Canucks & Beyond
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Vancouver is Canada’s Team…
by Alanah McGinley on 03/29/07 at 03:01 PM ET
Comments (2)
...and other reasons why Edmonton, Calgary—and Mark Messier—just suck.
To start, here’s a fun piece on Edmonton’s fine accomplishments of the past month. A review, if you will. From David Young at Vue Weekly, it seems that even the bible is against them:
“Here’s the fun-fest the Oilers have provided fans recently. Since a shootout win against Detroit on Feb 23 the Oilers have only had a lead for exactly 18 minutes and 28 seconds. That’s out of 900 minutes of regulation game time. That’s 2% of the time. The team scored three shorthanded goals but only three powerplay goals. The Oilers only won once in 15 games. And the team was outscored during this stretch of futility 55-17. Interestingly, Psalm 55:17 (known as the Prayer for the Destruction of the Treacherous—perfect, huh?) reads “Evening and morning and at noonday, will I complain and moan; And He will hear my voice.” And so concludes our bible study with a verse that pretty much sums things up.”
A tragic comedy if ever there was one.
Then there’s the apparent evidence that both the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames nearly devastated hockey broadcasting in this country earlier this season. William Houston at the Globe & Mail takes a look at the audience numbers for HNIC games:
“The CBC’s first-game audiences on Saturdays are down 1 per cent (1.381 million). Second-game audiences have dropped 20 per cent (748,000), a steep decrease that’s partly attributable to a small number of Vancouver Canucks games aired early in the season. The decrease has narrowed since November, when the gap was 40 per cent.”
Ha! Show too many Flames and Oilers games without the Canucks being involved, and the decrease in viewers was 40% early in the season. But give people what they want—Canucks games—and the world starts to right itself again. Nice.
Finally, there’s Mark Messier. Does this man ever STOP annoying Canucks fans? It seems not. And now from the news wires today, I learn that he’s trying to find your house and upset you in person:
“The Bring Home the Cup contest is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the passion of the playoffs with the Stanley Cup and Mark Messier as the guests of honour in the home of one lucky hockey fan,” said Dale Hooper, Vice President Marketing, Frito Lay Canada.
Ugh. Though in all honesty—setting aside my antipathy for Messier for a moment—this is a pretty cool contest. Read more about it. Invite me to your house if you win.
(Unless you’re a Flames or Oilers fan, in which case I won’t hold my breath...)
Filed in: nhl general, vancouver canucks | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Comments
“I state again...if I see Naslund hand off the cup to Linden...I will be a blubbering, sobbing mess. Go ‘Nucks.”
Yes, I recall you mentioning that before. I sincerely hope you’ll share photos of that on your blog when it happens. I’ll be wanting proof. 
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 03/29/07 at 09:12 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
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Maybe its me...but, the honor of having the Cup is something that should be earned and should not be trivialized. I think the NHL is making a mistake. It seems in recent years the NHL is bent on turning the Cup into a mascot, rather than the revered hardware it truly is. If they don’t understand that...talk to Ray Bourque.
I state again...if I see Naslund hand off the cup to Linden...I will be a blubbering, sobbing mess. Go ‘Nucks.
Posted by GZ Expat from Chiner on 03/29/07 at 08:34 PM ET