Canucks and Beyond
Canucks Trade Krajicek and Simek
From Canucks.com --
Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis announced today that the Canucks have acquired defenceman Shane O’Brien and right wing Michel Ouellet in exchange for defenceman Lukas Krajicek and right wing Juraj Simek from the Tampa Bay Lightning. O’Brien will report to Vancouver and Ouellet will report to Manitoba.
Suggestive Hockey Pools
To quote the friend who sent me the Yahoo! Sports/NHL mailer down below, “Looks like Yahoo Sports is doing a different kind of “fantasy hockey” this season!”
Seriously. Judge for yourself:
Canucks Drop Two on Waivers
From TSN:
The Vancouver Canucks placed forward Jeff Cowan on waivers on Saturday, while the club lost defenceman Nathan McIver to the Anaheim Ducks via the waiver wire as well.
Not really surprising moves, but the Legend of Jeff Cowan will be missed (not too many NHL players have inspired women to throw their lingerie on the ice). And courtesy of HockeyFights.com, here’s a final fight from Nathan McIver in the Calgary game a few nights ago.
Chatting with the Yankee
From The Yankee Canuck:
She’ll never admit it, but she’s the queen of Canucks media coverage. I have no idea how long she has been doing this, but her quality of work and her embracement of the deep rooted suffering that is at the core of all Vancouver fans is some of the best stuff out there. Paul Kukla folded her mind into Kukla’s Korner at the beginning of 2007, giving her an even broader exposure at Canucks & Beyond. Since then she has covered all things in the Vancouver hockey world & has gotten to speak directly with Pierre McGuire, Keith Jones, John Buccigross (and didn’t slug him either!), Bill Daly, Kelly Hrudey, Jim Hughson and contributes regularly on the Crazy Canucks podcast.
I’m not sure she sleeps.
She sounds pretty impressive, doesn’t she? Or she would… if ‘she’ wasn’t just me. 
My thanks to Mike for the flattering introduction and the interview which followed—check it out. Just some Canucks talk for a dreary, pre-season Friday.
Mats Sundin Needs His Sleep; Computer Hackers Disagree
The Vancouver Sun has honored us with possibly the least flattering Canucks headline in recent history: “Canucks Explore the Science of Sleep”
Which sounds like last season, but no… it’s actually just the team’s travel schedule, according to GM Mike Gillis:
“[We] are doing everything possible to to travel as well as we can. To that end, we’re bringing in a company called Global Fatigue Management to look at all our players and their sleep habits and how we travel, and try to help us design the best possible schedule that we can come up with to keep our players fresh.”
He also says that the Canucks travel schedule is a notable part of why Mats Sundin hasn’t yet snapped up the $10 million the team has budgeted for him this season.
Continue reading "Mats Sundin Needs His Sleep; Computer Hackers Disagree"
Yet Another 3rd Jersey
From Erik Rolfsen at The Province’s ‘Canuck Nation’ blog,
The Vancouver Canucks will unveil their new third jersey at the team’s Nov. 15 home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, team president and CEO Chris Zimmerman announced on Thursday during a luncheon with the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Promises of new Vancouver Canucks jerseys are always a mixed blessing. It’s like delicate plastic surgery… sometimes it all comes out okay, but one slip of the creative-knife and things can end up looking just plain weird.
So make fun of the current jersey all you like, I really don’t think it’s bad at all. And besides… there’s plenty of evidence that things can end up much, much worse.
Checking in on the Canucks Rumors
From the Canucks --
They say preseason doesn’t mean anything but don’t tell that to the Canucks, who are undefeated so far in the preseason after five games with two remaining on their schedule. While the games aren’t worth points or standings, the wins don’t hurt and going into the regular season with some confidence can only be encouraging, especially after a summer of change and many skeptics.
Skeptics? Us? Well, sure. It’s what we do, after all. Still, last night’s thrashing of Miika and the Flames was a pleasure to behold, so fans should enjoy the winning streak while it lasts. Pre-season or not, I’ll take my happy moments wherever I can get them and tonight’s game will be online at Canucks.com at 7pm Pacific. (Update: Game feed will be available directly at this link starting at 6:55 pm PT)
Meanwhile, what about those “Kevin Bieksa and Taylor Pyatt to Boston for Marc Savard” rumors?
Politics & Hockey—The Fun Way
When politics and hockey collide, it’s seldom interesting, fun or even all that rational. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to discover a new candidate had entered the American political arena—one who, in his own words, “isn’t afraid to dig in the corners and make goalies wet their pants.”
It’s Pierre, the Phoenix Coyotes own mascot with the bad French accent and a plan for exactly nothing.
But that hasn’t stopped him from campaigning…
Itty Bitty Canucks Swag Contest
Contest closes on October 11th… before the first game of Jim Hughson’s opening CBC Canucks HNIC season.
Please leave your name and email on this post. By random draw you may win one of the three prizes I mention on the video, and I’ll ship them wherever you want. (Even if you’re not a Canucks fan—as if that’s even possible...!)
____________
*originally posted 7:40am ET
And then the news wasn’t so good…
Coincidence or cosmic bad humor? Earlier today Roberto Luongo was named captain of the Vancouver Canucks, rather against the odds. Which made it a pretty good day for the celebrated goalie—except for this:
On the same day that the Vancouver Canucks named him team captain, Luongo suffered a minor groin injury during practice.
Luongo suffered the injury after colliding with forward Jannik Hansen.
Poor Louie. It’s possible that being captain of the Canucks has a curse something close to being featured on the cover of an EA Sports video game.
Luongo will be out for the next game, which is “precautionary” says TSN.
In other news, Jannik Hansen will probably be hiding in his locker until the building clears.
Oh Captain, My Captain
How’s that for a cliché title? But the choice of a new Vancouver Canucks captain is not a cliché at all—in fact it’s one heck of a shock.
Roberto Luongo.
Now… did anyone predict that?? Not a chance.
Update 2:39pm ET: Assistant captains—Ryan Kesler, Mattias Ohlund, and Willie Mitchell. Coach Alain Vigneault also states they did advise the NHL this morning that they chose Luongo, and while there is no rule preventing a goalie from being named a captain, he won’t be permitted to have a ‘C’ on his sweater.
More updates below.
Meeting Canucks Celebs, Acting Inappropriately
Prepare yourself—I’ve got a pile of Canucks news accompanied by a serious overdose of photos.
To start with, Wednesday was the Raise-a-Reader campaign in Vancouver. From the Vancouver Canucks:
Raise-a-Reader started in Vancouver in 1997 and has since raised over $4.2 million dollars in support of children and family literacy in British Columbia alone. The Raise-a-Reader program went national in 2002, with twenty eight other Canadian cities hosting Raise-a-Reader Day this year. The Vancouver Raise-a-Reader campaign continuously leads the rest of the country in annual fundraising.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, the set-up was simple and fun: Just donate a buck or two for a Vancouver Sun then walk around the various street corners of downtown Vancouver during the early rush-hour where various Canucks - current players and alumni as well as a few team executives—willingly allow you to accost them on the street.
Much fun. I’ve taken to calling it “Canucks Fans Streetwalking for Literacy.”
Continue reading "Meeting Canucks Celebs, Acting Inappropriately"
Unchecked Optimism
Matthew Sekeres at the Globe & Mail is deluded optimistic about the potentially “high-scoring” Vancouver Canucks team in front of Roberto Luongo this year.
“This season, Luongo may know what [Grant] Fuhr felt like.”
Well, sure. Because obviously the 2008-09 Canucks are so similar to the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.
This Year’s Canucks—with $10 Million to Spare
While season previews are the fashionable thing this time of year, I’ve always thought them to be sort of useless. Nothing ever goes as expected. (The SJ Sharks come to mind—I haven’t been paying much attention, but I bet at least 4 out of 10 “experts” have them in the Stanley Cup Finals, if not outright predicting they’ll win the Cup this year. Correct? Experts are predictable. Teams aren’t.)
Anyway, in the case of the Canucks this season it’s particularly hard to preview a team that still has $10 million sitting on the table waiting for someone to pick it up.
Continue reading "This Year’s Canucks—with $10 Million to Spare"
The Crazy Canucks - Season Three
Last night we recorded the first episode of Season 3 of The Crazy Canucks:
We’re back. Season three of TCC kicks off with a quick gathering of the crew to has out what to expect for the coming season as well as some cool things going on with each of our various projects. We take a look back as who we’ve lost, the new faces (that we kinda think we know something about but don’t know half as much as we’d like), hash out the who does what for TV and radio play-by-play, and take assignments for new names of the team for show and tell later.
Listen to the show at TCC or just pop it into iTunes. There’s a lot more news as well, so Canucks fans be sure to listen. Also check out J.J.’s new site CanucksHockeyBlog.com (no more blogspot) where he’s preparing to give away two tickets to the September 23rd preseason game against the Oilers.
The five of us will all be attending that night as well, so maybe we’ll get a chance to pelt the winner with popcorn.
The Crazy Canucks - Season Three
Last night we recorded the first episode of Season 3 of The Crazy Canucks:
We’re back. Season three of TCC kicks off with a quick gathering of the crew to has out what to expect for the coming season as well as some cool things going on with each of our various projects. We take a look back as who we’ve lost, the new faces (that we kinda think we know something about but don’t know half as much as we’d like), hash out the who does what for TV and radio play-by-play, and take assignments for new names of the team for show and tell later.
Listen to the show at TCC or just pop it into iTunes. There’s a lot more news as well, so Canucks fans be sure to listen. Also check out J.J.’s new site CanucksHockeyBlog.com (no more blogspot) where he’s preparing to give away two tickets to the September 23rd preseason game against the Oilers.
The five of us will all be attending that night as well, so maybe we’ll get a chance to pelt the winner with popcorn.
Gary Bettman = Gene Simmons Greatest Failure
From an interview with Gene Simmons on MSNBC:
Q: What would you say has been your biggest failure?
A: I haven’t had too many big ones but for the past two years, I’ve been dancing with Gary Bettman [the NHL commissioner], trying to figure out some way to [get him to] hire Simmons Abramson. It hasn’t happened yet.
Q: That’s a failure, your inability to seal a deal with Bettman?
Simmons Abramson is the marketing firm founded by Gene Simmons and Richard Abramson, currently responsible for branding an Indy race near you with the slogan: “I Am Indy.” (Clever, clever stuff.)
So, would you hand over the NHL’s marketing to Gene Simmons? Well, the NHL did that once already, actually…
Continue reading "Gary Bettman = Gene Simmons Greatest Failure"
Gary Bettman = Gene Simmons Greatest Failure
From an interview with Gene Simmons on MSNBC:
Q: What would you say has been your biggest failure?
A: I haven’t had too many big ones but for the past two years, I’ve been dancing with Gary Bettman [the NHL commissioner], trying to figure out some way to [get him to] hire Simmons Abramson. It hasn’t happened yet.
Q: That’s a failure, your inability to seal a deal with Bettman?
Simmons Abramson is the marketing firm founded by Gene Simmons and Richard Abramson, currently responsible for branding an Indy race near you with the slogan: “I Am Indy.” (Clever, clever stuff.)
So, would you hand over the NHL’s marketing to Gene Simmons? Well, the NHL did that once already, actually…
Continue reading "Gary Bettman = Gene Simmons Greatest Failure"
Always a Burrows Fan
Alex Burrows is open to talking about a contract extension but it’s liable to cost the team a few extra bucks this time. From Elliott Pap in the Vancouver Sun:
Burrows is scheduled to make a bargain basement $525,00 - and cap hit of only $483,000 - this season. It’s the third and final year of a deal he signed when he was a fringe player.
He moved beyond that status in 2007-08 with 31 points and a team-leading plus-11. His point total placed him sixth among Canuck forwards. His 19 assists were fifth best. His 179 penalty minutes easily topped all Vancouver skaters.
He’s big league now after battling his way up from minor league Greenville, Baton Rouge and Columbia in the U.S. south.
Burrows’s story is one of my favorites, his journey into the league seeming so unlikely only a few short years ago. But I also have another attachment to Burrows—he was the first NHL player I ever had the pleasure of interviewing in person.
Always a Burrows Fan
Alex Burrows is open to talking about a contract extension but it’s liable to cost the team a few extra bucks this time. From Elliott Pap in the Vancouver Sun:
Burrows is scheduled to make a bargain basement $525,00 - and cap hit of only $483,000 - this season. It’s the third and final year of a deal he signed when he was a fringe player.
He moved beyond that status in 2007-08 with 31 points and a team-leading plus-11. His point total placed him sixth among Canuck forwards. His 19 assists were fifth best. His 179 penalty minutes easily topped all Vancouver skaters.
He’s big league now after battling his way up from minor league Greenville, Baton Rouge and Columbia in the U.S. south.
Burrows’s story is one of my favorites, his journey into the league seeming so unlikely only a few short years ago. But I also have another attachment to Burrows—he was the first NHL player I ever had the pleasure of interviewing in person.