(The really late) Saturday Morning Coffee

(Mgmt Note: Please welcome canucklehead666 to the Nucks Misconduct family. He'll be our morning man, bringing you the latest on Vancouver, the NHL and whatever else is on his mind. Drop in and say 'allo.)

Of course I would be late for my first day lol... here goes:

A game most Canucks fans already had circled on their calendar anyways became a whole lot more important last night, thanks to some help from a couple unlikely sources.

With the Avs and Flames both suffering regulation losses to Carolina and Columbus respectively, the Canucks were able to slide into 1st in the division, tied with the Flames but holding the tie breaker.  Yeah, remember when we complained we didn't have the loser points we needed?  Turns out all we needed to was keep winning.  While that still may come back to bite us on the ass, right now it's the Flames and Avs looking at those points and seeing missed opportunities.  Even with a day off there was lots to talk about with the Canucks yesterday.  Sami Salo's eye is swollen shut thanks to that not as scary as it looked poke in the eye from Wille Mitchell's stick.  Salo may not be a go tonight, so the Canucks called up Evan Oberg from the Moose.  The 21 year old leads all Moose defensemen in scoring and has been a pleasant surprise so far, and is well deserving of the call-up.  Aaron Rome is still recovering from that frighteningly gory injury he suffered after a hit from former Canuck Taylor Pyatt Thursday night.  Former Kamloops Blazer Brad Lukowich makes his regular season debut for the Canucks in place of the somewhat concussed Rome.  And while we are on the topic of Moose defensemen, Mathieu Schneider made his debut for the farm team last night.  The Moose took on the Hershey Bears in a battle of last year's Calder Cup final, losing 2-1 in the shootout.  Manitoba is now 2nd Place in the North Division, 8 points behind the Western Conference leading Hamilton Bulldogs. The Canucks ECHL farm affiliate The Victoria Salmon Kings won a franchise record 12th straight at home last night led by a Wes Goldie hat trick in a 5-2 victory over the conference leading Idaho Steelheads.  The two teams will meet up again tonight at Save On Foods Memorial Center in Victoria.  After a bit of a slow start in Victoria, the SKings are now 2nd in the West Division and 3rd in the National Conference, the fact that they are 9-1-0-0 in their last 10 helping that no doubt.

Some other interesting things with your morning coffee:
- The National Post's Dan Barnes reports that the Oilers are so bad right now fans are selling tickets at a loss rather than go to watch the games

- Still think Europeans don't like fighting in hockey?  This KHL game puts that notion to rest, with over 600 minutes in penalties (including Jaromir Jagr).  Warning: this one is pretty violent, so just puttin' that out there)

- Meanwhile, the NHL has decreed that none of it's members, be they player, coach or the guy that fills the gatorade is to use salty language in front of the media.  Way to wreck it for everyone, Mikael Samuelsson!

- Theo Fleury is back in the news, after he ripped the Calgary Flames for their recent scoring woes, singling out Craig Conroy in particular.  While some people question Theo's motives and loyalty, I ask you this: when a team with that kind of lineup on paper is clipping along at a pace of 2 GF a game for almost 20 games now, can you really say it would hurt to have a guy like Theo Fleury in the lineup?  I actually saw Jokinen referred to as being 'hot' because he scored in consecutive games.  God knows how many games he went without a goal leading up to that.  And remember, Dion Phaneuf is happy, and didn't ask for a trade...

This is my 1st official post for Nucks Misconduct, and I hope you dig my somewhat skewed look at things.  Thanks to Sean and Mike for bringing me on board, I am very excited to be able to contribute to one of the best Canucks sites on the interwebs.  And if it's ok with them, I would like to plug my sites real quick:
We Are All Canuckleheads http://waachcast.blogspot.com
Blood On The Ice http://bloodontheiceblog.blogspot.com
BOMBlog http://bomhblog.blogspot.com/

Cheers and enjoy the game
Kent
CH666