Damien Cox alone—with his apparent all-consuming dislike of Canucks fans (seemingly all of them) and players (at least the only ones he actually ever mentions)—is enough to drive any reasonable person to drink. Following Cox’s Twitter is like being trapped in the head of Rush Limbaugh—The Sporty Edition.

And yesterday, TSN Radio asked the random question whether there’s been too much talk about suspensions, etc., in this first round, and not enough talk about hockey… my answer is/was “hell yes.” If I could have one wish granted for the upcoming games, I’d sure like the analysis to go back to the actual hockey being played. God forbid. (In a small way, I think I actually appreciated game #4 because at least it finally gave everyone something to talk about besides freakin’ Raffi Torres.)

I think I’m also just sick of Chicago in general. The players, the pundits, the wailing and crying. I swear, the only good things to ever come out of Chicago might be hot dogs and blues music. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but still… after years of this match-up, I feel like we’ve waited long enough to come out on top. Enough already!

So, if 5 games is enough of this series, how do they end it? Well, to state the obvious: not playing the way they did in game #4. Beyond that, do we really have anything to tell this year’s President’s Trophy winners that they don’t already know? They’ve won consistently all year by forgetting the last match and focusing on the next one. They keep saying they’re doing that now, and I don’t doubt it.

I’m optimistic. I’ll leave it at that and leave the rest to the psychics…

Cassandra MacLeane is a psychic and numerologist. She’s also been following the cycles of some of the key players.

She tells us things are looking good, but they’ll have to keep a couple of things in mind before hitting the ice tonight. ‘‘It’s a matter of staying focused. The key people are all in good cycles and if they are able to keep their emotions in check, they should do extremely well.”

MacLeane says there’s a good chance we will take the first round of the series, but what about when it comes to bringing home the Stanley Cup? “Very likely. More likely than it has been for the past four years, at least from a cycle perspective.”

Okay, sure. Why not?

For something I have slightly more faith in, I’ll quote Ian Walker at the Vancouver Sun today:

“Don’t panic and always bring your towel.”

Amen. Though my avatar probably betrays my bias on that quote… :)

Go Canucks! And if you don’t want to finish this off for yourselves, or for the rest of us… how about doing it for the VPD? They can barely afford kleenex over there.

Thanks.

P.S. Credit to Nucksmisconduct.com for the link to the Vince Vaughn pic. Brilliant, disturbing and devious minds over there. :)