thema

...and both left under a cloud...

...and that's the rub, innit?

Funny those weren't the numbers when I checked; maybe I misread them. You are right; .926 is very good. Strange to think that unless they make the playoffs this year Lou will have played the equivalent of EIGHT seasons with them where they haven't made the playoffs. despite playing the best hockey of his career with them.

Curious tidbit: both Lou and Miller have very similar numbers this year on their respective teams (which are roughly of equal quality). Neither could be considered "elite" by any definition at this time.

Actually he said neither; a tiny detail that didn't come out for a week was that the whole conversation was in French which makes exact translation difficult...

Hey Deb howsabout you stop putting words in my mouth. I NEVER SAID that Burr is the only guy to trash talk in the league. I just said that Burr is well known for his trash talk and I agree with you that trash talking is classless and, furthermore, I think all it does is wake up the opposition and make them play better. I guess you thought it was just fine for Burr and Kes to be talking trash about David Backes' wife (Kes' ex girlfriend) saying such classy things such as " she's a GOOD girl" (do I need to translate the meaning of this to you? Hope not). I didn't; I thought it was disgraceful and wouldn't have been surprised if Backes rammed his stick down Kesler's throat till it came out his behind (I would pay money to see the next face to face meeting between Kelly and Kesler. I hope she has a drink in her hand when it happens). I still like to believe that hockey is the classiest sport of all the major ones and crapola like trash talk embarrasses me as a hockey fan. If you MUST yap at the opposition at least be like Esa Tikkanen who at least left them rolling in the aisles. P.S. I think you mean "pre game skate" where Auger says he told Burrows that "I'll be watching you"; understandable given the circumstances of the previous game where Burrows executed a gigantic dive that fooled Auger and cost Nashville the game. Of course you probably have an excuse for that as well just like you do for his biting, hair pulling etc.

There was as much "proof" that Auger said what Burrows alleges than there was that Burrows said to Tootoo. The big diff is that there would be no reason for Auger to say "I'm going to get you tonight" whereas Burrows is well known for his classless trash talking. Love him as a player, not so crazy about him as a person.

Not this time. Stephane Auger says hi.

...and Burrows has?

Wow I compared Lou to Liut years ago. I agree completely. Nobody remembers Liut even though he won the Pearson one year in a block of seasons where only Gretzky won it.

I really think we owe it to Slack Eddie to give him a chance to make this team his own. He played very well indeed considering all of the injuries and the fact that Torts played him to death down the stretch, something that I am sure Willie D. won't do. As for Marko I don't think he has been given much of a chance at the NHL level and should be given one at training camp and in the early going of the season. If he's still shaky then I say find a capable veteran backup for the short term but I think Eddie is our goalie of the future. He's earned it.

This. I find it rather amusing that Torts is getting blamed for just about everything that has ever gone wrong with the Canucks including, incredibly, the rash of injuries that our top players suffered last year, injuries that were apparently the result of his making players accountable both defensively and offensively. Clearly he wasn't a terrific fit here but IMHO at least this team's failures last year are hardly all his fault. He certainly didn't win a Cup and become the winningest U.S. born coach in NHL history by being an idiot.

Not sure exactly what... you mean by this...Eakins has both played and coached in the NHL whereas Willie...hasn't. In fact Willie has only two years of ... pro level coaching experience ... and he's already 47...ten years older than Eakins. having said that I have a good feeling about this guy while freely admitting that i don't know much about him other than he seems to be on a roll, a roll I hope continues.

So Dustin Brown as captain works for you then, eh?

You can be like me and fart thunder. But then I'm probably a lot older than most here...

The one thing that the tinfoil hat brigade aren't factoring in is the New York-centric start times for ALL the games in the finals which would explain the slow starts that LA has got off two in the first two games. Last game started THREE HOURS before their accustomed home ice start time which makes a huge difference IMHO. The Rags get to start every game exactly when they are used to starting their home games which is a big advantage sez I. Conspiracy? No. Pandering to the (much larger) eastern time zone TV audience. Yup.

What makes me laugh is that there's threads saying that everything is Torts' fault; some blame the fans (like this one) others blame the media. The more lunatic fringe insist that there is a league wide conspiracy directly against Vancouver for whatever crazy reasons that they can concoct. Me, I have this sort of avant garde idea that perhaps the players are to blame, injuries notwithstanding. Guess that makes me a troll...

4:30 start time in L.A., eh? Hmmm. Looks like the Rags get to start every game in this series at the time they are used to while the Kings have to adjust their daily game routine. All to keep the massive bloc of Eastern viewers interested. Bogus.

I agree. All this talk of "Bertuzzi-ing" players makes me want to puke. Grow up people! Looks like not such a terrible fall, wonder what happened? Hope he is OK; tough year for him...

Gotta laugh at the constant Sturm hate here. For a fanbase whose motto seems to be "just give him some more time" it's fairly amusing to see how much hate a guy can get for having played 6 whole games here.

Imagine if we could get Willie as a defensive coach once he retires... Or even as a cheap 6th 7th guy when his contract runs out.

You forgot to mention turning around the perception of the team to the NHL who seem to view us as a bunch of "thinking-outside-the-box" divers, whiners and (sometimes) cheapshot artists a lot of the time. Trevor will almost certainly help change that... provided of course that we stop diving and cheapshotting players. I'm certain that he will encourage a new way of thinking when it comes to things like team pride and "hard" play; we won't be wimps but we won't be goons either. I'm sure potential free agents will be much more likely to consider Vancouver as a serious destination with him at the helm. We'll be like... well a lot like Trevor Linden was as a player. Hopefully.

That what MG did. Could Linden do any worse? I doubt it...

Burrows has made his bed a long time ago and now he has to sleep in it. Even now, when he hasn't been diving or embellishing anywhere near as much as he used to he will get cut no slack by the officials if he embellishes a hit which he sure seems to have done here. I think it can be agreed by most people here if Burrows got a broken jaw out of this hit Nino would have probably got a fine or a game or two. As the old saying goes you can't fight City Hall.

Maybe the fact that Burrows sold it HARD, then played dead, then left the game looking like he'd been seriously hurt only to return hale and hearty only minutes later (for the second game in a row no less) was a factor in the non-suspension. The hit itself was borderline at worst.