, how he's being asked to play with the Sedins, to score some goals, but also to fight, yo-yoed down to the fourth line, back on the powerplay, healthy scratch, down to the AHL for four games, back up because of injuries, on with Ryan Kesler and "now he gets it he scored two goals", followed with "What's wrong with Zack" a week later, ....