May 26th, 2009, 7 Comments »
Richard sent along this short video featuring an interview with a couple of Yaletown residents:
The Weather Network apparently didn’t notice that their ‘man on the street’ subject was one of Vancouver’s more famous citizens, Roberto Luongo.
February 22nd, 2009, 1 Comment »
Which, in truth, is pretty unremarkable. Hordichuk, for the non-Canucks fans, is a fourth-line enforcer whose principle job is to work hard and occasionally beat on other players. This was last Friday, and apparently he was returning to Vancouver to be with his wife who was having a baby. I wouldn’t have recognized him–James pointed the NHLer out to me.
We saw his driver first, a huge bald man in a black trench coat. To our amusement, he was carrying a sign that read “Mr. Darcy”. Maybe, I thought, he’s just a lonely Pride and Prejudice fan? I snapped a quick photo of the two of them, waiting for Mr. Darcy’s luggage.
How big is that guy? Hordichuk is listed at 6′1″. I know the perspective is off, but that is one large driver. You’d imagine that an NHL enforcer probably doesn’t need much off-ice back-up. But you get the sense that, to quote The Bourne Identity, the big guy knows how to handle himself.
February 10th, 2009, 6 Comments »
I was talking to somebody about this morning. I doubt they will, but I really have no idea. Less idea than usual when it comes to the Canucks. So, let us vote:
January 31st, 2009, 5 Comments »
At the start of the year I made a couple of predictions regarding the Canucks. One was that Mats Sundin wouldn’t sign with them–I was obviously wrong about that. The second was that they wouldn’t make the playoffs. For a while there I thought the team was making a fool of me on that front, too.
But like a teenage boyfriend, they never fail to disappoint. This the Canucks team I’ve come to expect after twenty-odd years of fandom. Mediocrity, thy home is Vancouver.
There are plenty of fans calling for Alain Vigneault’s head. Here’s something I’ve come to realize about NHL coaching: when the team does well, the players receive all the praise. When the team falters, the coach’s head is the first one on the chopping block.
On the one hand–to mix my metaphors–the coach is the lowest hanging scapegoat. He doesn’t cost as much as the players, is immediately replaceable and usually isn’t adored by the fans.
On the other hand, the average fan has very little insight into what the coach does. As witha team’s general manager, we get a tip of the iceberg view of an NHL coach. We see him behind the bench, watch him pick lines and observe how the players execute his strategy. We have no view into what happens off-ice, at practice, and only have a vague sense of his coaching during a game. We don’t see how Vigneault spends the majority of his time.
The first critique of a coach is often that the players appear “unmotivated”. I always find that silly. These guys make, on average, more than two million dollars a season. They are elite professionals–the best in the world. Does a brain surgeon need motivation to excise a tumour? Does a trial lawyer need motivation to win a case? If the players can’t get “up” for a game, they have only themselves to blame.
About half the forwards are playing well offensively at the moment. The Sedins are reliable as ever, Kesler and Burrows are shouldering more than their fair share, and Hordichuk and Johnson are ably filling their roles. Everybody else has been sub-par, and the team’s defence has looked pretty shoddy. Even the usually-reliable Willie Mitchell has been coughing up the puck in the defensive zone.
Truth be told, I have no idea what’s wrong with the team. Any suggestions?
When Sundin signed with the Canucks, I wrote a comment on Rebecca’s site:
I’m very glad Sundin wasn’t signed for next year at $10 million, as per the initial offer. If he sucks over the next six months, the Canucks will be well rid of him. Still, even if he only scores at a, say, 45-50 points for a season pace, that’s a handy player to have around. So, at worst, the team gets a little better and loses nothing (in terms of cap space or assets) in the long term.
That sounds a bit naive, doesn’t it?
Thus far, the Sundin experiment has been pretty miserable. After nine games with the team, consider the numbers:
Compare that with the cheaper Brendan Shanahan, another mid-year pick-up who is three years older than Sundin. In five games, he’s got three goals and an assist.
Even if you ignore those numbers, Sundin has clearly not found last year’s playing form. He’s always the slowest player on the ice, he consistently shuns the “dirty areas” in front of the net, and he struggles defensively.
Even if Sundin does find his game, the Canucks face an uphill climb to make the playoffs. Calgary more or less has the division locked up, so Vancouver needs to battle to secure sixth spot, thus avoiding a first round series against San Jose or Detroit.
And even if they do make the playoffs, I’m worried about the team’s make-up. Consider the team’s top-six forwards: Sedin, Sedin, Demitra, Wellwood, Pyatt, Sundin and Kesler. After Kesler and Pyatt, that’s a pretty soft bunch. And grit becomes more important in the post-season, not less.
I’d much rather the team tank it than stagger through the rest of the season in ninth or tenth spot. If the Canucks are obviously sellers at the trading deadline, then the could get very good value for their veteran defensemen (assuming they waive their no-trade causes) and the likes of Taylor Pyatt and Pavel Demitra. That would put them in a better position for next year. Instead, they’re liable to barely miss the playoffs. Looking back, I see that that’s what I was hoping for last July.
Photo by Lava.
December 26th, 2008, 2 Comments »
I know I’m late to this ballgame, but I just saw this and it struck me as pretty amusing:
This isn’t the first of these remixes that I’ve seen using this snippet from the exceptionally good German film Der Untergang. Is there a Hitler video generator out there on the web somewhere?
September 25th, 2008, 4 Comments »
Because I’ve been thinking about this weekend’s hockey pool, and the forthcoming season. Heck, I even caved and ordered cable so I could watch some Canucks games at home.
I guess those are all pretty safe bets. What are your predictions?
May 29th, 2008, 3 Comments »
Via John on Twitter, I just heard an unconfirmed report that Vancouver Canucks prospect Luc Bourdon had been killed in a motorcycle accident. There are no details at the moment, but I’ll update this post as soon as I turn some up.
As I write this, John points to Kukla’s Korner, which has a translation of a French media report. He apparently died near Shipagan, New Brunswick.
I watched Bourdon play at the World Juniors in 2006, and he was excellent. Condolences to his family.
UPDATE: Here’s an English-language article from TSN.
UPDATE #2: Somebody came by saying that she was friend of Bourdon’s and left a comment. For what it’s worth, her IP address checks out:
Hi, i’m from Shippagan and i’ve known Luc since i was in kintergarden. Luc was just passing his girlfriend and it was really windy and his coat got stock or something and he lost control of his bike and got hitted by a tractor-trailer. His girlfriend has seen everything. We are all with the family and with Charlyne, his girlfriend.
xxxxx R.I.P Bourdon
UPDATE #3: Beth points out that people have been making donations to Canucks Place in Bourdon’s name. If you’re looking to recognize his passing, that seems like an appropriate gesture.
March 10th, 2008, 9 Comments »
After a year away.
And now the jet lag cometh.
March 7th, 2008, 5 Comments »
This morning I was searching for news reports on the status of Aaron Miller’s shoulder injury (oh, oh, Ohlund). As I usually do, I searched in Google, and went to click the News link to switch from web results to recent news. Before I did, I noticed something new in the search results:
There’s a site-search field underneath the results for Canucks.com. That’s a handy innovation. The subtext is “we’re pretty sure we know where you want to go, but your search was too vague”. How long has this been around?
UPDATE: I note that when I search for “Apple”, I don’t get the search field. Odd. I wonder what Google’s criteria is.
February 26th, 2008, 5 Comments »
Every year at the NHL trade deadline, I get excited. And every year, I’m disappointed. It’s 20 minutes past the noon PST deadline, and the only deal the Canucks have made is this one:
There’s still time to announce a splashy deal, and I hope I’m wrong, but whiskey tango foxtrot, Dave Nonis? Have you not been paying attention to your team this season?
What’s the knock against the current version of the Canucks? They can’t score enough goals. They couldn’t do it last season, and they can’t do it this season. Of the teams currently in the playoffs, they are among the lowest in team scoring.
So what does GM Dave Nonis do? He subtracts five goals from the team. Cooke has scored seven thus far this season, and Pettinger has scored two. There were plenty of scorers on the table, and he hasn’t landed any of them.
We’ve heard the excuses year after year: the price is too high, he doesn’t want to mortgage the team’s future, deadline trades rarely have impact and so forth. Bollocks, I say, and here’s why:
I don’t pretend to be a hockey genius, and I know about 5% of what Nonis knows about his industry. Still, as a fan, I’m tired of being consistently disappointed at the deadline.
I hope I’m wrong, and that the Canucks announce a deal in the next hour or two. Heck, Olli Jokinen hasn’t left Florida yet. I fear, however, that the team will suffer another early departure from the playoffs after a lot of 2-1 losses.
That said, I am happy to see the end of Matt Cooke. He’s been overpaid and keeping a roster spot from a younger player for years.
