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.
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.
3 Comments »
March 10th, 2008, 9 Comments »
After a year away.
- There are so many cars. This has been my overwhelming first reaction.
- Our commerce gets so bizarre, so fast. Riding the Airporter in from YVR, I passed a 7-11. There was a big banner hanging above the front door. I can’t remember the exact phrase, but it read something like “Cheesetastic Big Bite Hot Dogs!”. I found that troubling.
- Trees! Yay!
- Man, it’s really dark for 3:00pm in the afternoon.
- Rain! Yay!
- I’ve been hopelessly converted to a cash-only consumer. Credit cards were pretty much useless in Malta and Morocco.
- I can drink the tap water! Yay!
And now the jet lag cometh.
9 Comments »
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.
5 Comments »
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:
- Matt Cooke for Matt Pettinger
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:
- Sooner or later, you’ve got to take a chance and roll the dice.
- Any team that has Roberto Luongo always has a chance in the post-season.
- A trade is an important gesture to the team and the fans–it’s a tactical demonstration of dedication to improvement. The team is in good shape financially, so maybe they’re under-motivated to improve?
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.
5 Comments »
October 5th, 2007, No Comments »
Half the fun of watching sports is speculation. Before tonight’s season opener, I thought I’d better make a couple of predictions about the 2007-2008 edition of the Vancouver Canucks. Over at the Canucks Hockey Blog, we see that there are plenty of questions to answer:
It goes without saying that Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison have to produce more, and at least to start the season, the Canucks are relying in large part on the youngsters to provide some offense. Can Ryan Shannon and Ryan Kesler, both playing with Naslund, and Mason Raymond, playing with the Sedins, answer the bell?
I’d add to that two more:
- Can the defense score as often as they did last year? Yes, I think so.
- Will Luongo have as good a year as last year? I can’t see why not.
Plenty of pundits point out that the Canucks haven’t added any legitimate scoring threats. They’re right. But here’s what I figure: it’s a long season, and there’s a ton of parity in the Canucks’ division and the league as a whole.
Neither Great Nor Horrible
Given their strong defense, quality coaching and great goaltending, the team is unlikely to stumble badly out of the gate. They’re unlikely to be either great or horrible. GM Dave Nonis has some extra assets at defense, and can convert one of them to a legitimate scorer when he needs to.
I say the team plays decent hockey all season, Nonis adds one or two scorers at the trade deadline, and repeats last year’s achievement. In short, they win one round of playoffs. The teams ahead of them–Detroit, San Jose and Anaheim–are too good to get much farther than that.
No Comments »
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.
1 Comment »
August 29th, 2007, 8 Comments »
Well, that’s a uniform designed by committee, isn’t it? How does that idiom go? Try to satisfy everyone, and you’ll satisfy no one. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se. It’s just a kind of lame mishmash of recent iterations. Is something a ‘mash-up’ when it’s good, and a ‘mishmash’ when it’s bad?
Here’s the official announcement with a clearer photo, and
photos and reactions from Kimu, The Chief Canuck, Nephrus, Rebecca and, uh, Living Sword.
8 Comments »
