Puck Drops for #82

Vancouver Canucks vs Phoenix Coyotes -- 2pm PT SportsnetThe Northwest Division Champion Vancouver Canucks (I'm going to say it like that a lot today) take to the ice in another mid-day road game, ending their 82-game season in Phoenix. So now The Northwest Division Champion Vancouver Canucks are about to play one of the most meaningless games possible. But I don't care because...The Northwest Division Champion Vancouver Canucks are heading to the playoffs. :)Okay, now onto things that are sorta pissing me off.Angry Because I Don't Know:First, does anyone know about Kevin Bieksa and the "wearing a cast" comment from CBC last night? I don't. Nothing, in fact, so perhaps we'll all find out at the same time when Beesak does or does not skate onto the ice for warmup in about three hours. (Ron MacLean's comment about Beesak's cast can be seen near the end of this video segment from Satellite Hotstove last night.)Angry Because I Think I Know:Joe Thornton is the Devil. Don't tell me this didn't occur to anyone else yesterday. (Well, I know it occurred to The Yankee because we were chatting at one point and every time he tried to say "Thornton" he started twitching and reeling off the F-word.) Personally, it took a while to really get pissed about Bruiser's performance yesterday, but now I'm wondering about his wicked hit on Bieksa (not saying it was dirty, but did it cause some kind of fracture?) and then particularly watching his hit on Matt Cooke.Yes, I also heard the commentators insist "clean hit, blah blah blah," but it sure looked like 'intent to injure' to me. (I've gotta try and find a video clip...)Meanwhile, let me put it this way... if Cooke throws that hit on Thornton (impossible, given that Cooke is smaller than Thornton's f*&king skates, but whatever...) is there any chance in hell that the NHL's mainstream media and San Jose's fans aren't screaming about how the "NHL must protect the Superstars!"? Coach Alain Vigneault's comment in response to the hit rings dead-on to me: "Thornton is an all-star player, and obviously he gets a lot of leeway, and he gets a lot of decisions going his way." And if the situation were reversed, Cooke would be under review right now, possibly even suspended.I'll admit to being pretty biased here -- and I've defended Todd Bertuzzi from criticism plenty of times when he made similarly-borderline hits -- but I still say that Thornton's hit was dirty. Feel free to argue. ______________________________ Note: Despite my criticism, I'm really glad the Canucks don't see the Sharks in the first round of the Playoffs. Win or lose, that team would've left us looking like a pile of bleeding corpses.

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Puck Drops for #82

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