So, the HLOG held their HLOG Sucktitude fantasy draft this Sunday. I'd like to give you some recap of the actual craziness of the draft, but I braely remember anything that happened except Bethany hating me for stealing her goalie. :D
Anyway, what's the purpose of this pool? You have to build your team to lose, and you can only do so by choosing from the Top 20 (for C/LW/RW), Top 40 (D) and Top 30 (goalies) players in the league.
I've got to say, it was a tough draft, but I present to you... THE TEAM THAT WILL SUCK IT ALL!!
Team WILLIE WILL KILL US
| Round | Pick | Player | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | (2) | Fredrik Norrena | G |
| 2. | (15) | Johan Holmqvist | G |
| 3. | (18) | Nikolai Khabibulin | G |
| 4. | (31) | Marc-Andre Bergeron | D |
| 5. | (34) | Steve Sullivan | RW |
| 6. | (47) | Tom Poti | D |
| 7. | (50) | Ron Hainsey | D |
| 8. | (63) | Kimmo Timonen | D |
| 9. | (66) | Brad Richards | C |
| 10. | (79) | Alexander Semin | LW |
| 11. | (82) | Michael Cammalleri | C |
| 12. | (95) | Brendan Shanahan | LW |
| 13. | (98) | Maxim Afinogenov | RW |
It's too bad Pyatt's not int the Top 20. I'm sure Willie would love to kill him, too. :D
'Disorganized' is the magic word for tonight's game. Everything from the even strength plays to the power plays; from the plays in the offensive zone to the defensive zone.
It was really strange, something must have been wrong tonight because they didn't play like this in the past 2 games (I can't comment on the Anaheim pre-season opener because I couldn't watch it). I don't know if it's just nerves of the young players playing on visitor's ice the first time, the travel option the Canucks chose (fly the same afternoon as the game), or the San Jose Sharks' line up that iced a lot of their veterans compared to Vancouver's mostly rookie line up.
Whatever it is, the Canucks did not look good team-wise. There were some good individual performances, most notably Nathan McIver.
It looks like he's putting himself in the race for that 7th defenceman spot. Not only did he score the Canucks' lone goal in the hockey game, he also showed a lot of feisty-ness by getting Sharks' captain, Patrick Marleau, to fight with him, and later on engaging Rob Davison to another scrap after Davison speared Luongo. His overall defensive play wasn't too shabby either.
Mattias Ohlund, and Alex Edler played pretty good on defence, too, considering most of the time, especially on Ohlund's case, they have to overcompensate their defensive duties to cover for their partners. Shaun Heshka and Patrick Coulombe played alright on defence, too. I think it's just really Jim Sharrow that had a horrible outing. I noticed him on the ice for all the wrong reasons.
As for Markus Naslund, he was alright... Sometimes he was flat and can't seem to get into the play, and other times he is brilliant; making nice plays, backchecking, etc. I still can't believe that Jason Jaffray wasted that opportunity where he was all alone in front of the net, and somehow, Naslund's pass found his stick.. and he just botched up the play and started thinking. SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT!!! When he did, he missed the net? Yeah.
I was surprised to see him on the penalty kill in the 3rd period, though. I didn't see if the penalized time was already expiring soon or not, but I think he was on the PK for quite a while. I know he blocked a shot... :D I want Nazzy to be really good defensively that we can use him on the penalty kill, too.
As for Taylor Pyatt, is it just me or did he get pushed around A LOT this evening? I swear, I did not like the way he played one bit in this game. I was extremely pleased with him after the Flames game and couldn't wait to see him continue playing that way, but it seemed like he caught the "disorganized" bug that was going around the team today. As I said, he was getting pushed off the puck a lot, and he also took 2 penalties.
I did notice one good thing about Pyatt's game though... he's skating faster. I hope my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, but I swear he looks faster out there. I like that. Now I just wish that he becomes consistent. Really.
That line of Pyatt (Classen and someone, forgot who the other one was) didn't look good at all the whole evening... Actually, no, that's not fair. None of the lines looked good this evening. Even Mason Raymond kept losing the puck mid-skate to the offensive zone, and there's just no chemistry.
What else? Roberto Luongo was overall pretty solid tonight, Canucks took too many penalties, the powerplay is still dry, etc.
I just want them to beat the Ducks tomorrow.
Just a few quick notes because I have tons of homework due.
Lukas Krajicek was the only "veteran" defenseman in tonight's lineup. In fact, I'd use the term veteran loosely, considering Krajicek has only played around 160+ games in the NHL. Definitely proved that he is reliable, considering who he had to work with.
You can tell it wasn't veteran defencemen on the ice with the way they played on the defensive zone. They were often scrambling around or they just looked so organized. The same were evident on the penalty kills; it just did not look as efficient as it normally did when at least one other veteran is there to hold down the fort.
The rookie defencemen were okay... They're not extremely horrible, and of course they had some bad plays, but they can only correct that in time. Unfortunately, I did not notice Luc Bourdon all that much tonight. Or maybe this is a good thing? Well half good, half bad. Good because if I had noticed him, it's probably because he made a huge mistake or something. Bad because he didn't do anything overly impressive to get me to notice him?
Cory Schneider started in goal today and had the misfortune of playing for veteran-depleted team who took A LOT of penalties. First goal he let in was Sheldon Souray's bomb from the point and the second was from a shot by Gilbert, but was tipped over Schneids. If I just look at the stats and see that he let in 2 goals out of 4 shots, you'd think he's a horrible goaltender, but honestly, the goals he let in was not that bad. Not a lot of goalies can stop Souray's shot on a regular basis and then there was that deflection for his 2nd goal.
I'm sure Ian Clark would train him and improve his skill.
As for forwards, I loved the Raymond-Kesler-Grabner line. Really. They were speedy, especially Mason Raymond who showed off his speed and finally also showed that he can score a goal.
Kes had a big night-- 1 g 2 a. Not too shabby. Michael Grabner also picked up an assist on Raymond's goal.
Lots of fights and lots of spirit among the players tonight. Good to see that, maybe they'll kill each other in the AHL. :P
I finally got my NHL TV Console to work so I can watch the preseason games, and thank god it picked the right time to finally start working.
- I got to see Cory Schneider play -- he was good, but I can't really judge his talent on the 1.5 periods he played, but so far so good. He did make that amazing save just after he got in on goal.
- Michael Grabner, and Juraj Simek were amazing in the 3rd period. I didn't notice them as much in the 2nd period, but they really put extra effort into their game in the 3rd. Michael Grabner had a goal and an assist, and threw a big hit on Dion Phaneuf. As for Simek, even though it did not show on the scoresheet, he was one of the best players on the ice, and I think he threw big hits on some Flamers, too.. forgot who though.
- Alex Edler was the best. This is mostly my bias for defencemen speaking, but didn't he look solid? He also has more confidence on jumping up on the play now in the offensive zone, and defensively, he was as good as it gets. I really hate this Bourdon vs Edler storyline, I think both are great defencemen, but I feel that Bourdon just has that extra pressure from himself and the media that he can't get his head together. Luc is a good defenceman prospect as well, but I feel it's the expectations that will ruin him. Edler had a huge advantage on this side because no one expected this much from him at the start.
- Markus Naslund had some pretty good moves tonight, especially near the end of the 2nd period, including the pass in which he set up Edler for his goal. I thought he looked good on the backcheck as well, and I really can't wait to see what Nazzy will bring to the team this year.
- And my favorite topic: Taylor Pyatt. I was pretty impressed with him tonight. For this game, I saw him use his size more, and he was definitely strong on the puck compared to what we saw from him last season. Perhaps he is more confident? There was just this certain powerplay in the 2nd period (I believe this is the one before Schneids came in for Lui, and McIver/Peters "fight"), where he was just by the boards with 2 Calgary players on him and those two guys just can't push him off the puck. AV also put him on the PK, which in a way was surprising. I can't say he did bad because we shut down Calgary's powerplay, so he must have done something right.
As for the other players, Mattias Ohlund was a rock, Lukas Krajicek is growing into his PP QB role, Roberto Luongo is still bingo-bango amazing, and Nathan McIver is definitely tougher than Rick Rypien--health wise.
Hope to see more games like this in the regular season. :D
The Vancouver Canucks single game tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10:00 am. I am now gearing up to wake up early and hope to grab tickets for the following games:
(2) Oct 5 San Jose Sharks (home opener)
(2) Jan 19 LA Kings
(3) Feb 9 Colorado Avalanche (:P 1 ticket as a birthday gift for my mom :D)
(2) Apr 5 Calgary Flames (last game of the season)
Yeah. I'll be broke, but happy.
I'm still deciding whether I should go for those Kings tickets since my family and I are going to California this Christmas, and on Dec 26, LA Kings are playing the Sharks at Staples Center and I already told my parents I'm definitely watching that game live...
Maybe I'll hold off on the Kings tickets and if I still really, really want to see them, I'll purchase the tickets the day before the game....
I was planning to make a huge post about the Canucks jersey launch, but I got lazy, got a bit busy with training for the new job, back to school stuff, and saying good bye to summer in general, so I mostly forgot to do it.
I'll talk about the general "unveiling experience" later (hopefully) with photos to accompany them... For now, I'll talk about the actual logo.
My initial reaction was that of excitement. The fans at GM Place were treated to a short video explaining the Vancouver Canucks jersey history, and near the end of the video, you see "flashes" of the new jersey. So when Markus Naslund came out on the ice donning the new sweaters, I was excited and totally pleased with it.
When the excitement ran out, and I was able to actually see the jerseys and ponder over it, I thought it'd take a while to get used to the "Vancouver" wordmark over the orca. I didn't know whether I like it or hate it yet, but once I got home and got to see more photos of the jersey (on Willie Mitchell...), it slowly grew on me.
Next thing I know, I was already planning to save my 3rd paycheck to purchase the new jersey (White/Away with possibly Naslund or Salo, please ;D). The "Vancouver" wordmark sure grew on me really fast. I blame it on Willie.
In all seriousness, what I really LOVE about our new jerseys are the colors. I love, love, love vintage. I am also sort of glad we got to keep the orca.
As for the cons, I've been telling anyone who listens that I hate how the "Vancouver" wordmark will make the jerseys of the Captain and Alternates look really cluttered. The "C" and "A" up there will just really make it so crowded and... really wordy.
Yeah.. That's my only real criticism for now. The jerseys looks so good on the boys, maybe that's why I got used to them so quickly.
