Hey! Long time no see. Sorry about the general lack of blog updates as of late…summer can be weird about taking oneself away from the computer. But I found myself with some downtime and thought I’d give my thoughts on what looks to be a fairly important day for the Canucks.

For those unaware, Mason Raymond’s arbitration ruling is set to be handed down later today. This is important for a number of reasons: first, there is a lot of anxiety over exactly how much Raymond will end up with in his arbitration award. Atlanta Thrashers forward Clarke MacArthur ended up with a $2.4M award last week, a rather substantial contract for someone who only notched 16 goals and 35 points last season. The Thrashers chose to walk away from the ruling, something which Mike Gillis could do if he were so inclined. So, whether or not Raymond stays with the club and how much he’d cost were he to stay will be known today.

Despite Canada Day being a national holiday, Mike Gillis was hard at work for the Canucks, with 4 players getting signed to deals. Interestingly enough, this wasn’t a disappointing July 1st in terms of fan expectations: Mike Gillis said he was going to go out and find another defenseman and upgrade the bottom six and that’s precisely what he did.

Dan Hamhuis is clearly the centerpiece in today’s free agent signings. Hamhuis turned down more lucrative contracts in order to sign with the Canucks. The $4.5M/6 year deal looks pretty good, too. Hamhuis is 27, so his deal would take him until he’s 33. He also has potential to put up points: his rookie season saw him tally 38 points total.

Wow. Huh.

So Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks opted to make a deal with the Florida Panthers. Unlike the Indiana Jones franchise, it seems that making yet another trip to the well has paid off for the Canucks, as they obtained defenseman Keith Ballard and forward prospect Victor Oreskovich in exchange for Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner and the Canucks 1st round pick in this year’s draft.

Many folks are screaming bloody murder over the deal, believing that the Canucks were ripped off or overpaid. I will admit that I was initially one of those folks, although I will attribute that to my being a fan of Grabner and being a little irrational when hearing that the Austrian had been traded. Having given it some more thought, though, I actually really like the deal. Broken down, it makes a lot of sense and isn’t as bad as one would think.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Whao, hey! Yeah, I’m still here.  I recently found work in a rather stressful/time consuming job so there’s been less time for Tweeting and blogging.  I’ve also been working on some creative fiction, which has also eaten into my blogging time. Apologies all three of you (Mom, Dad and my pet) who frequent this blog.

So the NHL Awards were tonight and Henrik Sedin just won the Hart. I’d just like to take the time to say…

Check out what I wrote back in January if you don’t believe me!

I should have some stuff up on Friday for the NHL Entry Draft, as well. Til then, I think I’m just going to bask in the awesomeness of Hank’s Hart trophy.

So the Canucks season ended last night. Honestly, I want to say that it took me by surprise and bowled me over, but it wasn’t the case. Going into the series I was feeling strangely confident about the Canucks. Yes, they had been beaten by the Blackhawks last season, but this year was going to be different.

There was talk about the newfound purpose and focus the Canucks had and that they weren’t merely happy to have made it to the second round. Unfortunately, it didn’t do them a whole lot of good as Chicago slowly but surely took them over and curbstomped them.

Forewarning: Despite being a geek and a bit of a comic book nerd I’ve never really sunk myself into Iron Man all that much. I’m somewhat familiar with the character, most of it dealing with the 80s version of Tony Stark/Iron Man.  So if my understanding is fundamentally flawed, sorry. Also, I do have a Canucks post in the pipeline. I’d just like to take a little while to get away from the sting of having been eliminated. Probably a little later tonight, okay?

So I had caught Iron Man 2 the other day and it was an interesting flick. How interesting could a run of the mill summer action flick based on a comic book title actually be? Well, given that I am a gigantic fan of The Dark Knight and everything Christopher Nolan did with that particular film and the first Iron Man flick, I had to say that I was hoping for more good things.

The question for me, though, after watching Iron Man 2 was whether the film was a poorly constructed neoconservative’s wetdream or a clever satire on American foreign policy/militaristic attitudes that was limited due to the film’s subject matter.

There is a third option, of course: I’m fucking overanalyzing the hell out of the film, so keep that one in mind as I go through this review.

Tonight was a very interesting game, if you’re a fan or have been following the Canucks.

The talk going into this series is that the Canucks ‘wanted’ the Blackhawks, who ousted them last year in the playoffs. There was talk from the Canucks that they weren’t going to let Byfuglien bother them and they were going to take a measured, disciplined approach.

Really? THAT was Game 1?

Against the Blackhawks?

The same Blackhawks that resulted in the Massacre at the Madhouse last playoffs, where Chelsea Dagger played the Canucks right out of the playoffs?

Where Dustin Byfuglien was this out of control rampaging monster that the Canucks couldn’t hope to contain him?

And the Canucks won 5-1?

Wow.

I know not everyone uses Twitter, but there might be a reason for you to do so. Beyond Twitter being where all the cool cats are these days, I mean. What do I mean? Well…

During the Los Angeles Kings series, I suggested on Twitter that folks wanting to talk about the series could use a series hashtag, an idea that came to me during the Olympics and World Juniors, when folks were coming up with ‘official’ hashtags for each game. Anyway, I suggested #Regicide and it caught on.

Anyway! That’s not important. What’s important is that the Canucks are in the second round and we’re in dire need of a series hashtag. So dire, in fact, that the Vancouver Canucks are offering up a stick that’s been signed by the team for the person who is successful at coming up with one! How do you get in on that? Well, easy,

- Come up with a hashtag. It should be something witty, humorous or smack talking. Poke fun at the Blackhawks, Chicago or their players. Just remember to keep it short, so it’s easy to use! Examples: #BlackhawksDown (c/o @7thCanuck0, #DaggerChelsea (c/o @taryneliza_beth) and #ToKillAHawkingBird (c/o @nucksandpucks.) Don’t like ‘em? Come up with your own!

- Send it to @VanCanucks. Since the Canucks are the ones who are gonna be deciding the winner, that’s who you should send your hashtag ideas to! @VanCanucks will pick the top 5 and you guys can then vote on the best one at Canucks.com.

For more info, you can also check out Brian Wawryshyn’s post over at Canucks Corner

Sorry for no post after Friday’s game. There wasn’t really a whole lot to hash over on that game: everyone was brilliant and the Kings played like hot garbage. I hate blatant cheerleading (just subtle, restrained cheerleading, durrr) so no point in doing a wrap-up.

I gotta write about tonight’s game, though. First off, I’d just like to get something out of the way really quickly. Some of you may have noticed I participated in a roundtable over at Canucks Corner. In that roundtable, I made a couple of predictions. Regarding the Canucks, this is what I wrote on April 14th (scroll down to 8:47 or so):