Two Young Stars at Once

Considering Vancouver's game last night against, Anaheim and the synergy of Mason Raymond and Jason Jaffrey, I was wondering if...

As in English Football, where different pairs of players are often brought in to the national side from different teams so they can have some level of natural synergy in key places, I wonder if it would make sense to groom pairs of young guns with a view to bringing them up to the NHL simultaneously, intentionally.

Now all that is probably not a "magic bullet" -- just look at the way the San Jose is beating up on Vancouver tonight. 3-0 after two periods. sigh...

Memorial Cup hullo?

So, the Memorial Cup is Canada's biggest trophy in Junior Hockey. And two of the teams going to the big party are the Lewiston MAINE-iacs (from the Q) and the Plymouth (Michigan) Whalers (from the OHL). Go figure. And the other two participants-to-be are still playing each other in the WHL best-of-seven, to be decided tonight. May the best team win and all that, but I gotta say that I'll be cheering for Medicine Hat and Vancouver above the other two options and it won't entirely be because the WHL is the part of the CHL covered by where I live.

Canucks gone -- New Jersey gone

I hear Roberto Luongo took responsibility for the Canucks' overtime loss. Before we give that to him, we should also give him the responsibility for the Canucks being in the playoffs at all, let alone into the second round, as indeed the commentator who mentioned his tearful mea culpa also said. Don't cry too hard, Lu II (after Lui Passaglia, the longtime BC Lions kicker). 07/08 is another season and you've made Nonis look like a genius already.

I also read that it was Brodeur who couldn't carry New Jersey through to the third round, to which I won't dispute or agree strongly. I am glad to see Lou Lamoriello's idiocy in firing his winning coach days before the playoff start paid back in the most fitting manner imaginable. You da man, eh, Lou? I don't think so.

And what are the odds that a good coach will ever go to New Jersey so long as such caprice might be exercised against him? I think the ownership of the Devils would be wise to encourage Lou's retirement (at least from the top job) before they go out looking for a bench boss appropriate to the level of talent that still fills their locker room.

Bingo bango bongo

Round 1, Dallas v. Vancouver. Vancouver leads the series 2-1.

After game 1's marathon (18:00 into the fourth overtine), and game 2's whimper (0-2 on period-opener-goals), I started to wonder (as I mused without getting to my blogging keyboard a week ago) if the Canucks' controlling ethic this year would be "Stump the Expectations." We expected them to be sewer sludge when the season began and they play from Boxing Day forward 32-8-6 hockey. Now, we expect them to win the cup. Will they fold?

But no. Last night, despite being outplayed in the early going, the lines juggle again and out pops a win. A win, though, that wouldn't have been possible without Luongo's back-stopping. If Vancouver wins, Luongo's a lock for the Smythe. No doubt about it. I don't even need to see the rest of the games.

In other news, 3 cheers for Ireland and New Zealand at the world cup of Cricket. New Zealand are through to the semi finals with a confident win over South Africa -- after taking two early wickets for only 1 run between them, one of whom collected nearly 150 runs earlier this tournament. Ireland, after being trounced by 9 wickets by Australia earlier, showing that perhaps they really belonged here with a win over Bangladesh. Some people's untimely losses (India, Pakistan) really do result in other folks' gains.

Hockey Night In Canada - Revenge of the West Coast?

Folks, we are on the edge of something... Imagine. A Stanley Cup playoff. With three (count 'em!) Canadian teams competing for a drink from Lord Stanley's silverware. And none of them from Toronto, Montreal or Edmonton! Wheee! How many times has it happened that the only spring hockey we get out here in the west features teams from the other two really big Canadian cities but Vancouver misses the dance? Wouldn't it be loverly?

I can see the HNIC executives in Toronto having several species of bird. Some months ago, when there was a Senators-Sabres tilt that everyone except those along the Mtl-Tor corridor wanted to see, they imposed their nearly meaningless game on everyone but the Ottawa Valley. Well, we're back and bright, and we may be at the dance that you won't get to. All it takes is a Maple Leafs win and an Islanders loss and we'll have an EDM-TOR-MTL-free Stanley Cup Playoff. And probably still have three Canadian teams in the running.

I know. It's silly. Clearly, I need to go out back and stare at that rainwater-glazed wheelbarrow for awhile to re-achieve my sense of perspective and equilibrium.

Clip the Wings, Prey on the Predators

For various reasons, I only saw the last six minutes or so of last night's tilt between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators. After Vancouver's rough-shod treatment of the Wings, I began to wonder -- and now I'm almost sure, that Nashville's and Detroit's great records are less about how great those two teams are and more about playing Chicago, St. Louis and Columbus a total of 24 times. It's easy to make 100 points in a season when you can garner (at least on paper) 48 of them from 24 games. I'll have to go back and look at how many points the Wings and Preds got inside their own division, but it's certainly starting to look suspicious.

Just another reason to loathe the post-lockout schedule. Never mind not being able to see all the other teams in your building at least once -- for one or two strong teams in a lopsided division, it renders an impressive end-of-season point total just a little bit hollow. Hey, Gary, it's never to soon to scrap this schedule in favour of something that'll make that point total really reflective of a team's strength relative, not just to teams in their own division, but in the whole league.

Better still, adopt a multiple-table system like that of soccer leagues in most countries. Now that would be interesting. Teams would stay at the highest levels because they deserved to be there, and for no other reason. But it'd be harder to sell TV rights for all the teams.

And that could pose a problem, since for some American teams (even strong ones like the Ducks), TV revenue may be all they can count on. Has anyone seen how empty Anaheim, L.A., Tampa Bay and Phoenix are on a regular basis? It's unreasonable to expect any hockey team to be successful in North America south of the 42nd parallel. The one or two that do (Dallas and San Jose) are aberrations. The rest of them, if they can't make it, should be actively shopped to Northern cities in the US, or even back up to Canada (welcome back, Winnipeg Jets; hello Québec Panthers) where they belong. In the absence of takers shut down to shrink the league back to a high quality 24 or so.

NHL Northwest Division: Minnesota or Vancouver?

As the 2006/2007 season winds down, I haven't quite forgotten how I thought this season would end: that Vancouver would be where Edmonton is (all but mathematically out). Nor have I forgotten the tension of where Calgary is (a little like where Vancouver was this time last year), playing for their lives, with no assurance that they won't stave off Colorado's late run on eighth in the west.

Who would have thought that the Northwest division title would be within Vancouver's grasp? And so it is, almost. Last night Vancouver used their game-in-hand on Minnesota the way all such games should be used: advantageously, with an outright win. But looking at the rest of Minnesota's schedule and comparing it to the rest of Vancouver's, I think the division title is a dream that will fade away. Minnesota has shown all year that they can beat the teams on ice that paper says they should be able to beat. Hence with all but one date at home, and all but one date against bottom-feeders, their chance of closing out with nothing but wins is relatively high. Vancouver, on the other hand, faces almost nobody but playoff contenders and mixes things up with home and away dates.

Still, not having home advantage might not matter. Since Christmas, of all the teams they might face in the western playoffs, they have beaten all the teams they've met at least once. The last of these is tomorrow night's test when Nashville comes calling. That will be more likely to show how Vancouver stacks up against all the power teams in the west (and actually, I think Nashville and Detroit have better records than they should since they've been playing so many games against Columbus, Chicago and St. Louis).

If the Canucks are burning, we'll have an entertaining spring. If they burn out, there's still the WHL Giants who should at least make it to the Conference final, probably against Everett: two former NHL coaches (Hay and Constantine) playing kids with more passion and skill than either money or cunning/cynicism. Now that's entertaining hockey. Still more, stay tuned for the Memorial Cup -- even if the local big-leaguers disappoint, the local kids almost certainly won't.

Canucks: Can They Keep It Up?

With Jeff Cowan as leading scorer in the last three games, the Vancouver Canucks look more and more like the real package. Comparing the way they contained and eventually wore down and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning to nights ago, vs. the way the Lightning did the same to Edmonton last night, one can only conclude that the standings are not lying. No more is this the Canuck team of the "West Coast Express" which if you could contain that one line you could beat the team.

Each of the top three lines can and will score, so an opponent can not concentrate their best checking line against only one of the three. Although some power play goals have gone in against the Canucks recently, the penalty kill continues to be at the top of the league.

Brent Sopel and Bryan Smolinsky, the pre-deadline acquisitions are contributing and I hear the young Sopels are already going to Vancouver schools once more, glad to be back. The division leader with the lowest point total may be just under the radar and I begin to expect that the Canucks will surprise opponents all the way to the conference final. Will it be enough to go through to the final? A cup would go a long way to expunging the disapointment under King Richard in the 1982, or the game seven defeat against the Rangers in 1994.

Everything I ever said about Luongo...

I take it all back. The guy has been the most amazing goalie. From his record in Florida, I would never have believed it. When he was chosen as an alternate for Team Canada in the last Olympics, my response was, "Roberto who?"

But no. There's only one reason the Canucks are tied atop the Northwest division and it's an Italian-Canadian from Montréal who's doing it all. Vancouver now has another person to call out, "Lu! Lu! Lu!"

It's Hockey Day in Canada!

I was helping out a friend at work on Friday (she's from Toronto) and some other friend (he's from around here) was sending her constant IMs about how the Canucks were going to beat the Maple Leafs. Ahh, the joys of inter-regional rivalries (played out with ash wood and rubber -- or ashes, willow and grass, for that matter -- rather than with bullets, bars and stone). But tonight we see which of the six Canadian teams has got it and which ones not. If you have access to a CBC feed and you're an expatriate Canadian, today is a day to get an overdose. At 19h00 GMT it's Ottawa and Montreal. At 0h00, it's Vancouver at Toronto and for the finale, the ever-popular Battle of Alberta is continued at 03h30.

Oh, and by the way, Shanta? With the amount of snow we usually get out here (not this year!), Vancouver players know how to rake up leaves. (The question in my mind is, are they going to do it tonight?)

Well, well, well...

Now that Google has assimilated blogger, e-mailing to my blog is much more responsive than it used to be!

One of the biggest things I enjoy but know they're not that important is sports.
And being Canadian, one of the biggest sports things that amuse me is hockey.
And being from Vancouver, that means Canucks and Giants, ultimately.

Not to mention World-Under-20 gold for Canada... w00t! w00t We are the champions, my friend.... blah blah blah! The thing that struck me on the portions of televised games that I saw was how full the stands were when Canada was playing, and how empty they were otherwise.

But I think the Giants are happy to have Franson and McKardell back from their "cap"-matches (to mix sporting custom metaphors and all that) -- beating the Red Deer Rebels last night at the Rink on Renfrew.

While in the other rink (the "Garage")... I pegged the Canucks to be basement-dwellers this season after their extensive mix-and-match retooling over the summer. And two post-game-nights in a row now, they've been able to go to sleep knowing that tomorrow at least, nobody can take over the lead in the Northwest Divison -- easily the tightest division in the whole NHL -- over Christmas there were five points separating the top and bottom team.

But now, with 7 wins in a row (and two of those very diSTINKt ones) maybe I was wrong. Luongo keeps letting in the odd soft goal, but it'll be fun to watch (while folding laundry) these guys go through to the end of the season.

Still, it can't really compare to important things like drinking water...

I tend toward too much seriousness sometimes

So... I'll keep on writing sanity checks at the end of posts I put here

But mostly, if anything really trivial catches my eye, or delights me somehow, I'll post it here.

I'm afraid, since I really enjoy any sport well played, a lot of this might become noise about sports. But look for other more important elbow-shots at the end.