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Game 3 Recap – Blackhawks Outsmart Canucks

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:08:14 +0000

What a debacle game 3 of the second round turned out to be. A 5-2 result in which the Canucks looked out of it past the 10 minute mark of the 1s t period. At the end of the night I felt like the Blackhawks had won, and won easily. In game 2 they had to scratch and claw their way to victory, but not in game 3.

Outsmarted

Chicago picked their spots to get under the skin of the Sedins and Luongo and they did it largely without taking a penalty. The ridiculousness of no goaltender interference penalty being called yet in this series is beside the point. They’re getting away with it. Dustin Byfuglien and Jonthan Toews both got away with inteference on Luongo which lead to Hawk goals. Those guys need to be taken care of by the Canucks D.

The Canucks need to ride that fine line also, the key being to do it without taking a penalty. The example of what not to do came from Alex Burrows on Brian Campbell in the 2nd period. A costly penalty for roughing up Brian Campbell, making it look too obvious, lead to a power play goal, and you have your game winner. David Bolland on the other hand was able to rough up Daniel Sedin while taking him off the ice with him, and there en lies the difference.

Goaltending

If the Canucks are to win this series, Roberto Luongo has to be better than Antti Niemi. Case closed. Niemi was better than Luongo last night as Luongo was unable to handle his rebounds all night. Of course his defense isn’t making it easy on him, as they were unwilling to move players from the crease or even willing to box players out. Take a look at Kevin Bieksa on the first goal for an example of what I mean.

GM Place = Library

What is up with the fans at GM Place? I have been to every playoff game at the Garage thus far and it is quiet in there. In the first round I chalked it up to LA not being a big rival and the fans not being as excited about the first round as we used to. But now, I don’t know. The team could have really used a jolt of adrenaline from the fans to start the game and it simply wasn’t there. I believe of the 16 playoff teams this post season, Vancouver probably has the 2nd or 3rd quietest fans, perhaps only ahead of Detroit and Ottawa. In game 3 versus Chicago, the fans were unable to start the ‘go Canucks go’ chant by themselves even once. That’s a first for a Canucks playoff game in my experience.

Reasons for this? Perhaps the 6:30pm start time played a factor, but it’s only half an hour earlier than usual. Perhaps the Canucks have finally priced most ‘real fans’ out of the building (ticket prices started at $150 each). What also must contribute to it is the brutal job done to pump up the fans before the game. There’s a decent pre-game montage on the video screen, but everything else leaves a lot to be desired. They play the quietest intro song in the league, ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ by U2 and have a few flag wavers on the ice. Maybe it shouldn’t be any surprise that it elicits a quiet response by the fans.

Sedins April 2010 Calendar Wallpaper!!!

Sean Ovariez — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:53:10 +0000

We’re finally in the home stretch and we’ve saved the best for the last month of the regular season, the Sedin twins! PS, WHAT A F’N BARGAIN @ 6.5 MILLION!!!

Download here:

NHL Sex Scandals.. Would Anyone Give a Crap?

Sean Ovariez — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:06:02 +0000

So with news of Tiger taking a hiatus from golf because everyone and their daughter has “transgressed” with him, I had a random thought.. If anything remotely like this happened to an NHL star, would anyone (outside of hardcore hockey fans) give a flying crap? What would it take for the mainstream media, and more importantly the National Enquirers and TMZes of the world, to take notice and publish an article or two?

Well, here’s a quick short list of NHL stars and what/who I think they’d have to do to get noticed:

1) Alexander Ovechkin – making Kournikova (where the heck is she?) and Sharapova his bitches.. and prancing them around with him
2) Sidney Crosby – caught lip-locking with Daniel Radcliffe. Harry Potter sucks and so does Crosby.
3) Evgeni Malkin – caught lip-locking with Emma Watson. At least she’s now legal.
4) Sedin Twins – dating each other.
5) Joe Thornton – having an affair with Kristy Yamaguchi.

Got a good one? Leave a comment and add to the list! The NHL needs more scandal and pub!!

Canada’s Rough Road Ahead

Sedins Re-sign, Gaborik to the Rangers and More!

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:57:15 +0000

That’s right! The twins are back, this time making $6.1 million a season. That can only mean one thing. Now Sedin bashers will be adding “overpaid” to the list of things they don’t like about the Sedins (also on the list? They’re Swedish, soft, too polite, boring, don’t produce in the playoffs, too slow, etc.). All the Sedins have done is disprove each one of those allegations one by one, which is why they are indeed worth $6.1 million. They didn’t come at a bargain basement price, but when you see the Montreal Canadiens trading for Scott Gomez, he of the $7.357 cap hit (for the next next five seasons!) and 58 points last season, it’s certainly a good deal for the Canucks.

Sedin news means we get to post this video:

Also moving on Wednesday was Mattias Ohlund, signing a ridiculous 7 year deal at $3.75 million per season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ohlund will be 39 by the time his contract runs out! Ohlund’s play has been declining steadily for the last few years. This deal has the potential to have him being overpaid grossly in the not too distant future.

So what about all of the other free agents moving on day 1 of the free agent madness? You can see the full list here. Often times you hear about “winners and losers” of trades or free agent signings, but it is more complex than that. Some deals like Mattias Ohlund’s contract with the Lightning will be beneficial to them in the short term, but will hurt them greatly long-term. Taking that into account, here are the biggest short and long term winners and losers in free agency so far:

Vancouver Canucks

Winners both long and short term. The Sedin twins were two of the most sought after free agents and Mike Gillis landed both of them. Their contracts are fair, so not a home run, but not a strikeout either. The length of contract (5 years) is vital as well. In 5 years they will still only be 33 years old, and shouldn’t have too much of a drop-off in their play. They lost Mattias Ohlund, but he was signed to ridiculous money in Tampa Bay and Gillis would have been crazy to match that. Jason Labarbera ended up in Phoenix, which will hurt, but when you have Luongo playing and making as much as he does, it’s hard to spend big money on a backup or promising significant playing time.

Chicago Blackhawks

Big short term winners, long term losers. Chicago bolstered their lineup with the additions of Marian Hossa, John Madden and Tomas Kopecky. Hossa and Madden are upgrades over Havlat and Pahlsson, who each signed elsewhere, while Khabibulin signed with Edmonton and Matt Walker will be joining Matty-O in Tampa Bay. The reason they are long term losers is that Marian Hossa signed a 12 year deal! Combine this with the fact that Brian Campbell is locked up to ridiculous money until 2016, and they are going to have a terrible time trying to re-sign Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith when all three become free agents next summer! Clearly, someone will have to be moved for it to happen.

Montreal Canadiens

Just what is Bob Gainey doing? The Habs are losers in both the short and long term. They signed a bunch of good, but not great, players to huge money on Wednesday. Cammalleri is going to make $6 million and Gionta $5 million. Add that to Scott Gomez’s $7.357 contract that they acquired on Tuesday, and that’s over $18 million spent on an average first line! They also lost Komisarek, their version of Willie Mitchell, who signed for reasonable money in Toronto ($4.5 million per season).

New York Rangers

I guess Marian Gaborik will have to rent out his Vancouver home? Great signing by the Rangers. He signed a 5 year deal in New York, which will be a bad deal when he’s injured and a great deal when he’s healthy. He’s bound to be healthy for at least a portion of that deal, and when that happens, the Rangers will be tough to deal with.

Calgary Flames

Big winners. Jay Bouwmeester was the prized defenceman of this year’s free agency. Calgary’s defence now consists of probably the best top 3 in the league with J-Bo joining Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr.

The Night Before Christmas…

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:07:07 +0000

On the day before July first, there’s still a lot of uncertainty as to which direction the Canucks will go, not just for next season, but the next bunch of seasons. Daniel and Henrik, fresh off a Stockholm visit from Mike Gillis and their agent JP Barry, are presumably pondering a last ditch offer from the Canucks to keep them in Vancouver long-term. We should know within the next 24 hours if Daniel and Henrik will be staying or going. I, for one, think it’s a good idea to bring them back, but not at any price.

The Sedins, to me, are worth about $6 million or less for a 4-5 year contract to the Canucks. Certainly, some other team will offer them more if they reach the open market, but the Canucks will not be in a position to win a cup if they have 3 players (the Sedins and Luongo) all making over $6 million.

That brings us to Luongo. The latest rumour has him agreeing to a deal in principle (not on paper yet, he can do that beginning on July 1) to stay with the Canucks long-term. That rumour got more momentum after the Canucks netminder was seen with management at the entry draft in Montreal on Friday. It would be hard to believe that Luongo would be announcing the Canucks first round pick if he hadn’t already agreed on a long term deal.

This is a great signing, especially if it’s in the low $7 million or less range. Don’t believe the nonsense that having a high priced goalie doesn’t allow you to win in the new NHL. Just because a couple of teams have won cups with low priced goalies (Carolina in 2006, Detroit in 2008) doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to win. It makes sense to spend big money on the most important position, and when you have a world class goalie like Luongo, it would be foolish to let him get away.