Chris & Jason discuss the midseason surprises of the shortened 2013 NHL season, and wonder if the window has perhaps shut early on the Vancouver Canucks wündercore assembled by Mike Gillis & predecessors Brian Burke & Dave Nonis. They also wave buh-bye to the Vancouver Giants, whose season ends without playoffs for the first time in a decade.
Fifteen-year-old forward Jakob Stukel wears the full face shield against the Kelowna Rockets during one of his six trial games with the Vancouver Giants. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
• Introduction
• Sofa Surfer Girl by the Orchid Highway
• 30 seconds of soccer talk
• Vancouver Giants season is over
• Hybrid icing / a lack of brains
• Habs & Ducks
• Chicks dig stats
• Ducks & Habs
• The Canucks are whelming Chris Withers
• Columbus just might make the playoffs
• Time for a Change by the Orchid Highway
• Thanks for Listening
Reaction: Almost unanimously positive. People like them some retro jerseys.
Most famous players to wear it: Fred “Cyclone” Taylor.
Why it’s great: The colour scheme is unique, I guess. I can’t remember anyone else wearing maroon and cream since the Millionaires folded. Having a colour scheme that nobody else thought would be a good idea is a positive, right?
Why it’s garbage: It looks like someone tried to TP the Canucks but was interrupted before they got to the torso. And the pants! With all the guys in identical red hats and white pants, I wasn’t sure if I was watching a hockey game or a Pet Shop Boys music video. Oh, and the logo? Can someone find me a Windows 95 PC so I can mock that thing up in MS Paint, then build me a time machine so I can go be a graphic designer in 1910? Thanks.
Haiku to describe Chris’s feelings whenever he sees this jersey: This is the wrong way To do red and white shirts. The
Right way won 5-2.
If video games have taught us anything, it’s that video games can’t teach us anything. EA Sports NHL 13 predicts a 3-0 week for the Vancouver Canucks. Image ripped unapologetically from the internet.
It’s been a tough few weeks for Canucks fans. Injuries to stud Ryan Kesler and stalwart Kevin Bieksa, coupled with lacklustre play from the rest of the boys, have helped the Canucks plummet from the league stratosphere they’ve enjoyed for a couple of seasons now. They’ve won just three games in their last 12, and more often than not are fighting to tie games up in the last few minutes just to gain a measly Bettman point.
It’s OKy, though, because the next game is an easy matchup against Columbus…. Wait they’ve won five straight, including one against Vancouver? A world where the Canucks arenʼt leading the Northwest Division and the Blue Jackets beat Detroit twice in three tries is a world I donʼt want to live in.
Well, it is safe to say that it won’t be an easy week for the struggling Canucks. After Nationwide Arena tonight, the boys head home to Rogers Arena to host Shea Weber and the Nashville Predators, followed by the always-dangerous and eternally deep Red Wings.
Which Canucks team will show up? Luckily, you don’t have to guess which half of the Vancouver Jeckyll-and-Hyde Show will strap on skates for these three games. We at Pucked in the Head have enlisted EA Sports to prognosticate for us. I’ll attempt to make the roster as authentic as possible (i.e Kesler hurt, Ebbett back, Schroeder sent to minors, Luongo starting against Columbus). Also included are my predictions for this week’s lines (Burrows centering the 2nd, Kassian with the Twins, etc.)
Vancouver Canucks forward Zack Kassian is an ugly man. Photo stolen without shame from the interweb.
Over the past two weeks, the Vancouver Canucks have offered up fair-to-middlin’ performances against opposition they should beat. They lost 3-2 to the Calgary Flames and 2-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, both teams that haven’t made the post-season since John Garrett played goal for the Quebec Nordiques. Despite largely outplaying San Jose — and before you think the Sharks are a good team, they’ve lost to Calgary and Colorado in the past week — Vancouver got frustrated by goaltender Antti Niemi and lost 3-2 in a shootout.
Going into Minnesota Sunday afternoon, the Canucks found themselves just two points up on the Wild for the lead in a Northwest Division they’re supposed to win by default. But for Gary Bettman’s loser point, Vancouver is a .500 hockey team with three wins in 11 games, and they’re leading the division? Come on. They have got to win these games, and win them convincingly. Get off to a good start, take advantage of the power play and run up the score once in a while.
Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa took a page out of his Glenn Anderson playbook, swinging wide around Dallas Stars blueliner Philip Larsen before scoring the 2-2 goal in a 4-3 Canucks win. Photo ripped unceremoniously from www.canucks.com
Down 2-1 seven minutes into the middle frame of a late February game in Dallas, the Vancouver Canucks turn to an offensive juggernaut to tie the game. He accepts a lead pass from Dan Hamhuis at full speed, crosses centre ice and turns Stars defenseman Philip Larsen into a flailing, bellyflopping pylon.
Look! There he is fending off Larsen’s desperate poke check with the knee of a 70-goal scorer. There he goes, leaning into his attack on the net with the enthusiasm of Shane O’Brien ordering another round at the Roxy. And as he slips a cheeky backhander underneath Christopher Nilstorp — the pride of Malmo, Sweden — hockey fans around the Western Conference rejoice that life has been breathed into a Dallas Stars game. This man is resuscitating the position of power forward, surely!
Who is this offensive marvel with goals in consecutive games, with ice in his veins and a fire in his belly? Is it Zack Kassian, getting a long-awaited 6th goal after eight games of diminishing returns? Is it Ryan Kesler, continuing his upward trend since returning from injury? Or perhaps David Booth, finally making up for off-season exploits that sickened civilized Twitter users the world over?
Nope. Meet Kevin Bieksa. Power forward.
Pucked in the Head is taking part in the 2013 Ride to Conquer Cancer. You can help us reach our fundraising goal by throwing a few bucks at our campaign, at http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/jasonkurylo2013.
The Canucks won the game 4-3, thanks in large part to Juice’s stunning foray into the offensive zone. Nilstorp called it a bad goal in his post-game scrum, and I’ve heard it said that any puck that goes through the five-hole is the goalie’s fault. That said, Bieksa took this rush out of the Bobby Orr playbook. I’d be shocked to hear even one commentator give the ol’ “that’s a goal Nilsy would like to have back” routine.
Jason Garrison turned in his best performance as a Vancouver Canuck on February 21, scoring just his second goal of the season in a win over the Dallas Stars. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Also prominent this game were Alex Burrows — his two brilliant screens late in the Chicago game were followed up by a tip-in and a give-and-go with Henrik — and Jason Garrison, who played his best game as a Canuck in the win. Just like the previous game in Chicago, I wasn’t a fan of two of the goals Schneider let in, but he made some big, big stops when Dallas pushed. Still, if Luongo had allowed that 2-1 goal by Brendan Morrow, the Twitterverse would be calling for his head.
Speaking of goalies, what in blue blazes is with opposing teams throwing third-string goalies at Vancouver. Even more troubling, why the hell are the Canucks having so much difficulty beating them? Leland Irving is the only dude they’ve been able to embarrass of late. Other than that, Vancouver has struggled to stay in games against Ray Emery in Chicago, Jake Allen with St Louis, and Darcy Kuemper for Minnesota in his first NHL game. Tonight, they hang on for a squeaker against Christopher Nilstorp, seriously? If this team is going to hang its hat on the fact that they have two All-Star calibre goaltenders, they need to start lighting up the fodder in the other crease.
Abbotsford Heat forward Dustin Sylvester scored twice, including once in the final minute of regulation, to help beat the Lake Erie Monsters 4-3 in a shootout on February 9, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Hockey Day in Canada brought good things to Vancouver-area teams this year, as the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Giants, Abbotsford Heat, Simon Fraser University Clan and UBC Lady Thunderbirds all posted wins on Saturday, February 9. Acting as the exception to the rule, the UBC men’s team suffered a 5-2 loss to the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears.
More, including post-game reaction from the bowels of the AESC, after the jump.
Pucked in the Head is taking part in the 2013 Ride to Conquer Cancer. You can help us reach our fundraising goal by throwing a few bucks at our campaign, at http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/jasonkurylo2013.
Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider let in 5 goals on 14 shots in his first game as the #1 goaltender in Vancouver. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Coming into the 2013 season, Cory Schneider looked forward to his first action as an NHL starter. Halfway through his first game as the #1 guy in Vancouver — a game that was essentially a pre-season game, just with points that count in the standings — he had let in five goals on 14 shots, and the guy wearing #1 on his back was taking over the crease.
Immediately, people all over Twitter, on radio call-in shows and even in the booth on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada started talking about goaltending controversy in Vancouver. What they didn’t talk about was the invisibility of Alex Burrows, the ineffectiveness of the second and fourth lines, or the shakiness of the “deepest defensive corps in the NHL”.
But yeah, goalie controversy, right? We thought we’d look at each goal one at a time to determine just who the goat and/or goats were. Here it is, right after the jump.
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Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alex Edler readies to take part in a two-on-two scrimmage during a practice on January 8, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Vancouver Canucks signed Alex Edler to a six-year, $30-million contract extension on the eve of the shortened 2013 season, according to General Manager Mike Gillis.
The move means two big things for the Canucks: 1) the team medical staff is confident that Edler’s back is 100%, despite spasms and pains that kept him out of a number of games over the past two seasons. And 2) Vancouver will continue to have one of the deepest bluelines in the league for the foreseeable future.
More after the jump.
Pucked in the Head is taking part in the 2013 Ride to Conquer Cancer. You can help us reach our fundraising goal by throwing a few bucks at our campaign, at http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/jasonkurylo2013.
The Chicago Wolves won back-to-back games against the Abbotsford Heat this weekend, including a 1-0 shutout win on Saturday night. Here’s a collection of images from that contest, for your ogling pleasure. All photos by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Abbotsford Heat all-time leading scorer Ben Walter races up the wing with seconds left in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago Wolves on January 13, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Saturday morning’s skate was full of drama and speculation. As per Cam Charron (@camcharron on the mighty Twitter), “We are at Defcon-Luongo. He is NOT on the ice at UBC.” Spotting a meme in the making, I quickly jumped on the interwebs — well, okay, on the Photoshop — and confirmed that Bobby Lu has indeed spawned a red alert:
When Roberto Luongo wasn’t on the ice for Saturday morning’s team skate at UBC, @camcharron tweeted, “We’re at Def-Con Luongo.” Chop job by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.Pucked in the Head is taking part in the 2013 Ride to Conquer Cancer. You can help us reach our fundraising goal by throwing a few bucks at our campaign, at http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/jasonkurylo2013.
