Loose lips costs Leafs a fine

Score one for the Vancouver Canucks ... well, sort of.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were fined an undisclosed amount today by the NHL because, league deputy commmissioner Bill Daly said, coach Ron Wilson violated a league by-law "relating to inappropriate public comments by speaking generally to his club's potential interest in negotiating with Daniel and Henrik Sedin" before the Canucks forwards had officially become free agents.

The Sedins eventually re-signed with the Canucks, getting five-year contracts worth $6.1 million a season.

However, Daly ruled that the league "found no evidence whatsoever" to support the Canucks' concerns that the Leafs might "have engaged in any other conduct of activities" regarding the Sedins that would have been in violation of its rules relating to tampering.

Wilson told Toronto radio station The Fan 590 on June 30, the day before the NHL's free agent period began, that the Leafs would be interested in signing both players.

"You're hearing right now, and this sounds very contradictory, but there's a real possibility, I would think, thet we would be going after the Sedins," Wilson told the station. "Let's just speculate there."

If the Leafs had been found guilty of tampering, they could have been fined $1 million and forced to give the Canucks a first-round draft pick.

Too early to panic in Vancouver

Hey, what's the deal with the Vancouver Canucks? Picked by many -- but not me, I like Calgary -- to finish first in the Northwest Division, the Canucks have lost their first three games and haven't looked very good while doing it.

The biggest problem: subpar work by star goalie Roberto Luongo, who was yanked in Monday's home opener against Columbus after allowing goals on three consecutive shots to begin the second period.

Luongo actually played OK in Saturday's 3-0 loss in Denver, but he was medicore at best in Vancouver's season-opening defeat in Calgary and awful against the Blue Jackets.

Luongo is the Canucks' best player -- at least, he should be -- and he's just too talented to keep playing the way he has. Vancouver has outshot the opposition by a wide margin in each of the first three games, yet has nothing to show for it.

Luongo was in goal for 33 of the Canucks' 45 wins a year ago and is a perennial Vezina Trophy candidate, but he hasn't played like one so far this season. Assuming he starts Wednesday against Montreal, he'll take a 4.55 goals-against average and .820 save percentage into the game.

It doesn't get much uglier than that.

Canucks coach Alain Vigneault isn't pushing the panic button yet. Nor should he, not with 79 games still to play.

"Roberto is one of the best goaltenders in the league and definitely one of the hardest workers in this league, so he's going to find his game like he always does," Vigneault told Vancouver reporters. "The other parts of our game are pretty good. Obviously, we're making a few mistakes, but we are generating a lot. And we're not that far away."

I wouldn't worry too much about the Canucks. Luongo will get back on track, the Sedin twins will pop in a few goals, that first win will come and all will be well in beautiful British Columbia.

For a day or two, anyway.