Czechmate! (Wings 3, Canucks 2)

Even in Vancouver, it seems we are still not all Canucks, as the Wings grab another victory, albeit a much closer one, over Luongo and the Canucks.

Nice try, but no cigar, Bobby Lu

I missed the first few minutes of the game watching the Oilers shootout, and a good chunk of the middle catching the Red Sox sweep the Rockies to win the World Series in four (go Sox!) but I caught the important highlights:

• The Canucks struck first as Matt Cooke potted his first of the season, but the Wings and Tomas Holmstrom struck back only twelve seconds later to tie it up. Unsurprisingly, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg both assisted on the goal, which brings Z's point streak to 12 games and 21 points. Keep it up, boys.

• The second goal came on a nice two-on-one rush where Valtteri Filppula managed to fake Roberto Luongo out of position before tipping the puck over to Mikael Samuelsson who tossed it in to put the Wings up again.

• While the Sox were busy winning the World Series, Markus Naslund evened the score up again, but Jiri Hudler came back with some nice stick work and a highlight-reel goal - unsurprisingly, it was right top shelf, just where he likes 'em. Way to go, kid!

• Chris Osgood looked excellent as usual up until the last minute when he tried to score a goal on the empty net, and ended up giving the puck right to a Canuck who nearly pushed it past him - he stopped the shot but was the pushed into the net, resulting in what the crowd thought was a goal, but it was waved off. Come on, Ozzie, you've got two assists already this season, don't be greedy.

For better coverage, Matt at On the Wings has a nice recap, as does Dave at Gorilla Crouch who also makes some interesting points about line shifting as players come back from injury. One thing they don't have to worry about any more is Igor Grigorenko - unable to crack the lineup, he returned to Russia, although he expressed interest in coming back next season and trying again.

Other News...

• Patrice Bergeron has been released from the hospital after the hit that left him lying motionless on the ice and saw him carted off on a stretcher with a neck brace Saturday evening. While there is no other new information on his condition, the word is it's nothing more than a concussion and a broken nose. Get better soon, Patrice, we miss you.

• A while back the lovely HG shared these extremely excellent only-in-Canada Chef Boyaredee masterpieces and proclaimed that, "I am willing to bet that the 15 minutes or so I spent exclaiming over the NHL shaped Chef Boyardee at Costco last night, wondering what it would be like to pick out all the Flames shapes and eat the rest TOTALLY led to the Flames' OT win in Dallas." If that's the case, then I bet my friend Sam in Edmonton's need to find and pick out the Oilers shapes just to photograph their existence TOTALLY led to the Oilers' shootout win over Anaheim:

I mean, how cool are those?

• Finally, a message to all eight-six of you out there who have dedicated yourself to scouring google for "ryan malone tattoos" and "malone tattoos penguins" - courtesy of Empty Netters, here you are. Happy? Okay. Now find something new to search, I like you guys much better than whoever it is still hopped up on finding out about "rod brind'amour's wife".
  

We are not all Canucks (Wings 3, Canucks 2)

One day, I will learn to save my game notes. One day, I will learn that it is not smart to try to upload a 500mb file which my computer has overheated twice trying to do previously, while leaving a bunch of unsaved things, like game notes, open.

Unfortunately I did not learn this lesson last night. I was also trying to study throughout the game, and switching back and forth to that, you know, big baseball thing that's going on right now, so rather than a full recap (for a great one, hit up Gorilla Crouch as usual), I've just got a few quick notes:

• A game against the Canucks can never go by without seven hundred and twelve similes about what a bad deal the Roberto Luongo trade was for Florida. I don't have the direct quote anymore, but the one that John Keating stumbled through last night was so bad that even he couldn't quite get it out properly. I believe it came out something like "The last time someone made a decision...this poorly was when, ah, someone at... Someone at Enron starting thinking out of the ah, box." Stop trying. Please.

• Henrik Zetterberg continued his point streak, now at 10 games, although all he tallied last night was an assist. You know what? I'll take it.

• Speaking of point streaks, Matt Ellis, who notched the second goal of the game, is up to four. The more he plays, the more he produces, and it looks like he's finally managing to crack the roster. In an intermission interview he insisted that neither goal was spectacular, but that they're sort of dirty, gritty goals he generally scores - I'll be he was pretty excited about them regardless. You know what? I'll take that too.

• Despite the score winding up with a close 2-3, the Wings out shot Vancouver 39-15, and there were a couple very close calls (one in particular was absolute highway robbery on Nick Lidstrom) that had Luongo making a few spectacular saves to keep the Canucks in the game.

Detroit is now tied with Minnesota for the lead in the WC at 15 points, though Detroit has played one more game. Ready to fight for it, Kirsten?

Their next match up is against the Sharks, at home this time, on Friday at 7:30 - I'll try to remember to save my notepad file.

Bingo Bango Bongo

Okay everybody. Excuse me for one blog post where I forget to talk about anything substantial and just humor me a little, all right?

Sometime last week Margee posted what turned into a terribly controversial commentfest over whether or not you'd hit Roberto Luongo. I, in my weird newfound love of him, used various tools including that Lola parody (still. amazing.) and my current desktop to argue my case, but I still couldn't convince many of the likes of my fellow bloggers. And once the Ricky D video surfaced I figured I just had no hope. BUT I HAVE A NEW OFFERING ANYWAY!


Okay. Right? Right!? I mean I guess it's no coconut creme pie, but come on, that wistful slightly sad expression, the sitting alone in the benches...the little styrofoam coffee cup! And okay. Okay, MAYBE I see all your points. A little. Sometimes. But - and I may be banking a bit on that upsetting loss and trying to assume that other people are feeling bad for the guy playing his guts out every game (and then some - someone calculate how many games he actually played including all that OT) and still ending up like this - come on, you can't say it's awful, right? And he gave Sabourin that cute little hug when they swapped spots tonight, too. So there.

That said, Giguere is still creepy looking, give me Ilya back if that team has to go any farther, okay? My pools are glad Anaheim took it, but my heart wanted Vancouver. Sigh, oh playoff hockey, the way you toy with my loyalties.

Maybe this is why we don't have Hockey Night in America

Elly and I were really excited to both be getting the HNIC broadcast of two excellently Canadian games, especially since we both so rarely get Edmonton games. So much so that we decided it was worth of a joint point. If only we knew what was actually going to happen...

SENS VS LEAFS 3-2 OT LOSS

After the disgusting Leafs loss yesterday and hearing that Poni, Wellwood, Antropov, Tucker, Peca, and Colaicovo were out, it was determined by the creators of this blog that this was more like the Ottawa Senators vs. the Toronto Marlies with Special Guest Mats Sundin. The game did nothing to inspire us to consider it any more, and so no one really felt like talking about it. Which brings us to the game we thought would HAVE to be better....

OILERS VS CANUCKS 6-2 LOSS

This game was so disgusting that, in the third period when CBC's audio feed cut out, the conversation went as follows:

Steph: ....wtf audio?
Elly: See, even CBC doesn't want to talk about it anymore.

In a testament to just how bad it was, by the way, partway through the Oilers game I actually expressed something about missing Ty Conklin (though not through any fault of Jussi's). Therefore, all this game is getting from us is a halfassed list of the things we noticed. You'll read it and you'll like it--at least more than we did the game.

#1. Jussi Markkanen

Ever since the playoffs it's clear how we feel about Jussi, but here are some examples. (It should also be noted that Craig Simpson called him "Juicy" and was deemed our new hero.)

During the anthem (where in they show Jussi's for .5 seconds, looking upward):
Steph: JUSSI
Steph: JUSSI OMG
Elly: JUSSI
Steph: THAT WAS SO CUTE
Elly: SO HAPPY
Steph: ...all he did was STAND and look up and we're freaking out.

During the game (wherein we actually make astute observation):

Steph: Aww, Jussi. He moves so differently than Roli
Elly: Less angrily?
Steph: Possibly. I don't even know what it is though, but you can really tell them apart. Roli is all small and angry and dramatic and Jussi is smoother.
Steph: Like Roli attacks the puck and Jussi just sot of.....pushes it.
Elly: Jussi is really calm and smooth. He just stands there and watches...Roli moves around constantly
Steph: Jussi even looks smooth just shoving his stick out to knock pucks away
Steph: Roli always looks like he's trying to kill them

Jussi then proceeds to adventure a bit and make a couple amazing saves. We squee a bit more, discuss his merits a bit more, and then cry when they don't show him at all after the game. All in all, this game was pitiful, but the Juice did his best--and not perfectly, but not poorly, either. Too bad the Oilers didn't help him out any.

Like, say, when he banged his stick on the ice like a good little goalie to signal "HEY GUYS THEIR PENALTY IS OVER" like, you know, that move generally does. And Raffi Torres' response is to ignore him, try to pass the puck right up in there, lets the Canucks get a breakaway right out of the box, and score yet again. Thanks, guys.

#2 Marc-Andre Bergeron

Played like shit tonight. Cost us that first goal. Bad defenseman. No pancakes for you.

#3 The Announcers

Were hilarious. Our favorite quotes of the evening:

• On Smytty's custom stick to go with his custom "I broke myself" glove: "He's using a lighter stick; normally it's a...I dunno, it's a log or something."
• The polite way to say Roli is a spaz: "Markkanen's a calm goaltender and maybe that's what they need..."
• On...someone: "Oh boy are they throwing some haymakers."
  
• On Burrows after his little skirmish with Jacques: "If you took the 'ows' off his jersey he'd be 'burr', and that's what the guy is right now."
• On a shot Luongo nabbed (like most of them): "The puck flutters into the glove of Roberto Luongo."
• On the Hemsky line: "Hemsky & Co."
  

Honorable mentions go to Naslund for that comment about "guys squeezing their sticks", Stoli for swearing more than I have ever seen him do in one game, , Kevin Lowe for saying something like "We wanted to emulate the Flyers, who are a contender for the cup every year...but now we don't, obviously," (I didn't hear this, and Elly assures me the actual quote was much better, but her paraphrasing was still too excellent not to include) and the soundbooth guys for including "Love Shack" in the broadcast.

OTHER NHL NEWS

-Last place (foro the next few seconds at least) Phoenix somehow majorly wrecks San Jose all over the place tonight. 8-0? What got put in their breakfast?

-Boston's adorable backup goalie Hannu Toivonen finally gets to play as the (lately) weirdly successful Bruins take on Nashville. Unfortuately this game ends up 5-0. Not a good night for Finnish goalies at all.

-The New York Rangers have had enough of losing, and refuse to do so against the Washington Capitals. New best friends Jagr and Shanahan collectively dismantle Caps D man Brashear. Good to see Shanny's the same as ever and doesn't need us back in Detroit.


-Manny Legace and the St. Louis Blues shut out the Colorado Avalanche. Apparently they breakfast with the Phoenix Coyotes. It's my goalie's first shutout as a Blue (that sounds really awkward when singular), and brings him up to 4 wins in 5 games. Something's going right for Legace these days, finally, and look how happy he is.

-Penguins didn't play tonight, but when asked "When are you going to get your own place?" Sidney Crosby answered "'Well....I don't know. If you've ever seen that movie, 'Failure to Launch', that's me right now." It was cute enough to get mentioned.

Tomorrow night there's a Battle of Alberta, and let's just say someone, or rather a team of someones, has a lot of making tonight up to us to do.