The Canucks Don’t Suck, The Coyotes…. EXIST!

The Vancouver Canucks were eliminated in game six of the Western Conference semi-finals on May 11th.

That’s a sentence that literally could have been written last season and still been 100% factual.

Pictured: A frustrating relationship for 'Nucks fans.

On May 13th last year, I was headed to the airport in Vancouver to fly the 45 minutes back to my hometown of Kelowna, after a three day vacation with my college roommates.  The day before we had ran into a big number of the Canucks downtown, day-drinking just like us, but they were black, blue and looking depleted.  And here I was the very next day listening to sports-talk radio abuse them.

To make the Conference semi’s, you have to advance past 22 teams, yet their sports personalities were trying to figure out who to nail to the cross first.  Apparently Luongo was the easiest target at the time (as he probably is today).

The Canucks growing ever-growing fan base has been treated to some great hockey lately

But Canucks fans, relax.  You have a good team that’s a serious contender – so much so that legitimate hockey personalities picked your boys to win the Cup (just being healthy might be enough to see round three next year, then who knows).  Most fans (Oilers, Wild, Flames, Leafs, oh I dunno, ISLANDERS) would kill to have the type of year your boys had.  You’re getting spoiled with great hockey, and acting like you’re watching the Blue Jackets.

You ran into a Hawks team with too many weapons to stop while using a d-corps that was probably eating a pre-game meal of spaghetti and percaset.  Your boy Lu made enough big saves and your forwards scored enough goals to win… there was just nothing left in the back tank.  Let’s be honest – it didn’t look like Salo was exactly having a ball out there. (*recycling is good for the environment)

Kudos to the Hawks, who look pretty damn dangerous going forward.

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Moments after getting a text that implied (said?) the deal to Winnipeg was finalized, it turned out the deal to stay in Phoenix was just getting started.  I was on an emotional roller coaster last night.

Two things I want to say to the fans of both cities before I mention the latest happenings:

Nooope, nobody's to "blame" for this up north.

This doesn’t have to be so personal.  The people of Winnipeg want a team, and are not to be blamed for that.  And on the other side, Coyote fans are not to be blamed for wanting their team to stay.  There are crappy people and great people on both sides of the border, I promise.  Let’s try to minimize generalizations and keep it classy.

The rampant pot-shotery from people who’re otherwise smart folks is weird, and hopefully uncharacteristic of the majority of hockey fans.

Quick summary of my understandings: Glendale has agreed to bend over and take it up the tailpipe to make hockey work here, and by the end of June, we’ll know with who and by what terms.  I don’t suppose either of these owners care to airlift the arena somewhere closer to me in Chandler, do they?

As I’ve mentioned before, best I can tell, supporters should back the Ice Edge bid – they’ve provided no hint of “we might move”, they’ve realized the importance of the fan base (and realized it exists), and most importantly, the guys I listen to here that have dilligently followed this situation for years support them.  Soooo, that’s good enough for me.  Support Ice Edge!  (On Twitter, if you like: @IceEdgeDJ)

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Blackhawks vs. Sharks

Should be a doozy

 My prediction is coming in the next day or two….. San Jose / Chicago… who ya got?

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Shorter entry today, as there’s a second one for you to take in.  Hope your week is going smooth.  And hey, it’s May!  Smile for spring.

Chi/Van, Round III: Luongo Is A Cat, But Not In A Good Way

Just out of curiosity, who was the colour guy on VERSUS last night? (And why is “VERSUS” written in all caps?  Is it an acronym?)

Its not that the colour guy was bad, but I’m pretty sure you can’t say a player “got raped” on a play (In reference to Patrick Sharp taking the zone between two Canuck defenders).  I literally used that phrase once and once only on this blog (I said a guy who had five points “raped the scoresheet”), and some dad or uncle or both wrote me some horrorifyingly personal story so I’d stop using the word so casually.  And indeed I have.  In retrospect, it seems like a gross overreaction by that guy, but I’m glad I stopped using it.  Of course, in the early days of this blog, I took negative reader comments a lot more personally, and immediately changed it to “mauled the scoresheet” (rawr).  Anyway.  That just seemed like suspect phrase-ology from ol commentatey-pants, there.

Found this pic after I wrote the Luongo cat-parison. Made me so happy. MREOW!

Bustin Dyfuglien or whatever his name is wreaked havoc on the Canucks crease last night (And by “wreaked havoc”, I mean Luongo looked like my cat when he lays on his back to chew my hand after every rebound.  Stay low in your butterfly after shots for f***’s sake, you’re massive).  You could feel like game unfolding for the Hawks as the Canucks dominated the better part of the first period, got ample opportunities to score, and made Niemi look like a stud.

The Canuck’s Jannick Hansen had two plays in particular that made me go “ugh” (as a guy openly rooting for the Canucks - a team I spent my youth disliking, only to recently realize I dislike every other Canadian team more, and I should probably try liking one), because certain saves make a goalie feel like they’re really on top of things in a game.  Once they get those big, solid saves under their belt early, its like they’re playing with house money.  They’ve already bailed the team out, so they can really start laying down some big bets.  And Hansen was the dealer dropping blackjacks on Niemi.

One play, he got a puck from behind the net and had it on his forehand, all alone facing Niemi, who came out aggressively to cut down the angle.  Hansen goes flat-footed, and pulls a hockey-school wrist-shot into Niemi’s pillows like it’s pre-game warm-up, instead of pulling it to his backhand to a completely vacant net.  Bees and dogs can smell fear, apparently, but I think I sniffed some out of ‘ol Jannick on that one myself. “ohcrap I better shoot this soon”

Clearly, he went to the bench and gave himself a stern talking to, because on the next shift he gets a breakaway, and forces a deke to his backhand that Niemi was so far over on it hits him mid-pad.   Couldn’t tell if he was going inside post or five-hole, whiiiich is never a good sign on a deke.  This was followed immediately be a nasty move in front by Daniel Sedin (starts facing away from Niemi, gets the puck and does a neat pull to his forehand thingy)  needing to raise the puck one foot to score, trying to flip it up, but being oddly unable to.  And herreeee come the Hawks.

(He’s right on top of Niemi, but if I can hit the cross bar with the puck on the goal line, I’m thinkin’ a Sedin can too)

The most effective guys for Chicago were the secondary, more aggressive names, like Byfuglien, Bolland and oddly, Hjalmarsson (while Kane and Toews actually looked 21 and 22 years old, respectively).  Which, of course, is scary for the Canucks – you didn’t put a game away with ample opportunities at home, and you’ve yet to see the best from your opponent’s stars.

Credit where credit is due: If you're a pest, but also happen to weigh 230 and have capable hands, you'll probably have some success.

Lastly on Byfuglien and Luongo – Clearly Big Buff (sounds like a childrens character) has the goalie’s number, but here’s what I don’t get.  If I’m a referee, I know who Dustin Byfuglien is.  You know that after every whistle he’s not getting bumped into the goalie; you know it’s intentional.  If you don’t want to have some difficult calls later in the game or series (“should we count that or was it goalie interference?), don’t you protect the goalie early by calling a penalty and making it clear he’s to be left alone?  This grinding, frustrating “oops, did I trip into the goalie?” “oops, did I stop a second late and get bumped onto the goalie?” should be insulting to the refs.  You know those aren’t accidents, right?  If you don’t police this, the teams have to, then you have 90 facewash scrums per game because nobody wants to sit five minutes of a playoff game.

Anyways, enough on that series.  Sorry for the clear Vancouver bias – I really do like Chicago, I just want Vancouver to step up this year.

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Congrats to the B’s on taking down the Flyers in Philly, but the loss of Krejci (broken wrist) hurts.  Looks to be a fun coupla Conference finals shaping up!

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I was poking around looking for clips of me on TV yesterday for a bit of a video resume, and found a couple of me at Islander camp (Islanders TV still had them on file).  I’m just a tad jacked up in the second one, but if  you care to hear me speak during my first NHL camp, herreeee ya go:

Off Ice Interview

JUST Off The Ice Interview

Top Ten Canadians in the Game

NHL.com lists the ten best Canadians in the game today (in order) as:

1. Sidney Crosby   2. Martin Brodeur  3.  Jarome Iginla   4.  Marc-Andre Fleury   5. Chris Pronger   6. Ryan Getzlaf   7.  Rick Nash   8. Roberto Luongo   9. Joe Thornton   10. Vincent Lecavalier

Though not ridiculous, it’s a tad nostalgic.  Chris Pronger is the fifth best Canadian hockey player alive today?  Don’t take the following as not liking any of the above guys, I just thought I’d mix in my own thoughts, and hear some of yours (okay, you can take it as me not liking Pronger).

Oops, I'm really, really good.

{First, I’m finally impressed with a US hockey team, which makes me a tad nervous for Canada.  It was a hassle when every country in Europe starting getting really good (go back to producing bums with eight “i’s” in their name, Finland), but now the US?  That’s annoying.

Names like Parise, Stastny, Kane, Kessel, Kessler, Ryan and Booth point to a pretty strong future.  Young, fast and a talented — all of ‘em.}

But back to our Canadian top ten.

1. Sidney is a given.

But I just can’t give Martin Brodeur the title of #2.  This is always a tough point to make, because folks can drag up stats (career GAA of amazing-point-five, save percentage is ninetywhatever-point-awesome), but come on.  I could drag up Bobby Orr’s amazing numbers too, but you wouldn’t want him (the 61 year old him) starting at defense in 2010, would you?  Brodeur’s great, but on the downslope of his career (and never exactly been known for his fitness).

Marty has become a staple of Canadian big game hockey and I love him to death for that.  But, Canada should probably move on.  Cam Ward didn’t crack the NHL.com top ten, but wouldn’t you like to see him wearing a Team Canada jersey at the Olympics?  It’s not like Carolina’s teams have been stacked, but he’s made them successful – this guy is a big game goalie too.

Oops, I'm really, really good.

Our best Canadian goalies today are Luongo (what goalie would have won a cup backstopping the teams he has?  Don’t give me that argument), Cam Ward, and Marc-Andre Fleury (who I’ve always liked, despite the fact that everyone in Canada hated the disappointment he “was” before June of this year).

One – that’s right, ONE – defenseman made that list, and it was Pronger.  More than taking away from Chris, who admittedly is still in the upper echelon of defenseman (hanging on… losing… grip… must… hang on), I have to give credit to two other guys, Mike Green of Washington, and Shea Weber of Nashville.

I got more texts from hockey-playing friends watching NHL playoff games last year about Mike Green than anyone else.  He does some amazingly nifty little things that make a big difference.  To be a scorer in the NHL today is tough to do, but this guys’ stat-line from last year as a defenseman was 31 goals, 42 assists for 73 points… in 68 games.

Oh, and he’s 24.  His defensive game has gotten better every year, and will continue to.

As ridiculous as it seems now, I was Shea Weber’s instructor at Dave Roy’s “Edge of Excellence” hockey school.  I was 18, and Shea was 15.  He was probably bigger than me by three inches then and just under twice as fast.  I made a huge difference in his life. 

“Yep, you’re doing it right.  Yep.  That was good.  Uh-huh.”

At this point, he’s not even freaking human.  Punishingly physical, with a booming slapper and great foot speed, I bet there’s a lot of GM’s who’d take him over Green.  He’s Pronger 2.1 – the next edition.  Toting less lumbering largeness (a mere 6’3″ 210), he carries his size more like Duncan Keith than a Todd Bertuzzi, and is frighteningly better every time I see him play.

"Hi I'm Jon. I'm allowed to drink this year. Neato."

Oh, and he’s 24.

I think a list of our top ten Canadian players today needs to pay closer attention to the way the game is being played now.  Vinnie Lecavalier is a great player, and plenty physical to boot.  But remember how it looked when the international teams were bombing around and we were trying to Eric Lindros/Keith Primeau them into the ground?  We couldn’t catch them.

Vinnie isn’t that big slug type of player; I just think the new type of goal scorer is more evasive than invasive.  Doesn’t Jonathan Toews strike you as a more effective guy in today’s game?  The guys scored 34 times as a 21 year old captain last year.  He’s following in Lecavaliers footsteps as the young captain, but is already trouncing the numbers Vinnie put up at that age.

So without further ado… My list:

1. Sidney Crosby

2. Ryan Getzlaf

3. Jarome Iginla

4. Roberto Luongo

5. Rick Nash

6. Mike Green

7. Jonathan Toews

8. Joe Thornton

9. Shea Weber

10. Cam Ward

I’d put those guys out against any country, any day.  (Wait, except Russia.  Not sure what they’re doing over there, but it’s starting to resemble cheating).

The Players of Playoffs

A few short hockey thoughts prior to today’s action:

1.  Let me preface this thought by saying this is completely unfounded, it’s my own speculation, and it’s not rooted in any fact. 

The first thing I saw when I saw Shawn Thornton running around in the Habs/Bruins game was: “that guy’s on steroids”.  NHL steroid testing is slightly better than non-existent, and I played with a couple kids who openly used while I played.  Don’t think guys don’t - we’re not baseball by any means, but I’d speculate a guy per team.

And in all likelihood, Shawn isn’t one of them.  In fact, as a reader recently pointed out (and not in the kindest way), I was thinking of (and comparing him to) Scott Thornton in his early days.  Totally different player.  But it doesn’t change facts.  Players use, and the league’s testing policy is not all that stringent.

2.  Just cleaning out a few hockey notes here:  Are you serious with that Fleury save on Carter?  It’s not even like Fleury got all the way across the net, it looked like Carter took a moment to savour it, which let Fleury get halfway there (which was an exceptionally feat in itself).  Then Carter compounded the nightmare (score and the series is 1-1) by sliding it mid-net.  That was the series turning point.

3.  Okay, Scott Hartnell, the hair isn’t exactly trendy or cool now that you’ve done it long enough for us to think you’re serious.  Now you’ve just been making a bad decision for way too long.  You look like Sideshow Bob.  Or Anderson Varejao.  Which brings me to today’s picture comparison center:

, Mats Sundin’s eerie Terminator black eye: , And Luongo / Jon Decaro (my college goaltender, both 6’4” and Italian):

3.  Lastly, for now, I saw Marty Havlat’s interview yesterday, and thought he sounded like a Newfy pirate.  Great player and all, and more than likely just French, but yeah.  Newfy pirate.

Okay!  Caps/Rangers is underway, battle of the Red, White and Blue!  See you back here tonight!