viking mama

He’s carrying his form through from last year. Solid & pretty reliable. The team is actually gaining confidence with him between the pipes back there.

Happy playing whichever goal is on a roll & gives ‘em the best chance to win. Want to see Martin push Demmer to be better. A regular start in VAN’s crease is no longer a guarantee for Demko.

Hmmm. Food for thought. I think it is possible that some new cliques have formed. Russians, Swedes, Americans, old-timers, & the young-stars…may be they are not being as open or equally-generous with all of their teammates on the ice, in terms of their trust during playmaking. Repeatedly losing quickly becomes like having an albatross hung around each of their necks, especially when they already know how consequential these early season losses can be. What breeds confidence? Consistantly losing leads sounds like a failure in team tenacity, fitness, grit, and/or communication…generally degrading their over-all team-D. Up the quotient in just a couple of these categories & I would expect to see some better results, & a few more Ws at least. Shooting practice, too - way more of that, as the close calls & near misses are absolutely haunting, now! As neat segway, have a happy Hallowe’en!

I’m okay with playing the hotter goalie of the 2,… all year long.

4th lines have been good for 2 seasons. It’s a RD & D depth issue & integrating too many new faces, year to year. System got tweaked & now it still has glitches. They have to find their game & roll with it a good long while, so that the chemistry & speed of play builds a synergy, that I hope one day goes through the roof! Boudreau & management just aren’t getting it done for the players off the ice & losing ANY more of these closely-called games, where each & every poor call against just “grates”…well, let’s just say that this part of our Canucks’ historical reality is getting all the more difficult for the players to stomach. I pray that playing back at home, perhaps with McDermott in the lineup, helps them to flip-a-switch, and bring some more light & levity back into their locker room, again.

I’m almost ready to say good-bye to BB6, too. There are shinier objects in the drawer.

I’m soooo late to this party…listening via radio. Is it a celebration, pitty party, or something worse? I want to remain hopeful, but perhaps, all of the changes to personnel, early injuries, & tweaks to the system that management want Boudreau to make,…is too much to situationally handle coming out of the gate. It’s all about this team’s chemistry, which will definitely improve team speed & confidence over time - but they CANNOT drop away like lead balloons early, like last season! I refuse to believe that can happen, again. C’mon!!

KB3 is in my heart & soul to stay! A forever Canuck! That has always been a given! Cheers to this news!

Sure. But, it was solid momentum that was literally STOLEN! Yes, they need to shoot the puck,…with authority, confidence & on net! ^They will need to practice a whole lot more of that, too!

Turning point - Kane’s high-sticking non-call on Hughes. Sutherland puts another scarring mark on the’Nucks, again. Would have been 4-0 a minute or two later had that call been made. Ughhhhhhhh!!!

Petey break-away or one of our Russians will break this tie!

Good Go - Podz!

I’m beyond pissy now! Answer back ‘Nucks! Score some MORE!!!!

Sutherland: as we all know him to be! Anti-Canucks until he’s outta hockey or 6 ft under, guaranteed. The worst! League insiders know that he has their favorites’ backs at all times! How is he even allowed to work a Canucks’ game with his horrific history with our team. We have a thorough case to have him black-balled, I tell ya! At least in play-offs. Kane: you dirty dog! Clearly getting breaks as an Oiler. Ugh! Rutherford: call your insider pals and deal with this, ASAP! Letting a bad boy carve-up your all-star defenseman, on purpose, cannot go unpunished - let alone rewarded. Can’t green-light that kind of abuse or incompetence by the officials for the season. Should be able to review all injuries for transgressions.

RHD are as sought after as centres, and those teams with spares (CGY) aren’t inclined to part with one - especially to aid a division rival. I think Tanev’s unceremonious departure was a particular blow to the club, since they have not managed to adequately replace him - since. I also find it funny that Stillman thinks he can contribute to this team in the same way he had while in FLA or CHI. Good luck with that! VAN is NOT in the league BOG President’s good graces nor in his enabled & protected voting block! Unless Rutherford’s presence has suddenly opened up a door for the Vancouver Canucks & the Aquilinis to become instant insiders,..Stillman & the team’s other D-men, better hope the forward group plays defense off-the-charts better than last season, to endure the anticipated penalty parade.

This is going be a running theme in these ‘Lames vs ‘ Nucks games. ‘Lames won’t waste too much muscle-energy on out of conference games, but in their division & versus elite potential conference play-off opponents,.., they just want to hurt people! The ‘Lames won’t be taking the high road anywhere & many NHL refs are totally incompetent traffic cops, anyway.

Just in! What’s the recap? Was it a very brutal Mikeyev give-away on the goal against? Are both Elias Pettersens playing in this same game?

At some point, at sometime, during camp or whenever, I’d be fun to deploy a red-line of Podz, Kuz & Micky - all together. I’d like to see it! Even if practicing - 3 vs 3! I’m dreamin’ with a large screw loose & it’s likely an impossible ask, but have any of these 3 ever played centre? Mikayev may well be as defensively shifty & fast as any D-man 3 vs 3? Would knowledge of the language used as chatter upon the ice…help or hurt this trio? Are all of these speculations & musings just a waste my time?

I still can’t shake the sight in 2011 of watching Mason Raymond being hoisted to his feet & dragged off of the ice after sustaining a (broken) back injury. Good grief, even my simple first aider’s training told me to do a whole lot more than that. I think this organization, in the human performance & health management side of things, then took a turn for the worse…misdiagnosing Cody Hodgins back woes, poorly addressing player concussions, rib & ankle injuries and green-lighting players to return too soon - only to have them re-injure themselves & be side-lined for much longer - Petey among them. But, perhaps the worst failing was the incompetent COVID protocols and/or the lax testing procedures that saw the Vancouver Canucks organization, its’ players & their families likely suffer the most (in that short-lived Canadian division season, surely) compared to other NHL teams,..while being under their guidance, monitoring & over-sight. I just hope that this newly formed human performance & health management crew is by reputation among the “best of the best” & that they will reflect upon this team’s past-history to view any training mis-step or medical failing, as one of their more proficient teachers.

Is it candidness tho’? A whole chunk of his work history trying to maligne & thwart the Canucks franchise after he departed from them - was left out of his book. Pat Quinn, a forever Canuck, would have been spinning in his grave if he knew even the half of it. Burke is simply too vindictive, petty & mercenary to achieve the levels of loyalty &/or dignity, that a person such as his mentor, Pat Quinn inspired. HNIC & the NHL will continue to have Burke’s back and will always white/wash his dirtiest deeds, just like they did for Mark Messier. Hell, Messier even got a modern-day NHL Leadership Award named after himself, despite being a league-wide enabled head/hunter & notorious cheat….& THAT honour gets bestowed while progressives are challenging hockey culture to demand better & far more accountable role-models going into 21st century! ^Nonsensical mixed-messaging, am I right? Go figure!

From reports, the woman involved was interested in being with just one of the players, and then was set-up for a different kind of encounter or duped. Intoxication was likely a factor, & her subsequent words a way to make the reality less devastating than it was & endure the betrayal or get out perhaps less scathed than she feared she might otherwise be. Looking at the roster of 2018 players, I’d be horrified to learn if any current NHL stars thought that this was the most dignified way to behave, while they had the honour of representing their country in such an elevated way. Maybe these more famous NHLers were not the players directly involved, yet guilt or taint by mere association, without the proper disclosures to suggest otherwise, will be their reality & could quite possibly hurt their branding & marketability, too. Therefore, headliners like Cale Makar, Dante Fabbro, Dillon Dube, Maxime Comtoi, Carter Hart & others must be feeling more than just a little ill at ease these days, to say the very least.

Don’t get me started! Answer to this question is a super easy one! I love KB3 the most, by far! Brian Burke is completely dead to me, after turning turncoat on the Canucks’ organization & the Aquilinis after they did an end-run around the Gaglardi group to purchase the team. The Gaglardis would have likely retained Brian’s bosom-buddy, Dave Nonis, as the team’s GM. The Aquilini’s had other plans & hired outsider & former player-agent, Mike Gillis. A rivalrous feud was already on between Mike & Brian. They had been adversarial during the team’s more sour dealings with Pavel Bure. Brian admits to being one of the more vindictive persons in hockey - still. He once said that any feud started by the Irish man he’d expect his son to continue after his death. Burke has been a very painful thorn, even a rusty nail, in the side of our Canucks, ever since. I hope Brian’s tears, at the jersey-raising ceremony for the Sedin twins, was for literally costing them their best chance at hoisting the Stanley Cup. He advised the interim league/sheriff (post recusal of Colin Campbell) on the Rome suspension - still seen historically as the harshest & most unjustified ruling in SC Final history. ^Brian should have recused “himself” from that process in every way - but he did NOT & his involvement was disclosed to the press only later on that same summer. Burke had axes to grind & more favor to find, and this Bostonian’s favors definitely came home to roost big-time! That one decision coupled with the non/suspension to Boyle after he broke Mason Raymond’s back with a non-called pitchfork hoist, turned the inevitable tide in the series the league President’s team’s way! Bravo to you, Brian! Burke also tried to steal the Sedins out from under the Canucks as they were entering free agency. He told them their closest friends on the team were being shopped around to insinuate a lack of loyalty to them, - which is tampering! A Mickey Mouse fine of sorts & a reprimand was assessed. Burke was the chief architect of the un-grandfathered long-term contract cap recapture scheme that hurt upstart marketplaces like VAN & suddenly Roberto Luongo’s contract sucked! Burke meddled in local hockey matters too, by pulling support from the Chilliwack Bruins, refusing to sell to a player/lead group wanting to keep them there, and then - suddenly he’s got his mitts on an AHL farm-team in Abby with less nearby market competition. He took his greatest rivals’ backyard rink availability/space away from ‘em & hard-balled VAN on offers requesting he give the location up, despite no self-respecting Canucks fans wanting to root for his baby ‘Lames. The dude has received consulting fees via many of the Canucks’ division rivals. Phhffffftt to you, Burke! Burke’s son is surprisingly named to the DPS, tho’ clearly under-qualified as a short-term NHL scout & not the long-tenured playing professional peer, that the DPS said it requires by it’s own publicly declared standards! Quid-pro-quo for 2011 SCup high-jinx? This is where those consulting fees must come in handy now, huh? IMO: KB3 is entertaining & instructive as a HNIC panel member. He’s quick-witted & a jovial sports hero with miles of cred amongst his peers & the public combined. Brian Burke is a narcissist. He’s admittedly a vindictive blow-hard, with a plethora of anecdotes & tales but not all of them accurate, truthful or properly disclosed. As time goes by, he’s become less of a hero & more of a zero to me. Look at your history with below board deals & dirty tricks and wear ‘em, Brian! I want to read your confessionals in THAT book, before I applaud anything you may have left to say, again.