The announcer for this game is going about a mile a minute here, not stopping for anything. Kind of like it, as his delivery makes for the game seeming as though it’s going at a frantic pace, trying to cram as many tidbits about players in as possible as the game goes along.

First off, I gotta apologize for no game notes for the Moose tilt and for the late posting for the postscript from last night’s game. I had a really busy day yesterday that I guess wore me out, as I was passed out by the end of the Wild game. No comment on whether or not the Canucks effort against the Wild contributed to my coma induced state.

The title is a reference to the parking lot at the Abbotsford rink, apparently things are a little hairy as everyone’s in to check out the Baby Canucks. Twitter and radio was rife with complaints, so there ya go.

Alex Burrows continues to have a big month of January. There were his 2 goals scored tonight, which ended a 1 game scoring drought for the feisty forward.

There was also his post-game comments coming off of tonight’s loss to the Predators. Burrows, whose name will be all over TSN, Sportsnet and everywhere else first thing tomorrow, accused official Stephane Auger of having a vendetta against him, which may have explained the chintzy calls that were going on in tonight’s game.

First Period

(Thanks to technical difficulties, I’ve missed the first 18 minutes of the first. OOPS. Score’s nothing nothing, though, so it looks like I didn’t miss much of anything.)

Mathieu Schneider in #24. He looks good wearing the antlers.

Penalty to the Hershey Bears, Moose going onto the man advantage, their first of the game. Bears PK is #1, though, so the Canucks look like they’ve got their work cut out for them.

I’m kicking myself.

You see, I went home for Christmas. ‘Home’ for me is Calgary. I thought long and hard about trying to reschedule my flight so that I could stick around for the Flames/Canucks game. Maybe even score some tickets. But the idiot down in Detroit made me re-think that, as I figured it’d be close to impossible to get rebooked anytime soon.

Naturally, I woke up at 7am to fly home only to find out my flight had been cancelled. Did I mention that my parents had gone down to Cancun the day before and my brother (who drove me to the airport this morning) is busy preparing for a move to BC, which means I was stuck at Calgary International? Yeah.

So I got home around 10:00 PM EST, enough to watch the third period and that’s about it.

I missed Raymond’s hat trick.

I missed Kiprusoff letting in a goal that even Dan Cloutier could’ve made.

I missed the (self proclaimed) ‘best fans in the NHL’ booing their team off the ice. Wait, scratch that last one.

Well, I guess one out of three ain’t bad.

Got an Avatar review in the pipeline, along with some other stuff. Holidays are a good time to slack, yes? Thought so.
Hope Santa was good for everyone!

While tonight’s game against the last place Edmonton Oilers may not appear to have the makings of a changing point for the Canucks, it could very well end up being one for them.

Prior to tonight, the Canucks had fared incredibly well against opponents that were on hot streaks or above them in the standings and were absolutely dreadful against last place teams. Expectations for some fans weren’t really that high against the last place Oilers, so having a convincing 4-1 win against the Oilers may have been just what the doctor ordered.  Add in a Boxing Day victory at home, something the Canucks haven’t accomplished in 35 years, and things are suddenly looking very good.

The Moose are looking to wrap up their 2 game homestand against the Lake Erie Monsters with another victory, after Cory Schneider shut out the Monsters last night 1-0. Guillame Desbiens had the lone marker in what was my first Manitoba Moose game of the season. I’m still getting a handle on the Moose, so I’m just going to do some pseudo live-blogging for the next few games. That said, here’s my thoughts on tonight’s game!

Well well well. Looks like I wound up going 5/5 for the Polaris Short List. I guess it would’ve been more impressive had I guessed a full ten, as that would’ve made me look far more visionary or whatever. Glad to see my personal tastes have been validated by a jury of Canadian music journalists. I mentioned that I was going to sit down and listen to K’naan and I have to say that the album is pretty goddamned good. It’s going to take the Polaris Prize, much as I would’ve loved to have seen Malajube walk away with it. Oh well.

I apologize for a lack of content, but I’ve been looking for work and have been busy working on a longer project that probably won’t see the light of day on here, hence the complete disappearance from yours truly. I had gone on a nifty little streak there back in June, right? Anyway, I’ll try to throw up some stuff soon for the millions (and millions) of nonexistent people completely by-passing this little blog.

As for the Canucks’ spin at free agency? I’m happy with what Gillis has been doing thus far, although it really sucked to see Bouwmeester go to the Flames. I think we were down to like 15 hours before July 1st when the signing was announced, so, thanks for giving me false hope, you bastard. The big question mark for the Flames is going to be goaltending, believe it or not. Kiprusoff is going to have to stop the regression he has been on the past couple of seasons (something which should be helped with the coaching change, as well as the arrival of Bouwmeester) and Curtis McElhiney is going to have to show that he is capable of being an NHL calibre back-up. Calgary’s forward depth is going to be a bit of a concern, although Flames fans will be quick to point out that this is a stronger forward core than 03/04. That said, plugging in guys like Bourque, Glencross, Boyd and Moss into your top six isn’t a guarantee for success. Jokinen is going to have to show that he’s capable of fitting in, too, as so far, he’s been showing he hasn’t been a great pickup for Sutter.

Back to the Canucks, though. I’m interested with the signing of Samuelsson, a guy who could fit anywhere in the top nine. Smart money is on him to play with the Sedins, as they played together in international competition and apparently had some chemistry, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he wound up on the third line, playing the role of Taylor Pyatt.

Raycroft is the first signing of Gillis’ that I haven’t agreed with and am unwilling to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it is because I’ve watched far too many Maple Leafs games and had to deal with an Avs fan friend last season, but I am convinced that Raycroft isn’t cut out for NHL level hockey. Slotting him as someone who will provide ‘competition’ to Corey Schneider, who could be the backup for the Canucks this year, doesn’t make any sense at all. Yeah, yeah, Moneyball. I still think Raycroft stinks.

The biggest signing of Gillis’, though, was the Sedins. People are going to complain about this until the cows come home. Unfortunately, at this point in their careers, there’s literally nothing the Sedins can do that’ll shut their detractors up, as they will never be happy with them. Are the Sedins capable of leading the offense for a playoff bound team? Yes. Are they dynamic, ‘exciting’ players like Ovechkin or Gaborik? No. Do I care if they’re ‘flashy’? So long as we’re winning, no. The Canucks’ biggest concern is having a second line that will be able to produce and relieve pressure from the Sedins. Hopefully, with Cody Hodgson and Michael Grabner lurking around, along with the likes of Kesler, Demitra, Samuelsson Bernier, Wellwood and (potentially) Sundin, we’ll have the right people to slot in for the second line and it won’t be a problem.

Well, the 2009 draft is over and done with in Montreal. Since I’m primarily a Canucks fan, here’s a recap of who the Canucks drafted,

FIRST ROUND – Jordan Schroeder (NCAA)

SECOND ROUND – Anton Rodin (Sweden)

THIRD ROUND – Kevin Connauton (NCAA)

FOURTH ROUND – Jeremy Price (CJAHL, committed to NCAA)

FIFTH ROUND – Peter Andersson (Sweden)

SIXTH ROUND – Joe Cannata (NCAA)

SEVENTH ROUND – Steven Anthony (QMJHL)

Now, there’s some interesting things going on with the decisions that Gillis made in his second year at the draft table. At first glance is the number of players that had either played in the NCAA last year or are committed to college hockey next season, which should tell you something about Mike Gillis’ drafting philosophy. As well, the Canucks only drafted two players who were born in 1991, Andersson and Anthony, with all the rest being players who were late 1990 births (and weren’t eligible last season to be drafted) or were passed up in 2008’s draft. What these two points signify to me is that Gillis has probably read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which talks about what it takes to be successful. I recommend that if you’re looking for some light non-fiction to pick up his book. At any rate, Outliers makes a point that the truly successful people aren’t folks who were ‘born’ talented, ie, they were gifted with some sort of attribute, but rather, that talent was refined through practise. Gladwell makes mention of 10,000 hours of practise as a benchmark, indicating that people who put in that amount of effort on something are more likely to succeed than someone who drifts by on raw talent. Since Gillis targeted players who were older than some of their other draft compatriots, as well as players who were committed to the NCAA (a league where players are typically regarded as being more mature, but also take a little longer to develop), it indicates to me that he’s looking for prospects that have had more time to develop and put in ‘practise.’ It’s an interesting edge and one that is testament to Gillis being committed to player development: any edge he can get, he’s going to try and take.

Another general statement to take out of this year’s draft is that, despite Gillis stating that he felt that there was a serious need for getting some solid 2 way defensemen into the system, he didn’t let position dictate who he drafted, opting instead to go with skill over position. Again, this is different from previous draft years, which typically saw the Canucks going after players they ‘needed’ in the system rather than more potentially lucrative options. The Luc Bourdon selection, which saw the Canucks pass up on Anze Kopitar, is perhaps the most glaring example of this. While Gillis may be looking for players with whom he wants to maximize their development, he’s also wanting to go after skilled players, choosing to refine the raw skillsets that already exist with the players he’s selected, rather than trying to draw out talent that may not exist.

As for specific Canuck selections, I’m personally very excited about the selection of Schroeder. I was able to keep tabs on him this past season as he played for the Minnesota Golden Gophers (as I was keeping dibs on Canucks prospect Patrick White, who also plays for the Gophers) and was intrigued that a freshman, and a rather small freshman at that, was pivoting the team’s top line and doing an amazing job at it. There was also his infamous ‘Avery’ selection where he was asked at the Combine who he would pick to have dinner with out of Obama, Anna Kournikova or Sean Avery and he opted to pick Avery. He took a lot of flak for his decision, because Sean Avery is sharing the position of NHL Anti-Christ with Jim Basillie right now, but there wasn’t a lot of attention given to his reasoning, which basically equated to Schroeder wanting to pick Avery’s brain and learn about the game a bit more. It was an interesting choice and a smart choice, which I think is one of the reasons he may have appealed to Gillis.

Some other notes, for those who didn’t catch the draft, Bob McKenzie (one of TSN’s top analysts and a very knowledgable man when it comes to prospects) loved the selection and was singing Schroeder’s praises, along with Pierre McGuire (the more enthusiastic, ableit knowledgable, TSN analyst when it comes to prospects.) Of note, were that Schroeder was playing against high school students while in the eighth grade, he tested very well at the fitness portion of the draft combine, including coming in second at the bench press, and he led Team USA at last year’s Major Junior Tournament…which means the Canucks have Canada’s and America’s leading scorers from last year’s tourney in Cody Hodgson and Schroeder.

Another pick I’m interested in is the Canucks third round pick, Connauton. He’s the first player that fit Gillis’ identified positional needs of an offensive defenseman. He was ranked 7th overall of NCAA prospects, but he plays for a rather unheralded program, Western Michigan, which may have hurt his stock slightly. He’s another freshman who played rather well in his rookie season in the NCAA, so it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of him. Additionally, the Vancouver Giants have his rights and he may be joining the Giants next season, which is another positive to take from him, as the Giants have become rather adept at churning out solid prospects year in and year out.

Steven Anthony is the other draft selection I’m interested in, as he was a once highly regarded prospect that sort of fell off the radar as time went on. Speculation is that part of Anthony’s struggles came with the Saint Johns Sea Dogs coach Jacques Beaulieu, who was recently sacked. Beaulieu didn’t seem to be a big fan of Anthony, giving him very little icetime to work with, although when he was given icetime after Beaulieu was sacked, he really lit it up. What I really like about this selection, though, was that Gillis was proactive and opted to deal Shaun Heshka, a defenseman for the Moose who is an upcoming RFA, for a 7th round pick to nab Anthony. That’s called turning nothing into something, which is great. While Anthony looks to be a bit of a project player, he certainly has the skillset and, more than anyone else selected in this year’s draft, fits the bill of Gillis’ development approach and Gladwell’s Outliers concept of 10,000 hours.