Canucks and Beyond
Canuck-For-A-Day
Geez, time flies, doesn’t it? I can’t believe this happened nearly 5 years ago, but I think Vancouver fans will remember this story. From Marc Weber at The Province:
Chris Levesque lived every man’s dream when he suited up for the Vancouver Canucks in 2003, but that brush with the bigs also made it tougher to forget his own.
For all the fun and fanfare surrounding that day of real-life fantasy—plucked from studying on the UBC campus and thrust into the NHL spotlight—there was also an element of “what if?”
Levesque wasn’t just an emergency backup, after all. He was an emergency backup who came within a whisker of playing—famously working his gum on the bench while Johan Hedberg lay motionless after a first-period collision.
He’s now a sous chef in Vancouver with fond memories of that surreal experience. Back December of 2003, I wrote about Levesque’s brush with hockey fame, and with some envy…
Hockey Prizes
HockeyStars.com is doing a promotion (for Citzens Bank) for Canadian hockey fans:
Whether you’re on the ice, on the bench or in the stands, we know you love the game. And we know that you have a hockey moment that you can’t forget. Was it captured in a photo or on video? If so, that first winning goal, or clip of you cheering for your favourite player may turn out to be a winner!
All you need to do is submit a photo or video describing why it’s your Best Hockey Highlight by June 9, 2008.
Go here to find out more and check out some of the entries already on the site. (Open to Canadians only.)
In association with the HockeyStars promotion, Miss604 is giving away a couple of great hockey books. You can enter her May 20th draw if you leave a comment on her post. Good luck! 
Busy Days—From Vancouver to Vegas
From Scott Burnside at ESPN,
Busy times in Vancouver as new owner Francesco Aquilini cries to the local papers every time he reads something that rankles him and with new GM Mike Gillis throwing everyone connected to the Dave Nonis regime under the bus. Now, Gillis is starting to rebuild the Canucks in his own image, announcing that he’s hired longtime NHLer Scott Mellanby to be a conduit between the team’s hockey operations and himself. [...]
The Canucks are holding their annual meetings in Las Vegas this week and Gillis is expected to make a final decision on whether to bring back coach Alain Vigneault. Sources have told ESPN.com that Vigneault rubbed some veteran players the wrong way and there is a strong suspicion Gillis will bring in his own coach.
That about sums it up, although I’m not sure how Burnside came up with the idea that Gillis is “throwing everyone connected to the Dave Nonis regime under the bus.” Perhaps he will, but not yet.
As for “sources” suggesting Vigneault rubbed some veteran players the wrong way… well, I don’t think you’d need sources any more complex than a television set and some common sense to have figured that one out.
Update 8:35am PT: A bit more on Mellanby, plus comments from Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison…
Scott Mellanby Joins the Canucks
No, he didn’t un-retire himself… he’s now a “consultant” with the team. From the Vancouver Canucks:
Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis today announced that Scott Mellanby will join the club in the capacity of Consultant to the General Manager and Hockey Operations department. Mellanby played 20 years in the National Hockey League with five different teams.
“We are pleased that Scott has agreed to join our Hockey Operations department, his experiences in our League over two decades as a player will be a great asset to me and our entire department,” said Gillis. “Scott displayed strong leadership skills and character throughout his NHL career; these are the same qualities we are looking for as we build our team.”
Updates below...
Gambling with the Canucks
From Ben Kuzma at Canwest (via the Guardian):
The coaching fate of the Vancouver Canucks’ Alain Vigneault will be determined by the end of this week in the most ironic of locations — the gambling heartland of Las Vegas.
With Canucks management and scouts assembling in the Nevada city for their annual meetings, new general manager Mike Gillis said Tuesday that Vigneault has been summoned from his home in Gatineau, Que., to face further scrutiny over the next two days.[...]
In his season-ending address, Vigneault defended his defensive style as one that is common throughout the NHL. Still, the Canucks finished 24th in offence with 213 goals — down nine from the previous season — and their power play was ranked 18th at 17.1-per-cent efficiency. It was 17.2 per cent in 2006-07.
Lay your bets, hockey fans: Will Vigneault keep his job, or does he get offed in Vegas?
Measuring the Vancouver Offense
If you’re the new GM of the Vancouver Canucks and you’ve suggested one of your priorities is to rebuild an offensive-style game, what’s tops on your agenda?
If rethinking the team’s association with Daniel and Henrik Sedin was your first guess, you’re smarter than I am. From TSN:
Window Shopping the NHL for 2008-09
For those of us whose favorite teams are currently hanging on golf courses, beaches or making out with with B-list celebrities in front of tabloid reporters, the fun of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a bit muted. But rather than wallow in bitterness, we can always start planning for next year. So I took a look at NHL Numbers and their developing list of free agents—RFAs and UFAs—coming to the market this summer, and did some window shopping.
The list is below, but a note of caution from NHL Numbers:
“This is an incomplete list of free agents. Players who did not spend any time on the NHL club’s active roster are not included. Also, some RFA’s may actually be Group 6 UFA’s (I will update ASAP).”
Check their site for the latest updates. Meanwhile, here’s the mostly-current list of players, alphabetized by team, so take a gander and see if there’s anyone you’d like to kidnap for your team next season:
Thanks for the Research
From hockey fan Captain Salamander on Gabby’s Gobbledygook, complete text of his blog post today:
Separated at Birth?
You know those side by side photos of celebrities and regular folk who look remarkably alike? Well here’s one of two hockey players who must be identical twins.
Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks.
Those ESPN links were included by the Captain to further illustrate the spooky similarities that lead to this breakthrough realization of his.
I only wish I could have been there for the final epiphanies. Probably went something like: “Hold on—they even have the same birthdays. I’m starting to see a pattern developing!”
Awesome.
Rolling Over the Germans
World Hockey Championships: Canada 10 - Germany 1
Eric Staal scored four goals, Martin St. Louis had five assists, and the remaining goals were scored by Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Patrick Sharp, Derek Roy and Mike Green. And don’t leave out Dan Hamhuis who inadvertently helped Germany get on the board by putting the puck past his own goalie.
All and all, not a fun day for Germany, as noted by their coach Uwe Krupp:
“Our team was outmatched in just about every aspect of the game,” Krupp said. “I think it was a sobering experience for everybody. Thank God you don’t have too many days like this.”
Courtesy of TSN, video highlights of the game can be seen here, and a complete schedule and results for all teams here. Team Canada’s next game is Monday against Finland. Team USA plays the Finns on Sunday.
Note: Dion Phaneuf sends a special message of encouragement and congrats to his Canadian mates. What a guy…
Linden in Effigy
Pulled from a press release from McFarlane Toys/Spawn.com:
McFarlane Toys is teaming up with the Vancouver Canucks for an exclusive Sports Picks figure for one of the most-beloved Canucks of all time. McFarlane Toys has created a new look for our classic Trevor Linden figure - showing off the new-look Vancouver jerseys they wore in the 2007-08 season.
This limited-edition figure will be available exclusively through the Vancouver Canucks and their Web site, canucks.nhl.com this October.
Below is a photo. Sometimes I’m very tempted to start collecting these, but it’s a hobby I expect could fast exceed the cost of actually attending a season’s worth of Canucks games.
I’m Starting to Like Mike Gillis…
In today’s Vancouver Province, news which warms my cold, blackened, disappointed Canucks-fan heart:
For a week now, Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault has spent his days at GM Place on the hot seat.
For a couple hours, sometimes more, each day, he’s been brought in to informally defend, dissect and rehash a season most are trying to forget. He’s not done yet.
“It’s still ongoing, it’s going to take even more time,” Canucks GM Mike Gillis said.
Toronto Sports Network
An FYI to TSN and their heartfelt commitment to the source who tells them the Leafs have actually spoken to Dave Nonis, a note from Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun:
Nonis denied early Thursday in an interview that anyone from the Leafs had even contacted him.
“I haven’t talked to anyone from Toronto at this time,” Nonis told TEAM 1040 radio in the morning. “Right now, Toronto is not one of the teams I’ve spoken to and we’ll see if they do contact me. I don’t really have any intentions of rushing into something unless it looks like something I have to do. I’d prefer to sit and wait. It’s still very early.”
TSN—who almost certainly listened to that same interview—still managed to come up with this:
Canucks Golf Season Updates
Just a few stories mildly related to Canuckish-type things:
- Dave Nonis is being summoned for an interview in hell
- Alex Edler made a not-so-endearing contribution to one very embarrassing Swedish team loss at the World Championships - a 10 minute game misconduct penalty
- A company called Coleman Analytics has five NHL teams (and they’re looking to add Vancouver to their list of clients) that are paying them up to $100K a year for “basic” analytics services. Honestly, I bet plenty of obsessive & mathematically-inclined hockey fans would gladly kick those numbers out for free, or maybe a bit of swag. (I know, I know. I’m over-simplifying… but at least let The Forechecker bid for the job.)
Kirk Maltby is Laughing at You
As soon as I saw this photo, all I could think of was the thousands of Colorado Avs fans (among others) with long memories who’d want to catapult their computers through a plate glass window as soon as they saw it.
But I figure, rather than damage your pricey technology, why not just caption it in your own special way?
*original photo from this Free Press photo gallery
Canada vs USA
Canada vs USA—3:30pm ET
Video —In Canada on TSN & RDS; In the USA, only by a paid feed; International viewers check here
Audio—Fan590 streaming live.
Info—Complete tournament schedule [PDF], and power rankings.
So there’s some hype building in the World Championships. TSN says it’s a “rivalry renewed” [video], and the Globe & Mail’s Roy MacGregor is ready for a couple of teams to “get their hate on.”
This post will update periodically with screenshots of the action during the game, and a box score link will always be provided at game time.
Should be fun: it’s Team Tortorella vs Team Hitchcock, which might make for some seriously-bad language being thrown around. If I work on my lip-reading skills, perhaps I can transcribe some John Tortorella gems…
Technology & Hockey Fans
Video may have killed the radio star, but HDTV has sure been good at resurrecting the hockey fan. I came across this from Lynn Kiesling at the Technophobiac Finance Blog:
But the economics of technological change is reviving my love of hockey. When we moved back into our renovated house at the end of March, we also bought ... a 40” LCD 1080p high-definition TV. We hooked it up on a Sunday, and what was the first thing we saw when we turned it on? A Penguins-Rangers game. In Pittsburgh. And the Pens won.
All I can say is this: woof. Hockey is fabulous in HD. Of course I’m watching my Penguins (and I got home from my woolly weekend in enough time yesterday to see them win the series against the Rangers in overtime, yay!), but I’m also watching the other series. Because it just looks so freaking awesome in HD.
On those ‘Demitra to Vancouver’ Rumors
Some thoughts from Minnesota, à la Michael Russo at the Star Tribune:
Oh, and lastly, this is unconfirmed by me but being told to me by a Vancouver reporter, but apparently Pavol Demitra was in Vancouver over the weekend being given a tour of the area by Canucks captain Markus Naslund.
As I’ve intimated here, the chances of the Wild even attempting to bring Demitra back is slim to none, and there’s a question whether he’d even want to return.
Demitra signing with Vancouver makes sense. His agent — or now, I guess, former agent — is Mike Gillis, the now-GM of the Canucks. Naslund is also now a former client of Gillis.
Both are unrestricted free agents, and you can bet Gillis may very well take care of his former clients. In fact, maybe Pavel Bure comes out of retirement and returns to Vancouver.
[updated below - Demitra did indeed spend time in Vancouver in recent days.]
Don Cherry in Reverse?
Reading the remainder of an Adrian Dater blog post (which KK highlighted this morning) I came across this odd analysis from the Denver Post reporter:
I think it’s time [Peter Forsberg retires], though. Not just for his body, but to get away from a league that never treats its stars very well, that allows too many no-talent bums make runs at them and the Canadian, good-old-boy referee system lets it all go without penalty. [...]
This league doesn’t deserve guys like Forsberg anymore anyway. For years, he was cheap-shotted and hooked and held to no end, and the Canadian good old boys always let it go. So, get out while you can Peter. This goon league never deserved you anyway.
First of all, Dater seems to be suffering from selective memory syndrome in recalling a flawless-Foppa—after all, where does he think the nick name ‘Floppa’ came from?? It’s not just bitter Wings fans who crack that joke.
But more interesting to me: what’s with all these Canadians-R-Evil theories circulating lately?
NHL is a Tough Business
Because I have this secret fetish to add an alanah @nhl.com email address to my resume one day, every couple of weeks I take a trip through the NHL.com job opportunities board. (Apparently over half of their postings are filled by online applicants so I’ve got a chance, right?)
As a result of this quest I see a lot of jobs I’m not quite qualified for that I want. But then there are the rare occasions I stumble across something I figure I must be qualified for… till I read the fine print:
The NHL Washington Capitals are in need of an experienced mascot to represent the team during all games; as well as any special events. Candidates applying must meet the following criteria:
* Two years experience as a mascot for either major or minor league team.
* College degree preferred
I’ve got that college degree (though why I need it for this position escapes me; must I really be qualified to debate matters like geo-politics, etc, to hang out with hockey fans while dressed as a giant homicidal chicken??) but sadly I come up about 2 years short on experience.
Tough business.
The Best Defense is a Stupid Offense
From John Dellapina’s Blueshirts Blog:
Finally, for all those from other media outlets and newspapers who have sarcastically dismissed our initial web story about Sean Avery’s hospitalization since the Rangers refuted it Wednesday afternoon, I wonder:
Was your initial reaction that the story couldn’t have been correct or did you simply race up to the MSG Training Center to get player reaction? And, did you call the hospital and/or Avery’s representatives to get the real story or did your “reporting” simply consist of taking the team’s word for what happened?
Fortunately, the intrepid men an women of the press who have exposed baseball’s steroid problems didn’t similarly regurgitate what they were told by people who understandably want their businesses viewed as beyond reproach.
Geezus. My congratulations, Dellapina—for entirely missing the point.