27 posts from February 2008

Hear that sound? That's the sound of the Canucks pissing away another two points.

They started well enough. Scored 2 goals and was leading 2-0 by the start of the third period. But after scoring that second goal, they allowed Columbus to dominate the game and they just kept coming at Luongo and the Canucks just weren't doing enough to stop them.

And you know, it's funny, after getting beat by Colorado due to their inability to clear the puck out of their zone multiple times, they did not learn and everytime Columbus were in our zone, we had multiple chances to clear the puck... for some reason, we didn't and they got chances after chances and that's how they were able to score their first goal.

The second and third, however, were just really bad defensive mistakes. Willie Mitchell was under pressure 4 on 4, and had to quickly move the puck, and it unfortunately hit someone and went to Rick Nash for the breakaway. Their winning goal.. ugh. Bieksa. -_- I don't even know why he just let Chimera waltz in to the net like that.

ugh.

Yeah.

Don't even get me started on the Sedins in the OT. What was with that shift???! They kept missing the puck or passes, and they just gave Columbus every oppurtunity to walk back in our zone.

They were doing okay before the OT though, along with Markus Naslund. Man. They had so many chances to score on the powerplay, and they're just having bad puck luck. Two disallowed goals (the first one. wtf.) and lots of missed chances and good saves by Pascal Leclaire.

Taylor Pyatt had a really good game tonight. His work on the 1st Canuck goal was just amazing, not to mention he had a few opportunities to score on the PK before that as well.

Ugh. I was going to say more, but I don't even want to think about this game.

Brad Richards scored 5 points in his first game as a Star. It better be the last. X(

... Is the game that the Canucks always lose.

Okay, well, I don't have  statistics to prove it, but I know we lost the first game after the deadline last year. :3

Anyway... I am torn between wanting to murder the Sedins or Joe Sakic or... yeah.

Joe Sakic was all in his clutchy glory, and Canucks fans better hope this will be the last, but knowing Joe, it most likely isn't.

The Sedins has been playing terrible of late, especially defensively. Their offensive game are still okay, they're getting their chances with Naslund, but they (especially Daniel Sedin) has been taken dumb, minor penalties in the defensive zone. It wouldn't even matter that much as long as they balance it out with scoring, but right now, it's not going for them eitherway.

As for the newest Canuck, Matt Pettinger has speeedz. Rinslet likes! He was definitely a threat on the penalty kill because of that speed and he looked good on that line with Kes and Burrows. What I would like to see though is Pettinger, Ryan Shannon and Mason Raymond on the same line so they can maybe try to create offense off the rush?

Speaking of Shannon and Raymond (along with Taylor Pyatt, Alexander Edler and Mike Weaver), that shift leading to Mason Raymond's goal was all sorts of amazing. Even though it was an even strength shift, they were set up as if it was a powerplay, and they totally controlled the puck until Raymond was able to tip Shannon's shot in the net. Man that was great to see. You almost wish the Canucks can do that sort of thing when they are on the powerplay :P.

Anyway, it's a very disappointing loss. One lucky bounce for the Canucks (though I don't think it's "lucky" at all since Alex Burrows really worked his bum off for that goal) leads to a different lucky bounce for the Avalanche.

Very disappointing ending. Should Woulda Coulda. If they cleared it out of the zone, with 15 seconds remaining, they could have won the game. If Vigneault put Linden in as the 2nd shooter instead of 3rd, we might have had the chance to tie the game in the shootout. If the refs freaking called _____________ penalty on _________ (insert Canuck player here) blah blah. Though I'm not really that mad about the bad officiating since the Canucks was just snakebit on the PP all night.

And yeah, the PP tonight. WTF. There was nothing happening. No shots off the point, and they just kept passing around the perimeter until an Avalanche player manages to knock them off the puck. GAH.

Good PK though. :B

Not too worried. We're playing Columbus on Friday, and hopefully we'll see a better game offensively from the Canucks.

Last week, I was joking around saying that Alex Burrows browses the internet for dirt on players rather than watching game tape, I didn't actually expect to turn out true.

He does do research on players, but how the heck did he know Aaron Downey's family owns a potato farm? lol!

Courtesy of Pfizer:

Matt Cooke traded for Matt Pettinger of the Washington Capitals.

Wow. As much as I kept ragging on Cooke... it's like the era of the Cookie Monster is done. gone. forever.

Dear TSN,

Where are my text message alerts for trades? HMM?? HMMMMMMM??!!!

Now I have to go to a computer lab and refresh your stupid webpage just to know who's getting traded for what.

Anf I think I just renewed my hate for the Colorado Avalanche. *stabs them*

Love,
Rinslet

PS. SERIOUSLY SEND ME MY TEXT UPDATES. I AM GOING TO CLASS SOON.

I hate the trade deadline so much.

All these non-stop refreshing of tsn.ca/nhl for updates on who's moving, who's not, how it will affect the Canucks, etc. It's not fun.

So I went to my first Open Practice today and took my brother and mother along with me.

My mom was quite happy and excited since she's never sat in the lower bowl for any event before, so this is her first time seeing the Canucks players up close.

Our seats were actually in row 6, but the people sitting in the row 2 decided to leave, so my mom and I moved there. She kept telling my dad how it's great that she can actually recognize the players instead of squinting from the upper bowl or on TV trying to figure out which is which.

I have no real comments with regards to the practice. My favorite part was the bag skate? I'm not sure what they call it, but when the players were skating to center ice, to the face off dot, back to center ice, then back to the goal line? XD I swear I only like it because of all the SWOOSH of the ice when they put on the brakes.

The 2 on 2 (?) drills were pretty cool to watch as well. Someone (Kesler?) tripped Daniel Sedin and he was just laughing all the way to the bench.

The shootout challenge was great!

I swear. I love Willie Mitchell. He took off his helmet and put his jersey over his head, and still scored a goal.

Oh Willie~

I loved when Ryan Shannon went on for his shootout, too. Rintoul was saying "It's time for the spin-o-rama!" when Shannon took on the ice, but it was Luongo who did the spin-o-rama as Shannon was approaching him.. XD Shannon got the goal.

I feel so bad for Brad Isbister when no one really cheered when his name was being called. :( I cheered for you Izzlebizzle! Don't worry!!! I saw him just shrugging it off and laughing on the bench.

I also noticed Daniel Sedin teasing Taylor Pyatt a bit when he received a lot of cheers and screams after his name was being introduced. haha...

:((((( OMG! When they were giving out t-shirts, Willie was throwing a t-shirt my way, but it hit the net! :((((((((((((((((!!! Then someone else picked it up and threw it in a different direction. X((((((((!!!

Willie then threw a t-shirt in the general vicinity of my brother, but the tall chinese guy in front of my bro jumped up so high to swipe it mid-air. GRR.

All in all, it was good fun. :)

Oh yeah. XD After they were done throwing t-shirts, I don't know which players it was, but 3 of them were jokingly trying to carry Mike Weaver (aka Mike-ro-Weaver) to throw him over the glass to the fans as a souvenir. XDDDDD It was a really funny sight.

I went to visit JJ at his Crazy Canucks booth after the practice. :) Said hi and took a photo. He asked whether I wanted to get a quick word in on their podcast and I'm just like "O___O NOOO!!!" hehe.

:( I'm sad I didn't win a hockey stick.

Photos from this event can be found this way.

He wanted to get his team going. He said he was going to take care of me. I was ready for him. I asked him how his potato farm was doing. He probably likes the french fries the most because he's a little chubby.

(- Alex Burrows talking about his run-in with Red Wings tough guy Aaron Downey during the pre-game warmup. Downey grew up on a potato farm.)

They came, they were all injured, they couldn't conquer.

That was the battlecry of the Detroit Red Wings Saturday against Vancouver.

Well, not really.

I don't have much comments...

• The refs were such Nazis tonight, especially after the pre-game festivities of Nuckies and Wingers chirping at each other, while Zetterberg and Sedin (the two Henriks?) were discussing the Academy Awards (Cherry's guess, not mine). Everytime a Canuck got close to a Red Wing, they blow a whistle to penalize a Canuck. W. T. FUCK.
  
• Edler scores.
• Salo scores.
• Finally. The much needed offense from the defense. Sami Salo has been gaining his offensive confidence back lately. The powerplay is looking much greener now that he has that confidence back. Alex Edler has been on such a roll lately and is finally (hopefully) developing his offensive game.
• Kevin Bieksa is slowly, but surely, starting to take chances offensively, too. That's what we want to see.
• Although Markus Naslund and the Sedin Twins did not actually score a goal, they had a better game tonight than they did against Nashville. Man. They had this nice 3 on 1? 3 on 2 chance in the 3rd period and ugh. Way too many passes. Daniel (I think) could have had that shot, and he should have just shot it, but instead, he passed back to Naslund. Gah! Anyway, they assisted on both Edler and Salo's goals.
• Ryan. Freakin'. Kesler.
  
• Nuff said.

Canucks Open Practice tomorrow!!!