Get Real Hockey Post: Vancouver Canucks Top 5 MVPs
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: abs, canucks, get real hockey, higgins, mvp Comments OffMy latest for Get Real Hockey, in which I list my own personal MVPs from this year’s Vancouver Canucks team. Chris Higgins’ abs get a mention but other than that it’s all hard hitting analysis. Ahem.
Enjoy
The Bobby Lu Mega Trade Sweepstakes
Posted: April 28, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: blue jackets, bobby lu, canucks, columbus, lightning, luongo, maple leafs, nashville, predators, shea weber, tampa bay, toronto Comments OffNEWS FLASH: Roberto Luongo not only said he would be willing to waive his No Trade Clause *cue dramatic music* he also went a step further and requested a trade, then went another step forward and put together a list of teams that he would be willing to be traded to!
I know Harry, I know
(That last step may not be accurate but let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good story)
Now comes the fun part – speculation! Speculation is a blogger’s best friend so let us grab our BFF by the hand and waltz into the mires of potential trades that the Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis could execute in order to rid his team of the tyranny of the best goaltender that the franchise has ever known.
Let’s run through a list of potential destinations for Bobby Lu and list what the Canucks could get back in return, starting with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Check out The Dark Blue Jacket, click the photo yo!
Worst trade possible for the Canucks
Luongo to Columbus for Jack Johnson, Steve Mason and Taylor Ellington
Pretty grim on the surface and it keeps getting darker if you dig a little deeper. Sure Jack Johnson can score the odd goal but in him the Canucks would get yet another left handed shot on the blue line and yet another defensemen who is totally iffy in his own end. The Steve Mason story is the stuff of goalie lore now, but the one positive for the Canucks having Mason would be the sage advice he could give Cory Schneider when his play skids down the gutter and into the drain after such a good start to his career. Mason’s been there, done that and he could at least make sure Schneider is wearing the right sized pads. And of course, just when the Canucks finally got rid of Taylor Ellington and his silly contract, they get him right back. No thanks.
Best trade possible for the Canucks
Luongo, Ballard and Raymond to Columbus for Rick Nash and the 2012 1st round pick.
Not only do the Canucks end the evil reign of the Overlord Bobby Lu, they shed a bad contract and a bad player AND get a star in return AND the chance to draft a star with the 2nd overall pick in this year’s draft. Booyah.
Alright, let’s get serious for a moment
Columbus is a little closer to Florida but I highly doubt that is enough to make Luongo willing to play there. He wants to win a cup and the perennial re-build going on at the Blue Jackets is not something I can see him being a part of. Also, no way in hell I want Nash wearing the blue and green with that contract. Yech.
Team: Tampa Bay Lightning
Check out Sports Demotivation - click the photo!
Worst trade possible for the Canucks
Luongo to Tampa Bay for Ryan Malone and a bag of pucks.
Oooo controversy. I know there’s a few Canucks fans out there that want Malone on their team but I, ladies and gents, am not one of them. We’re talking about a guy whose play is nothing like it was when he was a Penguin, a guy who should be a top 6 forward but has struggled to reach 20 goals the past couple of years and a guy who has a $4.5 mill cap hit for the next 3 years. We already have David Booth so no thank you sir. Still, that bag of pucks could come in handy at practice…
Best trade possible for the Canucks
Anything that involves Victor Hedman coming back the other way.
Yeah he’s another lefty but Hedman is big, strong and scary and is still only 21 years old. Plus he’s from the same town as the Sedins, so maybe he could form some kind of weird Swedish chemistry with them. I’m a huge Hedman fan and I would love to see him patrol the Canucks blue line like some kind of Norse demi-god. Plus he’s signed at a reasonable cap hit for the next 5 years. $4 mill per – that’s good for a demi-god.
Alright, let’s get serious for a moment
Tampa Bay is the most obvious destination for Luongo. It’s close to home and unlike the Florida Panthers they can actually afford him. Also unlike the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay has no decent goaltender waiting in the wings. Still, you have to wonder what they can give the Canucks in return. Malone could be a factor but I doubt Gillis wants him as it gives no cap relief and Malone is getting old – don’t forget Gillis wants young players. Yzerman won’t give up Hedman for Luongo, or anyone else for that matter, so, what exactly can the Lightning throw in to make a deal possible? Picks? Brett Connelly? Oooo, now that’s a juicy prospect – home grown boy on the Canucks? BC would explode.
Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
Yeah, I would hide in shame too
Worst trade possible for the Canucks
Luongo to Toronto for Mike Komisarek
Need I even speak about this. I would demand Gillis’ head for this one.
Best trade possible for the Canucks
Luongo to Toronto for Luke Schenn, Nazem Kadri and that 2012 1st round pick
Oooo… yet another controversial one. Luke Schenn is much maligned but I see potential there for the Canucks. Big defensemen, gritty, right handed shot, still very young (22 years old, yo). If anyone could groom him into the best player he can be then it would be Rick Bowness. Kadri has a lot of offensive upside and he could, theoretically, be the center the Canucks need on the 2nd unit power play. And that 1st round pick would be plenty good too please.
Alright, let’s get serious for a moment
I can’t see Luongo jumping from the Vancouver frying pan into the Toronto fire. If he is human, which I assume he is (unlike Victor Hedman), he would not want all the negativity in his life any more. He’s the best goaltender in Canucks history and he’s being run out of town – the same will happen in Toronto unless he can backstop them to a Stanley Cup and let’s face it, the Leafs won’t win a Cup in Lu’s lifetime, let alone his playing career. But let’s say for a minute that Luongo would be willing to take on the challenge of playing for the Maple Leafs. Schenn is a realistic trade piece, Kadri probably isn’t and that 1st round pick will be held onto by Brian Burke like it was the key to Fort Knox after the fiasco that was the Kessel trade. I’m not sure that the Leafs have much the Canucks would actually want so the trade could be difficult to complete.
Finally, the big one, the one that I want Mike Gillis to execute above all else – the mystical 3 way trade.
Teams: Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators (can you see where I’m headed with this?)
The trade
Luongo, Ballard & Raymond to Columbus for Rick Nash
Rick Nash to Nashville for the rights to Shea freakin’ Weber
Even Shea thinks that one is out there
Get Real Hockey Post: Canucks Nation Reeling After Press Conference
Posted: April 25, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: canucks, hodgson, lu, mike gillis Comments OffMy latest post for Get Real Hockey, in which I dissect some of Mike Gillis’ comments and throw in a bit of Lu for you too.
The Cody Hodgson issue has been beaten to death over the past little while, especially today, so I decided not to touch on it and just let MG’s comment stand on its own.
(In reality I’ve been awake since 4.30am and I neglected to write about it in this post :/ )
Enjoy The Little Things
Posted: April 25, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: bieksa, booth, boston, canucks, hansen, hodgson, kesler, lapierre, malhotra, olver, presidents trophy, rat, rome, salo, Schneider Comments OffLots of things went wrong for the Vancouver Canucks this post season. Daniel Sedin was out. Henrik Sedin was almost knocked out. Ryan Kesler pouted so much he played like he was out. Coldplay completely stole their momentum after game 4. Guts McTavish’s Twitter ball avatar simply would.. not.. change. Still, you can’t dwell on the negative. Instead, let’s take a leaf out of the Zombieland Rulebook and enjoy the little things about the 2011-2012 edition of the Vancouver Canucks.
- Jannik Hansen had a career year offensively. He finished the season with 16-23-39 and a +18. That’s 7 goals and 10 points higher than last season’s totals. Plus he earned himself a new nickname:
Jannik Hansen just don't care
- Maxim Lapierre still has a face every opponent of the Canucks wants to punch but he backed up his extra curricula activities with strong play between the whistles this season. He led the team in hits with 244 in the regular season (good for 11th in the NHL) and did something many people never thought he would – fight. Max dropped the gloves 7 times this season, including once at center ice at TD Garden against Gregory Campbell. He played at center and wing in the bottom 6 and when called upon to fill in on the 1st and 2nd lines he never looked out of place. Plus, he’s responsible for this:
Max tells it like it is
- David Booth was traded for in October, got hurt, then came back to be voted the Most Exciting Canucks Player by the fans. Not sure I agree with that one, but he had his moments. Strangely enough, for me it wasn’t his goal scoring that was the highlight, it was his fight with Mark Olver. Booth is very Christian, so you wouldn’t expect him to lay the smack down like this:
- Sami Salo managed to stay healthy this season, with the exception of a run in with a little rat. Still, that’s as healthy as Sami gets, I think.
- Manny Malhotra may not quite be the same player he was before his horrific eye injury last year but the simple fact that he is out there is truly incredible.
- Cody Hodgson made the pipes sing on 2 of the most memorable goals of the Canucks season:
and
Such sweet music. I’m concentrating on the positive so I’m not even going to mention “the trade” here. Oh wait, I just did. Damnit.
- Cory Schneider has proven himself to be quite the impressionist, providing great takes on Jannik Hansen (yeah, I know that was last year), Alex Burrows and Alain Vigneault.
- Not to be outdone, Kevin Bieksa impersonated Ryan Kesler for an entire interview.
- But it was Aaron Rome who kicked off the impressions this season, doing his best Ray Bourque as he scored 3 goals in 4 games back in November. Rome finished the season with a career high 4-6-10 but was a career low -4. (Sorry, I’m trying to be positive!)
- January 7th 2012. Rematch day against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. In many ways this was the semicolon that punctuated the sentence that was the Canucks’ season. After this game things changed – nothing was quite the same. The Canucks won in Boston, which is something many thought they could never do. They won it on the back of special teams, which was something they could not do in the Stanley Cup Finals. Cory Schneider was in goal – the first true sign that the Canucks may go to him in vital games. It was a memorable win, one that partially soothed the wounds left behind from last season.
- Finally, the Vancouver Canucks won a 2nd straight Presidents’ Trophy. Despite what everyone says this is a great achievement and one the Canucks should be proud of.
It’s a long wait until next season and there will be lots of head scratching and cynicism to deal with during that wait. I’ll do my best to remember the good times (I’ll probably read this post 20 times) and remain excited and hopeful for the next NHL season.
Get Real Hockey Post: Canucks Get What They Deserve
Posted: April 24, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: canucks, get real hockey, kings Comments OffPlease check out my latest post for Get Real Hockey, in which I point out the obvious reasons why the Canucks lost to the Los Angeles Kings
Playoff Beard: Day… 9?
Posted: April 20, 2012 Filed under: Hockey | Tags: playoff beard Comments Off
It's getting fuzzier...
Wow, it does take me a while to get a decent growth happening. That angry look is because I have to go to work and I really don’t feel like it today.
Michael Lynagh Suffers Stroke
Posted: April 20, 2012 Filed under: Rugby | Tags: 1991, ewen mckenzie, michael lynagh, rugby world cup, stroke, wallabies Comments OffFormer Wallaby fly half Michael Lynagh suffered a stroke on Wednesday and the news has sent shock waves throughout the Australian rugby community. Lynagh is a fit and healthy 48 year old these days so the news was greeted by surprise and serious concern amongst his peers and fans.
Former team mate and Wallaby prop Ewen McKenzie (now coach of the Queensland Reds) had this to stay:
“I was about to speak at a conference. It caught me completely by surprise. I had to chase (for information) it literally before I got up and spoke so it was a bit disconcerting… It’s a big shock. I’m in the same age bracket (McKenzie is 46). When these things happen to people you know really well, it’s not a good thing… There’s lots of those memories come back. You start thinking about that. You take some of those memories for granted. When misfortune strikes, those things come back. (But) it sounds positive at the moment. Hopefully he will recover well… I played a lot of Test football with him. He’s a quiet guy but one of those guys who commanded respect through performance. There are obviously some big moments there, the quarter-final against Ireland in 1991.”
As McKenzie mentioned, Lynagh is most fondly remembered as one of the heroes of the 1991 Rugby World Cup for Australia. He scored the game winning try in the quarter final against Ireland and went on to be a key player in the victory over England in the final. Enjoy the highlights…
My thoughts are with him and his family and I hope he pulls through without any long lasting affects.
You can read more on the Brisbane Times site
Get Ready To Put Away Those Luongo Jerseys Canucks Fans
Posted: April 19, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: canucks, halak, ian clark, luongo, max lapierre, montreal, price, rollie melanson, Schneider Comments OffI really didn’t want to be writing about the Canucks goaltending situation again but it’s the story that just won’t go away.
Canucks coach Alain Vigneault confirmed earlier today that Cory Schneider would start tonights elimination game 4 against the Los Angeles Kings. As put by @SirCanuckles on Twitter “/Internet Explodes/”
There is no doubt any more as to who the number one goalie is in Vancouver and I’ll give you the hot tip – it’s not the emotional Italian guy from Montreal.
If I am Roberto Luongo I do not take this well. Luongo signed a 12 year contract as a the bona-fide starter for the Canucks. He’s been through it all with the team, he’s been the Captain, he’s been the hero, he’s been the whipping boy. This team was his. Was being the operative word there. Luongo is a competitive guy. If he could play every game of the regular season he would. But since he came to Vancouver he’s seen a slow decline in the number of games he has played per season. Over the past 2 seasons he’s seen a rapid decline in the number of playoff games he has played. Before last season his preferred goalie coach (Ian Clark) was shipped out in favor of Rollie Melanson – not his choice. He enjoyed having the ‘C’ by all accounts but it was taken away from him. With the exception of the big contract, Luongo hasn’t had his way in Vancouver.
Now he’s been supplanted in goal by a young upstart who has outperformed him, who has gained the favor of his team mates and who is already, arguably, more beloved by the fans and media too (Jannik Hansen and Alex Burrows impressions go a long way).
After the announcement that Schneider is starting tonight Luongo has not been made available to the media.
This situation has all the hallmarks of a bitter breakup between player and organization. I, and it seems like every other Canuck fan on the planet, am expecting a trade request from Luongo any time now.
I surmised in my last post about the goaltending situation that perhaps it was the Canucks plan all along to start Cory Schneider in road games. If Luongo had come out this morning after the announcement and spoken to the media then this theory may have had some wind behind it. But the fact that Luongo has gone into hiding says to me that this is just not the case. There’s a bigger situation coming to the boil here.
Max Lapierre was playing for Montreal during the Price vs Halak controversy and he had this to say this morning:
“Both places had two great goalies. That’s all I’ll say about it.”
Soon after the Canadiens were beaten in the Eastern Conference Finals they made their intentions for the future very clear by trading Halak to the St Louis Blues. The next season Price was extraordinary thanks in no small part I am sure to a new found confidence in knowing that he was the undisputed starter for his team.
The Canucks will have to do something similar to end the drama and settle things down well in advance of next season.
If you’re wondering who I think the Canucks should go with next season, check out my post on getrealhockey.com
I haven’t changed my mind about that. As much as I’d love to have Schneider with the Canucks long term, it’s just not the safe move. Schneider is unproven, Luongo is. Schneider could definitely be worth more on the trade market than Luongo, mainly because there will be a slew of teams scrambling to acquire him whereas Luongo will have a very short list of teams that he would be willing to play for.
The bottom line is – the Canucks need to re-affirm Luongo as the starter and get his faith in the organisation back on track, no matter what happens tonight against the Kings.
Australian Fans: How To Watch The NHL Playoffs
Posted: April 18, 2012 Filed under: Hockey | Tags: australia, how to watch, nhl, nhl gamecenter, playoffs Comments OffI’ve noticed that there’s a few Australian NHL fans out there wondering what is the best way to watch the playoffs in Australia, so I’ll put my 2 cents down here.
There’s 3 ways that I know of:
- Fox Sports are apparently showing playoff games live. I can’t attest to this because I’m a pauper and can’t afford to shell out for pay TV (nor do I really have the inclination).
- What I have done since 2008 is download games via torrent from a certain website. I won’t post the address just in case but if you Google ‘nhl torrents’ you should find it easily enough. Every game is available for download, usually within 12 hours of it finishing and there’s various qualities to download too. If you want a massive full HD file you can get it. If you just want a regular old stream version you can get that too.
- For the playoffs this year I’ve tried something new and I’ve subscribed to NHL Gamecenter. I paid $60 or so and I can watch every playoff game live or replayed.
Pros and cons?
Well, Fox Sports is expensive and you don’t have a choice of what game to watch (or what feed). As far as I can tell you may not get a chance to see the series you really want to. On the plus side it’s full HD and you can record it to watch later (which is handy since most people would be at work when the games are on).
The biggest negative for the torrents option is that they are closed for registration for another month (as of the 18th of April). If you aren’t already a member… tough. If you are a member, or if you sign up in a month, then it’s not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. First, you’ve got to get your ratio up above 1 and keep it there or you get banned. This isn’t any easy thing to do with the slow internet speeds in Australia and the way ISPs count our data here. Keep in mind you’re in a swarm with users from Europe and North America who are on 100mb/s connections with no download or upload limits. Secondly, you get very delayed caps (copies) of the games so if you’re like me and have to download the game overnight, then work the next day then you often won’t get to watch the game until over 24 hours after it’s finished. This worked fine for me last year but the Stanley Cup Finals were difficult – I basically couldn’t go online in any capacity for fear of spoilers. Thirdly – there’s a forum and a shoutbox with very strict rules and if you don’t adhere to them you get a warning or you get banned. They are strict as hell, so be careful.
Now we come to NHL Gamecenter. I’ll be straight up about this – I’m no corporate rat or do-gooder but if you have a decent internet connection (minimum 8000kbps) and a large download limit then this is the winner – hands down. First off, it’s completely legal so it wins over the torrents. The quality of the streams are surprisingly good. You get your choice of what feed to watch (I can’t tell you how happy I am that I can watch the Boston/Washington series and not have to put up with Jack Edwards from NESN). If you’re watching live you can view multiple games at once (it’s kind of hectic though, I don’t recommend it). You can watch full or condensed replays and highlights. You want live stats while you watch? You get that too. AND the biggest plus for me – I installed the free app onto my iPad and I can stream the games direct to the iPad as I relax on my couch like the lazy bastard that I am. No need to sit at the computer to watch games.
So there you go Australian ice hockey fans – that’s how you do it. Next season I won’t be relying on the torrents as much as I have over the past few years – NHL Gamecenter is where it’s at.
A Very Quick Rant On Alain Vigneault
Posted: April 17, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: alain vigneault, canucks, coach Comments OffI have to run to work so this will be quick. I wanted to Tweet it but it won’t be that quick.
I don’t think Alain Vigneault is a bad coach. On the contrary I think he’s a great, innovative coach. His results over the past few seasons attest to that. I do wonder, however, whether he is still the right coach for this group of players.
The Canucks sputtered to the Presidents’ Trophy, a result mostly brought on because of the overall weakness of the Northwest Division. They ended the regular season with a little spurt, kind of like the final shot of an overused porn star, and now they find themselves down 3-0 in the 1st round against the 8th seed in the West.
The team has talent top to bottom. It’s arguably better on paper this year than it was last year, and we all know how good they were last year. Yet somehow the results aren’t coming and it’s most likely that the Canucks will bow out in the 1st round.
These are not the results of a well coached team.
I could go on and on about this but I really do have to go. Feel free to comment, I’ll reply later today…
