I Feel Very Olympic Today

February 8, 2010

Well it was really yesterday, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use that quote.  On Sunday afternoon it appeared as if the Penguins had the Capitals in the bag and I could use the time before the Super Bowl started to check out the progress in Vancouver for the Olympics.  Well, clearly I made the wrong choice as the Capitals came back and there wasn’t as much to see downtown as I thought there would be.  But for those interested here are a few pictures that I thought were worth enough to post and will also give you an idea of what to expect next week.  For those people reading that have not been to Vancouver you might be interested in seeing what some of the venues look like from the outside and from afar.  Click on any picture for a larger view!

Like a true tourist I hopped on the Seabus in North Vancouver around 10:30.  As you can see by the sign I made it with just 5 minutes to spare.  I then hopped on the Skytrain and took it down to the BC Place/GM Place stopping hoping to see some cool stuff on the outside of the buildings.

Taking public transit like a loser

Yay! I made it.

I then made my way down Beatty Street towards BC Place and then came back towards GM Place, or “Canada Hockey Place” as its known during the Olympics.

The Cops have all roads near venues blocked off.

How often can you stand in the middle of Georgia and not get killed?

When you get to the event areas you’ll meet these tents where you’re likely to get an anal probe.  If you’re part of the Olympic family then you can wave goodbye to the rest of us suckers and go though your own special entrance while the rest of us continue to wait.

The Olympic Family entrance at BC Place Stadium

The way in for the rest of us

I’m also including a few pictures of BC Place for no other reason than because I took them.  Yay for ugly cement buildings.  Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint too many people who have traveled long distances to see the opening or closing ceremony.

It is what it is

BC Place from Georgia

Next I headed next door to GM Place trying to get a good view of something.  Instead I was just met by a bunch of fences.  What suprised me was that there is still traces of Canucks type things on the building.  I’m wondering if they’ll take those down by Friday.

The side of GM Place from along the Georgia Viaduct

There is still a trace of the Vancouver Canucks at GM Place

Expo Blvd decked out in Olympic designs outside GM Place

A good shot of the security check point outside GM Place. Complete with bag scanner like at the airport

Next I decided to head up Dunsmuir before heading up to Georgia and Pacific Centre.  Live City is apparently a place for entertainment and creating a lasting impression with family orientated entertainment.  I assume its a good place for families to go spend money when they can’t get into something like the Molson Canadian Hockey House.

Side view of Live City Vancouver from Georgia

Front entrance of Live City

Next I kept on traveling up Georgia.  The further up you go, the more people there were.  I saw a couple waving an Australian flag as well as two women in Russia tracksuits.  I considered taking their picture but I thought that that might be a little too weird.  Nonetheless, here are some pictures from along Georgia.

Hey look, it's the renovated CBC building

Canada Post has the Olympic Fever

As does a new hotel going in at Georgia and Howe

I still don't know how the Olympic lane is different than a regular HOV lane

At The Bay at Pacific Centre their were A LOT of people inside buying the latest Canada Olympic gear.  I was going to actually buy something but I didn`t have 15 minutes to stand in the lineup to pay.  The VISA advertisements on The Bay building has been up for about a year but they`re still pretty cool and worth posting.

A few great Canadian moments

A few more

We were made for this!

Is there anything more Canadian than The Hudson's Bay Company?...

...Well maybe this picture of CPR trains that I took is.

Some good looking people

On Granville street there was some sort of Cultural Olympiad thing going on.  I’m not sure exactly what the point of it was but I look pictures anyway.

The money shot down Granville?

You typical totem poles at the Cultural Olympiad.

I have no idea what's going on here

Japan and Hole in the Wall invades Canada.

Next up was the final stop in my short trip downtown.  Naturally I had to get a shot of the countdown clock at the Art Gallery like everyone else

What`s a day at the Vancouver Art Gallery without some sort of protest?

All these people wanted to see the time tick down on the start of the games

We`re almost there!

Now it was back to the Seabus to pickup my car and head to a Super Bowl party. While waiting for the Seabus one comes to realize that London really wants you to come visit them.  Only 2 and a half years until they get to host the Summer Games!

Visit London for the 2012 Summer Games!

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Posted by Simon

I Blame Mikael Samuelsson

February 4, 2010

Shane O'Brien can't keep Jason Spezza's pass from going into the net.

Hopefully Kyle from Babcock’s Death Stare sees the blog title since he’s one of the few people who seems to share my furor with Mikael Samuelsson.   It’s the first minute of the game with a goaltender between the pipes making his first start in months.  Plus, you’re playing the hottest team in the league outside of perhaps Washington and what does Samuelsson decide to do?  You guessed it, take a penalty.  Before Raycroft even has the opportunity to feel comfortable in goal, the Senators get a power play and quickly a goal off the tip in from Milan Michalek.  Samuelsson also had the balls to bitch to the referee on his way to the box as he always does.  It’s a growing annoyance of mine that NHL players, even when taking the most obvious penalty in the history of hockey, will still bitch and moan on their way to the box.  Sometimes sucking it up and skating to the box is ok!

Is there seriously anything else to really take out of this game other than the massive letdown by Vancouver?  Understandably, the Senators took their pedal off the floor when they built up the 2-0 lead.  The Senators played a close and hard fought game the night before in Buffalo and getting the early lead and sitting on it was certainly part of the agenda.  The first part probably wasn’t that difficult either when you consider that the Canucks have given up the first goal in nine of the last eleven games.

I thought the decision to start Andrew Raycroft was a big weird.  According to Jason Botchford of “The Province”, the Canucks made the decision to go with Raycroft after the game in Montreal.  I’ll admit that Luongo has been a little bit off is game lately and perhaps fatigue has started to set in a little bit but in a game against a team that has won ten in a row  you have to go with your number one guy.  Additionally, starting Raycroft against his former team in Boston for a morning game might have made more sense.  I probably don’t have to mention when Luongo injured himself last season in Pittsburgh because his routine was thrown off by the early start.  Either way, Raycroft was not the reason the Canucks lost the game.

Shane O’Brien made some insanely strange plays as well tonight.  I can’t wait for him to go back to being the number five or six guy, he’s really not cut out to be a top four.  Not that were didn’t already know that but it’s horrible at times right now.  The moment that really sticks out is when he tried to go backwards with a pass after the Canucks had been running around their own zone for at least a minute.  For the love of god man, just get those pucks out.  The Canucks were getting away with having a less skilled defense at home where Vigneault could work the match-ups, but I think that we’re starting to see the opponents match their best players against defenders that can’t handle them.  Christan Ehrhoff has had a few problems on the penalty kill and playing against the other team’s top line so hopefully he can get back to how he was playing ten games or so ago.  In hindsight I’m starting to believe that his plus-minus was inflated because he didn’t always have to play against the best.  However, he is still the best the Canucks have right now.

Brian Elliott was beaten only by Kyle Wellwood

Somehow, the Canucks managed to outshoot Ottawa 30-20 and 27-9 after the first period.  It really didn’t seem like the Canucks had 16 shots in the third period but apparently they did.  Other than the breakaway save off Steve Bernier in the dying seconds of the second period I can’t think of a time where Elliott had to make a great save.  Far too many shots from Vancouver came with no traffic in net or were shot right at the goaltender.  Sometimes that just means that the opponent’s goalie is on his game as far as rebounds and angles go, but the Canucks really didn’t challenge Elliott much in my opinion.

What is most troubling about the offensive effort is that Daniel and Henrik were pretty much ineffective for the entire night.  I don’t think they got the cycle going at all and even resorted to taking slapshots from the top of the circle with no traffic a number of times.  Definitely not a game to remember for the top line.  Ryan Kesler was also invisible for most of the night.  For a guy that wants to be paid in the five million a year range, he has to find a way to get it going more often on the road.  That might be was separating him from being a great player in the league right now.

What to expect Saturday?  I’m not really sure at the moment.  It seems like the Canucks have rekindled the problems that they were having earlier in the year.  Luckily for them, Boston isn’t the greatest team in the league this year, let alone home team.  They lost in a shootout to Montreal tonight.  Tim Thomas did have a shutout over the Canucks the last time they played so we can expect Thomas to play opposite Luongo – a possible Olympic matchup as well.  The Canucks need to find a way to get things going because there is still eleven games left on this road trip.

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Posted by Simon

The Olympics Are Coming!

February 4, 2010

8 Days to Go!

I have to stop neglecting this place for long periods for time.  Lots of good stuff has happened since I last posted.  The Canucks went on a 7 game winning streak with their patchwork defence and some less than stellar efforts all around but winning when you don’t play your best is what good teams do.  It was too bad that they lost in Montreal because they were the better team for pretty much the entire game.  Poor personnel on defence finally caught up to them at times  as a few of the goals had some serious blown coverage.  The real reason they lost though was their inability to figure out Halak.  With forty plus saves he definitely stole the game.  But that’s old news.

I’m really looking forward to tonight’s game against Ottawa.  I really think that the Canucks have an excellent opportunity to be the ones that break up the Senators winning streak.  The Sens played a hard fought game in Buffalo last time and are bound to be tired while the Canucks had the day off and are waiting there for them.  The line-ups haven’t come out yet but I would hope Tanner Glass draws back in for Darcy Hordichuk now that they’ve lost a game.  Glass brings so much more to the table than Hordichuk but we’ll see what Vigneault opts to do.  Hopefully Henrik is on his game as well because Ovechkin has pulled within a point of him in the Art Ross race.

Now the big news is that I’ll be going into Olympic mode within a day or two.  Since the Olympics are in my city it’s my goal to bring a firsthand account of all the happenings that might be going around Vancouver in the lead up to the game and of course the games themselves.  The torch is being run through my neighborhood on Wednesday so that’s going to be exciting as well.  I’ll be unveiling my hockey predictions during the next week or so and when the games officially start I’ll be discussing other sports other than hockey when relevant.  Of course the Canucks are still playing through to next Sunday so they obviously won’t be forgotten.

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Posted by Simon

This Could Get Ugly

January 23, 2010

Nolan Baumgartner during the 2009 Pre-Season

With the recall of Nolan Baumgartner for the injured Sami Salo, the Canucks defence is looking pretty thin for Saturday night’s tilt with the Chicago Blackhawks.  The Hawks are perhaps the last team in the league that you want to have a depleted defence against.  There is a pretty good chance that the speedy and skilled forwards are going to dominate the Canucks defence for most of the night.  To put in perspective just how bad the starting 6 will be on Saturday, Shane O’Brien who has been in and out of the press box this year will be number three on the depth chart.  Aaron Rome, Brad Lukowich and Baumgartner are all players that have spent most of the season watching or in the minors.  So, lets look at what the Canucks have to work with and how they might try and slow down Chicago.

Without Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa healthy to play in the shutdown role, Alex Edler and Christian Ehrhoff will likely draw the assignment.  Ehrhoff will get a chance to prove his doubts wrong, who say that his plus-minus is a result of not playing against the other teams’ top line.  Ehrhoff and Edler logged 32 minutes in the shootout loss to Calgary two weeks ago.  Both defenseman will potentially see close to thirty minutes of ice time with so few reliable defensemen.  Baumgartner will likely play more than the six shifts that Evan Oberg did in that game in order to take some of the pressure off the top pairing.

O’Brien and Rome round out the top 4 as scary as that is.  With the secondary scoring that Chicago has, these guys are in for a tough assignment.  The best thing that O’Brien can do is to keep it simple yet still play his game.  That means don’t run around trying to be physical and take penalties but still be physical when the opportunity comes to him.  Rome will be advised to much of the same.  Handle the puck as little as possible and get the puck out of the zone.

Baumgartner with the Canucks during the 09 Pre-season.

Lukowich and Baumgartner are at the bottom of the depth chart for this game.  Lukowich has been a bit hit-and-miss during his call-up so far.  I find that he is too frequently being caught standing still when the puck is within reach.  There was one opportunity against the Stars where the puck was on the side boards and he just watched it rather than going after it and trying to make a play.  On the plus side, he’s been quite physical when the opportunity has been there and like O’Brien will need to pick his sports to do so on Saturday.  I haven’t seen Baumgartner play in a long time but for the record he has 1 goal and 6 assists with a -7 rating in 30 games for the Moose this season.  He last played for the Canucks in 2006 and in the NHL in 2007 with the Dallas Stars.

It probably goes without saying that Roberto Luongo is probably going to have to turn in one of his best performances of the season if the Canucks are going to win.  Guys like Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows will have to be spectacular on the defensive side of the puck.  Ryan Johnson being back in the fold should help with the penalty kill which is still stuck in the middle of the pack.  Because of that, not taking a lot of penalties will also be key.

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Posted by Simon

Other Referees and Media React to Burrows’ Allegations

January 12, 2010

I don’t normally make a post just to provide a bunch of links but this appears to be a special case that is worthy of it.  The media and Stephan Auger’s peers have now had some time to diget Alex Burrows’ post game comment and weigh in on the whole thing.  The more I think about it, the more I believe Burrows.  It appears as I’m not alone as a poll on tsn.ca showed that 85% of voters believe Burrows was telling the truth.  Honestly, I didn’t think the number would be so high among non-Canuck fans because Burrows doesn’t have the greatest reputation across the league but without an actual statement from Auger or the NHL, it appears as if people will take Burrows’ word as the truth.  Now lets take a look at some of the comments made across the league.

Perhaps the most interesting is from an annoyamous veteran official:

“You file it away in the back of your cranium,” he said. “But you wait until you get a game where the score is 5-1, and then you might call him for something. You say, ‘We’ll meet up again one day.’ But you don’t hurt the team.”

“You don’t even have to be a ref to figure it out,” he said. “Don’t leave the gun at the scene with your fingerprints all over it.”

I was pretty surprised when I read this because I thought most referees would blindly support their own or have no comment.  In all honesty, referees have an incredibly difficult and thankless job to do and as a result will likely stand by their own.  The fact the first public comments by someone, basically throws Auger under the bus should tell you what Auger’s teammates think of him.

Next we have Ray Ferraro who knows a thing or two about yapping.  The “Little Ball of Hate” talks about how most officials, or at least a good official, dealt with people like him or Burrows and how the they should maintain a bigger sense of professionalism even when you want to get back at a guy.

“I have a little experience with this type of situation from my playing days. I, like Burrows at times, talked too much for my own good. I never hesitated to tell an official if I thought he made a bad call. Paul Stewart was one of the officials that I butted heads with. I felt like he saw that the game revolved around him, and I told him that every chance I had. It got to the point where we hated each other – he felt I was a big mouth, I hated seeing his name on the game sheet.

But a strange thing happened. Nothing.

I never felt that Paul leaked his feelings into giving me the short end of the stick. We never spoke, and he would ignore me whenever I had a question, but he was totally professional.”

Head Coach Alain Vigneault is concerned about the bigger picture for his team. Vigneault, rightfully so, is concerned that as a result of Burrows’ comments that the team will be hit with more biased officiating, like the ones in Vancouver last night.  If he knew about what some of Auger’s peers were saying about him then his concerns might disappears but nonetheless it appears as if it could end up being a distraction to the team now

“It’s a concern,” Vigneault told sportsnet.ca on Tuesday. “I can understand the situation, but that being said right now I think it’s best for our players and myself to let Mike Gillis and management take care of this with the league. It’s something they will have to deal with.”

Of course, while the Canucks are concerned of the distraction that might come from all of this the team completely supports Burrows.  As Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province writes that Burrows has the full support of the team and Burrows and Colin Campbell will have a conference call tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm pst.  Mike Gillis has shown that he’ll support his players in anyway that he can since taking of as General Manager.

“Alex Burrows, Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis and NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell will have a hearing via conference call Tuesday afternoon as the league begins an investigation into the accusation one of its referees had a personal vendetta which spilled over into Monday’s Canucks game.”

“We’re going to support him in every way we can support him,” Gillis said. “We’re going to support what he said occurred and we’re going to show why we support that.”

While Burrows will meet with Campbell tomorrow it appears as if the winger is done talking about it for now:

“My focus is on (Wednesday) night’s game,” Burrows said. “They are playing well and they are a good team and the won on Monday night so just make sure we get two points.”

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Posted by Simon

Alex Burrows Slams Referee, Stephane Auger

January 12, 2010

Yes, there was an actual game tonight and I’ll get around to actually giving my thoughts on that at some point but the bigger news making its way around is the allegation that referee, Stephane Auger was “out to get,” Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks.  Burrows didn’t hide his feeling from the press in a post game media scrub following the loss and it appears that Burrows’ claims may be valid.  Following the loss, Burrows who scored twice said:

“It was personal. It started in warm-up, before the anthem,” Burrows said of Auger’s penalty calling. “(Augers) came over to me and he said I made him look bad in Nashville on the (Jerred) Smithson hit and he said he was going to get me back tonight.”

“He did his job in the third, I think. He got me on a diving call I didn’t think was diving. He got me on an interference call that I had no idea how he could call that. It changed the game. It sucks right now for teammates who are battling 60 minutes to win a hockey game because every two points are so huge, are so important. And because of a guy’s ego, it just blows everything out of proportion and the refs – they’re making bad calls and the fans are paying for it and we’re paying for it.

Burrows has legitimate gripes when it comes to the penalties.  Both the diving penalty and the interference penalty seemed to come of nowhere.  In fact there was a delay by the official to call the dive in the first place.  It’s almost as if he checked to see who it was and then put his arm up.  The interference penalty was a total phantom call.  Auger’s partner, Dennis LaRue had sent a Predator off for hooking with less than 5 minutes to go.  Cue Auger who called Burrows for interference when Joel Ward went tumbling to the ice.  There was clearly no pick on the play and it was simply two guys getting tied up.

The circumstantial evidence here is the pre-game confrontation between the referee and Burrows.  I was at the game and i watched the whole pre-game discussion between the two and Burrows looked visibly upset at whatever was being said. I didn’t think too much of it at the time other than it being unusual. It’s not often you sees refs talking to guys pre-game that isn’t a coach or captain.

I don’t want to jump to conclusions too quickly because I have a hard time believing that a referee of 10 years would ruin his career on something like that or to put himself in a position where he would be liable to get called out in public by a player but at the same time it appears as if all the evidence is supporting Burrows right now.  It’s not as if Burrows would go around trying to blacklist himself with an accusation that wasn’t true.  I’m sure the NHL will investigate and we’ll see what happens in a day or two.

For the record Auger also had a run in with Burrows in Montreal when Auger kicked Burrows out of the game for a penalty that should have been two minutes at worst.  Auger and LaRue were also part of the Wings-Stars game and the inexcusable no goal although that was mostly on LaRue because he was the one who blew the whistle.  Still looking for video of the Smithson hit for reference.  Anyone have a link?

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Posted by Simon

Canucks lose to Flames in Thriller

January 10, 2010

Well there was certainly lots to talk about in this game and it will probably seem like I’m ranting at times here because I didn’t necessarily like the way the game played out at times; whether it was the referees, the penalties or the Canucks being physically outworked for a lot of the game.  Despite that, it was the definitely an entertaining and dramatic game.  Rypien and Prust had a few good tilts and Henrik was able to pad his NHL point lead on Joe Thornton.

One thing that quickly became evident was that Shane O’Brien was well out of his comfort zone playing as the fourth defenseman.  On the first goal he couldn’t handle Rene Bourque and let him cut right to the net.  Bourque, being the skilled player that he is, was able to use his speed to keep Luongo deep in the net and roof it.  It wasn’t so much the amount time that O’Brien played that made him look so bad as it was the players that he was forced to go up against.  17 minutes is not any more than he normally plays and he actually went over the 20 minute mark Tuesday against Columbus.  In the end, O’Brien ended up taking two penalties and finished a -1.  I’m ok with the first penalty; he was trying to establish some sort of physical presence early in the game and got his gloves up a bit too high.  The second was just careless as he ended up shooting it out.  Automatic penalties like that appeared to be the only ones the refs were interested in calling.  Christian Ehrhoff also received a rare minus on that goal but was able to get back to even before the night was over.

Other than O’Brien the top four played pretty well despite giving up 40 shots.  Alex Edler may have had his most gritty effort of his career playing 32:16.  For those mathematically challenged, that is mere seconds away from playing half the game.  Likewise, Christian Ehrohoff played 32:20.  In a game as physical as this one was, these guys should be commended for their efforts.  Willie Mitchell wasn’t quite as dominate as he normally is in the shutdown role as Iginla and Jokinen both had a number of great scoring chances but was still respectable in his 27:33.

In their Canucks debuts, Brad Lukowich and Evan Oberg weren’t too spectacular.  Lukowich was noticeable a few times out there and played physical when the opportunity presented itself.  I thought he was caught out of position a few times but I suppose that is to be expected for someone playing their first NHL game of the year.  He ended up playing 12:47 which is significantly less than the top four.  Oberg was seldom used and while playing so little can’t be good for his development you can’t blame Vigneault for not having the confidence to go with him.  Like Lukowich, I thought he was caught out of position a few times and was physically overmatched.  He was most active in the first period where he received 4 shifts compared to just 2 each in the final two periods.

One thing you can say about the Canucks offense is that they are at least making the most of their opportunities without getting that many shots on goal.  The first goal tonight featured some great work down low by Mason Raymond.  He was able to use his speed to help shield the puck from Robyn Regehr and find Samuelsson shockingly wide open in the slot.  McGratton definitely blew coverage on that play but thats what happens when you get the fourth line against the Canucks second line.

On the second goal it showed exactly why the Sedin’s as so good together.  Henrik just knew that Daniel was going to be coming behind him and was able to get the saucer pass over the stick of the Flames defender and over to Daniel.  It’s not so much the play itself that impresses me, but the fact that Henrik had the confidence to make that pass when he was on a partial breakaway.  Unfortunately for Vancouver the lead didn’t hold up that long.

On the Flames second goal, it wasn’t much more than a fluke play.  The puck was redirected about three times including the final one off the stick of Willie Mitchell.  Luongo can sometimes come up with those but that one managed to slip through his pads and in.  It was unfortunate that the Canucks couldn’t come away with two points on a goal like that because Luongo was playing absolutely fantastic tonight.  Without him playing so well they would have been out of it well before the shootout.  It’s hard to single out just one or two saves that he made that were game changers because they all started to blend together.  There were definitely a couple where he moved from post to post that really impressed me.  Kiprusoff had a few of those as well.  He didn’t see a lot of shot but the ones that we did we pretty good quality.

Of course Kiprusoff also had to deal with a green laser pointer from a fan tonight.  Part of me finds it funny but in the end I realize it was pretty classless by that one particular fan.  I’m not sure how long it actually went on for because I couldn’t see it from the upper bowl at the game and didn’t know it happened until I heard about it on the radio.  I did see a fan shining a bright white light in the third period but I don’t believe he was kicked out.  Anyway, this didn’t really have any effect on the outcome of the game but I wonder what Flames fans will do next time Vancouver is in Calgary.  We’ll have to wait awhile since they don’t have another game scheduled this season.

I also can’t leave out the fights from Rypien and Prust.  I think we all knew that these two were going to drop the gloves at some point tonight.  They gave us not just one but two great bouts.  Rypien absolutely destroyed Prust in the first two fights between the two but tonight Prust held in there pretty well.  I’d say the first fight was probably a draw.  Rypien seemed to have the upper hand in the beginning and the end, but Prust really came on in the middle part after Rypien fell and got back up.  The second meeting, the homer in me wants to give it to Rypien.  The people at hockeyfights.com would side with me on that so I must be right!

Now here’s the part that is going to seem like a rant.  I thought the officiating tonight was horrendous.  I get the whole “let the teams play” thing because after all I did grow up in the 90s, but there was also so much inconsistency in the games and non-calls.  It’s the biggest thing as a fan and player that bothers me.  Just be consistent.  Case in point, Tanner Glass got hammered from behind by Bourque which was a blown call no matter how you look at it and then Glass makes the same hit two minutes later and goes to the box.  There were other examples that I don’t really want to go into detail about, but I will say that Bill McCreary should have realized whos payroll his father was on (haha?).  For the record, McCreary and Stephen Walkom are supposed to be two of the best refs in the league.  I didn’t see it tonight.  I’ll admit that the better team won the game but the refs have to be better.  I don’t get why the league mandates every tap get called a hooking penalty while guys can be hit from behind into the boards with no call all the time.  It seems silly.

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Posted by Simon

Canucks vs. Flames Preview

January 9, 2010

Canucks record: 27-16-1, 55 Pts. T1 Northwest

Flames Record: 25-14-5, 55 Pts, T1 Northwest

Last Meeting:  One doesn’t have to look to far back to recall the last meeting between these two teams.  Jarome Iginla opened the scoring on a tip in on the Flames first shot of the game two weeks ago, but after that it was all Vancouver.  Mason Raymond recorded his first career hat trick to pace the Canucks to a 5-1 win.  Raymond scored perhaps the craziest goal of the season as he lobbed a dump in from center ice that deflected off an unsuspecting Kiprusoff and into the net.

Season Series: Despite losing the last contest, the Flames still lead the season series 2-1 on the strength of two early season victories.  All games have been played in Calgary to this point.  The Canucks may now have the upper hand as they will have the advantage of playing at home for the last three games between these two teams.  The Flames won 5-3 on October 1st and again by the same score on October 16th.

Last Game: The Flames had a let down game at home to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night losing 3-2.  The Jackets were able to build up a 3-1 lead and hang on for a 3-2 victory.  It’s the Flames second loss in a row after winning five straight.  The Canucks shut out the Coyotes on Thursday night thanks to the strong play of Roberto Luongo and of course the back-to-back hat trick by Alex Burrows.

Injuries:  Aaron Rome (concussion)-Out, Sami Salo (eye)-doubtful, Pavol Demitra (shoulder) – Out but day-to-day, Kevin Bieksa(ankle)-Out indefinitely.

Other Stuff: I’m hoping to do game previews on here more often and what better way to start than with a matchup between the Flames and Canucks.  I don’t think many people would have expected these two teams to be playing with exactly the same number of points based on how the Canucks were playing at the start of the season, but thanks to winning 11 of 14, the Canucks are now tied with the Flames.

Brad Lukowich is going to get his first start of the season with the Canucks on Saturday.  Lukowich has been playing with the Texas Stars of the NHL after being waived and re-assigned by the Canucks at the conclusion of the pre-season.  Lukowich was aquired as part of the trade that brough Christian Ehrhoff to Vancouver.  Lukowich was happy to head back to Texas to help the new franchise get its feet underneath them after spending the best years of his career in Dallas.  I use the term happy loosely here as he obviously would have preferred to be in the NHL but still it was a good situation for both sides.  Lukowich wasn’t assigned to Manitoba, the Canucks AHL affiliate at the time because they were at the veteran roster limit.

Evan Oberg has also been called up to play for Sami Salo should he not be able to go tomorrow.  Salo didn’t practice Friday because his eye had swollen shut after being high-sticked by Willie Mitchell on Thursday.  Unless it heals pretty damn quick it appears we’ll be seeing Oberg make his NHL debut.  Honestly, Oberg isn’t ready to step into the NHL yet but because the Canucks are so thin on defensive depth they have little choice.  This also should show that the Canucks want absolutely nothing to do with Mathieu Schneider anymore.  If Schneider hadn’t done whatever he did to upset the Canucks he’d be looking at some consistent playing time right now.  For those interested, Nolan Baumgartner is just about healed from a broken finger and Lawrence Nycholat as well as Nathan McIver are also injured, leaving the Canucks with no choice but to call up Oberg

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My First Club Experience (And Canucks Hit Milestones in 4-0 Win)

January 8, 2010

The Canucks ice crew picks up the hats after Burrows second hat trick in as many games

Let’s preface the game analysis with what was really important tonight.  I finally got my first club experience at GM Place.  I’ve been to a lot of games in the past as a season ticket holder but it was a treat to finally get such an up close and personal view of the game.  Many thanks to Kingsley Bailey, the ticket re-seller who deals outside the lower level of the Stadium Skytrain stop.  He let me trade my three upper bowl tickets at face value for the one club seat.  These guys often get a bad name but tonight he made my night.

So, onto the game, what can you say about the Canucks top line right now?   They’ve been absolutely spectacular.  They appear to be better right now than the West Coast Express was in their prime.  Who would have ever thought that Alex Burrows would be the kind of guy who scores back-to-back hat tricks?  Henrik Sedin moved himself all alone as the league’s top scorer with 61 points.  He’s the first player to break 60 and has 7 points in his last 4 games.  Daniel Sedin continues to be just as good, picking up 8 points in his last 4.

The view from my seats. I was pretty stoked.

It appears that the top line success also appears to be having a trickledown effect on the rest of the team as well.  Mikael Samuelsson also appears to be heating up as well.  Since being left off the Swedish National Team, he has 6 points in his last 6 games.  That’s a major improvement over his play in the 20 games or so before that.  I’m still not a fan of the way he plays, but it’s a lot easier to tolerate him when he’s putting pucks in the net.  I’m divided as to whether his goal tonight was a lucky bank shot or planned, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that it was planned.  For the record, it was Samuelsson’s 100th career goal so congrats to him for that.

Speaking of the Canucks second goal, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Vancouver.  At one point the Canucks were being outshot 14-1 in the second and it wasn’t until there was about four minutes remaining in the period that they finally got their second shot on goal.  There were a few scoring chances however as Steve Bernier made a nice forehand-backhand move that was just put wide and Mason Raymond was stopped on a penalty shot.  The Canucks really have Luongo to thank for getting them out of the period with the lead.  Until Burrows went nuts in the third, Luongo was the game’s first star.  Also for the record, Luongo recorded his 50th career shutout tonight.

The third period the Canucks absolutely dominated.  The Sedin’s were able to get in on the forecheck for the 3-0 goal.  The pressure created the giveaway from the Coyotes defence and Daniel was able to feed it over to his brother before Henrik made a tricky little pass over to Burrows for the quick snap in.  Burrows is quick to pass the praise over to Henrik and Daniel for setting him up but he had to make a great shot for this goal, much like he did on the first one.  The third was much more the goal Burrows has been scoring this year.  He parked himself at the side the net and roofed a pass that deflected off the Phoenix skate for his second hat trick in as many games and third of his career.

It was all good news for the Canucks tonight though.  Taylor Pyatt, back in Vancouver for the first time as a visitor, absolutely hammered Aaron Rome, leaving Rome bloodied and dazed.  At one point Rome tried to get up and get himself to the bench but ended up falling down.  It would appear that Rome has a concussion at this point and Brad Lukowich will likely make his Canucks debut on Saturday but we’ll have to wait for the official announcement.  Sami Salo was also clipped in the face by Willie Mitchell accidentally and was forced to leave the game for roughly ten minutes.  Perhaps it’s time he put the visor back on.  I’m not sure why he took it off in the first place.  Then Ryan Kesler was hit in the hand from a shot from the point by Shane O’Brien.  Kesler was in so much pain that he needed some help getting off the ice as well.  Luckily he was able to return to the game as well and since he was playing in a 4-0 game with a minute to go I can only assume he’ll be good to go for Saturday but again we’ll have to wait for the official announcement from the Canucks.  If he practices tomorrow we can take that as a good sign.

The Canucks defence deserves a lot of credit for playing down two guys at once.  For a large stretch of the second period they were playing with just four guys as Salo was getting patched up and would eventually return.  Things actually got worse at one point as O’Brien was in the box when Salo was hurt leaving just three of them to kill of the penalty.  Ehrhoff ened up leading the way with 26 minutes of ice time.

On Saturday the Canucks can even up the season series with Calgary.  The last three games of the season series are in Vancouver so it will be a fantastic chance for the Canucks to make up the games in hand of the Flames as well as take the point lead outright.  The Flames and Avalanche were conviently losers last night which has allowed the Canucks to pull into a tie with Calgary atop of the division playing one more game.

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Eh O’ Canada NO!

January 6, 2010

John Carlson wins the 2010 World Juniors for U.S.A in OT

I took some time to try and come down off all the emotional highs and lows from watching the game so that I write this blog as honestly as possible.  When John Carlson scored the winning goal in overtime my immediate reaction was surprisingly acceptance.  I knew Canada didn’t really deserve to win the game, and for the second straight time they played the Americans, they decided that they would only play the last ten minutes of the third period or so.  Obviously that’s not good enough if you’re trying to win gold medal in a major international event.  It wasn’t until the American’s were halfway through their celebration that the disappointment of what could have been finally set in.  It’s weird that no matter how many times you watch your team or country win, you always feel that sense of disappointment when they don’t come out on top.

Perhaps my Canadianism took a few minutes to set in before I truly realized the significance of what happened when the United States took the gold medal away from Canada for the first time since 2004.  No other country completely immerses itself in coverage of the World Juniors like Canada does so it’s always a tough pill to swallow then they aren’t accepting gold medals at the end of it.  We’re rabid hockey fans that tie our immediate self worth to how well we play hockey a little too often.   But this isn’t supposed to be a sob story because this year the better team won and the United States fully deserved to beat Canada this time around.  In the past, when Canada had a better team and didn’t execute like they should I might have been furious that they lost but not so much this time.  Its just disappointing rather than a let down.

As for the game itself, I wasn’t one of the people who thought the New Year’s Eve meeting THE best junior game ever.  I mean it was a great game and drama at its best, but I think these two teams had played better games against each other, such as the 07 Semi-finals.  But that’s beside the point.   This game met all expectations as far as the rematch went.

John Slaney was the hero of the 1991 tournament

Canada, too many times in a row, has pulled games that they were trailing and didn’t really deserve to win out of their ass with some kind of miracle comeback.  Jordan Eberle called it the Canadian will to win or something like that.  I think Eberle was perhaps the only Canadian player who actually had that kind of heart tonight.  Eberle will go down in history with John Slaney as one of the biggest heros in Canadian World Junior history for his game tying goal last year with five seconds left.  This year he solidified his place in Canaidan hearts for almost single-handedly tying the game and sending it to overtime by scoring twice with under four minutes to play.  I can’t help but wonder what kind of reception this guy would have gotten if he someone managed to win the game in overtime or if Canada won at all.  The Edmonton Oilers are getting a heck of a player.

One could debate all night at what the actual turning point in the game was, but for me, the real difference in the game was that the Americans had the guts to pull their starting goaltender, Mike Lee and replace him with 17-year old Jack Campbell.  Canada on the other hand refused to replace the clearly struggling Jake Allen.   When a relatively unscreened shot from the blue line went past Allen early in the third period it was the perfect line for Willie Desjardins to insert Martin Jones, after all, Jones couldn’t possibly do any worse.  Eventually Allen would give up the softest goal of the tournament midway through the third period that gave the U.S. a two-goal lead.  Had he been able to catch the simple dump in, Canada may have won the game in regulation, although that would be unfair conclusion to reach since we have no idea how the game would have shook down after that point, but the general idea is that he definitely made things harder on the team.

If you go back to the first ten minutes of the game, Canada clearly had the United States back on their heels.  The Canadians were doing a great job of neutralizing the Americans’ speed by having three guys back and preventing them from finding holes in the defence.  Then one turnover later and a wrister from the point beats Allen and the momentum went right over to the United States.  It wasn’t long after that Schroeder put the puck over Allen’s shaky glove for a 2-1 American lead.

After the Canadians had battled back to tie the game, and yes I realize they scored equally as garbage goals, Allen killed whatever momentum that Canada had built up.  Now, it probably seems like I’m blaming Allen for the loss, but if you’re going to be a starting goaltender in this tournament and play in the gold medal you better be able to handle yourself a little better than Jake Allen did.  Team Canada for most of the night played average but I just can’t get over how spotty the goaltending was.  Again, the real difference was that the Americans were smart enough to see their goaltender wasn’t getting the job done and made a change.  Even more confusing was that the American’s second choice was a 17-year-old while Canada had a 19-year-old ready to get the team’s confidence back.

Campbell is one of the great stories to come out of this game.  He played in the first meeting between the two teams so he knew something about the pressure of playing in front of the biggest crowd he ever has, but tonight, with the gold medal on the line, the Canadian fans were as hostile as they’re going to get.  The 17-year-old not only coped, but thrived in a major pressure situation.  Once he replaced Lee early in the second period, despite Canada getting a few good scoring chances and rebound opportunities, didn’t allow a goal until the final five minutes of regulation and helped the U.S. build up their two goal lead.  In the preliminary meeting you could argue that Campbell folded under the pressure of the shootout after he gave up the two-goal lead in the third.  No so this time around.  Campbell made an absolutely crucial save on a Canada three-on-two in overtime that allowed the Americans to go three-on-one the other way in win.  When Campbell made that save I pretty much knew for sure that the puck was going back the other way for the win.  Sadly, I was right.

Now to take some of the blame off Allen, Canada’s defence still had too many problems with the American’s speed and transition game.  Ryan Ellis was much better than he was in the New Year’s Eve game but still the Canadians had no answer for the Americans off the rush after the first ten minutes.  It didn’t help that Canada turned the puck over too much at the blue line.  On the second goal Schenn made a horrible read and skated right past the puck and far too often Taylor Hall was knocked off the puck while trying to dangle through the American defence.  There was a lot of selfish plays on the Canadian side when they were trailing as they all wanted to complete the comeback themselves.

Next year, Canada won’t have to go too far to find the inspiration to get back at team U.S.A. for beating them on home ice because the 2011 World Juniors is in Buffalo.  Knowing how well Canadians travel when the tournament is held in America, the 2011 could turn out to be a virtual home tournament for Canada as they try and start another World Junior dynasty.

Tomorrow I’ll get to reviewing the Canucks game from tonight and later in the week I’ll take a look at how all of the Canucks prospects did in the tournament.

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