'I inherited the rumour': How a false NHL affair story rewrote one woman's life

It's been more than 30 years since the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final by a single goal. For many fans, that near-miss was bittersweet proof the team was on the cusp of greatness.

But when the Canucks came back the next year and stumbled, and a popular defenceman was abruptly traded away, the disappointment demanded an explanation. And that's when a rumour began.

A story took hold among fans that Canucks defenceman, Jeff Brown, had an affair with the wife of goalie Kirk McLean — wrecking team chemistry and setting the franchise adrift. 

The rumour wasn't true. But Jane Macdougall, a former broadcaster and current regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, says she's been dealing with the fallout of the rumour for three decades.

Though she wasn't even married to McLean at the time the story was said to have taken place, she quickly became the rumour's most visible and enduring scapegoat.

"In some people's estimation I wasn't just a homewrecker," she told CBC Radio's Storylines in 2024. "I was a franchise wrecker."

The gossip followed her from social events to school yards, warped perceptions of her character, and outlasted every effort to debunk it. 

But since retelling the story on Storylines, she says something has shifted. Some people — including those who had once passed along the rumour themselves — reached out to apologize.

It all began with a heartbreak. On June 14, 1994, the Canucks made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers. The Canucks lost by a single goal. But as the team returned to Vancouver, the sentiment was clear: next year, they'd win it all.

That didn't happen. In 1995, the team floundered. Chemistry vanished. Star players seemed off. And then, in