Hate the Sharks/Canucks? Love either of ‘em? Indifferent? Doesn’t matter. Feel free to share. No one will call you a troll around here… unless you say something stupidly mean about the Sedins. (I’m protective of the Sedins. This is going to be their series, dammit!) :)
Enjoy the game. And may the best team win…
Extra reading: —Canucks/Sharks series preview —Saturday Interview Transcripts for Canucks here and here —Sunday Interview Transcipts VAN & SJ
The single most important thing to remember about the Canucks? They are a country song, will eventually break your heart, which is why the average Vancouver fan looks a lot like Chicken Little. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. The Canucks have spent 41, failing to win a single Stanley Cup since entering the league in 1970. After 40 years of taking slapshots to the nuts, Canucks fans can be forgiven for flinching.
The third round isn’t entirely unknown territory to Canucks fans who are past their early 20s. But even those of us who remember those bright spots of our hockey team’s history, well, we’ve lived through the rest of it, too. The Dark Years. So when things happen like losing 3-0 series leads, or letting in some soft goals, we’re a bit fragile. And we go for the jugular and blame someone.
You’d think that would be the refs or the other team or Gary Bettman, or something, but no… we usually blame our own team. It’s not that Canucks fans are fickle, it’s that we’re terrorized.
From today’s media Q&A with Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, Mason Raymond, Alex Burrows and Alex Edler.
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Q. Mason, when you look at the games, highly entertaining in the regular season. Is that the type of hockey you’re expecting?
MASON RAYMOND: I think so. Regular season is regular season. Playoffs is a whole ‘nother level now. They’re going to be obviously heated battle games. We’ve had some good rivals with these guys. As a group, we’re looking forward to starting off Game 1.
Q. Alex, just a couple of emotional rollercoaster rides. How easy is that for you to put that behind you?
ALEX BURROWS: I think we’re a pretty mature group in that locker room. We’ve approached games the same way all year long, that’s one game at a time. Obviously I know it’s cliché, but that’s exactly how we approached things all year. I don’t think that’s going to change. Chicago series was great, Nashville, too. That’s behind us now.
From the pre-series Q&A with Canucks players Ryan Kesler, Dan Hamhuis, Christian Ehrhoff, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin. Below is the complete transcript.
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Q. You talk about how you know that there’s pressure, you’ve mentioned it before. It’s almost a situation where you seem to really like it. How much different is the pressure in the third round compared to the second round to the regular season?
HENRIK SEDIN: Not a whole lot different. It’s never going to change. It’s always going to be the same. Either you like it and you enjoy playing under pressure or you’re moving out of there. That’s the way it is. We really enjoy playing where people care. There’s a lot of attention on the team, so that’s not a problem for us.
DANIEL SEDIN: I agree. You either embrace it, or like Henrik said, you choose not to play in a Canadian city or in the NHL. You have to like playing under pressure. Things go bad, things go good, you have to stay the same. That’s the number one thing.
From Saturday’s media Q&A with Canucks coach Alain Vigneault and GM Mike Gillis. Below is the complete transcript.
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Q. Alain, your thoughts on Hank and Danny? Fresh start for them, but especially them because of the criticism and the fire they were under for not producing as much as everyone expects them to in the last round?
COACH VIGNEAULT: I think they got some unfair criticism there. They obviously are here to produce. With that being said, though, they played some solid games where they spent a lot of time on the other team’s end. They spent a lot of time generating some quality chances.
Sportsnet.ca profiles the past of Winnipeg Jets and the future of NHL hockey in the city. Video:
Hockey in Winnipeg is near and dear to the residents of that city, many of whom passionately believe they can support a new NHL team. Whether it happens or not, however, is a total mystery, given the astonishing amount of misinformation and seemingly worthless “sources” informing the likes of TSN and some of the Winnipeg media. And it’s been going on for years now.
All of this makes me think of fans in Atlanta, though. [insert joke here]. But seriously, they do exist, and the Canadian media’s focus having shifted from Arizona to Georgia has them wondering what’s happening next in their own market.
Something sort of stands out about this image, taken the day of Prince William and Catherine’s wedding a few weeks ago…
Derek Jory at Canucks.com found the answer to this puzzling image which was broadcast around the world the day of the British royal wedding:
Elisa Fung has the answer because Elisa Fung is the answer.
That’s Fung waving the flag from the 33 to 37 second mark of the video in question, moments after William and Catherine became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The flag is real, as real as Fung’s love for the Canucks.
At the Sporting News site, Craig Custance looks ahead to the San Jose / Vancouver series. Video is linked directly here or click the image.
For the most part, Custance gives all the edges to the Sharks, but still predicts a Vancouver-in-7. For all the predictions from the Vancouver Sun, go here. And for one final optimistic prediction, the EA Sports computer likes the Canucks, too. (But the toy liked Detroit yesterday, too, so make of it what you will.)
Below is a statistical breakdown of the two teams.
Pretty impressive. Or, as the cool kids—or Charlie Sheen—would say, #winning. (A percentage of the profits go to Canucks For Kids, so you can even feel good about buying one for all the Joe Thornton fans you know.)
Speaking of KesLord:
“I think possibly he’s misunderstood. He’s very intense and sometimes that can be perceived as disrespectful. But really he’s just so focused that when he gets into one of those moods where he wants to accomplish something, he’ll answer with as short a verbiage as he can. He doesn’t elaborate and it’s not that he has anything against the media or people, it’s just the way he is. Believe me, I get the same. I’ll ask a question he should give me two or three sentences and instead I get three words.”
The Canucks and Sharks, two teams with a history of playoff failure. are meeting in the Western Conference final so one has to win, right? The Canucks haven’t been this far since 1994 while the Sharks were here just a year ago and face-planted four straight to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Despite advancing to this stage in 2011, neither team has shown a killer instinct. The Canucks needed four chances to close out the Blackhawks in round one and two to dispatch the pesky Nashville Predators in the second round. The Sharks, meanwhile, required two swings to banish the L.A. Kings and four to take care of Detroit. Their combined ‘close-out’ record this spring is 4-8, hardly awesome.
With that backdrop, it’s difficult to imagine one team making short work of the other. The Canucks had the better regular season record, winning twice in regulation and once in a shootout, while the Sharks’ lone victory was via the shootout. Expect this one to go the distance — and maybe to overtime in a seventh game.
Pap goes on to evaluate how the two teams stack up here.
In 40 years of NHL history, the Vancouver Canucks have been short on success, making just two trips to the Stanley Cup final, and getting to Game 7 there once.
While many NHL fan bases can point to the glory days and the indelible memory of a captain hoisting the silver chalice, there is no such visual on West Coast.
To know that is to understand why the 1982 and 1994 teams are so lionized in British Columbia, even though they fell just shy of the ultimate prize. And to know that is to also understand that the current group of Canucks can cement legacies unlike any players who have come before them.
More here, with a look at some of the players who have a lot on the line.
Canucks center Ryan Kesler had a heck of a year, but his playoff beard isn’t so hot. Still, you really can’t blame Kesler. Accustomed to being eliminated in the second round, he had no idea what his beard would look like at this point.
Tired of the fact that most of Canada seems to spend all its time this playoffs telling Vancouver how much they hate our Canucks, Pete McMartin of the Vancouver Sun writes a light-hearted/bitchy opinion piece:
As you can see, the rest of Canada, which we here in Vancouver officially refer to as A Good Place To Be From, has been busy reminding us that they do not like our hockey team.
What they really mean is they do not like Vancouver.
From DeadSpin‘s Barry Petchesky, the continuing exploits of Mr. Kane:
Kane went home to Buffalo after the Blackhawks were eliminated, but returned to Chicago last week because he missed “the life.” That would entail getting a black eye under mysterious circumstances, attending a Bulls game, and bringing home a woman who got a little camera-happy. [...]
You know who understands the value of photographic evidence? This young lady, a senior at Illinois. She met Kane at Underground, the self-proclaimed “sexiest nightclub in Chicago,” and left with him. To prove it to her friends (because who would believe Patrick Kane would drink and party, right?), she took a few photos of a sleeping Kane. And to end any doubt, she fished through his bags and found his boarding pass:
Read on plus photos. Between the photos, and the whole ‘fishing through his bags while he’s sleeping’ thing, that “young lady” is one creepy pick-up.
Deadspin’s final words on the matter: “We won’t use the pejorative “P-B” term, but Patrick Kane is like the Stanley Cup: every girl in Chicago gets a day with him.”
Kerry Fraser has been answering rulebook questions on TSN.ca lately, and I’ve learned some interesting things. But today’s questions (about the rules which govern substitutions after an icing), lead to a strange what-if example from Fraser:
Let’s say it’s a game between Detroit and San Jose and the Red Wings ice the puck. No line change has been allowed to the offending team (Wings) and the faceoff is set to the left of Jimmy Howard. Prior to the drop of the puck, Sharks forward Devin Setoguchi punches defenceman Niklas Kronwall in the face as the two players jostle on the side wall. Setoguchi receives a roughing minor for the punch.
So now what happens? This kind of surprised me. Answer below:
Update 5pm PT: Canucks/Predators OPEN POST -
For anyone who wants to praise Ryan Kesler, bemoan the rest of the team, or just condemn the entire state of Tennessee.
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Or are we just addicted to Game 7s?
I tell you, I’m sure not. Someone on Twitter mentioned this morning (sorry, can’t recall who) that as of today, the road team has won games in these playoffs at the rate of 36-31.
Here’s hoping tonight’s Vancouver’s night because, while the whole “come from behind” thing can be fun, the “losing from ahead” experience—in yet another series—just might kill me.
From Tony Gallagher at The Province (via the Edmonton Journal):
Unless Ryan Kesler can once again pick this team up and carry it on his broad shoulders, you have to have grave doubts about whether Vancouver can survive this series let alone win a Stanley Cup.
Already dragged through seven games by a team they should have finished in four, this team finds itself on a plane back to Nashville today for an extension of yet another series they should have finished much earlier. And just like games four and five in the Chicago series, they simply gave it away, although they used a different formula Saturday night against the Predators who have clearly indicated they are not going away.
Not to be contrary—and I’m going to be polite and completely ignore that idiocy about how they “should have finished” off their nemesis Blackhawks in four—but on what planet do you have to live to believe that any playoff-worthy hockey team was just going to pack its bags and go away, just because you’d decided Vancouver should win and Nashville should lose?
Last night’s game winning goal was a beauty from Ryan Kesler, and I’ve included the video below. But first, to quote Justin Bourne at PuckDaddy:
He took the puck directly at Shea Weber and Shane O’Brien, for crying out loud. I wouldn’t take the puck at Shea Weber without anything short of a gift basket and full body armour.
Round one versus the Chicago Blackhawks saw Kesler engaged in one of the more underrated playoff battles thus far, when Jonathan Toews (Selke nominee) went head-to-head with him (also a Selke nominee) and they Selke’d each other to death, combining for a grand total of no goals until the dying seconds of game seven when Toews put home a fantastic short-handed effort.
Pre-game stories/notes/green men blather are here.
Since it’s the only game on in the NHL tonight, this is an open-post for anyone who wants to trash the Predators (or the Canucks, I suppose, though I just can’t imagine such people exist).
A new survey says a quarter of managers don’t want to see Canucks shenanigans take away from valuable work time.
An OfficeTeam survey found 25% of managers felt NHL playoff activities should be kept at home, but some places argue team spirit can have a positive effect on the environment.
Workers were asked, “Overall, how often would you say you are distracted from your work by major sporting events?” Their responses:
Every time there is a major event…................... 3%
Sometimes when there is a major event….............. 17%
Rarely…............................................. 32%
Never….............................................. 48%
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During a “major” sporting event, where the subject was NHL Playoffs and the respondents were Canadians? Please. What a bunch of liars. :)
Apropos of nothing, an old press conference prior to the last Olympics, where Sidney Crosby is confronted by the crazy numerical theories of Shaun Majumder from This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
The dudes from 
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