News from Canada

It may be July, but this guy ain't sweating.

That's because I'm in Canada, where the locals complain about 45 percent humidity and temps in the high 70s. That's seventies kids.

Which is nothing to sneeze at, but it's also nothing to sweat at if you know what I mean.

And since they laugh at us when we break out the leather coats when it hits 62 on Fort Lauderdale beach, I can laugh at them when it hits 84 degrees here and everyone talks about a heat wave. No, this isn't a heat wave. It's spring.

Anywho, didn't come here to play Brian Norcross and talk about the weather.

I came here to talk about the Panthers schedule.

Got a call today from someone within the whom I trust. They had the Cats schedule scribbled down, so I asked some questions. Let's hope I got the right answers.

As I said before, the Panthers are kicking off the season on Oct. 10 at Carolina, the home opener (with an additional $25 tagged on to single tickets) coming the next night (Oct. 11 for those who aren't real good at math) against the ATL.

Now, on to the good stuff.

Florida, after playing on back-to-back nights, will not play its third game until the Minnesota Russos come to town on Thursday, Oct. 16.

Key points to the Flo Rida schedule:

The Cats will be at home come Thanksgiving, playing host to New Jersey on Wednesday, Nov. 26; the Rangers come to SoFla post-TurkeyDay, on Friday, Nov. 28. Florida will also be home for Christmas, Florida playing host to Nashville on Dec. 23, and Tampa Bay on Dec. 26. Florida will travel to the west coast for a Devil Rays (OK, Lightning) rematch on Dec. 27.

Teams coming to the Arena in east Naples: Detroit (Nov. 14), Minnysota, Colorado, Chicago, San Jose and Columbus.

Florida visits the Phoenix JokinenGretzkys on Nov. 8, and also travel to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver (Dec. 15).

The Panthers will visit -- and also have home games against -- St. Louis and Dallas.

Montreal, this clown's Stanley Cup pick, comes to town Dec. 29 and Jan. 29.

There will be more details come Wednesday when the entire schedule comes out.

There are plenty of holes here (the Panthers will probably play home-and-home against at least one more team aside from STL and DAL), and the Dunnville folks want to know when the Florida DeBoers travel to Buffalo and Toronto.

Hey, this is a start.

-- Burger King is running the "we got rid of the Whopper" commercials up here in Canada. Some of the best, most effective commercials ever, IMHO.

Of course, BK would be struggling for business if Tim Hortons were all over the states. Sure, Timmys doesn't sell burgers, but everything else they offer is top notch.

-- Love the Blue Jays wearing their old-school road unis during home weekend games at SkyDome. Those were so-bad-they're-cool looks by the Jays and good for them for bringing them back.

-- Chicken wings at Hooters in Canada are quite expensive. But they were good, so whatever...

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