September 19th, 2007, 1 Comment »
There’s a lesson for everybody here: always limber up before the end-of-training-camp orgy.
Also, I wonder how long the editor deliberated over the tense agreement in that headline. It’s correct, I think, but it sounds kind of funny if you say it aloud.
July 13th, 2007, 4 Comments »
If you’ll permit a brief, mid-summer diversion by a out-of-country Canucks fan, I’ve been musing about the future of the Canucks defensive core. At the moment, they have six legitimate NHLers under contract:
Ohlund
Salo
Mitchell
Miller
Bieksa
Krajicek
All of those guys could play in the top four positions. Add to that promising rookies Luc Bourdon and Alexander Edler (and what’s the status of the storied Rory Fitzpatrick?), and you’ve got remarkable depth.
Of course, the team is paper-thin up-front, so I expect they move one or more of these assets to add a scoring forward or two. Ohlund and Salo look the most expendable, though the former has both have a no-trade clause (and Ohlund, as it happens, is my favourite Canuck after Linden).
There have been rampant rumours about a trade with New Jersey. In my experience, it’s rare that the really popular rumours ever become a reality.
What do you think will happen?
July 3rd, 2007, 2 Comments »
The Vancouver Canucks have some strange aversion to free agency. Over the last decade, when July 1 has rolled around, they’ve usually ignored the big targets and signed stick boys for $27.50 and a box of TimBits. There used to be budgetary reasons for their inaction, but that’s far less justifiable in a salary-capped league.
James Mirtle has been doing yeoman’s work detailing what the other 29 clubs have been up to over on the Globe and Mail’s hockey blog, and here’s a big list on TSN’s site.
Happily, the teams in the Canucks’ division haven’t been particularly active. Yes, the Avalance got Ryan Smyth (he’s going to get a merry reception when he plays four times in Edmonton, eh?), but that’s about it. The Flames acquired Owen Nolan, but how much does he have left in the tank? There’s no news from the Oilers and the Wild yet.
Canucks GM has been very savvy since his promotion, so I trust that he’s working on something. The team obviously needs two more twenty-goal scorers, and I don’t seem them in the farm system.
April 23rd, 2007, 2 Comments »
Got up at about 3:00am to watch the Canucks struggle in the first period, and then take over to win their first playoff series in a few years. What could be more appropriate than Trevor Linden scoring the game-winning goal?
Thank you, Slingbox Owner Who Shall Not Be Named. I’m going back to bed.
April 11th, 2007, 7 Comments »
As I write this, it’s exactly 11:00pm and the Canucks and Stars are deep in the second overtime period. Regulation was pretty exciting, but overtime has been the defense-first chess match that everyone expected the series to be.
Dallas has looked the better team through the third period and most of overtime, but things have evened out a bit in the last five minutes or so. The Canucks are down two forwards, so I wonder if that’ll be the difference.
Poor Ryan Kesler. This is his first game since January, and it’s like playing two games in one.
I also wanted to plug my friend Rob’s hockey project, GoCanucks.ca:
GoCanucks.ca is the brainchild of two longtime Canucks fans that love what the Playoffs do to Vancouver hockey fans…Our plan is to launch the most comprehensive Canucks Fan site you’ve ever seen for the 2007/2008 season. But in the meantime, we’re giving away a Canucks Jersey everytime the Vancouver Canucks post a win during the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN situation: Canucks win games, Fans win Jerseys, and GoCanucks.ca wins email subscribers. Go Canucks!
You can give them your email address to win a jersey, or become a sponsor for the cost of a jersey. The latter would be a good fit for, say, a local sports bar.
Note to Rob et al: you should rotate the sponsor logos on the front page, to give them more visibility and return on their investment.
Oy, here comes the third overtime.
April 10th, 2007, 1 Comment »
Maggie the macaque is the weirdest and my favourite aspect of TSN’s TV coverage of the playoffs. From Wikipedia:
Maggie was born and hand-raised at the Bowmanville Zoo in Bowmanville. At the zoo, she was trained to spin a wheel. In 2003, several executives and expert panelists from the Canadian sports broadcaster TSN decided that they would “do something random” with their show, and they ended up bringing Maggie onto their broadcasts to make predictions.
The absurdity of Maggie really appeals to me. Often times sports commentators take themselves a little too seriously, and the monkey really serves to undercut that. I wrote about her last year at this time, and she ran the table, beating the three sports pundits with a record of 9 and 6.
You can watch Maggie pick the first round winners online. Happily, this year she picked Vancouver to beat Dallas. Two of the pundits agreed with her, while the other three went with Dallas–it’s a split.
April 7th, 2007, 1 Comment »
I caught the second half of the Canucks-Sharks game today, and was pleased to watch the local team clinch the division title. I was less pleased to hear that Kevin Bieksa left the rink in a cast–no details on that yet.
This means that the Canucks will play the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs. There are no soft teams in the Western Conference, and this looks like a very even match-up. Here’s a bunch of head-to-head stats.
The teams have nearly identical points on the season, and goals for and against. The Stars have the better powerplay, but the Canucks have a superior penalty kill. The goaltending match-up is pretty interesting. Luongo has been among the three best goalies during the regular season, but has never played a playoff game. The Stars’ Marty Turco has more experience, but has been downright miserable in the last couple of post-seasons. The Stars’ scoring is more evenly spread out than the Canucks, so that’s a small Dallas advantage.
I take back my earlier remarks about the Canucks not looking all that promising. They have a lot going for them–inertia, gritty play, great penalty-killing and wicked goaltending. Their one weakness is scoring depth. If one of the Sedins goes down, they’re in serious trouble.
As for the playoffs, I’ll post some predictions before the second season gets underway.
March 15th, 2007, No Comments »
This video will only amuse Canucks fans (and fans of Sportsnet’s Don Taylor), but I sure enjoyed it:
Thanks to James Mirtle for the laugh.
March 8th, 2007, No Comments »
Back in December, Jeff Cowan was an afterthought pickup by the Canucks. He was a middle weight goon, a low rent Brad May (and that’s saying something) who could add a little so-called ‘grit’ to the lineup.
This season, he went 44 games without scoring a single goal. In about half the games he played this season, he didn’t get a shot. And yet, out of the blue, he’s scored six goals in four games.
Elite athletes are such odd ducks, psychologically. It’s obvious that, at the top end of any sport, the difference between the good players and the great one is entirely mental.
I don’t know if Cowan’s been going to a new therapist or something, but he’s got the mojo these days. It’s quite a thing to watch. It’s nice to hear that Cowan’s receiving the necessary support from the fans.
January 11th, 2007, No Comments »
I’m walking behind these two guys. They both have extraordinarily Canadian accents–we’re talking Bob and Doug here.
GUY #1: Hey, you know that show Night at the Museum, with that Ben Stiller dude?
GUY #2: Yah.
GUY #1: You know my roommate’s brother Al? We partied with him once at Rachel’s house.
GUY #2: Yah.
GUY #1: He’s totally in that movie. He’s one of the Mongolian dudes!
GUY #2: Cool.
Maybe if I’d been cheering the Canucks on more and listening less to my fellow fans, they might not have sucked the big weichselstrudel. I doubt it, though. Minnesota was the better team tonight, by a long shot. The sort of shot from the far blue line the girl missed during the second intermission. You know the one.