Blinded By The Sun

The Maple Leafs are going to honour their team's most vocal member opening night, Oct. 3, against the Ottawa Senators.

They'll mark play-by-play man Joe Bowen's 25th anniversary behind the mike, the longest run of Leaf games other than hockey broadcast pioneer Foster Hewitt. Bowen beganScott Niedermayer work in Toronto after radio stints in his native Sudbury with the Wolves and in Halifax with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the AHL. He eventually branched into mid-week televised Leaf matches.

Scott Niedermayer, of course, is the captain of the defending Stanley Cup champions, a perennial Norris candidate who was drafted with the third overall pick that Leafs brass, gearing up for a playoff push that went nowhere, dealt to Jersey for the immortal Tom Kurvers.

Sharp-eyed readers will note there is a piece on Niedermayer below, and perhaps write it off as coincidence. However, don't be surprised if next week's Suns include sentences like "Toronto's homeless should welcome COURTNALL FOR KORDIC a new rehabilitation camp in Bowmanville,"Local police need to be allowed to do their jobs, especially when ONE SHOT IN THE THIRD PERIOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME it involves shooting OWEN NOLAN WHAT A BUST civilians in the back," or if they simply start referring to Dalton McGuinty as "Gord Stellick." Be careful out there.