Other Board Games With Canucks

For this morning's poll question on the Team 1040, Scotty and the Moj drew from the Tanner Glass Scrabble challenge and its subsequent media coverage, asking Canuck fans what board game you would like to play with a Canuck. I figure, since I'm the progenitor of this line of questioning (and of course, my answer is always Scrabble), I figured I'd weigh in.

Some people have pointed out that Sami Salo would be an appropriate opponent for a game of Operation. Probably. He'd likely be a natural, especially with his extensive experience in strange medical anomalies. He might even sympathize with the guy with a buzzer for a nose: they're probably the only two people alive who could find a way to choke on a whole apple. And as a bonus, you'd probably win when Salo shatters his tibia trying to extract the water pail from the little guy's knee.

But I'd be more interested in playing Kerplunk with Keith Ballard. Why? It's a guaranteed win for me. Kerplunk is a game of picking up sticks--sticks which require a delicate and measured touch. History indicates Ballard does not know how to handle sticks this way.

Here are a few other possibilities:

• Mikael Samuelsson's inability to censor himself would make him a pretty easy opponent in Taboo. But it would be awfully easy to get him to say Sweden. You: They can go eff themselves.

• The perfectly unnoticeable Aaron Rome would do well in games that obscure people, such as Stratego or Guess Who.
  

• Alex Burrows must be an expert at Mad Gab. I don't think he realizes it, but he's always playing it. But he'd be terrible at Password. You couldn't figure out the basic word he was saying, let alone the one he was trying to imply.

• I wouldn't play the Sedins in Password, though. Or Pictionary. Or Charades. Or Cranium. Or any other team game in which telepathy is an unfair advantage.

• Mason Raymond would rock you in Dutch Blitz.

• Mike Gillis's machiavellian tendencies would make him an expert for Risk. I heard he once played with Kevin Lowe. Word is Gillis verbally agreed not to attack Brazil from East Africa. But then he did.