Sweden defeats Germany 5-2

Sweden defeated Germany 5-2 earlier today. The German trap could not keep the Swedes off the board, Sweden put the game away in the second and cruised to victory in what I imagine was a very boring 3rd period of hockey. Of note to Canuck fans, Daniel and Henrik Sedin were healthy scratches(I wouldnt read anything into that).

CBC game recap

TSN game recap

World Cup of Hockey - Day 2

Day two has Germany taking on Sweden (10am pst, CBC & ESPN) and the USA taking on Canada(4pm pst, CBC ESPN2).

It looks like Canada is counting on a physical game from the Americans at the Bell Centre in Montreal tonight. Kirk Maltby, Patrick Marleau, and Kris Draper will be scratched up front in favor of the bigger trio of Brendan Morrow, Joe Thornton and Shane Doan. I'm a little surprised that Morrow is in, but again, the Americans will be physical and the size up front will be put to use. On defense there aren't any surprises as the young boys Jay Boumeester and Scott Hannen will be out.

Betweeen the pipes, Martin Brodeur will be starting for Canada, and Robert Esche will be backstopping the American squad.

TSN has a CP article

Back with more later...

Update: Team Canada games can be heard online via The Team 1040.

Note if you use Windows Media Player, you can enter this url in your Media Player rather than the stupid html window http://meta.insinc.com/team1040/live.asx. This also allows you to save this to your "media library" so you can easily play it again without visiting the website. Oh and for during the regular season(if there is one) you can do the same for CKNW with mms://66.250.188.10/CKNW_AM

World Cup of Hockey Under Way

The World Cup of Hockey got under way this morning with the Finns defeating the Czechs 4-0. Did I not say to watch out for the Finns? ;). The Czechs managed only 12 shots on goal... Sami Salo had an assist on the Finns 3rd goal.

Germany takes on Sweden tomorrow(10am pst) and of course Canada is up against the United States(4pm pst). Expect a game preview some time tomorrow or later tonight.

Other notes from the World Cup... Peter Bondra is likely done for the tournament after breaking his wrist while blocking a shot against Canada on Saturday, the Slovaks are in tough now....Russia will be without G Evgeni Nabokov as he has not fully recovered from minor surgery...D Chris "Dirty Bastard" Chelios was named captain of the American squad.

Anyone else annoyed at the start time for Canadian games? Its bad enough that there isn't a single game west of Ontario(Minny doesnt count) but we also get 4pm Pacific start times... would it really be too much to ask for 5pm pst/8pm est start times?

Note to Internet Explorer users

Just a quick note to Microsoft Internet Explorer users, right now the layout is a little buggy in IE. When I get a chance I'll work out the kinks(Firefox is fine btw).

Rumours, Rumours, Rumours...

If you are familiar with the Canuck online community you are probably aware of a couple rumours floating around. The first involves the sale of the Canucks and the second involves the signing of free agent Paul Kariya.

It's no secret that the Canucks have been up for sale. It's also not much of a secret, that one of the potential local ownership groups includes a Mr. Gaglardi, the owner of the Sandman hotel chain. However there is a bit of 'new rumour' in this one, and that is McCaw willing to sell 100% of Orca Bay. It seems logical that anyone wanting to buy the Canucks would also want Orca Bay, and in turn GM Place, perhaps McCaw has come to the conclusion that he must give up the whole thing if he wants to sell any of it.

The other rumour is the potential signing of free agent, home town boy, Paul Kariya. Again anyone could make this rumour up, as its pretty obvious that the Canucks would be interested in at least talking with Kariya and Kariya would probably enjoy the Canucks' style of play, not to mention playing in his hometown. The rumour is that Kariya wants a long term deal with a no trade clause(something the Burke regime would have been unwilling to do, has Nonis changed this policy?). Last season Kariya demonstrated that money isn't his top priority(he made boat loads in Anaheim) and that the style of play and a chance to win is very important to him. An interesting tidbit in this latest rumour is that Kariya didn't sign with Vancouver last season because he doesn't like Brian Burke. I am not aware of any history between the two but hey, there are a lot of people who don't like Brian Burke. So how much does Kariya help the Canucks? Well that's a debate for another day.

While these rumours are just that, they are definitely believable and their roots have been around for awhile. Remember the rumours, that started almost a year a go, of Brian Burke leaving the organization? Many wouldn't believe them, even up to Burke's final days... and look what happened.

"Where there's smoke, there's usually fire"

This blog is ugly!!!

Yes its not that great and it does not fit the Canuck theme, I am well aware of that. I hope to have a nice Canuck theme up ASAP, in the meantime I hope you can put up with this current version.

Its all about the content anyway isnt it? (or maybe that sucks too ;))

UPDATE: Ok I couldnt stand that other theme so I decided to whip something up. It's not great and it's definately not complete but hey it's better than nothing. Plus I doubt anyone is reading this yet anyway. I'll keep chippin away at the design...

Phoenix and Calgary Swing a deal.

The Phoenix Coyotes have signed Petr Nedved to a 3 year deal and they have also dealt Daymond Langkow to Calgary for Denis Gauthier and Oleg Saprykin.

TSN with the story.

Looks like Calgary has found a replacement for the loss of Conroy although Langkow has never lived up to his potential. Obviously Sutter was never a fan of Saprykin but it's interesting that they would give up on him after his breakout season and surprsingly strong playoff perfomance.

With the signing of Nedved, Brett Hull and the acquisition of Mike Comrie the Coyotes are looking to put a competitive team on the ice this year(well if there is a season, more on that below). I must say Gretzky and company are doing a pretty solid job down in the desert. It started with changing those terrible uniforms and now they are acquiring some nice players to complement their new jerseys and new building.

In other NHL news, it looks like labour negotiations are getting nasty(again) this time NHL VP Bill Daly had this to say: "I'm very frustrated and concerned right now because I think we're engaged in a charade.... The union is not willing to negotiate with us"

Enjoy the world cup folks, cause it's the only hockey we will be getting for a while.

And yes I am aware of the Bertuzzi news, but I am keeping this a "Bertuzzi Free Zone" until the day he is back on the ice.

Vancouver Canucks at the World Cup

Well the World Cup of Hockey is set to get underway next week and there will be several players representing the Vancouver Canucks.

Team Canada will have Ed Jovanovksi patrolling the blue line. With Rob Blake and Chris Pronger both out of the tournament, Jovanovski will play a very important role on what is an unusually young Canadian defense core.

The Canucks will have four Swedish players in the tournament led by Canuck captain Markus Naslund. Joining Naslund are Mattias Ohlund and the Sedin twins. I don't know about you folks but I am very much looking forward to seeing how much progress Daniel and Henrik have made this offseason. I have also considered staring up a pool to see who can guess how many times Bob Cole will refer to the "Sundins"(and while I am at it how many times do you think Cole will refer to the Swedes as the Finns?)

There will be two Canucks playing for the Czech Republic, that is if you still consider Martin Rucinsky a Canuck. Joining Rucinsky will be Marek "The Gentle Giant" Malik as well as former two time Canuck Jiri Slegr.

Some of you may be surprised to know that the Canucks also have a representative on team Slovakia. 27 year old Jaroslav Obsut will add some depth to the Slovaks defense. Obsut had a pretty solid year(65gp 11g 26a 37pts) on what was a pretty bad Manitoba Moose team.

Artem Chubarov will join a depleted Russian squad who will be without the likes of Sergei Federov, Valeri Bure, Alexei Zhamnov, Evgeni Nabokov and Nikolai Khabibulin. Chubarov will most likely center a checking line although he could see some time with some of Russia's many skilled wingers.

Rounding out the Canucks World Cup contribution are Fins Sami Salo and Jarkko Ruutu. Watch out for the Finns folks. Backed by very strong goaltending this team can match up with any other team in the tournament and are likely to surprise a few people.