I had every intention of posting an update after each and every Canadian game.  But, things sometimes take priority.  So, I’m making up for it today.

No one really thought that the qualification game against the Germans was really going to be that much of a challenge, and thankfully things went pretty much the way that everyone expected them to.  I felt kind of bad that Christian Ehrhoff’s Olympics were going to be over, but given the choice, better him than Canada.

Next up was the matchup that most people figured was going to be the gold-medal game.  The Russians.  Ovie vs. Sid.  Raw heart vs. awesome talent.  Oh yeah, and Roberto Luongo was announced as the goaltender for the duration.  This was gonna be a hell of a game.

Except it wasn’t, really.  No one expected the Russians to crumble the way that they did.  I mean, 7-3?  Seriously?  The big, bad Russians – the pool winners – bowed out easily.  Best thing to come out of the game, though, was the fact that the Canadians played like they gave a damn, something missing earlier in the tournament.  Maybe it was personal pride, maybe they were all starting to believe they could win this, thing, or maybe Mike Babcock chewed them all out. Who knows, and, for that matter, who cares?  On to the next round, and a matchup with Sweden.

Uh, wait.  What happened to the Swedes?  They lost to Slovakia?!?  WTF?  Okay, then, instead of the Sedins, we get Pavol Demitra. It was good to see Canada start out quick, working to get the first goal of the game (first team to score has won 26 of 28 games) and it was good to see the lead quickly grow to 3-0.

The first goal that the Slovaks got was just a bit of a misplay on Luongo’s part.  One got snuck in.  The second goal could hardly be blamed on Lu, though, as the defense was not doing a whole lot to stop the shot from getting through.  But it sure would have been heartbreaking if it had been Demo that managed to bury the third one behind Luongo so late in the game.  Thankfully, though, the bounce went the Canadians way, and it was time to get ready for the rematch against the Americans.

Sean over ‘Nucks Misconduct wrote a great post this morning (For Underdogs, You Sure Yap A Lot) which takes some info from the Province about how Patrick Kane gives the impression that he wants to face Luongo because he knows how to beat him.  Good for him.  And if he can’t beat Luongo, make sure he doesn’t take a cab after the game, eh?    Sean goes on to mention that both bloggers and paid journalists seem to be trying to stir up the fact that Canada has a goaltending controversy.  Really?  Luongo’s record in this tournament?  4-0.  Martin Broduer? 1-1.  Where’s the controversy, folks?

It’s simple.  Roberto Luongo is a big part of the reason that Canada is in the gold medal game, and there’s no reason to believe that anyone other than him should be between the pipes tomorrow afternoon.

Go Canada Go.

I had to take the day to think about what I was going to write in this post.  Part of me had wanted to write the whole thing about 10 seconds after the game ended.  A real foaming-at-the-mouth kind of post.  It might have been fun to write one like that.  Not productive, but a hell of a lot of fun.

Now I’ve calmed down (okay, not really) and am able to look at things a tad more objectively.  Forty-one seconds into the game?!?!  Really??

To Martin Brodeur: you, sir, are not Marty Turco.  Stay in your damn crease.  Or better still, stay on the bench and hand out water bottles.

To Chris Pronger: you’re a defenseman.  Get your ass back in your own end of the rink, stop running around like you’re playing Bantam again.  On second thought, this applies to ALL of the Canadian defensemen.  Time after time after time last night, I saw Brodeur flopping around in his crease with an American player standing right in front of him.  And NO red jerseys clearing the front of the net.  Even Mike Babcock had a look on his face behind the bench that said it all: “WTF are you *doing*?!?”  When there are two or three back-to-back home run passes for breakaways in the span of about 30 seconds, your whole defensive corps has gone to hell.  And Cory Perry should not have to be the one preventing Ryan Kesler from scoring an empty net goal.  Where were the defensemen???

Which is not to take away from the monster effort that Ryan Miller put in.  The guy faced 45 shots and turned 42 of them away.  Of course, there were always a number of white jerseys standing around to clear any rebounds (or Canadians) out of the way.

Now that Canada has to go on a four game tear to win the gold medal, you’d really have to think that this is now Roberto Luongo’s team to lead.  After three games, the team has one convincing win, one shaky win, and a loss.  Various reports have said that Luongo will get the start on Tuesday against the Germans, and you have to think that if Canada plays the way they did against Norway, that Babcock will have to stick with Luongo. 

J.J. has done the work over at the Canucks Hockey Blog, providing the details on the records of the three goaltenders since being named to Team Canada.  Luongo?  12-5-1.  Brodeur?  10-11-2.  What made anyone think that Brodeur was going to suddenly turn in to this magical goaltender again, facing different lineups than he ever has before?

How much has the public’s faith in Brodeur fallen?  Nucks Misconduct is running a poll on who should start the game against the Germans.  Ken Dryden has more votes than Martin Brodeur at the moment.  Hell, he’d probably STILL play better, too.

Funniest thing for me was watching CNN reporting on the result this morning, and hearing that the “…Canadians, a team full of superstars, was beaten by a team from the US, who’s players are all unknowns outside of the hockey world”.  Uh, what?  This was not the 1980 US Olympic team (the Miracle on Ice happened 30 years ago today) here.  These are not a bunch of college kids that came in and knocked off the NHL millionaires.  All of these US players are NHL caliber stars as well.  They’re just playing like the ‘80 team.

Tuesday should be very interesting indeed. 

Go Canada Go.

Alex Ovechkin stirred up a little controversy when he claimed that, contract be damned, that he was going to go participate in the 2014 Olympics, being held in Russia.  And who can really blame the guy?  They’re being held in his home country, after all.  If NHL players weren’t participating in the Vancouver games, wouldn’t you expect them to be more than a little pissed off?

Listening to the TEAM 1040 this morning, I thought I heard talk that Roberto Luongo had said essentially the same thing.  “I’ll carry my own insurance, and go represent my country.”  Or something to that extent.  Is this something that Canucks fans would want to hear?  I’d sure hope so.

But then, there were a lot of Canucks fans who felt that Luongo shouldn’t have left the team to be in Florida for the birth of his first daughter a couple of years ago.  I’ll tell you something right now.  Had it been me, I would have done exactly the same thing.  Family comes before your job, and when it all comes down to it, playing hockey is a job.  The money’s far different than any regular blue-collar job, obviously, but it’s still a job.  You don’t get to go back and see the birth of your first child over again.  And that child is going to be a part of your life far longer than you’re going to be playing hockey.

If you got ticked with Luongo when he left the team, did you also think Taylor Pyatt should have stayed when his fiance died last year?  If you don’t you’re being hypocritical.  Two very different events, one happy, and one tragic, but BOTH were more important than hockey.  Was it an inconvenient time for Luongo to have to take some time off?  Yup.  But people have to deal with it.  As Todd Bertuzzi was fond of saying, “It is what it is.”  Your kids being born are more important than hockey.  If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem.

But I don’t feel that players are obligated to go, either.  If someone doesn’t want to play for his country, that’s fine, too.  There’s lots of others who’d love to do so.  I understood completely when Mario Lemieux didn’t want to play for Canada at first.  The guy was having serious back problems and wanted to take the time off to rest his back.  Because he wanted to be able to walk without a cane when he was 50.  He was looking towards life after hockey.  Millions of dollars don’t mean as much if you can’t walk, y’know?

I think that Olympic hockey is better when the NHL players are there, and hopefully that will be what happens in the future.  It’s not what the owners necessarily want, but sometimes you have to do what’s best for the game.

Now that everything is set in stone, it’s time to make some predictions about how things might go in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.  No pool this year, unfortunately – it’s just me.  So, let’s get right down to it.

Western Conference

(1) San Jose vs (8) Anaheim – Sorry, I just don’t see the Ducks winning this one.  Sure, the Sharks aren’t what they were at the start of the season, but still….Sharks in 5 games.

(2) Detroit vs (7) Columbus – It’s the first time the Jackets have made the playoffs in their existence, which means that Columbus is going to be a fun place for those first two home games.  I think that they’ll put a bit of a scare into the Wings as well, although ultimately they’ll come up short.  Detroit in 6.

(3) Vancouver vs (6) St. Louis – A showdown of the two hottest teams in the league since February.  If the Canucks can get to Chris Mason early and often, and find some way to deal with T.J. Oshie, I think that the Canucks take this one in 6 as well.

(4) Chicago vs (5) Calgary – The Flames have gone south at exactly the wrong time of year, and it’s not going to go well for them.  No sweep, but the Hawks will win this one in 5 games.

Eastern Conference

(1) Boston vs (8) Montreal – It’s not been the way that the Habs wanted to celebrate their centennial year, and things aren’t going to go any better when they come up against the monsters from the east.  Boston in 4.

(2) Washington vs (7) New York Rangers – Hopefully this one will be a sweep for the Caps, but I doubt it will be.  Washington in 5.

(3) New Jersey vs (6) Carolina – Since getting Martin Brodeur back, the Devils have been on a tear, and that doesn’t mean good things for the Hurricanes.  Devils in 6.

(4) Pittsburgh vs (5) Philadelphia – Here’s the original ‘Battle of…’ series.  This one is going to be a war, and I think it’s the only one that will go seven games.  In the end, I have a feeling that it’ll be the Flyers who come out on top.  So, Philly in 7.

We’ll see how things go, and I’ll review my predictions at the end of each round.

This is something that’s more than a little rare around here – a post that isn’t about the Canucks, at least not directly.  It’s a post about Wayne Gretzky.

When I was a kid, playing both ice and street hockey, I had a white Titan 50/39 stick.  It was in tribute to Wayne Gretzky scoring 50 goals in just 39 games back in 1981.  Until I looked at the standings the other day, and the league stats earlier today, it really hit home just how incredible a feat that was.  So here’s the little bit of perspective.

Wayne Gretzly scored his 50th goal in just his 39th game that season.  The Canucks will play their 39th game on New Year’s Day against the Preds.  Barring any miracles tonight against Philly, Daniel Sedin will be the team leader in goals scored.  He has 17.  The league leader, Jeff Carter of the Flyers, has 26 goals after 36 games.  Most players trying to get their 50th goal of the season are usually in a race to get it done during the playoff chase in March.

Wayne Gretzky was in a race to get his 50th goal before New Year’s Day.

And the scary thing is, he did it.

He scored his 50th goal on December 30th, 1981 in a game which saw him score 5 goals.  One of the amazing things, though, is that this was one of his records that wasn’t set while the Oilers were playing the Canucks.  It was against the Flyers.  Gretzky finished that season with 92 goals.  In an 80 game schedule.  As much as I couldn’t stand the guy back then, I was hoping that he’d get to 100 goals, just to see if it could be done.  Alas, he fell short.  And the 100-goal season is something that will now never happen.  Because if Wayne Gretzky couldn’t do it, than it can’t be done.

At the end of that 1981-82 season, the Canucks got very lucky when the Los Angeles Kings knocked the Oilers out of the playoffs in the first round.  You all know what happened that year.  I know that I won’t ever forget it, because that was the year that we got the season’s tickets from my dad’s company for that whole playoff run.  I was at the Pacific Colisum for game 4.  I watched the Stanley Cup being presented.  Not to the team I wanted it to be, but no matter.

Anyway, that’s just something that I wanted to get out of my head tonight, so I thought I’d put it out there for CanuckNation readers.  If you were there, and were old enough to remember it, maybe it’ll make you reflect on just how special that season was.  And if you weren’t there, hopefully you’ll gain some understanding of what it was like.

Thank heavens that atrocious road trip from hell is over. With the Canuck’s final stop in Pittsburgh today to take on Sidney Crosby and Evegin Malkin, no one expected the team to win. Not because the Canucks did not match up against the Penguins, but due to fatigue.

Well, the Canucks showed their fans that it takes more than the stupid NHL scheduling to break this team’s spirits as the Vancouver Canucks froze the Pittsburgh Penguins in their tracks 3-1 in Pittsburgh this afternoon.

The Sedin twins had a great afternoon where Daniel Sedin had a goal and two assists, Henrik Sedin had three assists and Pavol Demitra had two goals. That line combined for 8 points today. Absolutlely awsome.

What was more impressive is how they played their game when Captain Roberto Luongo was injured in the first period. When Curtis Sanford entered the game, the Canucks carried on with their game plan. They played a defensive style game where they shut down the high flying Penguins and had opportunities open up for them on which they capitalized. There was a 10 to 12 minute stretch in the second period where the Penguins did not register a shot on Sanford. This is the sign of a team that believes in one another and is not relying on one person to make a difference. They all contributed to make a difference. The team celebration at the end of the game showed this best.

They completed the road trip 3-0-1 where most were hoping they would achieve the 500 mark. This is truly aremarkable accomplishment by the team. All Canuck fans should be very proud of them. But in reality, no team should have gone through this type of road trip. Check out the map posted below and follow the order of the games keeping time zones in mind and the dates (map image from Google search).

The NHL really needs to help ALL 30 TEAMS have a fair travel schedule through the season. For example, if the New York Rangers had to travel to Calgary, then Edmonton, then perhaps to Toronto to play the next night and then travel back towards Vancouver before returning home, believe me, this would not happen again in the future or it would be corrected before the schedule comes out.

Honestly, my opinon is that Luongo’s injury is influenced by this road trip. Not only is this the last game on the trip, but it was an early game. Everyone has a morning routine they go through before they start their day. If anything disturbs your routine before you go work, to school or church it can throw your day off, or in this case Luongo’s timing.

Let’s just hope that the lower body injury they are reporting is not serious and that Luongo will back in the lineup soon.

This road trip was a success, but with all forms of success, there are usually some pitfalls, and in this case, our captain ended up injured. I hope the Canucks discuss this road trip with the NHL and try to ensure that a road trip like this does not happen again in the future.

Next Game: Vancouver Canucks versus the Detroit Red Wings on Monday November 24 2008

On a night where the Vancouver Canucks met their former Captain Markus Naslund as an opponent for the first time since his leaving Vancouver, not even Naslund would have guessed at the offensive onslaught his former team generated over the Rangers. The Canucks, simply put, were awesome tonight as they disposed of the New York Rangers by a score of 6-3.

Do not let that score fool you. The Canucks made mince meat out of the NHL’s # 1 prize franchise and embarrassed them throughout the first half of the game. The Rangers basically did not show up until it was way too late. I guess they might not have taken the Canucks seriously.

Big mistake.

First Period
The first period saw the Canucks jump out into a 2-0 lead with a breakaway goal by Kyle Wellwood and a shorthanded breakaway goal by Alexander Burrows. This was enough to silence the crowd. Not just because the Canucks were up 2-0, but the way the Canucks scored. The Rangers defense basically left Henrik Lundqvist at the mercy of his attackers where he could not be faulted. In fact, Lundqvist stopped Mason Raymond on a breakaway or else it would have been 3-0.

Second Period
The second period continued with the Canucks attacking the Rangers. Alexander Burrows scored on an excellent shot from in front of the Rangers net which was then followed up the first goal of the season by Ryan Johnsonoff a rush. It was at this point that Canucks were in full control of the game. The Rangers capitalized on a power play goal to make it 4-1 shortly after, but the Canucks were not done yet. Their aggresive play caused the Rangers to take penalty after penalty which gave the Canucks a long 5 on 3 power play. Well, the beginning of the power play, however, was really 5 on 4.

Why do you ask? I can tell you. The fourth defenseman for the Rangers was the video goal judge.

The first “fifth goal” for the Canucks (I know that sounds weird) would have been awarded to Sami Salo, as his slap shot found its way through Lundqvist and trickled over the goal line before one of the Ranger’s defenseman swept the puck away.

The guys on TSN agreed that it was goal. I was watching the game in high definiton and I clearly saw the puck cross the goal line. The goal, however, was disallowed. I guess the officials in New York were desperate to help their “golden franchise” or they haven’t discovered high definition yet.

Honestly, this was a crap load of “pony pooh”. (I am trying to be nice.) I hope the Canucks question the league about that goal because it was a wrong call. Anyway, the hockey gods avenged the Canucks by allowing Pavol Demitra to score the second “fifth goal” right after the first “fifth goal” no goal ruling. Canucks were up 5-1.

The funny part was that Henrik Lundqvist clearly had enough at that point. He pulled himself out of the net, or so it seemed, and had Stephen Valiquette play the rest of the game.

Third Period
Things settled down and the teams exchanged a goal a piece to settle the game 6-3. The third goal did see Markus Naslund get an assist to at least have one point against his former team. The sixth goal for Vancouver was an empty netter from Daniel Sedin.

Next Game: Vancouver Canucks versus the Minnesota Wild on Thursday November 20 2008

Talk about feeding your opposition a taste of their own medicine.

Let’s see. What is Minnesota’s one and only way to play the game of hockey?

1. Get the first goal.
2. Check the hell out of the other team.
3. Trap like crazy by clogging up the neutral zone.
4. Have your goaltender stop everything.
5. Frustrate your opponent by getting a late goal to wrap up the night.

Well, the Canucks decided to stick it to Minnesota tonight using this formula and defeated them 2-0.

By winning tonight, they also are the leaders on top of the Northwest Divsion.

Sami Salo scored early in the first period on the power play and Daniel Sedin scored a late goal in the third period on a partial breakaway to seal the deal and have GM Place erupt with a standing ovation.

Although GM Place went nuts when Daniel Sedin scored, the best part was when the clock was winding down in the third and the fans performed a countdown for the team’s captain, Roberto Luongo, as he recorded his third shutout in a row this week.

After 15 games the team has played this season, Roberto Luongo has 5 shutouts with the games he has played.

This was no easy night for him though. The stops he made not only required razor sharp focus but absolute perfect anticipation of where the shots from the Wild were going to come from. Honestly, some of the stops looked painful to watch as he stretched and moved so fast and from one extreme to another.

After the game Luongo commented in an interview that he was going to rest tomorrow and watch some football before he returns to practice with the team on Monday.

Roberto, have a nice day off. You deserve it buddy.

Next Game: Colorado Avalanche versus Vancouver Canucks, Wednesday November 12 2008 at 7:00pm PST

On a night where most of the world was focused on the 44th Presidential Election in the United States of America where history was made with Barack Obama elected as the first African-American President in the country’s history, there were a small band of Canuck fans, say 18,000 or so, who went to GM Place in Vancouver to cheer on their Canucks team.

It was a night of many important events that made this game special, where the Vancouver Canucks shutout the Nashville Predators 4-0.

To summarize, there were five main triumphant cheers tonight at GM Place for these main events.

1. Congratulatory applause for the new President of the United States.
2. The Predator’s coach, Barry Trotz, applauded for his 750th game coached.
3. The excellent performance by the game’s first star, Kyle Wellwood.
4. Roberto Luongo achieving his third shoutout of this young season.
5. The Canucks winning the game 4-0.

First Period >> Getting Synchronized
The first period started with both teams playing very tentatively. The Predators were keeping things simple and the Canuckswere a little out of sync. Although both side had their chances, the goalies, Roberto Luongo and Dan Ellis, were sharp. The period ended tied 0-0.

Second Period >> Taking the Lead
The Canucks started to come on this period. I think they got mad, which can be a good thing.

Martin Erat gave his old teammate, Darcy Hordichuk, a cheap shot in front of the Predator’s bench and got a penalty for it putting the Canucks on the power play.

It was on this power play where a “garbage or bang away in the goal mouth crease” goal put the Canucks on the board. The Sedin twins managed to get the puck to Kyle Wellwood on this power play where he banged the puck home for his 5th goal of the season. Canucks were up 1-0.

This made the Predator’s upset, so Nick Tarnasky decided to drop the gloves with Shane O’Brien and duke it out. It was a good fight with both players landing good punches to one another.

There was feeling coming into the game.

Third Period >> Finishing the Predators Off
The third period is where the  found their scoring touch again. Mason Raymond scored his fifth of the season on another one of Vancouver’s power plays when a point shot from Kevin Bieksa made it to the net with Steve Bernier banging at the puck on one side of the net and Mason Raymond on the other. The Canucks were now up 2-0.

But wait, there’s more.

There was a faceoff in the Predator’s zone around the six minute mark. The Canucks win the faceoff with the puck ending up on Taylor Pyatt’s stick. He manages to find Kyle Wellwood alone in front of the net, where he put three or so moves on the Predator’s netminder, Dan Ellis, and scored the Canuck’s third goal on the night.

For a guy that people were questioning in the past, he was now receiving cheers and applause. In fact, right after the goal, the whole stadium chanted “Wellwood”, “Wellwood”, “Wellwood” for about 10-15 seconds to congratulate him for his efforts and that he leads the team with 6 goals on the season. In certain cases, there are specialty players in the league. They may not be flashy, but they have good hockey sense and know where to be at the right time. Kyle Wellwood is one of these players.

Daniel Sedin wrapped up the night with his fourth goal of the season, in a similar fashion to Wellwood’s first goal of the game, banging away in the crease for the loose puck. This is a great sign. If the Sedins are willing to pay the price to try to score goals in the “dangerous” areas, they will have elevated their game to have more grit.

Next Game: Vancouver Canucks versus Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday November 6 2008 at 7:00pm PST

What a night.

The team, playing against a rested Ducks team, scored six goals plus a shootout winner to defeat (not de-feet) the Ducks 7-6.

For the Canucks to score seven goals is just great. What is even better is that this probably spooked the Ducks on Halloween night. It shows that the team can score if all the lines are skating and working hard.

The win gave the Canucks 6 wins and a record of 6-5-0 on the season. This ends the month of October with the team one game above 500. I am fine with that. With all the changes that have gone on with the lineup, they are starting to show signs of a team that they may be one or two pieces away from being a stronger team.

To keep things in perspective, out of the five losses, three of them did not hurt them as much as people think. The main objective of the regular season is to win games in your conference and more importantly your division. Well, even though these three might have been bonus points, the Canucks’ losses to Washington, Buffalo and Boston did not have the team lose any ground in their standings. The only two losses that did matter were the games they lost to Chicago and Columbus.

First Period >> Hanging in There
The Ducks came out and took it the Canucks and by the half way mark of the first period, they were up 2-0. At that point, it seemed like it was going to be one of those nights. The coolest thing happenned next. Steve Bernier came right back the other way and scored. It was now 2-1 and you just had the feeling that the goal boosted the team.

Second Period >> Balancing Act
Well, Steve Bernier’s goal did spark the team. The Canucks came out in the second period and scored four unanswered goals from Ryan Kesler, Alexander Burrows, Mattias Ohlund and Kevin Bieksa. The Canucks were up 5-2 and Jean-Sebastien Giguere was pulled for the Ducks. Home and cooled out? Not exactly. The Ducks must have woken up or might have just been plain mad because they came back and tied the score with three unanswered goals of their own.

It was an old fashioned shootout. Awesome.

Third Period >> Not Giving Up
Steve Bernier struck again. The guy who started the Canucks scoring frenzy, scored another. The Canucks were up 6-5. The Canucks tried their best to hold onto the lead, but in the last minute Corey Perry snuck the puck past Luongo. It was 6-6 now.

Overtime and Shootout
The overtime had it chances but the teams seemed destined to go to the shootout. It turned out to be the longest shootout in Canucks history as it took the 13th shooter, Mattias Ohlund, to win the game for the Canucks. The expresions on the faces of the Canucks looked electric. Let’s hope the momentum keeps on rolling.

Next Game: Vancouver Canucks versus the Detroit Red Wings in Vancouver at 7:00pm PST