Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Love My Dog

My boy and I were on our way to the local veterinary to put my dog, Daisy down. I was upset, drunk and pissed off at the whole situation. That's when it happened. Young Billy said, "Dad, I'm real sorry about Daisy." I replied, "I'd rather it was you I was putting down. Now pass me another Lucky and tune in the Canuck game, you son of a bitch".

Chicago's Duncan Keith opened the scoring at 13:26 of the first period. Canucks Steve Bernier scored on the power play to tie the game at :46 of the second period. Chicago regained the lead at 18:51 into the second period scored by Troy Brouwer.

Vancouver Canucks  goalie Roberto Luongo(notes) (1), Ryan Kesler(notes) (17), and Kevin Bieksa(notes) (3) defend against Chicago Blackhawks center Patrick Sharp(notes) during the third period of their NHL Hockey game Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009 in Chicago.  The Canucks won 3-2.

Early in the third period, Willie Mitchell came out of the penalty box and laid out a nut crunching body-check to a chin-down Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews, that's when I knew the Canucks would get their first road win of the season. Toews did not return after the hit.

Vancouver tied the game at 2 when Ryan Kesler absorbed a crushing blue-line hit before releasing a passed which rookie Michael Grabner buried for his first NHL goal. Mikael Samuelsson scored the game winner with 3 minutes left in the game. It was his second game winner of the year.

Roberto Luongo stole the show in the last 10 minutes by putting up some acrobatic game winning saves.

Badbilly

As My Cigarette Burns

"Can you smoke outside, honey? It's bothering the baby."
That's the question my woman asked me the other night. I couldn't believe the nerve of her to ask me, the head of the house, to leave his favorite chair and stand in the cold of night. I told her, "If it bothers the boy, put him outside with the damn dog and on your way back, grab me a cold Lucky. I'm trying to watch the god damn hockey game!"

Both goaltenders played exceptionally well ,but in the end ,Oilers Nikolai Khabibulin came on-top with a 2-1 victory over Roberto Luongos road win-less Vancouver Canucks.Khabibulin pushed away 39 shot to Luongos 27 to earn him first star of the game.
Steve Bernier scored his second goal of the season ,assisted by Kyle Wellwood to open the scoring in the first period.The Oilers first goal was scored when the Vancouver defence gave away the slot to Patrick O’Sullivan at the 26 second mark of the second period.The winning goal came in the third period when Sam Gagner wrist shot from the slot, beat Luongo.

Vancouver almost tied the game with zero seconds on the clock.Kyle Wellwood was a half second to late after the Canucks pulled their goaltender for a extra attacker,he slip it through Khabibulin legs after a coast to coast rush down the left side .The video replay showed the puck crossed the line after the buzzer.

It was a very tame game to watch,not much aggression from either team.The lack of bone crushing body checks made it easy to believe that this game was played in Europe rather than in Edmonton.Rick Rypien did try to bring on some spark when he drop the gloves with Zack Stortini .Rypien the smaller of the two by 60 lbs, put on a great show and manhandled the heavy-weight in front of the Edmonton fans.
Vancouver Canucks' Rick Rypien (L) and Edmonton Oilers' Zack Stortini fight during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Edmonton October 19, 2009.


Vancouver better step it up , when they take on the 5-2-1 Chicago Blackhawks if they hope to get their first 2 points on the road.

Badbilly

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Canucks tame the Wild

The Vancouver Canucks played a solid 60 minutes of hockey tonight at GM place to defeat the injury plague against Minnesota Wild 2-1.

The Wilds Andrew Brunette extended his 7 game point streak with an assist to Mikko Koivu for the opening goal of the first period. The Canucks out-shot the Wild, 10-4 in the first period alone, but couldn't put anything past Niklas Backstrom, the 31 year old native of Helsinki, Finland.

At 4:23 of the 2nd period, Ryan Kesler took advantage of a stick-less Niklas Backstrom to tie the game. The Canucks were all over the Wild in the 2nd period and they out shot the Wild, 27-8. The period ended with 1-1.
Vancouver dominated the 3rd and final frame. Mikael Samuelsson scored his 4th team leading goal of the year for the winner. Roberto Luongo only faced 18 shot on the night and he played a good game compared to the 2 recent games.
The Kesler line was full of high energy. The Kesler, Grabner, and Raymond line had 17 of the 39 shots on net. The 3 stars of the game were Backstrom, Kesler, and Raymond.
The Canucks are playing the 4 and 2 Oilers, Monday night. Hopefully they continue to play a full 60 minute game and start putting pucks in the net! The well rested Oilers haven't played since they beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Friday night.

Badbilly

Western Conference
Central GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
Chicago85211129233-1-12-1-05-2-1
Columbus65101018123-0-02-1-05-1-0
St Louis6321719151-2-02-0-13-2-1
Detroit7331722253-1-10-2-03-3-1
Nashville7241510221-3-01-1-12-4-1
Northwest GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
Colorado86111327182-0-04-1-16-1-1
Calgary85211130283-1-02-1-15-2-1
Edmonton7421928213-1-11-1-04-2-1
Vancouver7340622233-1-00-3-03-4-0
Minnesota7160215251-0-00-6-01-6-0
Pacific GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
Phoenix75201018102-1-03-1-05-2-0
Dallas7313924201-1-12-0-23-1-3
San Jose8431925232-0-12-3-04-3-1
Los Angeles8440824282-1-02-3-04-4-0
Anaheim7331716211-2-02-1-13-3-1
Eastern Conference
Atlantic GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
NY Rangers87101432154-0-03-1-07-1-0
Pittsburgh87101428182-1-05-0-07-1-0
New Jersey7430818191-3-03-0-04-3-0
Philadelphia6321721191-1-12-1-03-2-1
NY Islanders6033313230-2-10-1-20-3-3
Northeast GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
Ottawa75201022163-1-02-1-05-2-0
Buffalo6411918123-1-11-0-04-1-1
Boston7340620232-3-01-1-03-4-0
Montréal7250415240-2-02-3-02-5-0
Toronto7061114320-4-10-2-00-6-1
Southeast GPWLOTPTSGFGAHOMEAWAYL10
Washington84221028243-1-11-1-14-2-2
Atlanta5410820131-0-03-1-04-1-0
Tampa Bay7232617272-0-10-3-12-3-2
Carolina7241515222-1-10-3-02-4-1
Florida6240414221-2-01-2-02-4-0
x - clinched playoff spoty - clinched divisionz - clinched conference
p - clinched Presidents' Trophy (best record in NHL)

GP - Games PlayedW - Wins
L - LossesOT - OT/Shootout losses (worth one point)
PTS - Points


Badbilly

Friday, October 16, 2009

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

We need a huge shake up in the Canucks organization. Get rid of the coaches, hire Wayne Gretzky. What the hell is going on? The last 2 games were very hard for me to watch, but I did. Playing 0nly 20 minutes of a 60 minute game wont give you victory.
The only good thing that the Canucks are doing right, is the fighting.

It's a little too late to wake up when the score is 5-0.That is what the Canucks tried to do tonight.They were nonexistent in the first 2 periods.Roberto Luongo gave up a hideous 5 goals before being replaced by Andrew Raycroft .

Rick Rypien, Mikael Samuelsson and Christian Ehrhoff were the goal scorers for the Canucks.

Perhaps start Andrew Raycroft is the answer we need right now.He is playing a lot better than Roberto Luongo who has been pulled twice in the last 4 games.Maybe even sit a couple of the so called stars (Willie Mitchell,Keven Bieksa and Henric Sedin).The Canucks have to do something and do it now before they are 10 or 15 points behind Calgary.
The Canucks are lucky to 2-4 so far this season.
Canuck coach Alain Vigneault chose to praise the Flames, rather than rip his own team.I do not like that kind of coaching,a coach should challenge his team,not praise the other team.

Tonight Vancouver is hosting Minnesota Wild ,hopefully they will come out with a little enthusiasm and get back to basics of playing hard Canadian hockey.

The Canucks are starting to piss me off..

Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, left, watches Calgary Flames' Curtis Glencross celebrate a goal by teammate defenceman Dion Phaneuf during second period NHL hockey action in Calgary, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Badbilly