On Thursday afternoon, the retired Mark Recchi told the Bruins' flagship station 98.5 The Sports Hub:

"[In] 22 years they are the most arrogant team I played against and the most hated team I’ve ever played against," Recchi said. "I couldn’t believe their antics, their falling and diving. It was very frustrating, but at the same time as the series wore on we knew we were getting to them and we knew our physical play and our skating, I think it caught them off guard a little bit."

I think most Canucks fans hear / read that and immediately go on the defensive. I'm doing the opposite. I am entertaining Dr. Recchi's opinions. You know, he might actually be right. Or, mostly correct? Maybe the Canucks are the most arrogant team he has played against. The most hated though? Geez Mark, I don't know. You played for a long time. The Flyers or Habs or Hawks teams of yore could be taken into consideration, no?. But hey, you never know. Our Canucks are/were quite the

Continue reading this post »

If you find yourself sickened or even panicking at any level after last night's Canucks loss to the Red Wings: DON'T. It's much too early for that. I think there are more positives than negatives in the Canucks' 1-2-1 record to start the season. There are concerns, but nothing that cannot / will not be remedied. Like the fact that Cory Schneider, despite a goal he'd like to have back against Detroit, has no problem coming out of the regular season gate on a tour de force where Roberto Luongo does. I don't know if it's all the fettucini alfredo that Louie eats during the summer or what. He just doesn't do himself any favors playing this way with that kind of salary, in THIS hockey-mad part of the world while his backup looks solid and mostly consistent. But...Lou will find his form and Schneider will most likely have his fair share of bad games as well. Right? Right.

The Canucks have scored 10 goals in their first 4 games. But then, prior to the Wings game they scored 10 in 3. See? Positivity. The Sedins have been in on 6 of them if my Grade 2 math is correct. I was

Continue reading this post »

Many Canucks fans have hate-ons for certain players. But how about love-ons? Mason Raymond will most certainly qualify in that category. We love his flair, his mad dashing, his work ethic, his speed... But none of that really translated into success in the 2010-11 season. After a 25 goal and 53 point season with the Canucks in 82 games in 2009-10, plus being voted the "Unsung Hero" MayRay became a restricted free agent. Somewhat like the case with Jannik Hansen this summer, the Canucks and Raymond agreed to a 2-year $5.1 million deal hours before an arbitration hearing. Yay! Right? Well last season was a step back for Mr. Raymond. How about 15 goals and 39 points in 70 games in the regular season...a 0.56 points per game average down from the 0.65 PPG from his contract year. How about a lackluster 7 goals and 15 points in 46 career NHL playoff games (0.33 PPG)?

Here is how inconsistent MayRay was last season...

Continue reading this post »

Did anybody else see the U.S. Open final round on Sunday? I did. I thought it was fantastic. I've been a Rory McIlroy fan for quite a while and was quite upset with his final round performance at Augusta in April. You might remember that he shot 65-69-70-80 at the Masters and blew a four shot lead on the final day to finish well off the leaderboard. People were questioning McIlroy's ability to compete in pressure situations.

Of course, at his next major, this U.S. Open, he won in a fashion similar to Tiger Woods' 2000 victory at Pebble Beach, where Tiger took a big lead wire-to-wire and won by 15. Rory won by 12 and shot 65-66-68-69 and set a number of tournament scoring records. He was, despite being just 21, absolutely surgical and shot a round in the 60s on the final day despite not needing to play aggressively and score. He simply needed to hang on, and he built on his score in the process.

Why I bring this up is just to show how the narrative can swing two ways. One month, your golfer, despite an obvious amount of talent, just simply can't compete when it counts and he fails. Two months later, your golfer wills his talent into a picture-perfect Father's Day story, and, oh boy, was NBC commentator Bob Costas trying to coax a staggering tribute to McIlroy's dad out of him in his post-round interview yesterday. All Rory wanted to talk about was getting drunk with his friends when he gets back home.

Continue reading this post »

I rarely go into the weeds when some clown who clearly doesn't watch this team feels obliged to pretend he does, but I'm not letting Roy MacGregor walk away unscathed. 

First off, the picture should tell you everything about the guy. No where in that profile do I see "hockey", "NHL" or "sports" as an accolade; I do see one his articles that fawns over Luongo in the first round which is a bit strange considering his latest contribution to the halls of journalistic excellence.

Let's set the record straight.

Given that there is a country song for every occasion, perhaps the Vancouver Canucks should consider a little Garth Brooks before each game – and take to heart that chorus that tells them to "Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith. …"

What a delightful little colloquialism. By that same token there is a thrash polka christian song for every occasion. But since the opponent is Nashville and they're nothing more than a city full of country music slaves, let's open with that.

Continue reading this post »

A hat trick, let alone a hat trick on home ice, is a fairly rare occurrence. It is traditional, when a player gets a trick, for fans to throw their hats onto the ice. It is one of the coolest traditions in sport, as it is simultaneously a fantastic tribute to a star performance and a surreal visual spectacle as hundreds of people from all areas of the building willingly litter the ice with their hats. I can't think of another North American sport in which such fan interactivity, which extends to throwing objects on the playing surface itself, is allowed (let alone encouraged) during a celebration. Given the rarity with which it occurs, a hat trick is an occasion during which most fans should feel obligated to throw their hat.

Unfortunately this is an area in which Canucks fans do not excel. After the jump, a quick overview of fan reaction to Ryan Kesler's hat trick last night, a mini-rant about fan reaction to hat-tricks, and a proposed Fan Code of Conduct following a hat-trick.

Continue reading this post »

A big tip of the ol' hat to Yankee Canuck for his masterful piece on Monday about the state of the franchise.  I can't top it but I will try to say something different about the Canucks in my own special way.

What I'm having a hard time with is the nature in which the Canucks lost their games against Chicago. In their 4 losses they were outscored 21-9. Besides Game 2, which Van lost 4-2 after Kane scored an empty net goal, Chicago won their games 5-2, 7-4 and 5-1. Meltdowns on defence abounded. Luongo wasn't always sharp. Did you know that the Hawks had 30 or more shots in every game they played in this series? Their lowest was 30 and highest was 37.

Continue reading this post »

This is obviously a little late to the game, but Dan Murphy weighed in yesterday with his thoughts about Ron Maclean's segment last Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada and it was the first thing I've read that really captured how I felt about the matter. I haven't read everything out there, but compared with what I have read this seems to be the sanest and strongest take on the matter and it inspired me to share my thoughts about the incident.

Three things in particular really frustrate me about Maclean's actions:

1) The complete absence of any attempt at impartiality.

Media is always biased, and HNIC seems to be moving more towards having opinionated commentators not named Don Cherry, but if you're going to do a story at least make a token effort to present the other side of the story. Part of this is Maclean's casual assertion of questionable truths as hard facts. An example of this is

"I can't imagine [Auger] said "I'll get you." We all agree on that."

Uh, do we Ron? Or is the fact that people don't agree on what Auger said one of the major reasons for this whole mess?

Continue reading this post »