• Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News apologizes to Mike Gillis. Very tearful and heartfelt.  BFF regained.
• Canucks.com has been filling in the 16 Days of Trevor Linden on their site.  This is shaping up to be an impressive tribute collection of articles and video.
• With Curtis Sanford out, “Can Cory Carry the Load?” J.J. responds “We hope so,” Waiting for Stanley says “I’m not counting out Schneider, Canucks Fan Girl says “He [is] fantastic,” the Yankee Canuck says “Of course he can,” and I say: “He’ll be just fine—until he goes down screaming in pain when he blows a knee.” (remember: goalies + vancouver = prepare for disaster)

The awards reception will be held at The Cellar on December 11th, and is open to anyone for the admission price of a donation to the Vancouver Food Bank.

Note: Someone kindly nominated C&B in the sports blog category, but alas my area code discriminates against me—I’m in the 250, thus not eligible. But I loved the idea of these awards so I chipped in as one of the event sponsors. I hope you’ll chip in too, nominating any of your favorite Vancouver sites today and participating in the voting starting tomorrow.

Here’s a screenshot from the new “Zen Theme” for your Blackberry Bold.

Not bad, but then the problems begin…

Continue reading "I’m Not Feeling the “Zen”"

Back in October of 2003 when I started my first blog, women hockey-fan-bloggers were a rarity. In fact it was quite some time before I knew of any others out there, and this often made for some unique experiences. And sometimes unpleasant, too.

Continue reading "Perverse Moments in Hockey Blogging"

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo no doubt raised a few eyebrows when he took the ice late in Monday’s game day skate at Columbus.

Sidelined week to week with a strained left groin, he skated with full gear and took a few laps around the Nationwide Arena playing surface, did a few twists and turns, but didn’t face any shots.

“It’s a positive step in the right direction,” Luongo told reporters afterwards. “We’ll take it from here day by day. We’re going to try and increase the workload every day.”

So that’s good news. 

And speaking of good news, if you have a happy hockey memory to share we’re doing Happy Hockey Day around here.  You can write something on your own blog and send us the link, or use the KK Member Blog and post it there.

“I’m definitely excited, but at the same time I’m focused and worried about the game tonight because it’s a big divisional game so we need the two points.”

-- Cory Schneider in the Vancouver Sun

I’ll bet he’s excited… especially if “excited” is code for “I nearly threw up when Coach told me. Oh my god, there’s gonna be how many cameras??”

Good luck to Schneider. One of the only upsides to Luongo’s injury was the opportunity for us to see what he can do in the NHL. I think I’m almost as excited as Schneider is.

A Toronto journalist friend of mine sent me a startling note today alerting me to the news that Jiggs McDonald—a hockey broadcaster of many achievements including the HHOF (more details below)—is currently stranded in Bangkok along with 80 other Canadian citizens, due to the explosion of political unrest there in recent days. 

His family is understandably very afraid, and his daughter Susan DeSimone wrote this in a letter (directed to another journalist) and passed on to me this morning:

We are trying to put pressure on the CDN govt. to get them out of there.  Some countries are sending planes into a Thai military base to get their citizens out.  So far, there hasn’t been much response from the CDN embassy there.  The tour group has asked us to get the word out to journalists, etc. to put pressure on Canada to intervene.

The email address and phone numbers for the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok are noted down at the bottom of this post. Anyone who thinks they can help and who needs additional contact information for the McDonald family, please directly.

Here is the full text of the release that Ms. DeSimone sent out this morning.

Continue reading "Canadians Trapped in Bangkok Include Jiggs McDonald"

“It’s been a battle, but when people ask, ‘Why would you want to be the backup in Vancouver?’ the thing I say is I’ve worked extremely hard to get to where I am and I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished.”

-- Curtis Sanford in the Calgary Sun

Randy Sportak of Sun Media takes note of Sanford’s interesting career path, moving from the obscurity of the UHL after his junior career was over, to a rebuilding St. Louis Blues a year later, to the Vancouver hot-seat he’s on today. A quick and interesting overview on Sanford, and a worth a read.

In other news, Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun is here to tell you why he’s not that impressed with that 8-0-2 record Vancouver was sporting until last night.  (*And it’s not that he doesn’t make some worthwhile observations, but I love how it’s only losses which produce assessments like McIntyre’s, yet strangely they never mention such things before a loss shows up in the stats.)

What’s worse, I have a feeling the Canucks lose to the Flamers on Saturday, too, so I expect such Monday Morning Quarterbacking to be in full effect across then entire Vancouver media landscape come Sunday. Fun.

The Vancouver Canucks are proud to announce that Canucks.com will celebrate 16 Days of Trevor Linden, beginning on Monday, December 1st, 2008. The special 16-day initiative will take an in-depth look at Trevor Linden’s career, concluding on December 16th, 2008 just one day prior to Trevor Linden’s sweater retirement ceremony.

The 16 Days of Trevor Linden will feature video and print content as well as a series of photo galleries highlighting Linden’s hockey career spanning more than two decades. The 16 days of coverage encompasses draft day in 1988 through to his last game on April 5, 2008 and will include stories and accounts from on and off the ice courtesy of former teammates, coaches, fans and countless others impacted by Trevor.

More at Canucks.com. And while you’re on Orca’s website, the FanZone got a nice makeover. 

From Kevin Carey’s review:

The first chapter deals with the fairly well-known phenomenon of birthdays and Canadian hockey players. A hugely disproportionate number of elite hockey players have birthdays in January, February and March. That’s because the age cutoff for entry into junior hockey leagues is January 1. A five-year old hockey player born on that day (they start early in Canada) could be as much as 25 percent older than his youngest competitors, giving him a major advantage in size, strength, and coordination.

Continue reading "NHL Birthdays and Their Impact on Success"

[Ryan] Johnson learned Wednesday he has a fractured foot as well as a fractured finger, and is expected to miss the next four weeks.

The foot was apparently injured earlier in the season when Johnson was blocking a shot.

According to Botchford, the doctors apparently discovered the foot injury “when checking on his finger.” (The kind of doctors that ask you to take off your shirt when you mention a foot cramp, no doubt.)

Johnson will be sorely missed but it’s surprising this doesn’t happen to him more often, really. Throw yourself in front of a puck as often as he does, it’s a miracle you can walk at all most days.

P.S. A reminder: anticipating problems with Johnson, the Canucks did recall Alexandre Bolduc yesterday.

P.P.S. Dirty pictures of Fin to cheer you up.

• (Inbox) Kevin Bieksa -- Last heard on November 13, Bieksa was due for two week layoff as he nursed a hairline fracture in his foot.  The estimation was accurate as there’s a realistic chance he’s back in the lineup for Thursday against the Flames.
• (Inbox) Alexandre Bolduc -- came up from Manitoba yesterday. 8 goals and a plus-8 thus far, he’s supposedly practicing with the team this morning.
• (Outbox) Ryan Johnson & Steve Bernier -- Johnson’s injury is from (what else?) blocking a shot (or 50) a couple games ago, and Bolduc is on deck for him.  Bernier’s damage is the result of running into the boards the other night instead of Brett Lebda. Bernier’s explanation:

According to Bernier, he was injured when he snagged his right foot on the Detroit net and was thrown off balance trying to thump Lebda, causing him to miss.

“I lost my footing and I went shoulder and feet first into the boards,” he said. “After that, I didn’t feel very well.”

Slapstick comedy at its finest. (Well, except for the emergency medical care required.)

Update 12:33pm PT: Johnson gets two fractures for the price of one. If you don’t want more bad news, don’t click.

Although touted as the super groin spectacular due to Luongo’s injury being the top story in Vancouver news [recently] this episode is pretty much about a team united (and happy to boot).  All of the co-hosts join together to talk lines, recent wins, upcoming road trips, and to try and figure out the meaning behind the end of game hoots and hollers for Sanford.

Here are some tidbits we mentioned during the show:

• Dave’s open letter to VANOC media relations
• Alanah’s guessing game for Luongo’s injury time off
• JJ’s site is now a part of The Score Sports Federation
• Paul Kukla initiates Happy Hockey Talk Day (December 1, 2008)
• … and the tale of how John met Stanley’s Cup

TCC Epsiode #69 [46:58m]
__________________________
*photo is from John’s Flickr stream

For one thing, its nice to slow down the Wings-fan trash talk around this website for 5 minutes (*immediate snarky little emails from The Sailor notwithstanding).  And for another—and on a more serious note—it calms the reactiveness of both the hockey press and fans who assume Vancouver is weaker than a newborn kitten without Roberto Luongo in the net. (Of course they’re better off with their captain, but as last night proved they’re also a pretty scrappy kitten without him.)

Still, when the Canucks revealed yesterday that Luongo is destined to be off work “week-to-week” the truth is that they didn’t reveal anything at all. What does that really mean?

Continue reading "Luongo’s Injury Time Off Guessing Game"

Luongo is obviously the foundation on which the Canucks base their game—being the goaltender captain that he is—yet the team’s play goes beyond their defensive stinginess. Theirs is a hard-charging aggressive team game that is invigorating.

Very true. And that’s why Canucks fans—while understandably drinking heavily these days—need not jump off any bridges. 

Here are my Top 5 Reasons the Canucks will survive Luongo’s injury:

Continue reading "Top 5 Reasons the Canucks Can Survive Luongo’s Injury"

• First: I see my Canucks & Beyond ramblings are on the voting list for being one of the Best Sports Blogs in Canada. Flattering? Definitely. But this has happened before and believe me: winning the big prize ain’t an option when I’m in the company of so many other fine bloggers like Covered in Oil, Battle of Alberta, Battle of Ontario and From the Rink, among others.  But it’s all in good fun and I encourage you to vote for your favourite.
• Second: I’ll be a guest on The Program tonight, largely because—I suspect—those boys want to make me cry about Roberto Luongo’s injury status in a public forum.  (Grrrrr...!) So listen in at 7pm PT and if you want to test my hockey knowledge you can also phone in during the program at (347) 826-7358.*

Disclaimer: Testing my hockey knowledge is a double-edged sword, as I reserve the right to make up crap on the spot if it suits me. You’ve been warned.

Well, thank God for that explanation.

But the reports on Sportsnet tv were no less informative. Claiming to have the “official word from the Canucks” reporter Dan Murphy informs us that “Roberto Luongo is injured and won’t be returning to this game.” Gee, ya think? 

Breaking news you needed to know.

Continue reading "Luongo Goes Down; Canucks Nation Collectively Goes Into a Fetal Position"