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.

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.

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):

Yeah, I’m skipping the Islanders game. Don’t worry, I have a blog post forthcoming on that game! Chronological order? What’s that?

I know, I’m late. Furthermore, I’m like two weeks behind with the Week That Was. Unfortunately, paid work trumps unpaid work.

I’m going to do a 2 in 1, sort of, for this, considering I missed blogging the Sens game as well. (That sound you hear? Google Analytics dying of crib death…) I thought this was probably one of the best games, top to bottom, from the Canucks in a long time. Kevin Bieksa looked good coming back in his first game since his calf was sliced and diced, Luongo was in fine form and just about everyone was doing their job. Even guys like Ryan Johnson.

Bret Hart once said, who are you to doubt El Dandy?

I guess it’s my turn to say, who are you to doubt the Canucks?

Well, the ‘unofficial’ trade deadline is fast approaching: the NHL Olympic roster freeze is set to take affect on the 12th, with the NHL Trade Deadline coming March 3rd. The League has already seen several high profile trades, with Dion Phaneuf becoming a Toronto Maple Leaf and Ilya Kovalchuk wearing a new jersey. Although GM Mike Gillis has said he isn’t a big fan of rentals and he has been frugal when it comes to trades, it doesn’t hurt to have some fun and speculation with what the Canucks could potentially do leading up to the trade deadlines. As such, I thought it’d be fun to get some of the Canucks bloggers to gather round and discuss some trade deadline topics.

Hey, it can’t be any worse than Nick Kypreos and Doug MacLean arguing with each other on SportsNet, right? Thought so!

Joining me on the roundtable are Kent Basky of the We Are All Canuckleheads Podcast and Nucks Misconduct, Brian Wawryshyn of Canucks Corner, Cam Davie, Brigadier General of the Canucks Army and Clayton Corley, the Opiated Sherpa. All excellent bloggers and all have excellent sites, big thanks for them agreeing to do this. With that said, here’s what they had to say to the questions I posed!

What a fascinating game, today’s matinee affair was.

Partially because I’ve been high on cold medication all day and it took me a while to gather my thoughts, but also because this was pretty much the reverse instance of what went down with the Montreal game. The Canucks had a rather poor start (which saw the first goal being scored by the opposing team and which saw yet another early penalty leading to said goal) but were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to an absolutely stellar effort from Roberto Luongo, who responded well after being sat Thursday in Ottawa.

Another horribly late postscript. I apologize. My move from Toronto to Calgary has drained the hell out of me so I’m just getting things sorted out. I basically passed out after the game last night and had to run around doing errands today, hence the superlate post. I’m hoping things will be totally sorted come Saturday. We’ll see…

Yeah, consider me surprised. After a rather forgettable 50 minutes or so that saw the last place Edmonton Oilers, a team that had just 1 win in their last 15 games, carry the play and pretty much look like a team that wasn’t last in the Western Conference, the Canucks finally woke up and decided to win the game.