The Tour Rolls Into Cal-gary, And My Impending Grief Over A Ginger

(Wait who are we playing tonight?!)

The Canucks train comes rolling into Calgary tonight, winning their last four on the road. Calgary is 6-3-1 in their last 10. They are currently sitting at eighth in the West, caught up in another log-jam at the bottom of the playoff picture. They are tied with Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix at 81 points, and all four are only one point behind Dallas, and two points ahead of Anaheim. Calgary is what Calgary has always been, a quagmire. No not Peter's Griffin's neighbor, although I bet Jokinen runs around the locker room yelling giggity-giggity. The Flames always seem like they are underachieving, but are they really? If anything I would say the last few years they have been overachieving.

Considering their roster I would say they are achieving at their potential. Their fourth leading scorer is a man all Canucks fans are familiar with, Brendan Morrison, who signed with them on a training camp tryout. Nothing against Brendan, obviously he still has something in the tank, although he is injured right now, but when your top scorers, other than Iginla, are Jokinen, Tanguay and Morrison and its not 2001, your expectations should be right around the fifth seed at the very best. 

Now on to the 400 pound, ginger gorilla in the room. Cory Schneider has been playing like a man possessed lately. His numbers are unreal: 13-3-2, 2.33 GAA, .927 S%, 1 SO. His play this year has been better than anyone expected, which creates a problem in net, actually not much of one, because there is only one option: trade him. Although, Luongo has similar numbers, which is encouraging, but this comes down to contracts. Schneider has one more year on an entry-level contract, while Luongo is making about $10 million a year (a $6.7 million cap hit), with another 12 years on it. That essentially makes him un-tradeable. 

Now this is not a Luongo bashing session. He has played well this year and has very similar numbers to Schneider: 31-13-7, 2.22 GAA, .925 S%, 3 SO. He just got 300 wins, and is no doubt one of the best goalies in the NHL. But he has had two playoff let downs in the last two years, is under contract until he is 43, and is on the wrong side of 30. Its tough to see him making so much money, when there is a guy seven years younger, that is playing just as well, and not think of the players they could sign with the money they would save to make this team even better. What do you guys think?  

Red Alert In San Jose

For some reason every game in San Jose starts at 10:30 pm Eastern Standard Time, which completely sucks for me. Surprisingly that half-hour makes a difference, especially when another winter storm is heading my way. But I figured it was Friday the next day, so I could sleep-walk my way through the work day. One of the best decisions I have ever made in regards to hockey viewing. This game went back and forth all night, with both teams just flying up and down the ice.

The Canucks had a very strong first period getting goals from Burrows and Salo. Burrows finally getting on the score board (minus his empty netter the other night). The Sharks came back to start the second scoring 57 seconds and 2:04 into the period. Raymond comes back shortly thereafter putting the Canucks back on top. The score remained 3-2 until just under four minutes left in the third, when both teams turned it up, again. With 2:13 left in the game Torrey Mitchell tied the game for the Sharks. Then with 1:49 Daniel put the Canucks back up, 4-3, but the game was far from over. With just 21 seconds left on the clock Ryan Clowe tied it up once more. Here comes overtime.

Just 49 seconds into overtime Ryan Kesler gets called for high-sticking, first thought was game over. But then my confidence increased, because I knew the ginger-nut was in net, and he did not disappoint. Now I am not denying Kesler's stick hit Couture (I believe) in the face, but Couture acted as if it was a gun shot. But whatever dude, embellish all you want, Schneider will have none of your bogus PP. He was awesome, especially going post-to-post to stop Clowe from not only winning the game, but getting a hat trick. On to the shootout, where in only his second NHL shootout Schneider was stellar once more, stopping Clowe, Wellwood, and Pavelski. The guy stopped 44 shots, and came through huge when they really needed him. Cory Schneider's starts have just entered the "Must See" category for me.

I don't want to overshadow Burrows accomplishments in this game either. He opened the scoring with a nice goal in front, as he was getting hit, and came up huge in the shootout. The shootout goal was the most impressive, considering his less than great penalty shot against Phoenix on Tuesday. It was good to see Raymond back in the lineup and scoring nonetheless. Also enjoyed watching Chris Higgins first game as a Canuck. He looked decent, and even got some time on the PP. Got Calgary coming up on Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada. After having to work last weekend, this is about the best news I could get...yeah I know, I'm lame.  

Big Dan Gets Two, Nucks Win

It looked as if this game would not end well for the Canucks. Going down two goals that early in a game can be a back-breaker, but its how they respond, and these guys definitely responded. Dan Hamhuis tallied his first goal of the night just seconds after Phoenix scored their second, putting the Canucks right back in it. However, they weren't finished yet, scoring twice more in the second to go up 3-2. However, this would not last as with just 43 seconds left in the period Phoenix tied it, on a goal from a dude named Lauri...Lauri (shaking head in disappointment).

Both teams had their chances in the third, but overtime was needed. We were quickly given a treat, as Alex Burrows, whom I know one Kelowna girl who is smitten with, received a penalty shot. I would have been smitten as well, but he missed, attempting to go glove side with a backhand. Didn't matter though because not long after Big Dan decided he was done with this game and would end it with his second goal of the night. Not a terrible game by the Canucks. Luongo played decent. Salo misplayed a puck in his skates right in front of the net and gave Belanger a gift. Other than that he looked solid. Just in case Henrik is reading this, which the chances of that are about one in a million (so you are telling me there's a chance!), but this is the type of game you say is the best game you've played in awhile, even if you would have lost. You went down early and stayed in the game, kept going and got back in it. 

NOTES:

Mason Raymond sat out this game with a shoulder injury. No word on how long he will be out for, but it doesn't seem to be too serious...Chris Higgins is getting closer to playing, I would like to see him get some minutes before the playoffs...I thought the first line looked great, especially back-checking, last night...This isn't Canucks news, but if you haven't seen Max Pacorietty get slammed into the stanchion by Chara, its shocking. Luckily, he was conscious and able to move his extremities when he got to the hospital last night.

Apparently Everything I Thought About California Is True

(Every fan of a SoCal hockey team)

Man I thought this whole LA Cry-baby thing was going to old news by today, guess I was wrong. This is by far the  lamest thing I have ever heard. When did chanting an opposing goalies name, and singing "Hey, Hey Goodbye" constitute going too far? This is just proof that people from California are wimps. Go see what happens to fans in Philadelphia that wear an opposing team's jersey to a game. See how they treat opposing fans in Montreal. Better yet, watch the game from earlier in the year when Montreal went to Detroit. Every time Canadiens fans attempted to start a "Go Habs Go" chant the Red Wings fans fought back with their "Lets Go Red Wings." Did the Detroit Free Press write an article about how unruly the Canadiens fans are? Of course not because they aren't a bunch of vegan, hippies that have never worked a day in their life. Shut up California, the fact you have three hockey teams and cheer an offside call on the opposing team is proof you are a joke.

Ducks Go Down, And Some Other News And Notes

There they are! That is the team I have been waiting to see for the last few weeks. The team that doesn't let mediocre teams stay in games. The team that plays two-way hockey. The team that doesn't hang their goalies out to dry. Although the top two lines didn't look their best, but they weren't a liability either, they still earned a well-deserved win. The Ducks are fighting for a playoff spot, but they had been on a hot streak, beating the likes of Detroit and Dallas in the process.

And how about Manny?! Just killing it. Scores on the first shot of the game, just 42 seconds in. Obviously Manny did not think this was sufficient, so he decided to score 17 seconds into the second period. Both were just back-breaking goals and took the Ducks out of both periods before they even started. But lets not forget about the goalie. Another Vancouver goalie hit a milestone this weekend in southern California, with Cory Schneider getting his first NHL shutout stopping 26 shots. He looked, well, like he has all year, awesome. He made some big saves and looked very sharp. I hope to see more of him down the stretch to give Luongo some rest.

In other news, the Canucks called up Viktor Oreskovich from Manitoba today. This was in relation to Mason Raymond being injured in the game yesterday. No word on if Raymond will be out, so I think this is just a precautionary move. Also, Chris Higgins seems to be ready, and could also fill in for Raymond. So we shall see how this plays out.

NOTP UPDATE: Life has been insanely busy lately. I planned on doing the Weekly Grades today at lunch, but had to take my car in for repairs instead. So I planned on doing it tomorrow, but I am now working through lunch because my brother will be in town, and I have been told to be ready to party (I made that PG, he used much more colorful language). So I have no idea when I will be ready to grade, or if I will catch the game tomorrow night. Still pondering the idea of bringing on another person, but I am even too busy to get that done at this moment. Oh and the only way I am able to post this is by skipping my work duties, so back to it! Thanks for your patience.

A Win Wrapped In Penalties Is Still A Win

The big story of the evening came at the final horn. Roberto Luongo won his 30th game of the year, and 300th of his career. He currently sits at fourth on the all-time wins list for active goalies, behind Martin Brodeur (by about 316), Chris Osgood (401), Nikolai Khabibulin (316). Osgood has been injured most of this year, and Khabibulin is most likely done. Getting to Brodeur will be a gargantuan feat, but nobody thought he would get so many, so who knows. 

The game was full of penalties, and at times the Canucks looked shakey, but ultimately pulled it off. It was clear this game had the potential to get out of hand when Jannik Hansen blasted a Kings player (it escapes me who it was). It could have been considered dirty, as it appeared he used his elbow. However, the Kings responded with zero class. Drew Doughty intentionally high-stick Henrik right in the face, and only got a two-minute, but the NHL always follows their great code of "If the player didn't get hurt, then its ok." Doughty redeemed himself in the third period though, when he got a diving penalty when Burrows pushed him and he fell like an Italian soccer player. Nice job making people forget your sub-par year man.

Alexei Ponikorovsky decided he too wanted people to remember who he was, since he has been absent from the score sheet for much of the year. So he drove Dan Hamhuis's head into the boards. Thats cool, Alexei, not like the guy just got back from a concussion or anything. Must be just venting from the fact he has nine points in 44 games. I would say thats under-achieving, but its just Alexei being Alexei. Fortunately Dan didn't get hurt, but the NHL will do nothing, because of that fact. Thanks Gary and Colin, but good job ruining Marc Savard's career.

The Kings continued their streak of acting like Italian soccer players, by complaining about Daniel's game-winning goal 8:24 into the first. They felt Burrows made contact with their goalie Jonathan Quick, and they are correct. He brushed against him, outside the crease. Doughty is the one who crashed into him. But apparently the Kings don't know about replays, because they are still complaining. Whatever, this is what bad teams do, when they can't compete.