Canucks and Beyond

Oh, Happy Days

12/28/2006 at 1:36pm EST
imageYesterday was fun. I mean, the holidays, presents, food and family are all nice and everything, but they just don't quite measure up to kicking ass in two hockey games: Team Canada over Team USA, and the Vancouver Canucks playing their most entertaining hockey game of the year.Smoking. Here's a quick look at both games.

Team Canada

A 6-3 win over the U.S. was a nice way to walk away from that game. The Americans stayed in it most of the way, but Canada's ability to score in bunches helped ease the stress for Can-Fans.
The Canadian players aren't about to admit it, but they're successfully through the hardest part of the preliminary round at the world junior hockey championship.The defending champions defeated the U.S. 6-3 on Wednesday following a 2-0 victory over the host Swedes a day earlier.
And both were such FUN for a Can-Fan, almost as much fun as watching Jonathan Toews calmly step up and rifle a penalty shot past the beleaguered U.S. goalie late in the game. Said Pierre McGuire (yes, I'm actually going to quote -- and agree with -- Pierre McGuire):
But the thing I admire most about Toews is his poise under fire. The penalty shot goal elevated the spirit of Team Canada and sunk the spirit of Team USA. That was a pretty good shot to finish a special play by a pretty amazing young guy.
Good stuff. Next game is tomorrow against Germany at 9:30 a.m. PST on TSN television and broadband. Remember, if you can't watch the games live, they're being repeated on TSN and available on-demand online.

Vancouver Canucks vs Calgary Flames: (Re-match #2,834 this 2006-07 season)

Getting sick of the Flames yet? Me, too. But only because I hate them. The hockey, however, has had some kick ass moments.Honestly, if all these never-ending divisional matchups looked like some of these Canucks-Flames games, I wouldn't bitch about the schedule at all. (Sadly, Minnesota continues to exist...) But this last game against Calgary was the cherry on top of the cake.It's not just because Vancouver won the game in OT (although that was seriously appreciated and celebrated), and it's not just because so many players looked hungry in that game (Morrison? Cooke? Linden? the list goes on...), and it's not even because the Canucks scored 6 (SIX!) goals in a game, a season high, I do believe.No, the reason that game will be remembered is because that looked like the old Canucks. Offensive, exciting to watch, madcap hockey. They took chances on the ice and went for broke. Some run-and-gun, risky-yet-dead-accurate passing, flying around like a team that believed in themselves, believed they could score.It was the first time since October that I watched Canucks hockey without automatically assuming their scoring would dry up at some point in the game.Damn, I miss watching fun hockey games. That was just awesome.

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