Ghosts, Bobby Lou and the Vancouver Canucks run at Lord Stanley

I've been thinking about ghosts lately.

I had a weird experience last year which may offer that ghosts are real. At least, I believe they could be.

Every night, I place my wallet on the little table next to my bed. It stays there all night, I wake up, it is there, I put it my pocket.

Around November, I woke up one morning and it was not there. I searched everywhere for it. Trust me, if you lose credit cards, photo ID, etc., you will search everywhere for it. And I do have a clean apartment. Unable to find the wallet, I canceled my credit cards, got a new photo ID (meaning I was driving without a license to get there), and went through the entire process.

A full week later, I woke up to find my original wallet sitting at the table. Next to my old one.

No, I did not hear a faint child's laughter as I woke or hear a door slam. But still, here are the explanations I have for this occurrence:

a.) There is a ghost which likes to steal wallets.
b.) I have an intruder which steals my wallet (but steals nothing else).
c.) I suffer from parasomnia (a real disorder).

The answer may be c.

When I was young, I stayed over at my grandmother's house and went to bed around 8 p.m. My grandmother, who enjoyed staying up late, said that I came out of my room at 11 p.m., said something to her, then unscrewed all of the cable wires in the television, before going back inside my room to sleep. Are there a lot of sufferers of parasomnia who are experiencing items missing, who do not know that they have it? Each individual case stands on its own.

I know that this object haunts Vancouver Canuck fans more than any other. Even though I have lived in the region my entire life and love watching hockey, the Canucks do not broadcast their majority of their games down into the Puget Sound area (unless it is Saturday night at the CBC). But that doesn't mean I don't follow how much Lord Stanley's Cup haunts the Canucks.

In 1982, the Canucks were swept by the NY Islanders in 4 games and did not return to the playoffs for 10 years.

In 1994, the Canucks came up against the NY Rangers, losing a best of seven series and the cup. Perhaps it is New York and not the cup which haunts them.

In 2009 & 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks have knocked out the Canucks in the playoffs, which means ghosts from the past are in the head of Vancouver.

Anyway, the reasoning for this little ghost side note is that the Canucks are playing tonight against the Blackhawks. Ryan Kesler is a stud and if Bobby Lou can keep it together (see last year as reasons why he may not, even though he was the first tender since Montreal's Bill Durnan to be a captain), then the curse of the Cup may be lifted.

But that's the thing about ghosts and Stanley Cup runs. At the end of the day, the explanation doesn't always fit expectations.