Luongo has the flu? Daniel & Jannik skating again

News from Ben Kuzma is that Luongo missed practice today because he didn't feel well. Here is what Vigneault said:
"He's a little under the weather and stayed back at the hotel," said Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault. "He started not feeling well yesterday (Saturday) and we'll see how he's doing tomorrow. If he's not better, we'll fly him later into St. Louis."

It was possible that Luongo could have started as early as Tuesday in St. Louis, but perhaps it will be the Detroit game on Thursday instead.

In other news, Daniel is back skating again with his brother and Burrows. Daniel made a joke about Henrik missing him saying he called "Every night," chuckled Daniel. "He cried himself to sleep."

Jannik Hansen was also out on the ice, but isn't ready to go quite yet. He will need contact practices before being ready to play a game.

Apparently, this was a "must win"

VC: "Look! They're cheering for Raycroft!"

Tempocrew: "Yeah, that's because he actually made a save"

Luongo let in 3 goals on 3 shots. So I guess if you are paying $100+ dollars to watch Luongo not stop goals, you might as well start cheering for something positive, like Raycroft stopping a puck. Even with Raycroft's puck stopping skills, the Canucks lost 5-3 tonight to the Blue Jackets.



















Jim Jamieson called this game a "must win". It's game #3, and he's calling this a "must win", which was a bit of a stretch. Though I wouldn't want to turn on the Team 1040 right now to listen to the callers talk how the solution to 3 straight losses is to trade away Luongo, or fire Vigneault, or a combination of both them. Relax, it's only the 3rd game.

Something to celebrate? Sami Salo played his 600th game of his NHL career tonight and in 3 games, he hasn't injured himself (yet). It's taken him a bit longer than others, 10 years in fact for him to hit this point, which may have something to do with the 37 injuries he's had in his career. Just don't congratulate him with a high 5 or something, because you might break his wrist.

Next game: Weds Oct 7th, vs the Montreal midgets

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.

This and That...

Just a few quick thoughts about stuff around the NHL

• Sportsnet reported that the Canucks and Luongo will have a deal done before training camp. The Vancouver Sun interrupted Mike Gillis on his fishing trip to receive a 'no confirmation and no comment' quote for the story. I'll believe it when I see it confirmed, though I think it will be done, and in time for a nice press conference to kick off the season.
• Another changing of the guard at the NHLPA. The contract negotiations are in 2011 and I have an uneasy feeling that that I better enjoy what hockey we have now, because there might be another hockey stoppage when the contract runs out.
• The Canucks prospects camp starts Monday and it's at UBC. Here are the times if you want to go watch.
• I know the acquisition of Erhoff and Lukowich is old news, but I would just like to say how pleased I am that Erhoff is on our team. During the CLS re-draft I was hoping that I would be able to draft him, but someone took him a couple of picks before me. Beside this being a salary dump for the Sharks, I can't believe we got we got Erhoff in exchange for Patrick White!

And because I think it's funny:
Mike Green launched his website today. Visit it. Apparently this is what happens when you grow up trying to be hardcore from Calgary. He ended his first blog entry with peace. Awful. With glamour shots in his wife beater. In sunglasses. And some bling. Such epic fail. Enjoy the pic.









Peace.

Luongo deadline for contract

So not really "news", but today Luongo while speaking to the press said this about his contract:
"We're trying to get it done before camp," "If it doesn't happen before camp, I will not be negotiating during the season. I don't want to have that distraction," -from TSN.

So that puts a deadline of September 13th for the contract negotiations. Personally if its gonna happen I think it will be announced just at the beginning of the season. PR-wise there's not point to announce it now while we are still about a month away from the start of the season. Instead they will want to have a nice big press conference in September to announce the contract and get the hype going again about the Canucks.

Around the NHL...

Well it's been nice to get back into hockey from my little mini hockey vacation. I'm excited to get some hockey news from now till the free agent frenzy is over in early July, because after that it'll be pretty slow in the hockey world until training camp...what is that, only 78 days away? (I'm so making that number up by the way). For those of you who haven't hear about the moves that were made before/during the draft, here's what you missed:

• Pronger (with forward Ryan Dingle) was traded to the Flyers for D Luca Sbisa and Joffrey Lupul and two 1st round picks, and conditional 3rd round pick (if they win the cup). The Flyers overpaid. This is the second time that Lupul has been traded for Pronger. Pronger is in the last year of his contract, and this doesn't guarantee a contract extension with the Flyers, which makes the Flyers have a lot of pressure for this to be THE year. But Carter and Richards are still young, why is there so much pressure on this year being the year for the cup? Won't there be a few chances at it with this core? Whatever, that means Pronger is out of the western conference and now Lupul can party with Getzlaf instead of going to frat parties in Philly with Richards
• Niedermayer tell the Ducks he'll be back for another season yesterday. Today, Selanne does the same.
• J-Bouws rights have been traded to Calgary. Doesn't mean he'll sign there, but if he does, have fun with that salary cap there Calgary.
• Luongo was at the Canucks draft table, he also made selection for Schroeder (and mispronounced it). Cue Luongo's agent denying whatever there is to deny.
• TSN keeps writing stories about nothing. Gillis met with the Sedins' (and half of the league's) agent on Friday night. No news, this reminds me of the amound of 'news' they kept writing about Sundin for months last year.

I was hoping for more trades before the draft...only the Pronger one happened, but hey thats fun to write about, and now we can all hate the Flyers even more.

If you did watch the draft, was is not too freakin long? 4 hours? C'mon...enough with the speaches, just make the pick. I did have great girls to girl out over the selections with, but if I hadn't, I would have lost interest around #12. First 3 went as expected: Tavares, Hedman and Duchene.

If you didn't check it out, James at Cycle Like the Sedins had a Draft Preview from tons of homer bloggers (yes, even me), you can click on the link here. I'll be participating in his Free Agency Frenzy stuff with a Canucks take, so I'll throw up the link once it's up.

Luongo to long term contract?

H/t to Wazzupwitchu for telling me first, ESPN's John Buccigross told Pratt and Taylor today that Luongo has agreed to a long term extension that will be officially announced July 1st!

Link to the Team 1040 story here.

Egads. I have no words. I hope this is for real.

Of course Luongo's agent has already denied it. But he also can't confirm it until July 1st....so I'm crossing my fingers.

Does Luongo Stay or Go?

Is that even a question? Seriously?

Right after the loss on Monday night, the Team 1040's phone lines were burning up with fury. Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun first wrote a story making a case that Luongo should be traded. He went through the past winners of the Stanley Cup and suggested that the end for the "franchise" goalie had come. He asks, with regards to paying Luongo 7.5 million/year: at what point does cost exceed benefit?

Then Ed Willies today went on today about how maybe Gillis might make a move to trade Luongo to free up some cap room. He looked at the remaining teams, their goalies that they have on the roster and concluded that the teams didn't build themselves around their goalie like Vancouver has.

I understand this is part of your job Mr. Cole and Mr. Willies, that you have to write the stories even if they are written just to rile up the readers. But let me delve into how I think this is a BAD idea.

First of all, do you remember: Cloutier? Potvin? Irbe? Whitmore? Vancouver has had some crappy goalies. Do you remember when Cloutier either just sucked or was injured and you longed to have a superstar goalie? I do. I wished we could have a great goalie.

Cole suggests that perhaps we would want to trade Luongo for Jeff Carter and one of their goalies. Hold on. Think about that. I believe that going into this year's playoffs, the biggest question with regard to their team was their goaltending. They have lost, because their goaltending didn't step it up. In fact, Biron and Nittymaki are both becoming free agents on July 1st, and who are the Flyers looking into to bring in as their goalie? RAY EMERY!

With all the fire power that the Flyers had, their goalie situation, in which they have two mediocre goalies, it still wasn't enough to get them the win over the Penguins.

With regard to the teams currently in the playoffs.
1. Marc-Andrew Fleury - is a FRANCHISE goalie. Picked 1st overall in the 2003 draft (before Eric Staal). He signed a seven year 35 million dollar contract.
2. Nikolai Khabibulin - Is on a four year 27 million dollar contract.
3. Jonas Hillier - OK so he's not a superstar, but who's on the bench of the Ducks? Jean-Sebastien Giguere. So where he's playing or not, Giggy's getting paid to be on their roster.

If you watched Game 6, you know Luongo let in some goals that he should have saved, you really just can't win letting in 7 goals. But the defense wasn't playing their best game either. And I think that the Canucks should have really wrapped up this series earlier. In Game 4, on the road, they should have applied more pressure and won that game. They would have been up 3-1 in the series, but where was the offense? I wrote a post that said "you can't with 15 shots", where was the blame on the forwards for not stepping up their game that night?

I don't think it is the right move to trade away Luongo. Clearly I'm not Mike Gillis, and he's has some tough decisions to make, which depends on if Luongo would want to keep playing here. Obviously if the answer is no, Gillis will be much more likely to pull the trigger sooner rather than later. But if he is willing to resign here, and Gillis is thinking about trading him, the offer better blow his mind.

Canuck Drama

Since the Canucks have been doing so well in the past few weeks, the media began to run out of things to talk about. So when Burrows and Kesler mentioned the notion of taking less money to stay with the team, to give them a better shot at winning a cup, the media ran with the story. The fans loved it. It sounded like two young guys that were talking some sense from a fan perspective. As I have read/heard in the past few days, not everyone thought the same thing. Then Luongo goes on After Hours on Saturday and says: "I think first and foremost, I want to win the Cup and whichever team is going to give me the best chance to do that is the team I want to be with".

The media began to question if that meant Luongo won't re-sign. Yeesh. Now these past few days, of non-stop analysis has got me a little irritated.

Regarding Luongo's Statements
1. Luongo never said he didn't want to resign with Vancouver, he gave a very standard answer that any hockey player say...HE WANTS TO WIN THE CUP
2. Why can't Vancouver be THAT team that wins the cup? Do you think we are not good enough?
3. We are a hockey city that players want to play for, we are not Phoenix or Atlanta or Florida etc. where players hate.
4. Why are Vancouver fans insulted? This is not about us the fan, it is about a player making an evaluation as to where he wants to play.
5. Could this not have been a message to management that says, I'm serious about winning, you have some big contracts to sign and/or resign, show me you mean business and put a good team in front of me.
6. Luongo is a UFA. This is his decision for whatever is best for him and his family. If he wants to take less money to go to another team he thinks will win the cup, that's his decision. If he will go to whichever team with pay him the most, he can make that choice to. He was not drafted here, there's no emotional tie to Vancouver, he was traded. He did resign here which means he wants to play here, whether he will still want to play here in another year will be his decision.
7. This is a business. Players come and go, the NHL is a business, and sometimes, contracts end and players move on.

Back to the media events:
Glenn Healy, NHL union exec, spoke to Kesler about his statements. From what has been reported, it looks like he gave him a gag order.

In The Province: "We talked to Ryan and he regrets some of the comments he made," said NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly. The quote from the Kelly just sounds bad. Did he only 'regret' it after the NHLPA suggested for him for 'regret' it?

Obviously Kesler's agent was none to pleased. I can't imagine that made his job any easier (though Mike Gillis may share a different opinion).

I felt that Kuzma, who wrote the original article with the quote from Kesler, and his reputation has been dragged through the mud on this issue. Did the media attack Hossa when he said similar things last year? I can't remember the NHLPA coming forward and saying that Hossa regretted his comments. Kuzma wrote a good article, that did not require much dissecting to figure out what Kelser's quote meant.

I understand the comments are not good for the union, who wants all of their players to get as money as people are willing to pay them. I'm not saying that I expect the players to not take as much money as they can get either. They get paid big money because there is a demand for the sport. High ticket prices and sales drive up revenue, which drive up the cap, which drive up the player's salaries. If the money is there, I'm not going to be mad at a player or their agent for getting them a good deal.

In the end, if anyone were to silence Kesler and Burrows, it should be the guys on the team. If the Sedins and Ohlund, and the other players whose contract are up their year are disgruntled, then they have a right to have their opinion. It's their locker room. It is true, that no matter what Kesler says, the other players do not have to listen to him, but if you thought what he said was a little off balance, then they should have just approached him directly. If it's NHL code not to say things involving other people's contracts, well then it should be spoken about behind closed doors. According to the Vancouver Sun, that has been done. The added comments from the union and the PA were not required, they just made them look bad.

Was this the media's fault? No, the media was doing their JOB. There hasn't been much bad things to say about the Canucks lately, and when a feel good story could be written with a good quote, it was printed.

At this point, I hope we can just move on from this subject and get back to the final games of the season. The players should only focus on the games coming up to the playoffs and then play their hearts out during the playoffs. Let's just get back to playing hockey.