Transcripts from the Q&A’s with Alain Vigneault, Henrik Sedin, Roberto Luongo and Sami Salo.
_____________________________________ Q. At the end of the regular season you said we haven’t gotten a lot of five-on-threes. You got some tonight. Salo in that spot instead of Ehrhoff seemed to make a difference.
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, I think without a doubt Sami’s shot is a big weapon. We tried it last game on those five-on-threes. I thought we had some great scoring chances, but their goaltender made some unbelievable saves.
Tonight we were able to throw a couple little things at them that maybe caught them off guard on that five-on-three. Sami’s shot was available and we used it twice real quickly and it worked.
Q. Alain, when you get a parade of penalties like that on both sides, is there any way to predict a game like that?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, obviously in any hockey game you prepare your power-play and your penalty killing. We killed the penalties that we had to kill at the beginning. I thought that gave us a little bit of momentum and confidence.
Vancouver at San Jose, 12pm PT. Dave Lozo of NHL.com, tweets the love from HP Pavillion:
Couple hundred Canucks fans start a GO CANUCKS GO chant here at HP. Shark fan responds, “Hey! Vancouver! You suck!” Good one, brah.
Vancouver is up 2-1 in the series, but apparently today’s game is the “pivotal” one of the series, according to numerous columnists and bloggers (most of whom are no-doubt hockey people than myself). But while I understand where this argument comes from, I’ll have to politely disagree.
If Vancouver wins, they keep their lead and they still need to fight tooth and nail for win #4… certainly no guarantee in this year’s tumultuous playoffs. And if San Jose takes it, well, then we’re basically back to zero and playing a best-of-3.
KEVIN BIEKSA: Definitely have to be more disciplined. I’m not saying we were undisciplined in the sense that we were punching guys in the face. But when you put your stick somewhere it doesn’t belong, it’s a 50/50 call. The referees want to call it tight, that’s what going to happen. It’s up to us that that doesn’t happen.
Q. Are you convinced if it’s a five-on-five series, you’re the better team?
KEVIN BIEKSA: We’re happy with our five-on-five play. We feel like we’re a little bit deeper team. Playing four lines and six D’s is our strength. We’d like to keep it there as much as possible.
Q. You’re going to have two guys coming in a little bit cold.
KEVIN BIEKSA: Let’s not kid ourselves, we’ve been in this situation a lot, especially this season. It’s nothing new for us. Finishing a game with five or four defensemen is nothing new.
Everybody on the back end has done it at some point. Whoever is coming in, maybe two guys that played a lot of hockey for us this year, nothing’s really going to change.
Q. I am confused a little. What was different between Ben Eager’s hit on Daniel Sedin that resulted in a mere 2-minute minor penalty and Jamie McGinn’s hit on Aaron Rome that got McGinn thrown out of the game with a 5-minute major and game misconduct?
Fraser’s thoughtful answer deserves to be read in its entirety, but ultimately, his assessment is this:
Brad Watson made the correct assessment on this play. Conversely, if Rome had taken the hard hit, dusted himself off and NO evidence of injury resulted, many of those same critics would have vilified Watson for assessing a major penalty at that point. It was a two-minute penalty that had a bad ending.
Personally, I tend to agree with Fraser, though I’m well-aware many Canucks fans won’t. Given that the NHL head office is reviewing the play for possible suspension, we should find out how the Mothership feels about it shortly.
Canucks at the Sharks at 6pm PT. So if you’ve got a point, comment on the game, argument for the ages, or simply some ridiculous political position on the state of California hockey… drop it here. We’re all about equal-opportunity stupidity. It’s practically my Life Philosophy.
For the record:
Ben Eager is supposedly playing. So, $10 (big bet for my pocket book) says that Todd McLellan is looking for a job this summer if they lose tonight. No matter how well, or badly, Big Ben behaves.
Forget all that nonsense debate about the Canucks being Canada’s Team. That ship has sailed. Dear Canucks: Please Win it for the Whole World.
Raffi Torres: “I don’t think people realize what it’s like to get burned in the media or labelled by Hockey Night In Canada and stuff like that. It’s kind of a big deal, especially for a guy who grew up in Canada and is a Toronto boy, and you know everyone is hearing that and talking about it and you can’t do anything about it.”
Question: Winnipeg’s MTS Centre has 15,000 seating for hockey. How does this affect the profit margin for an NHL team, in a league where owners are frequently commenting that they actually lose money without playoff appearances, despite being in solid markets, and having far greater seating capacity?
“When the reporter asked me how it made me feel, I realized it made me feel pretty pissed off. Why? Well because after all the articles I’ve written on female fans and our fight to be taken seriously in the NHL, some chick goes and does something like this and sets us back a peg in the hockey world. [...]
It’s not appropriate for a guy to take off his shirt at a hockey game, and it sure as hell isn’t for a female to do the same when there are many children watching from either the crowd or their living rooms at home.”
Clearly Kate Maxmick wasn’t happy with the events of Wednesday night, and of course she’s entitled not to be. It’s her opinion after all.
But I’m not a big fan of generalized statements, so I can’t help but respond.
Today’s session with Vigneault is transcribed below.
Q. Alain, a very general question about what it’s taken the group of newcomers, be it off-season or mid-season guys, to understand your goals to be the important pieces they’ve been. How have they adapted?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, I don’t think it took them very long at all. Probably the main reason for that was the strong leadership that we had in our dressing room, the fact that the quality individuals we have in there knew those guys that were coming in were important parts, and they made them feel at home.
They were quick to help them understand what our culture was, what our standards that we’re looking for on a daily basis. It was a real smooth transition.
Q. Alain, how would you describe the difference between the Kevin Bieksa that we’re seeing in the playoffs and the Kevin Bieksa that started the season?
Sorry to get this up so late. Here’s the transcript of the Q&A from Thursday’s practice day with Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis
Q. ?
DAN HAMHUIS: It’s something we thought we could be better at. I think so far we’ve done a good job.
Q. What did you think of Kevin’s game last night?
DAN HAMHUIS: I thought it was awesome. He’s been playing really well for us all season. Stepped it up all playoffs. Last night, really seeing some results of the work he’s been putting in. But he’s been playing like that the whole time.
From today’s Q&A with Canucks coach Alain Vigneault.
_________________________________________
Q. Coach, can you update us. We got word about Mikael Samuelsson going under the knife.
COACH VIGNEAULT: Obviously he’s out indefinitely. He got operated on. That’s it.
Q. Back at all for the playoffs?
COACH VIGNEAULT: No.
Vancouver, B.C. - Vancouver Canucks President and General Manager Mike Gillis announced today that right wing Mikael Samuelsson underwent successful surgery to repair his adductor tendon and sports hernia. Samuelsson will be out of the line-up indefinitely.
“After consultation with our physicians it was decided that surgery was the best course of action,” said Mike Gillis. “The best long term decision for Mikael and our hockey club was to have the surgery immediately.”
Update Thursday May 19th: The UNEDITED video. Scroll to the bottom of post.
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A 7-3 win and Game 2 was practically a fiesta of great moments for a Canucks fan. Aside from the final score and some stellar play by the Canucks to lock this one down, there was also Ben “I like to pretend I’m on meth” Eager’s performance throughout the latter half of the game, to enjoy. Almost enough to make a girl giddy.
Speaking of Eager, I wrote some nonsense piece a couple years ago titled “Ben Eager and Other Boobs”, which wasn’t really racy, just me messing around. But apparently, hockey love and life does come full circle, because Ben Eager did finally meet some… well, you know…
This post will be updated with stray news all day.
—Update: Dan Rosen at NHL.com asks what they feel are the key questions facing the Canucks/Sharks leading to game 2. Also, more from Kesler on why the time wasn’t right to drop the gloves in game 1.
—We’ve got the transcripts up for today’s pregame chats with coaches Alain Vigneault and Todd McLellan (*
player transcripts will be up in a while
; apparently I lied. No more transcripts for the day. Sigh).
—Ben Kuzma notes that Mikael Samuelsson is probably out of the playoffs:
Canucks winger Samuelsson (leg) will not travel to San Jose for Games 3 and 4 and is expected to have season-ending surgery.
—The Sporting News (via the Vancouver Sun) has named Daniel Sedin “Player of the Year.” More at the Sporting News site, but mute your speakers as they have an auto-play video there.
Alain Vigneault and Todd McLellan answer questions this morning.
First, coach Vigneault:
Q. What does it say about Ryan to not take the bait at the opening faceoff in Game?@1? Would there have been a time in his career when he would have taken that bait?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Hockey is an emotional game. I’m not going to get into every little thing that happens on the ice.
Though it still seems highly unlikely that Manny Malhotra will be showing up on the bench for a game anytime this playoffs, his progression in practice has nonetheless been rapid and surprising. Practicing in full equipment today had a lot of people wondering how far along his recovery really is. From Elliott Pap at the Vancouver Sun:
Interest was renewed Tuesday when Malhotra wore full equipment in practice at UBC, which followed a week of skating in sweats. He has not been cleared for contact and participated in non-contact drills only.
“It’s just about having him around the team,” Vigneault explained. “He’s been a very important part of our leadership group. I want him around the team and it’s that simple. We’re not going to discuss his physical situation, his eye. All I can tell you is I want him around the team, and that’s it.”
Last week, Canucks GM Mike Gillis declared it was “extremely unlikely” Malhotra would suit up again this season. Then associate coach Rick Bowness said it would take “a complete miracle” for Malhotra to play in a game. Is this miracle happening?
“Don’t, don’t, don’t go there,” Vigneault snapped. “I just told you we’re not discussing that. Anything else?”
Tanner Glass and Ben Eager had a few words to say yesterday about the role of tough guys, fighting, and Derek Boogaard.
From Matthew Sekeres at the Globe & Mail, these words from Glass:
“It’s tough just to know each night that you are going to be tangling with those customers. I know he wasn’t scared of guys like that, or intimidated, but with the size of people he is fighting, any punch can be a pretty serious punch. It’s a tough job and he did better than most.
“You have to be a different kind of person to do that. It takes a type of mental toughness that every guy in the league doesn’t have. It takes a little bit of a craziness. I don’t want to say reckless, because you know what you’re doing, but it’s something.
The Vancouver Canucks pride themselves on physical fitness.
It’s an organizational staple of general manager Mike Gillis, who introduced nutrition plans and player-specific conditioning programs upon his hiring three years ago. In that time, players who have been imported from other NHL organizations have consistently failed to match existing Canucks in the battery of fitness tests conducted at training camp.
Some, like current San Jose Sharks forward Kyle Wellwood, fell woefully short of the mark, while others are close but not quite up to the snuff.
Forward Manny Malhotra and defenceman Christian Ehrhoff were exceptions. Both came from the Sharks, and both fared well against their new teammates at first blush.
For that reason, it’s easy to believe Sharks head coach Todd McLellan when he says his team’s conditioning is “very good” and doesn’t have “any doubts that we can play deep into games, and well into overtime if we have to.”
Transcript from today’s Q&A with Daniel Sedin, Maxim Lapierre, and Mason Raymond. The official transcript starts out without a question for some reason, hence the opening remark from Sedin.
Update: Alain Vigneault transcript now added below.
______________________________________________
DANIEL SEDIN: I think if we play the way we can, we don’t have to take penalties because we’re going to be in the right position all the time.
It comes from being sharp, playing good as a team.
Q. What have you learned from the last two years about Antti?
DANIEL SEDIN: He’s a winner. He hasn’t lost a playoff series yet. You have to respect that.
A Montreal restaurant is in trouble for committing foul play with the Habs and the NHL.
After hanging a banner that contained unauthorized use of the Habs logo, the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens hockey club are suing the restaurant for $89,000.
“There is no way I can come up with this money, I am not going to pay them,” said Basha restaurant owner, Fadl Issa.
“I wanted only to do publicity for the Canadiens…. We are Canadians and we should be proud to support our own team,” he said.
The advertising signage the NHL and Canadiens are upset about:
I’m starting to think Sharks fans are sorta cool—or at least have a bit of a sense of humor about their team, unlike too many other people. Aside from getting nothing but polite and thoughtful comments from them personally, I also noted this photoshoppery thread at their message boards, making fun of the Canucks, but also openly inviting Canucks fans to do the same.
Which is where I found this image of (H/D?) Sedin. Posted prior to Sunday, but a nice epilogue for game 1, I think. :)
Of course, appreciating their willingness to spar means taking a few hits ourselves. And while the whole tiresome “Sedin sisters” theme continues on boringly, there’s also some more unusual and entertaining efforts.
I’m starting to think Sharks fans are sorta cool—or at least have a bit of a sense of humor about their team, unlike too many other people. Aside from getting nothing but polite and thoughtful comments from them personally, I also noted