The Night Before Hockey

Happy hockey eve everyone!

Clearly we all know that the Canucks are playing the Flames tomorrow night. Late game for Calgary, with a 7pm PT start. The summer felt so long, but finally hockey is back.

Enemy blog: Check out Kent, who I've met through the CLS re-draft at his blog over at Five Hole Fanatics

Some Canucks stuff:

• Lukowich cleared waivers, and since the Moose have a plethora of defencemen (apparently), the Canucks are trying to find him a spot to play for the Texas Stars who are lacking defensemen
• Lawrence Nycholat and Michael Funk also cleared through waivers and are assigned to the Moose.
• Hodgson got sent back down to Brampton.
  
• Henrik gets an A, and as usual, Daniel got a G. But seriously, how did Daniel feel about that? "[Daniel] cried a little bit the first night but it’s alright now,” joked brother Henrik. “It’s a great honor. We’ve got a lot of really great leaders on this team, so a letter doesn’t mean too much.” Sure sure Daniel, don't forget he's also taller and older than you.
  
• The Canucks roster is set. Sergei Shirokov, Aaron Rome and Tanner Glass make the team.
• Bieksa has tweaked his groin, and Rypien has the flu (hopefully not the "flu" he had until March of last year), but they are both expected to play tomorrow night.
• Sundin finally made it official that he retired.
• Brian Burke tells Leafs TV that Gillis shopped Burrows, Bieksa and their 1st pick at this years draft for Victor Hedman. Response? “There is absolutely no truth to it whatsoever,” Gillis Wednesday from Calgary. “It’s an absolutely preposterous idea."
• Puck Daddy's staff predict Division winners, and have the NW down to the Canucks or the Flames. ESPN, with the exception of the Mullet, thinks it's going to the Flames, but they think the Vezina is coming down to Luongo or Nabby

Check out DGB's NW Division season preview. He has some great Wellwood and Raycroft bashing in a way that only a Leaf fan could.

Oh, and today the hockey world found out today that that the past few months of the Phoenix Coyotes court case was a complete waste of time.

But to cheer you up and get you excited about tomorrow, watch Rypien destroy Prust:

Where are my pants?

I was offended by watching this, well maybe more disgusted than offended? I haven't made up my mind on that one yet. I warn you before watching this, that if you are a girl, you will be too.

Today off of PD, I found the Dallas Stars marketing dept has really sunk low on this one, with the cheesy 80's porn music, the slow closeups...and the "where are my pants?" script writing?

Are they for real? They really did say "Where are my pants?"

Big night for Shirokov in Calgary

Sergei Shirokov is set to play tonight on the top line with Kes and Samuelsson, coming back from a knee sprain that had him out for the past week. This is gonna be a huge night for him. Gillis has already gone on record to the TEAM 1040 saying that "Right now, he hasn't demonstrated anything in my mind that indicates he's ready to play at this level based on this camp". Ouch. At least Gillis isn't being nice to his young hopeful by avoiding the assessment. I like the bluntness from Gillis about Hodgson. And Grabner, although I've been pulling for him, has not been impressive enough to crack the roster.

Shirokov on the other hand, had 2 goals in the 1st game in Terrace (against an AHL roster albeit) and a couple of assists in the 2nd game against San Jose before being sidelined by injury. I don't want to be too excited about his potential, but he could be a good replacement for Demitra, at least while Demitra is out with his shoulder injury (and maybe long term option for the rather expensive contract?).

"He's a smart hockey player and pretty skilled offensively and can find the back of the net."-Kelser. And we need players like those, the ones that can find the back of the net, unlike the Bernier of last year.

He has 2 back to back games to impress coach V and will face a mostly veteran line-up in Calgary tonight and tomorrow in Edmonton.

Hodgson and Grabner will also play tonight. Hear the game on the TEAM 1040.

Kesler, Bieksa and Hockey Moms

So I've seen the NHL2K10 commercial twice tonight while watching the football game. Not quite sure what to make of it yet. Are they trying to make hockey moms sound like Newfies or people from Chicago? "Welcome to Ha-ckey Night"? Yeauch.

Two of our boys, Kesler and Bieksa, are in the commercial along with Jack Johnson. And our boys look good, non? And Jack Johnson just looks like he's trying to act hardcord like Mike Green, though I kinda like that Kings shirt he's wearing.

Please enjoy some photos from the video shoot (full gallery is here), and you'll find the commercial at the bottom.





















































And now the video:

Canucks News

The Canucks announced a 3 year extension for Coach V today. It was only a couple of months ago that the majority of Vancouver was calling for Vigneault's head to roll, but hey, we have short term memories in this city. If he coaches the whole contract, he will have coached in Van for 7 years straight, though, coaches never ever 'finish' a contract these days do they? We'll see how it plays out in the future, and I can only hope he keeps coaching the boys in the faster more aggressive play like we saw this year.

The Canucks trimmed down their roster today. They sent Yann Sauve back to the QMJHL, and sent Evan Oberg, Taylor Ellington, PC Labrie and Eric Walsky back to Manitoba. Daren Machesney and Travis Ramsy have been released from their PTO (professional tryout contracts) and are going back to Manitoba as well. And not surprising, but the veteran players Ronald Petrovicky and Dave Scatchard have been released from camp with no contract.

And for an injury update, both Schneider and Demitra are going on the long term injury reserve to start the season. Schneider has been skating, but is not been able to have contact yet in practice, Demitra hasn't begun practising yet, and may be sidelined until November. This will give the Canucks a little cap relief at least, but don't you wonder how long it will take before Salo lands on that list as well?

Here is a look into the new Canucks dressing room which is said to cost between 2-3 million dollars. It looks sweet, especially the doors. Yes I like the doors. For a gallery check out this link here, and for an article about it, check out Iain MacIntyre's article here.

And from yesterday's Raise a Reader campaign, here is a pic of Shane O'Brien:

People at Pre-Season Games

So your Vancity Canuck was at Saturday's pre-season game against the Oilers with R for the first pre-season game at home. During the game, me and R came up with a few thoughts on people that attend pre-season games.

Before I get right into it, I must say that GM Place announced that it was a sell-out, but the people that were there will confirm that the building was clearly not full. Obviously not everyone shows up to the pre-season, hell, I only show because I have tickets and I feel bad letting them go to waste.

Though, for those of you who have them and don't show up, perhaps next time you could just donate your tickets a local children's charity and then feel like you are a good person? It's really easy, all you have to do, if you have a pack (ice pack/half season/full season) is log into your My Canucks Account, then click Forward your tickets to charity. Then, presto! instant good karma. DO IT.

Now, during the various topics of conversation me and R had during the game, the topic of people who show up to pre-season games came up. I personally think there are far too many pre-season games, we should really just have 4, 2 home and 2 away, then right into the regular season.

Every year when you get a pack of tickets from the Canucks, you inevitably get stuck with a few pre-season games, and between the people I share my tickets with, nobody wants to go. We are all gung-ho about picking the tickets for the regular season, (grudgingly getting stuck with the multitude of Minnesota games) and then you get the pre-season tickets. Everyone just sits around being quiet and ho humming until we can take some sucker friend with 25 bucks extra to show up to a worthless pre-season game.

So the people who don't show up are obviously people that have more money than us, and don't mind for their tickets to go to waste while they enjoy their night at home. I haven't achieved that level of financial prosperity to waste tickets yet, even if they are only the pre-season ones.

Then, you get people who pay to go to the pre-season.














People like this guy.

He must have lost some bet.

I hope.

I wouldn't be surprised if the back of the jersey has Pyatt on it.

He was pretty happy about his jersey, and I do thank him for letting me take a photo of him.

So back to the question, who buys tickets to the pre-season? Maybe the same person who would shotgun a mickey of liquor, and then getting promptly kicked out because you are too drunk (so we heard). Or maybe you are like the couple that sat beside us. You might be on a date, drinking beer through a straw and looking like Stifler's mom (no joke). And if you are on a date, clearly the best thing to do, would be to dance every time DJ Dave plays a song, a song like "Get Low" (low, low, low...) by Flo Rida, though please, next time, keep to your own personal space, even if you look like Stifler's mom.

Ugh, preseason people.

So this year, this sucker was me and R.
ps. If that photo is of you and you want it taken down, please send me an e-mail

Tweetup, Pronounciations and Cuts

Tweetup
The Vancouver Tweetup community is having their first Canucks Tweetup tomorrow night at the Hurricane Grill.

I will not be in attendance, but since I'm talking about twitter on this blog, I do have twitter, though I haven't really gotten into it yet. I know most of your feel that twitter is dumb, but hey, I said that about Twilight, and look how far I got with that. So if you feel inclined to follow me, here it is.

Pronunciations
Cody Hodgson spoke to the press about how to really pronounce his name. Apparently we've all been saying it wrong. The G is supposedly silent, so it's like Cody Hod-son, not Hodge-son like we've all been saying.

Tempowcrew doesn't think it's gonna stick, at least not he cracks the lineup, but here's to hoping that he does: Ko-dee Hod-sun

Canucks Makes Cuts
The Canucks made some cuts with Dan Gendur going to the Moose, and Steven Anthony, Morgan Clark, Prab Rai and Kellan Tochkin (Silver Tips) going back to their junior clubs. Then they made some more cuts, sending Kevin Connauton back to the Giants.

Botch on the Defense
Jason Botchford wrote an article today about how a deep defense has players fighting for a roster spot. He asks "Can any team in the NHL afford the luxury of having that kind of money invested in their seventh and eighth defencemen?".

What he fails to point out, is that two of the players we have on our team are named old man Schneider and glass Salo, who really are not expected to be healthy enough to play the whole season. So yes, I do expect to carry 7 or 8 D all year, though I would have preferred for them to be not paid as much as they are getting.

This and That...

I guess it could be called "news" that the Canucks beat the Isles 2-1 last night for their pre-season opener in Terrace, but really, it was just AHL team vs. AHL team. Though it is nice to have hockey feel like it is that much closer, the preseason, in my opinion is too long and until the last 2 games, really worthless. The NHL should really just start the season next week...but they're not, so here is some Canucks musings that I found:

Ed Willies writes today about the Sedins:
"Daniel and Henrik? You could give them each a million bucks, send them on the road with The Rolling Stones and a dozen Playboy bunnies and they'd come back telling you about the movies they saw in their hotel room."

The Sedins think that Samuelsson is a dirty Swede (which really just makes me laugh):
Henrik: "And he can be a little dirty. He's kind of a dirty player and not Swedish that way. He can play it all."
"You can say that," said Daniel. "He's more Canadian than Swedish. He's tough to play against and gets under your skin and can frustrate you because he's so strong. He'll fit in in a lot of different situations."







Not that I watched this, but it looks like Burrows, Hordichuck and Raymond made an appearance at the Canadian Country Music Awards. A french hockey player that likes country music? I may know a girl that we should keep that info from...

And now for some self-endorsement: After some bonding over True Blood over at Wrap's house of Tokarski, and obliging me with a photo in his episode a recap, HF29 asked me to give an intro about Curtis Sanford for their blog Four Habs Fans. It's stripperriffic, so please click here to read my submission here about the Sandman.

Canucks Training Camp: 57 Players Invited

So medical testing starts today at UBC for the Canucks, followed by two days of training camp and then the first preseason game on Tuesday in Terrace, BC against the Islanders. For a list of who is invited to the training camp, see a post here on the CDC.

Mike Gillis has invited a bunch of journeymen to the camp, including Mark Parrish, Dave Scatchard, Ronald Petrovicky and Keith Carney. It seems that Gillis has a thing for older guys that are on the outs...but maybe one will be low cost surprise.

And something funny for the weekend:

Check out the KB for their Friday chat. This week's comments about Team USA's glamour shots are hilarious. The picture of Kane just cracks me up, "Grrrrrr...."

Click here for the full series of photos from PD.

Canucks tickets on sale today, 12pm

Tickets for Canucks games are on sale today at 12pm on Ticketmaster.ca

Funny Things: Hating the Leafs, and Player Websites

Leafs-hate:












1. I apologize in advance for not posting this link last week, but Five for Smiting had an awesome post about Leafsnation. It's starts off: "I despise the city of Toronto, and everything in it."

You know you want to read it.

2. Nice excerpt from Leafs Abomination: The Dismayed Fan’s Handbook to Why the Leafs Stink and How They Can Rise Again in the Globe and Mail last week.

Best parts of the excerpt: Wellwood was fat, out of shape and too lazy to do anything about it. He was waived in 2008 and eventually picked up by the Vancouver Canucks where he required three tries to pass the club- mandated fitness test in training camp.

Win or lose, Wellwood was out on Saturday night, hitting any number of downtown clubs where bouncers were more than happy to whisk some Leafs and their friends past the velvet ropes and straight to the VIP areas. “The minute you show up at the club you cut the line, get a table, get a few drinks,” he says. “As a young kid it was a lot of fun, I definitely miss it. If Tie [Domi] was bringing you out, you got a lot of attention, but it was nice. It was tough for the guys who were married or had a girlfriend. There’s always some one who wants a cell- phone picture taken and next thing you know you’re on someone’s Facebook page and there’s a girl kissing you on the cheek. You have to be careful. But if you wanted attention from the girls, you could definitely get it. I just think it’s fun for them to hang out with an NHL player in Toronto. And if they’d had a few drinks it was even more fun.”

Hahaha....oh Kyle. For the except, click here.

Player Websites:
So I came across Christian Errhoff's website today and found the FACTS link mildly amusing.

FACT: Christian Ehrhoff is not only one of the most talented young defensemen in the National Hockey League, he is also an interesting person. That's why we decided to give you a closer look at his personality and to offer you some more information.

Puh-leeze. Someone please get Ehrhoff a better writer. He's also an interesting person? At least he likes Entourage and Sprite.

Demitra is another 6 weeks for playing

After injuring himself while trying to hit Brian Campbell during the second round of the playoffs, Pavol Demitra took himself out of the series. He had shoulder surgery in May, and according to him said this to The Province today:

"I'm not quite there yet, I still have another month and a half to go and we'll see how it goes," Demitra said after skating on his own Tuesday. "The shoulder is not quite strong enough yet."

This will give some other players a chance to try for the top 6 forward position during the beginning of the season while Demitra heals. Hopefully he recovers speedily and Gillis finds a sucker team looking for a winger to trade him to.

Thoughts about Re-Drafting

Since there was no new True Blood to watch this week, I thought I would take some time to recap some of my thoughts on the CLS re-draft.

Next week will be the last episode of TB for another 9 freaking months! Sigh. At least there will be hockey to keep me busy (soon). I would like to say thank you to Wrap and the commenters on her blog for introducing me to Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood which has made this summer of no hockey pass by that much faster. I may have been swayed to start watching due to this post Alexander Skarsgard. By the way, True Blood is like tv crack...be warned...oh, and the books are pretty good too (I now have them all now). Love how Season 2 has more Eric in it...Love it.

So as some of you know, I have been participating in Cycle Like the Sedins' re-draft of the league. The process started as idea between James at CLS and some other bloggers after a post about NHL 10. The idea started back in July sometime asking bloggers "If you could choose one player to build a team around, who would it be? Then, through Twitter, it morphed into a re-draft of the whole league with 30 bloggers participating. The end result of this whole process will be entered into NHL10 and then according to simulation, it will tell us who had the best team. Like Stanley Cup winning team. Sounds easy enough huh?

The first pick was on July 28th, and now as of Labour Day, we are on Round 14, and slowly but surely, we are getting there.

During the past month I have come up with a few thoughts about the process so far:
1. With 30 bloggers (more now with Assistant GM's being added into the mix) it's been hard to predict when you'll actual pick. Clearly, every one wants to have the process move along, but of course we all have very different schedules in our lives. In addition we are also spread across different time zones. Thus some parts of rounds can zip on by, bringing your pick scary close or drag on and you think it may be another week before you get your next pick.

Now this is not a complaint about other bloggers, not at all, rather a comment on how it's rather unpredictable to gauge how fast your actual pick will show up. You really got to be always checking in to see the process.

2. Thinking you'll be able to pick a ridiculously amazing team. Yeah, not so much. With 30 bloggers picking, this ain't no small fantasy pool, hell no. I picked 2nd, picking Sidney Crosby, well that was awesome, but then the next pick doesn't come until #59.

3. The fantastic thing about having almost back to back picks, is that once you make a pick, you get a few days off.

4. The not so fantastic thing about having back to back picks is that you have to do a lot of catching up on who everyone else has picked between your picks.

6. Not having a crazy phone that can do stuff on the Internet, and crappy plans that Canadian companies offer due to a lack to competition in the industry. So to make a pick, I have to make a point to be able to access a computer on the day/night that I think I'll be picking on.

7. The feeling of frustration/momentary anger when you read that the player you wanted just got picked 3 picks before yours. This has happened so many times!

8. Help is greatly appreciated. I have had the help of Anaheim Calling in making picks for me while I was away in Chicago. I could not have done it without them. And I thank them for not drafting me Bertuzzi or Cloutier.


The key so far in making it this far, in my opinion, has been tons of communication. Like, behind the scenes of the picks, there is a ridiculous amount of e-mails being sent between each blogger. We are either tossing up new ideas, like deadlines, or defining the rules, like players that move to the KHL/retire, or paying forward the notifications of who is on deck to pick. Love the e-mails. If it weren't for the e-mails, I don't think I would have made it this far.

So we have a few more rounds to go, and I'm sure I'll have more thoughts as we finish up our picks.

Coyotes Sign Taylor Pyatt

Yes, I realize this signing happened yesterday, but I didn't have time to post one last picture spam for L and T. Please enjoy girls.








































Last picture is from the BC Children's Hospital Foundation, which is an amazing foundation that the Canucks support.

Canucks sign Luongo for 12 years

This is such a big deal. Way more years than I expected. Love it. Read here for the info.

Canucks re-sign McIver, Burrows says funny things

Two things Canuck related today:
1. The Canucks re-signed Nathan McIver today, adding another player to their blue line. Since we already have a ridiculous amount, I hope he enjoys spending another year winter in Winnipeg.

2. Check out this article from The Province. There were 9 Canuck players at UBC today skating, and Burrows gave some great quotes about the firing of Paul Kelly.

"Some guys just like to play hockey and they're not the smartest guys out there, but I like to learn," Burrows said.

"Right now, I still have to get a few more facts to make sure I can comment on what's going on," Burrows said. "For some reason, we haven't got all the facts."

The whole article is pretty funny, with lots of sarcasm sprinkled in liberally.