Lest We Forget

Vimy Ridge
April 9, 1917, 4 Canadian divisions fought together for the first time and took the heavily fortified, strategic ridge at the cost of 3600 killed, 7400 wounded.

Juno Beach (Canadian Landing Beach, June 6, 1944, D-Day)

Normandy, France

This house was liberated at first light on D-Day (June 6th, 1944) by the men of Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. The house overlooked part of Juno Beach where 100+ Canadian troops were killed or wounded.

Canadian WWII Cemetery, Normandy, France

Captain Lui Leads Nucks Again

“Luongo doesn’t want to be in Vancouver. Luongo wants to be traded back to the East. Luongo’s wife doesn’t like it in Vancouver, he wants out.” These are the types of idiotic comments we have had to endure during the Canucks struggles last season, and during the early part of this season.

Last season the Canucks defence was decimated by injuries. Bieksa, Ohlund, and Salo were out for extended periods of time. The Canucks were giving up far, far too many quality chances and there is nobody in the league that could have done any better than Luongo. Does anybody remember that we had Mike Weaver (acquired via the waiver wire from the L.A. Kings last season) patrol the blue line for 55 games in front of Luongo last season? Mike Weaver!

Luongo has been perfect the last 3 games and now leads the league with 5 shut outs. That’s 5 shutouts in 14 starts!

Luongo led the Canucks to their 3rd straight victory, 5th in 6 games, Saturday night, with a superb performance in the Canucks 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Two saves, both off the dangerous Pierre-Marc Bouchard, exemplify the brilliance of Luongo. 20seconds into the 2nd period, Wild winger Benoit Pouliot raced down the left wing and made a great cross ice pass to Bouchard, who one timed a slap shot. Luongo slid clear across from the right side of his crease to get his left pad on the shot. The beauty of this save was not just the agility and quickness that Luongo showed, it was where his left pad stopped the shot. His left pad was actually behind his body at about a 30degree angle. He made the save as the puck was passing him!

Luongo robbed Bouchard again 7 minutes later. A point shot was deflected directly to Bouchard who was skating to the right side of the net. When the puck reached Bouchard’s stick, the challenging Luongo was at the top of the crease. As Bouchard was releasing the puck, to what looked like an open net and a sure goal, Luongo once again stuck out his left pad to cover the open left side of the net and take away a sure goal from Bouchard.

While Ryan Kesler has been excellent so far this season, Luongo continues to lead the Canucks, as good Captains should.

Notes:
- Mateo “Mad Dog” Fulkco scored his first goal of his hockey career Saturday morning for the Victoria Grizzlies. Asked how he scored, Fulkco replied “I stood at the open side of the net and my friend passed me the puck and I put it in”.
Another first, and equally as impressive, was the fact that Fulcko did not go offside the whole game.

Gretz Disappoints, Turris Sits for Homecoming

We can talk about Lui's 2nd straight shut out and 4th of the season. We can talk about the Canucks 4th win in 5 games. We can talk about how the Canucks look to be taking full advantage of their home stand, currently standing 8-6 on the season.





However, I want to talk about Phoenix Coyote head coach, and hockey legend, Wayne Gretzky deciding to sit 2007 1st round draft pick (3rd overall), Burnaby native, and former Burnaby Express super star, Kyle Turris. Whether you play or not, visiting your hometown for the first time as a member of an NHL team, only happens once.

The 19year old Turris, who played last year for the University of Wisconsin Badgers (36GP, 11G 24A for 35pts), played in every one of the first 9 games of the season. 1G 4A = 5pts, minus 4 in those 9 games, Turris was a healthy scratch for Tuesday's tilt against the Flames in Calgary. In what Gretzky called his team's best effort of the season, the Coyotes beat the streaking Flames 4-2.

Every player wants desperately to play in front of his family and friends, especially when it's the first time his career his team passes through his hometown. Sure, the Coyotes were coming off their best effort of the season and the unwritten rule is to keep the same line up after such an effort. However, in this case, I think Gretzky made a big mistake.

The Coyotes have decided to build through youth. Besides Turris the following players make up the Coyotes very talented young players:

Kevin Porter, 22yrs old, 2004 4th round
Martin Hanzal, 21 yrs old, 2005 1st round, 17th overall
Keith Yandle, 22yrs old, 2005 4th round
Peter Mueller, 20yrs old, 2006 1st round, 8th overall
Mikkel Boedeker, 19yrs old, 2008 1st round, 8th over all
Viktor Tikhonov, 20 year old, 2008 1st round, 28th overall, grandson of legendary USSR coach of the same name.

Because the Coyotes have chosen to go with these youngsters, they will need to be careful on how they handle them. I question Gretzky's decision to make Turris a healthy scratch in a game that he had definitely had circled on his calendar. With 100+ friends and family in attendance, and all of Vancouver awaiting his homecoming, I am saying Gretzky's decision was classless, and potentially damaging to his relationship with Turris.

Players have a long memory. Especially highly sought after, very talented players. Players remember the little things. Turris will always remember that the Coyotes sat him for his homecoming. How can he play Turris in 9 straight games out of the gate, then sit him for 2 in a row, especially since the 2nd was in his hometown? The classy move would have been to insert him into the line up against the Canucks.

Obviously, Gretzky's point in making this decision was to show his team that a winning line up stays together for the next game. Big deal....

A much bigger point would have been to find a spot in the line up for a young kid, who they chose to have on the team this year, for his first game in his home town. The rest of the team would understand and would most likely feed off of Turris' excitement.

If Gretzky's worry was that he didn't want the team to feel that Turris was getting special treatment, he has far bigger problems on his hands. Good teams are unselfish. If Turris' teammates weren't hoping for him to be in the line up, for Turris' sake, then there is a huge attitude problem on the Coyotes.

Last year, when the Canucks visited Chicago, Coach V did the same thing to Mike Brown. Brown is an energy player that will drop the gloves with anybody, anytime. Coach V chose to sit him, with family and friends in the stands. He should have played that night. Finally this year, Brown got to make his debut in Chicago, and promptly got into a fight, and was one of the Canucks better players in the loss. He has been in the line up almost every night since.

Ever wonder why the Capitals made such a huge turn around last year after they fired then head coach Glen Hanlon? Very simple, players will go through a wall for head Coach Bruce B0udreau for the things that he does for his players. Look no further than what he did during the Caps visit to Calgary on Oct. 21.


Boudreau had coached the Capital's farm club, the Hershey Bears, prior to taking over for Hanlon. Boudreau called up career minor leaguer (7years), former Kamloops Blazer, and Calgary native Tyler Sloan for the game. On his third shift, Sloan proceeded to make a huge hit on Flame Damon Langkow, after which Flame Rene Bourque tackled Sloan, threw punches and recieved 19minutes in penalties to give the Ovechkin and the Capitals a 9 minute power play.

But how things transpired in the game, are not as important as what Boudreau did for the player. Sloan and family have suffered personal tragedy with the death of Sloan's sister. What a moment for the Sloan family to see their son play in his hometown. All the players in the organization remember things like this, and this is one of the reasons why players love to play for Boudreau.

Gretzky was trying to send a message Thursday night. Unfortunately, it was one that showed they don't care about special nights for their players. Turris and teammates will always remember this. An obviously crushed Turris refused interviews after the game and who can blame him? The Coyotes chose to go with the kids, they better remember how to treat the kids properly.

A highly questionable decision by Gretzky and one of the few times I have really been disappointed in him.


Notes:
- Congratulations to Igor Larionov on being chosen for induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame. A player who always played with skill and carried himself with class, it is well reserved. Thanks to Sarge for sending this great picture.

WellVeg Pots Pair, Lui Shuts Out Preds

For Kyle Wellwood, weight decrease equals production increase.

When the Canucks plucked Wellwood off Waivers, they knew of his offensive upside. I am not quite sure they expected that he had such serious commitment issues.

The Canucks have decided they need to babysit Wellwood. The 6th year pro (2 years AHL, now in 4th NHL campaign) apparently hasn't learned that today's NHL player is committed to conditioning throughout the calendar year. What his diet consisted of, until recently, is left to one's imagination. The Canucks are doing their best not to leave anything to chance.

We can now call Wellwood, WellVeg, because we are what we eat, and the Canucks have had him on a diet consisting of prepared vegetable meals. Yes, the Canucks are babysitting VeggieWellie. He's lost 8lbs in the last week.

While most hockey players would do their utmost in order to make millions playing a game, apparently Wellwood hasn't learned that diet and conditioning are prerequisites to finding success on the ice.

WellVeg's great hands and hockey sense, are something that one can't teach. These skills have been shown in most of his 6 goals (in eight games), not to mention his success in the shootout. Hopefully he'll listen to his babysitters, follow his diet, so he can continue to produce.

With Luongo shutting the door, Wellwood (2), Daniel Sedin, and Mason Raymond scored to give the Canucks a well deserved 4-0 shut out victory over the Nashville Predators.

For the Sedins, they now have 3 points each in their last two games and are starting to get a little puck luck for their hard work. Mason Raymond scored his 5th goal of the young season and is contributing just as the Canuck brass had hoped he would.

The Predators should have been a lot better. A poor effort on a night that saw their coach coach his 750th NHL game. The only coach the Predators have known, Trotz consistently keeps his teams competitive despite Nashville ownership consistenlty having one of the lowest team salary in the league.

Captain Lui had his 3rd shut out in 12 starts, and now leads the league in that category. He is, by far, the Canucks best player, arguably the best goalie in the league, and now his numbers are once again proving that.

Now, maybe the Canucks can send Taylor Pyatt to power skating to increase his speed, and maybe let him spend a week in jail, so he can get a mean streak.

Positives Outweigh Negatives for Canucks

Three games in four nights. 4-0 victory of L.A., 7-6 SO (13 rounds!) win over Anaheim and a 3-2 loss to the defending Stanley Cup Champ Detroit Red Wings, make the Canucks an even .500.

The Canucks have played 12 games, are 6-6, despite playing 8 or their first 12 on the road. 2-2 at home, with one home ice loss Sunday night to the Wings, the Nucks have 5 games remaining on their 6 game homestand. 5 games in 11 nights versus Nashville (6-4-1), Phoenix (4-5), Minnesota (7-2-1), Colorado (5-7), and Toronto (unbelieveably 5-4-3....which will change for the worse) will better tell the tale of how the season may be for the Canucks.

Look for the twins to break out. I've said it before, they are due. Constantly a threat, no matter who they play with, they were finally rewarded with a nice goal against the Wings. Nobody would have thought the Canucks could score 6 goals against a very good Anaheim Ducks team without either Sedin scoring a point. The Canucks have secondary scoring.

The Kesler line continues to impress, and Wellfed (Wellwood) is taking advantage of his power play time and showing two things: he's got great hands and has great anticipation. Seems as though his short time in he minors has set him straight, however, I am not a believer in his character. There couldn't be any better motivation than knowing that his career is on the line. Passed over by all 29 teams when he was called up on re-entry waivers meant nobody on the league would open up a roster spot for him. He is playing for professional life.

Unless Taylor Pyatt goes on some sort of streak, whether it be goal scoring or he starts to play mean (time for a makeover Taylor), look for him to be dealt for a draft pick, a young underachieving player, or sent to the Moose where he could be picked up on waivers. If Wellfed continues to score, when Demitra (2-3 weeks?), Rick Rypien (3-4weeks?) come back, Pyatt could be the odd man out. I would take Mike Brown over Pyatt any day.

Speaking of Mike Brown, let's talk team toughness. The Canucks are tied for 3rd in the league for fighting majors with 13. Hordichuk 3, Brown 3 (in 5 games), Mitchell, Ohlund, Rypien, Bieksa, Davison, O'Brien and Bernier with 1. Most teams have 3-4, max 5 different guys that have fought. The Canucks have 9. The only other team that has 9 different players to have fought so far this season is the Anaheim Ducks, which lead the league with 16 fights. The Canucks are not soft any more and this bodes well for their fortunes this season.

If the Canucks don't get 7-8 out of the 10 points available over the next 5 games, I'll be shocked.