The NHL is becoming a joke

It's Saturday, three days after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and the disappointment still lingers a bit.

But that's not why the NHL is a joke. Or at least that's not when it became obvious to us that it is becoming one. It just reinforced the issue.

The NHL, under Gary Bettman's tenure, has turned into an organization that is destroying our love of the game of hockey.

(Thanks to...well, you can find this picture EVERYWHERE)

The Stanley Cup Finals just showed a spotlight on everything that we're growing to hate about it.

It's becoming a league where thuggery is not only being allowed, but encouraged.

Tom Larscheid leaving the Canucks booth after 30 years

I say this with a bit of a tear in the eye, as a Vancouver Canucks fan for the last 12 years. After the first game of this upcoming season (the team's 40th anniversary), Tom Larscheid will be hanging up the radio microphone as colour analyst for the team.

In these modern times when most hockey games are available on TV, I don't listen to them on the radio much any more. However, when I do, I will greatly miss hearing Larscheid's passionate voice analyzing the play of our favourite team.

Yes, he is a "homer" (for those not into the lingo, that means that he's very obviously rooting for his team), but he was much more than that.

Has the media learned to research yet? - Kyle Wellwood satire

Many media engines are going downhill, and for a variety of reasons. Being a conservative, you'd think I'm going to rail about their liberal bias, right?

Nope, not this time. Instead, it's the intellectual laziness that so many media outlets demonstrate that has really pissed me off (though in a hilarious fashion in this particular case).

According to Deadspin, MSNBC, as well as Chicago's NBC affiliate, believed something they read on the web without even a cursory look at it to see if it were, perhaps, not true. Not only was it not true, but it was clearly marked as SATIRE on the site they took the story from!

I'll start at the beginning.

NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Edition

As of Sunday night, my Round 1 predictions were actually going very well. I had all but one correct, with two series remaining. Then two disastrous Game Sevens happened and I came crashing back down to Earth like the supposed Balloon Boy (if, you know, he had actually been up in that balloon).

Still, I went 5-3, and got two of the rounds exactly correct! I picked Vancouver in six games and San Jose in six games. Not too bad for somebody who doesn't know what he's talking about (no, I'm not talking about Barry Melrose).

So on to Round 2! Let's see if I can stink the joint out any more than I did last time. When I say that I suck, I really shouldn't lie like that. That's what my drill sergeant always said.

"Damn it, man! If you're going to say you suck, you damned well better back it up and suck, goddammit!"

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, round 2!

Here we go.

NHL Playoffs - My Picks

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Mini-minor hockey

One of the cool things about being at a Canucks game is the first intermission where they sometimes have a bunch of kids play a little bit of hockey on the huge ice (relatively speaking, of course).

These are 8 and 9 year-olds who get just a little time (about 5 minutes) to shine in front of almost 19,000 people. I often wonder if we're seeing a future Sidney Crosby or Joe Sakic out there on the ice. They play with such enthusiasm, and it's really fun to watch. Hearing the crowd (what's remaining of it who aren't getting beer or something) roar when one of them score is quite exhilerating.

Here's a pic, taken from very high up. They look smaller than the regular players! (Peanut Gallery: "No shit, Sherlock")





-- Post From My iPhone

Vancouver Canucks - The glory that is Rick Rypien

My latest Canucks post on Penaltykill.net is up, about the fiesty scrapper Rick Rypien.  He's quickly become a fan favourite here in Vancouver, mainly for his refusal to back down from anybody.

"You need many different types of hockey players on a team for it to be good. Of course, you need some guys who can put the puck in the net. You need forwards that can check the other team’s best players. You need an at least decent goalie, and you need both defensemen who can move the puck as well as those who can shut down the other team’s guys (even better if those qualities reside in the same defenseman).

But you also need some energy guys. You need guys who can play a good shift, hopefully keep the puck in the opposing team’s end, and who can get the crowd (and their teammates) energized with either a big hit, a fight, or whatever. It also helps to have a tough guy that can keep your star players safe by taking on the other team’s tough guy. The Vancouver Canucks thought they had this when they signed Darcy Hordichuk, but something’s happened to him. He doesn’t fight any more; he doesn’t really hit, and when he does try, he often misses. Tanner Glass has earned his spot on the Canucks by doing a lot of this, and I’m really glad to have him on this team. However, he’s not the guy I think of when I look at all of these qualities."

Believe me, I do mention Rypien right after that.  Go read it and tell me what you think!  Especially you Canucks fans who I know check this blog.

Vancouver Canucks - The Curse of the Trap Game

My latest post at PenaltyKill.net, about yesterday's horrible Canucks game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"As Vancouver Canucks fans, we’re all familiar with the problem this team usually has: playing down to the level of the competition. I can’t count how many bad teams that the Canucks have just barely beaten, including the Maple Leafs earlier this season. It’s a quality that no Canucks team, no matter how talented and successful, can seem to get rid of. Add that quality to a third game in four nights (and an afternoon game, to boot), and many Canucks fans were worried about yesterday’s date with the Carolina Hurricanes. It had all the symptoms of the classic “trap” game."

It was not fun to watch.

Please read the rest and let me know what you think.

Vancouver Canucks - Canucks Score 2 Big Wins

My latest post is up on Penaltykill.net.  The Canucks just finished two games back-to-back, against the very tough New Jersey Devils and the good (but not right now) Philadelphia Flyers.  Things are beginning to go quite well for the Canucks, and hopefully they can keep this up!

Two more games in the East before they come back home for 17 out of the next 23 games.  Should be an interesting set of games.

Vancouver Canucks - Why is everybody panicking?

My latest post on PenaltyKill.net is up, talking about how Vancouver Canucks fans are starting to push the panic button on the season a little too early.  It's way too early to do that, people!

Looking forward to tonight's game against the Devils.  They're going to pull it out, I just know it.

Canucks Blast Tired Avs With 5-2 Win

My latest post is up on Penaltykill.net, about last night's game.  What an awesome game that was.

"It took a full period for the rust of a six-day rest to be filed off of the Vancouver Canucks Friday night, but when it was gone, what was left was gleaming. The Colorado Avalanche, playing their third game in four nights, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead while the Canucks found their legs again, but couldn’t contain the Christian Ehrhoff train that was barrelling down the tunnel toward them. Ehrhoff scored two goals and almost registered the first hat trick for a Canucks defenseman since 1991 but he rang a late third-period shot off of the post. He did add a wonderful power play assist, though, to round out his evening, propelling the Canucks to a 5-2 victory."

You can read the rest here.  Let me know what you think!

Uh Oh. Did the Canucks Jump the Flu Line?‏

My latest post on PenaltyKill.net is up.

"According to the Vancouver Sun (and quite a few other Canadian media outlets), it appears that some members of the Vancouver Canucks jumped the queue for the H1N1 flu vaccine, getting it last Sunday or Monday. After all of the controversy that the Calgary Flames went through last month regarding getting flu vaccines at a private clinic while ordinary Albertans were being turned away at clinic doors, you’d think the Canucks would know better. However, there’s one critically different circumstance between the two incidents."

So let me know what you think, both of the post as well as the actual incident.  Do you think this warrants a huge controversy?  You can do it either here or over there.  I'll see it either way.

Henrik Sedin - more than just a twin

My second post for PenaltyKill.net is up.  It sings the praises of Henrik Sedin, one of the Vancouver Canucks' special twins.

"When Daniel Sedin went down with a broken foot in Game 4 of this 2009-10 NHL season, many people wondered what would happen to his brother Henrik. After all, they’ve played hockey together all of their lives. There have been a few times where they have been split up, but not many. Also, both have been ironmen in regards to their health, with Henrik currently riding an almost 350-game ironman streak and Daniel only missing a game here and there. It’s not like they’ve had to deal with this kind of adversity very often. The twins seem to have a psychic connection on the ice, one firing blind passes to the other for highlight reel goals. Without Daniel, would Henrik be able to perform at the same level?"

Check it out, Canucks fans!  Let me know what you think.

New Hockey Blog

New to me, anyway.  As some of you may remember (*listens to the crickets echo*), I started my own Posterous Canucks blog.  However, I found that keeping up with posting to it, along with here and other things, became too arduous.  I wanted to do game re-caps as well as Canucks analysis and generally make a name for myself amongst Canuck bloggers.  Thus, it shouldn't be surprising that I crapped out after a few days.  What I needed was a group blog!

And now I've found it.  I've begun posting on Penaltykill.net as one of the Canucks bloggers (ok, there are only two, but still).  That's a link to the Canucks section, but clicking on the link at the top of that page will take you to their main page.  It should be fun because there is no expectation.  A guy from the United Kingdom named Canucklehead does the game recaps, leaving me to do other commentary.  I don't have to post every day, though I would like to post as much as I can.  But it gets me out there a little bit.  It should be a lot of fun!

My first post is "Should Kyle Wellwood be replaced when Daniel Sedin comes back?"  Please check it out and let me know what you think.  I'll link to new articles here as they go up.

Canucks acquire some D!

In the span of 4 hours, Canucks GM Mike Gillis has gone from Mike "When's he going to do something to bolster our D???" Gillis to Mike "Wow, what are we going to do with all of these defensemen?" Gillis. The Canucks have acquired defensemen Brad Lukowich and Christian Erhoff from the San Jose Sharks for prospects Patrick White and Daniel Rahimi.

They've also finally made it official. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider is now a Canuck as well.

First, I never thought anything would come of Patrick White, so this is good news. And to now have three more NHL-caliber defensemen on the team? Should be interesting to see what Gillis does next. That's a bit of a glut, unless Lukowich goes down to the farm. But it's a much better problem to have than "what the hell are we going to do with Nolan Baumgartner suiting up regularly?"

And to top it all off, I'm listening to Pet Shop Boys' "Suburbia" right now. How can the afternoon get any better? At least until I go home, anyway.

Canucks Rumours Looking Good

In the space of a day, things in Canucksland have gone from looking a little bit iffy to looking a lot rosier. If the rumours are true, that is.

And you know how rumours are. I'll believe them when I see them. But for now, I'm quite heartened. A summer of Mike Gillis not seeming to do anything to shore up a defense without Matthias Ohlund (who left for sunny Tampa Bay and a huge contract) and seeming to leave extending the best goaltender the Canucks have ever had now seems to be brightening.

Optimism may be on the rise in Vancouver again.




The first rumour is that the Canucks are very close to signing 40-year-old defenseman Mathieu Schneider to a 1-year deal worth $1.5 Million. This would be very good for the Canucks for a couple of reasons.

First, it will greatly help the largely anemic power play the team has sported for the last 6 seasons, where it's never finished higher than 15th. Schneider is a proven power play quarterback, helping the Montreal Canadiens last year by scoring 17 points in 23 games after the trade deadline, mostly on the power play. He instantly becomes the best quarterback on the team besides the oft-injured Sami Salo, who is wonderful in the role...when he's playing.

Secondly, he is a puck-moving defenseman, something the Canucks desperately need. Getting the puck out of their own zone on the breakout has been another problem for the Canucks, and he should help with that.

There are a couple of potential problems with this scenario, however. First, he's old. I say this in the relative sense, not in the "great game of life" sense. For an athlete in a professional sports league, 40 years old is old. There's no getting around that.

Secondly, he has had injury problems. He only played in two playoff games for the Canadiens last year, and he probably shouldn't have played in those. He's just coming off arthroscopic surgery in his shoulder from that injury. Hopefully, that won't continue, but it may if the Canucks rely on him for a ton of minutes (if that doesn't get him injured, it may fatigue him enough that he becomes ineffective).

Signing him to a one-year contract means the Canucks can let him go next year with no problems. This gives the team a year to see whether any of their defensive prospects will show signs of hitting the next level or it will give them a chance to reload for next year's free agency period. Either way, it's a very positive move. And you can't beat that cap hit, either.



The second rumour that is brightening Canuckland is the potentially imminent signing of Robert Luongo's extension. Yes, it is a Twitter post, so I'm mainly hoping this is true. Five years at $6.75 Million per year is a bit high, but manageable within the cap, and at 5 years, it will take him until he's 36 (or close to that, anyway). If this happens, it will take a great load off of the team and make it so there are no distractions this coming year. Let's hope that Luongo takes what has happened the past three years to heart.

Three years ago, he dominated the series against Dallas and it's only because of him that they won, getting shutout three games in a row. Then he was playing another lights out game in Game 5 of the Anaheim series before getting distracted by what should have been a penalty and letting a softy go in in overtime. There was no way they were going to win that series anyway, but it still was a bad way to go out.

Two years ago, Luongo seemed really distracted by the impending birth of his first child, and there were a lot of rumours going around town about his wife not being happy in Vancouver (fed by the fact that she retreated to Florida to be with family and the doctor she knew well since Roberto would be out of town a lot). The Canucks missed the playoffs, playing horribly down the stretch after being in a good playoff position before that.

Then, last year. The Chicago series, Luongo did not look like his normal self, but the team was still doing pretty well. In Game 6, the Canucks were actually getting some offense, but the defense, along with really shitty Luongo goaltending, cost them that game, and the series.

So this year, let's hope that Luongo has learned from all that, and will be back to his normal self. Getting this extension out of the way, knowing that he will be our goaltender for years to come, can only help with that. This also frees up Gillis to make some decisions about up and coming goaltender Corey Schneider, who would make a nice bargaining chip if Luongo's going to be here long-term.

Both of these are still rumours at this point, though the Schneider one seems more imminent than the Luongo signing (or at least a bit more solid of a rumour). But both of them can add some optimism to a Canuck fan base that has been starting to get a little worried.

And cranky.

Blackhawks' Patrick Kane charged with assaulting a cabbie.

Rookie phenom Patrick Kane and his friends charged with attacking a cabbie over 20 cents change?

The Chicago cabbie claims that he was "punched and hit by both men because he did not have 20 cents in change to give them, according to the police report."

Wow, this is completely insane. If this is true, it's yet another instance of money and fame going to a young kid's head. I've heard reports (so, admittedly, they might not be true) that Kane supposedly was also shouting "don't you know who I am?", which is the mating call of celebrities who think their fame entitles them to do anything that they want. He also doesn't seem to have grasped the fact that actually, the NHL isn't that big in the States, so it's very possible the cabbie hadn't heard of him.

Kane is such a phenomenal hockey talent. If this is true, it's a real shame. I hope he truly learns something from this experience and becomes a lot more humble. And it's another blow to a Blackhawks organization that looked so good last year, but seems to be flailing away in this off-season. They really don't need this.

Way to think of your team, Patrick.

*Edit: I read the article too fast. It's Patrick and his cousin, not his "friends" as I stated above. Whoops!

The Dog Days of Summer

It's the middle of July. The sun is shining. It's warm, even in Vancouver (though you people in the Midwest would find it "cool" or something). Lots of events are going on around us.

But for the red-blooded hockey fan? It's a deadly dull period. Free Agency opened on July 1, and that day plus the next couple of days was intensely exciting, wondering where all the big name free agents were going to end up. The Canucks re-signed the core of their offense, the Sedin twins, so they didn't make any major splashes. They signed Moose-meat and other fringe players, but no Marion Gaborik or Marian Hossa or anybody like that. Don't get me wrong, I'm satisfied with that, but it wasn't very exciting. The draft took place the weekend before that, and it was interesting to see who the Canucks would choose.

But now? Nothing. The schedule came out on Wednesday, and that was worth a few minutes of examination to see where the Canucks would be playing and when, but that didn't last long. They don't play a home game in February because GM Place is getting ready for the Olympics and their aftermath. We go from the end of January to the beginning of March (a span of 14 games plus the Olympics) without a home game to go to. We do have tickets to 5 Olympic games, but no Canada games (two with Russia, though, so we'll get to see Ovechkin).

But now? Nothing. Training camp opens at the beginning of September, and there's still the drama of "Will they sign Luongo to an extension?" or the same question about Kesler, but without the drama (he seems to be flying under the radar a bit, which I hope doesn't come back to bite the team in the ass). But it's all low-key and it's more "potential" than actual excitement.

It's bored times like these that make hockey fans start to think a bit too much about the game. You get weird questions like "Should the Canucks strip Luongo of the captaincy?" or they get into arguments about how valuable a 3rd line fringe player is to the team. We examine to the finest detail any scouting report of even our 7th round draft pick from this year's draft, looking to see whether or not he might fulfill his potential, even though the kid's only 17.

Damn it, can't September 14th (the first pre-season game) be tomorrow?