Canucks & Beyond

Separated at Birth

by Alanah McGinley on 09/15/09 at 01:31 PM ET
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The first game of the 2009 pre-season, there was much to enjoy and analyze.  But while the folks around our place were full of deep insights like “Holy Shirokov, Batman!” and “Look at the dat Corey Schneider!” and debating critical matters like “Michael Grabner: Invisible Man?”, I was instead stuck on this odd moment from the opening faceoff of the game:

Doesn’t something seem a little off about that image?  And there was something familiar about it, too. Then suddenly I remembered…

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In Vancouver: Luongo Talk

by Alanah McGinley on 08/05/09 at 03:00 PM ET
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GM Mike Gillis, on negotiations with Roberto Luongo, from TSN:

“I think philosophically we’re very close and I think to get top players signed it usually does take a longer period of time,” Gillis told the station on Tuesday.  “We’ve had a lot of stuff happen in the meantime. We were moving really well and then we had the draft and free-agency and some other distractions occurred. But we feel really confident that we’re all on the same page and it’s only a matter of everyone getting focussed on the final part of it to get it done. We intend to (get it done before the season). We hope to. I know Laurence (Gilman) has had some discussions with Roberto’s agent as early as yesterday. We’re getting there and we’re confident that we’ll get something done.”

Luongo, 30 is entering the final year of a four-year, $27 million contract.

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Wellwood Returning to Vancouver

by Alanah McGinley on 07/30/09 at 02:41 PM ET
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From TSN:

Kyle Wellwood will be returning to Vancouver after the Canucks announced the signing of the centre Thursday following his arbitration hearing on Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not released, however the agent for Wellwood, Mike Liut told the TEAM 1040 on Wednesday that his client would be signing for slightly more than the $1 million he earned last season.

continued

Update: TSN updated their story to state Wellwood’s new contract is for $1.2 million. 

Update: From Brad Ziemer at the Vancouver Sun --

The award amounts to a 20-per-cent raise for Wellwood, who made $997,500 last season.

But the award was considerably less than the more than $1.5 million Wellwood and his agent, Mike Liut, had been seeking from the arbitrator when his case was heard Tuesday in Toronto. The Canucks had made Wellwood a $1-million qualifying offer and are not believed to have budged significantly from that offer in Tuesday’s hearing.

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In Defense of Dany Heatley (sort of)

by Alanah McGinley on 07/02/09 at 03:32 PM ET
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One thing I was struck by yesterday as speculation unfolded on various signings, is that hockey fans and journalists are often very willing to believe the worst things about hockey players, and usually without any substantial confirmation that those things are true. 

The Dany Heatley drama appears to be a grand example of this. Ask nearly any fan today what he thinks of Mr. Heatley and odds are he’ll tell you that the guy is a lying sack of waste who screwed over his team for greed and some kind of internal drive to subject the world to his brand of pure evil. 

Here’s one comment found on this website yesterday…

I think I can say, without Hyperbole, that Heatley is worse than Hitler.

...maybe even Yashin.

Well, at least Senators’ fans can still muster a sense of humor. Nontheless, most of the rhetoric floating around seems to go off the charts. 

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 Tags: dany+heatley,

Sedin’s Agent Not Optimistic About a Vancouver Deal, but is Anyone?

by Alanah McGinley on 06/26/09 at 04:57 PM ET
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“We’ve been negotiating for more than a year, so it’s hard for me to say I’m optimistic. We haven’t really made a lot of progress in a year. We’re going to have to address the gap that we have - but we’ve only got five days to do it.”

-- J.P. Barry, Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s agent, speaking with Sportsnet today. 

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mike Gillis has never been strongly motivated to sign the Sedins. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s not a “fan” and when he sits around late at night counting change in his salary-cap piggy bank, he can think of far better ways to spend his money.

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 Tags: daniel+sedin, henrik+sedin, marian+gaborik, pavol+demitra,

Mike Keenan Joins the Canucks?

by Alanah McGinley on 06/09/09 at 01:47 PM ET
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For real? Joe O’Connor of the National Post runs this opening paragraph…

The media release from Sherry Quan was brief, detailed and to the point: Michael Keenan was joining a team in Vancouver. Strangely, there was no mention of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault in the release, and not a word said about how Roberto Luongo, the Canucks netminder, who had a somewhat rocky relationship with the NHL bench boss known as Iron Mike while the pair were in Florida together with the Panthers, might react to him joining the squad.

Not that I’m a huge Vigneault fan, but sweet geezus, this is a terrifying turn of events!

Or is it?

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GM Place Keeps its Name; Disaster Averted

by Alanah McGinley on 06/01/09 at 09:20 PM ET
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General Motors’ historic bankruptcy filing should not affect the company’s significant investment and presence on the Vancouver sports scene, according to Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver 2010 Olympic officials.

GM Canada signed a 20-year, $18.5-million deal with Canucks owners in 1995 to call the team’s stadium General Motors Place through 2015.

-- Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun

Vancouver can breathe a sigh of relief then. We still get to keep the relatively cool nickname ‘The Garage,’ and it seems there’s no danger of something terrifying happening along the lines of ‘Gaylord Entertainment Center’, etc, in the near future.

Still, it was a close call. Two big local businesses were bidding fiercely for the right to put their name on the side of the Canucks’ posh arena, and both might have presented some controversy.*

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What’s Trevor Linden Been Up To?

by Alanah McGinley on 05/30/09 at 02:50 PM ET
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With some guys, you definitely get the sense that retirement is a hard thing, that they don’t quite know what to do with themselves when they pull away from hockey. But not so, Trevor Linden.

The video below (thanks to Buzz Bishop) is a brief Q&A with Linden when he stopped off at the Future Shop headquarters to pick up his new TV. An odd scenario, to be sure, but probably a hoot for the staff that had a chance to talk to him. 

Anyway, it sounds like his first year off the ice has been full of fun and adventure—cycling in Belgium, week-long trips to Whistler, and much more. As he describes it, he’s “like a guy getting out of jail.” And he says he’s still a Canucks fan.

Here’s the vid:

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 Tags: trevor+linden,

Sundin Positioning Himself For a Job

by Alanah McGinley on 05/30/09 at 01:04 PM ET
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“Yes, it is actually impossible to predict, but I hope and believe that Detroit wins. And they do in six matches.”

-- Mats Sundin, Vancouver Canucks (quote via Nucks Misconduct)

Translation: “Dear Ken Holland: I’m desperate to sign with your team this summer. Let’s talk!”

Although someone did just rip off a supply of his signed Canucks’ jerseys not too long ago, so if he wanted to stay he can at least assume that he’s still popular with Vancouver fans.

Well, to those comfortable with committing crimes, anyway.

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 Tags: mats+sundin,

Poking a Stick at the Enemy

by Alanah McGinley on 05/29/09 at 06:40 PM ET
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On playing against Marian Hossa: “There’s nothing I’d like more than to be able to shake Marian’s hand at the end of this series, look him in the eye and say, ‘You chose the wrong team.’”

-- Maxime Talbot (translated from French and quoted in the Detroit Free Press)

Ah, the joy of ‘friendly’ competition in the playoffs, where one of the more entertaining pleasures for us outsiders is the good-natured trash talk between the teams and fans.

But still, two dudes named Maxime vs Marian going at it? I keep flashing on rival Barbie dolls about to end up in a celebrity boxing reality show.

Filed in: obnoxious hockey blogging | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
 Tags: marian+hossa, maxime+talbot,

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