Category: NHL

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The Crazy Canucks #7 – Vancouver and the Canucks lose power

Recorded and posted tonight, episode #7 of The Crazy Canucks is ready for you.

Even though the last few games have all been losses, we still get together to record this episode because when it comes down to it, you can’t stop Canucks fan. Alanah was unable to join us on this episode due to technical problems, but the rest of the crew was here. We also experience some technical issues of our own during the podcast, but the cause was most likely due to an awful storm that hit Vancouver in the last 48 hours, leaving many without power and residents to boil their water until further notice.

Record as of this podcast: 8-10-1 (4th in the Northwest Division)

There’s only so much that you can say as to what’s going wrong with the team, but we all agree that the answer is simple: we need more scoring. Three games against Anaheim, Calgary, and Detroit all resulted in more numbers in the loss column, but there are always shades of positive points that keep things looking promising. We look at some slight changes to the roster, address stupid trade rumors, and do our duty of being faithful Canucks fans.

The Crazy Canucks

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Long lost brother from Middle Earth

Lord Naslund, King of GM PlaceWe watched all of the extended editions of Lord of the Rings recently. I can’t help but see this similarity. Markus Naslund[wiki], especially with his longer hair this season and a bit of facial hair, is oddly similar in appearance to Aragorn from the films. Only if there was some elvish magic or wizardry to make pucks go into the goal.

By the way, check out the recently, redesigned Canucks website. It looks slick, and they did something to really improve the load time. The players looking at you in the upper right portion of the screen still weirds me out a little bit, but what a great way to showcase all the guys on the team. My question is how well they will update it when new guys come up or players get traded.

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All a guy wants is some entertainment

Rebecca had to work late tonight, and I had hoped to catch something on TV to entertain me. I didn’t want to watch Hereos or Studio 60 tonight so that we could catch those together later. I did catch some Corner Gas tonight, but that was only a half hour of wackiness.

Hockey on TV!What I didn’t get was hockey. The Canucks don’t play until tomorrow night, but I thought, at the very least, that some other game would be shown. Out of what we do get on our cable package, there wasn’t a single game on the tube. There was Monday Night Football, but out of the six games played in the NHL tonight, none of them were televised in our area. All I could get was Sportscentre recaps.

Geez. I live in Canada, right?

Speaking of the Canucks, we have got to beat the pants off of Detroit tomorrow night. The last game against Calgary was painful. I would nearly say embarassing, but it was one of those nights that make you sick from the collapse we saw on the ice. The Flames are making me eat my words from the last episode of The Crazy Canucks.

Luongo is still my boy, but if it takes pulling a J.J. and calling him out to start playing better, then let this be it, loud and freaking clear.

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The Crazy Canucks #6 – Hanging in there

This one was a doozy. Problems during the recording almost lost the whole thing. Putting together everything that remained wasn’t the easiest thing. I stuck with it and got episode #6 published this morning.

This episode had a lot of bumps to work through before it was published, and this might be a good comparison to what the Canucks are going through right now. Unlike the Canucks, everyone was here for this one. That couldn’t stop a few problems from creeping up, but, much like the Canucks, we worked our way towards a stellar finish.

Record as of this podcast: 8-7-1 (2nd in the Northwest Division)

There were a variety things to cover, including the two losses against Minnesota and Colorado, a hard fought win in Dallas, injuries and changes to the defence, and we can’t seem to keep away from the goalie debate. There’s a lot here, so listen in to check out the latest brouhaha that The Crazy Canucks has to offer.

Also, be sure to check out the recently redesigned Canucks.com website. Looking good, guys!

The Crazy Canucks

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The Crazy Canucks #5 – What the world needs now is more Ovechkin

Episode #5 of The Crazy Canucks was recorded tonight. I’ll also add that this was the first time with Rebecca fully in control of things, allowing me to take a back seat on the technical side and really have fun with the discussion. This won’t be the last time she gets to run the whole show for sure.  In the final edit, I ran this through Levelator as an experiment.

We go ‘Dave-less’ this episode as Alanah, JJ, John and Rebecca bring you this week’s discussion. The Ovechkins Capitals were in town on Friday and JJ shares his experience being at the game. From the awe-inspiring young Russians of the league, goalie showdowns, to shootouts.

Murmurs about the crazy schedules, that only bring players by once every election year, who we’d like to see more of and who we could really do without.

Nashville handed us a ghoulish defeat last night while we’re still getting used to the lines, players and Coach Viggy’s words of wisdom.

Record as of this podcast 7-5-1 (2nd in Northwest Division)

23:50 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Give me Canucks PPV in HD

Dear Ocra Bay,

In the last episode of The Crazy Canucks, I made mention about how nice it would be to have Canucks PPV games be broadcast in HD. I would believe that the reality of making this possible wouldn’t be too hard because, let’s face it, if we’re paying $11.95 per game(round about $150 if you buy all 17 games for the 2006-07 season), then we should really be getting our best bang for the buck.

Canucks TV PPVLet’s be honest. What’s the best thing about Canucks PPV? It’s the play-by-play by John Shorthouse. Notice that I’m not saying much about Tom Larscheid, but I guess it’s somewhat worth to hear the next, insane thing that the guy is going to loft out of his mouth. I kinda see why you guys keep him around, but I’ll restrain myself from saying anything more.

The fact that everything is in sync, in terms of no satellite delay from watching it on TV and turning on the radio, and Shorty being amazing on the call is great. I’m not going to dispute that at all.

Sure, you guys throw those neat segments in between periods and have no commercials, but after that, what’s the big deal? Not a whole lot. If, as fans, we are forced to head out to a pub because we can’t get ourselves to throw down the cash to watch it at home, these things don’t matter. And for the most part, these games are huge money makers for pubs all over the lower mainland, most of which have those fancy, wide-screen, plasma or LCD TVs anyway.

Let me give you guys a quick comparison of what this might be like because some people don’t get the fascination between the two technologies. Believe it or not, there are massive differences between the two technologies.

Canucks in HD

Now this is crude mock-up of a picture that we took at a pre-season game against the Ducks. The point is, you get to see more of the ice. On a break-away, watch the goalie get setup, pee his pants while he freaks out in anticipation, and take on the shot from the opposing player. Watch the spray of ice in amazing detail. See each and every stitch on Green’s face from the puck he took in Nashville. To me, that is all worth the extra effort of catching a PPV game in HD.

The biggest advantage to go HD is the fact that your tickets are steep in price. We do love the team, but there are just some folks who can’t afford to go to as many games as we’d like to. Combine the cost of food and beverages and it’s much easier for us to gather at our nearest, buddy’s house who has a sweet 42-inch DLP with 5.1 dolby digital surround sound. Give me that great picture and sound that I crave, and you present a true like-you-are-there experience.

So what to do Canucks fans have right now?

Canucks in NTSC

Dreary, dull, and not near the resolution that it could be, pay-per-view television. The worst part is that no matter how content you can be listening to the game on the radio instead, you’ll never get to see video highlights unless they are able to get footage from the broadcast of the opposing team. Then there are blackout restrictions and rules that local media has to follow or else you guys will do something mean.

Yeah, it’s a little picky, but I’m sure there are plenty of sponsors out there who would provide some funds to make this a reality. “Canucks TV, presented in High-Definition by Futureshop!” Best Buy. The Source. I don’t care who, but you guys are one of the biggest attractions in town.

“Canucks Pay-Per-View in HD” Come on! Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? Thank about it, Orca Bay.

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You have to have a mind of a goalie

This is a combination of two things that I find incredible interesting: hockey and neuroscience. Sounds strange, but my course of study in college was neuropsychology. I also played goalie in various rollerhockey tournaments on campus, so it kind of all makes sense, right?

It would seem that not only do you have to be physically fit to be a good goalie, but being cognitively fit is an added bonus.

Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Kinesiology may have found the secret to highlight-reel goaltending with their comprehensive, on-ice hockey study on where elite goalies focus their eyes to make those dynamic blocker, glove and pad saves.

In a study to be published in the medical journal Human Movement Science, graduate student Derek Panchuk and professor Joan Vickers, who discovered the “Quiet Eye” phenomenon, found that the best goaltenders rest their gaze directly on the puck and the shooter’s stick almost a full second before the shot is released.

When they do that, they make the save over 75 per cent of the time.

“Looking at the puck seems fairly obvious,” Panchuk said, “until you look at the eye movements of novice goaltenders, who scatter their gaze all over the place and have a much lower save percentage than the elite goalies.” […]

“Goalies often focus on physical things like improving technique but they overlook the decision making — the cognitive side of things,” Panchuk said.

“I think this study shows that you also need to focus on your decision making and your thinking processes. Having optimal focus is just as important as being in optimal physical shape.” [cbc]

This also brings up the classic argument of nature versus nurture. It’s only logical to think that certain people are going to be born with traits that allow them to do this easier than others, but I’ve read enough studies to understand that the ability to train your brain for tasks like this is very possible. For some, this can be easier than others. It also makes me wonder if there is a correlation between goalies who play in college and their GPA.

More importantly, who did they use for this study? I would love to see how Luongo would test on this.  All I do know is that when I finally started wearing contacts instead of glasses under my mask, my save percentage went up considerably.  Keeping an eye on the puck is all I would ever do.

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The Crazy Canucks #4 – We Are All Cardiac Canucks

Episode #4 of The Crazy Canucks is up and ready for download.

Everyone gathers together for this episode, fresh from a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks earlier tonight. The last four games have been such an impressive display by the Canucks that it’s really tough for anyone to really put a grasp on them (except for Dave), but we all know that they have been some great battles. It doesn’t matter if we won them or not because they were all pretty great, but luckily we took 3 out of the last four.

We take a look at some amazing OT wins over St. Louis and Nashville, talk about the showdown in Dallas, and another impressive win against the Hawks before the boys finally come home for a few games. We’re still getting used to the new look for the Canucks, but these recent games have really impressed all of us.

Record as of this podcast:
6-4-1 (2nd in the Northwest Division)

There is also some mention about the debacle in Philly, and some discussion about those Canucks who have moved on to different teams in the NHL. Of course, we take a moment to point out that no one can dispute the magic happening in Pittsburgh, even though it’s totally un-Canucks related. Oh yeah, and can we get the PPV games in HDTV and the radio broadcasts in FM? Great, thanks.

Be sure to send us your comments and questions down below or email us! feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com

33:00 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Welcome to the world of baseball 2.0

This video report from CNet truly scares me. In case you don’t feel like watching it, I’ll do my best to sum it up.

Cisco demoed new technology to “enhance” your ballpark experience, focusing mostly on the new stadium that is being pushed for the Oakland A’s. Electronic tickets on your cellphone or PDA is alright, but the idea of letting video screens detect you in the proximity of their display and then changing to specifically target you based on what your wireless device says about you is a bit on the tacky side. Of course, it’s all technology meant to get more money out of your pocket.

The other thing that left me not liking what I saw was the concept of using mobile PC’s while watching the game from your seats. Score keeping goes digital, get instant replay as it happens, or get an alert that you were on the fan cam on the scoreboard. You see the picture as well as the many ways that you can purchase the picture, much like going on amusement park rides.

There is something to be said about the simplicity of just enjoying a day at the ballpark, and the last thing that I really want to do is have a whole bunch of gadgets getting in the way. Don’t forget about the dude behind you who just dumped his beer on your mobile PC. The first thing I want to do when it comes to enjoying a baseball game is turning off the rest of the world.

Oh, and don’t think that this is just limited to the ballpark experience. They mention that this is a new concept in the way of enjoying professional sporting events in general. Once again, when I go to GM Place for a Canucks game, I’m all for getting alerts about better seats for a game. After that, I just want to be in my seat and enjoy the atmosphere that is hockey.

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The Vancouver Salos

The Vancouver Salos [credit: VCOE]Because of a comment thread on Vancouver Canucks Op Ed on this post, Alanah whipped up this creation. I laughed my butt off when she emailed this to me. Too crazy to post on her site, but too hilarious to not post here. Rebecca was the one who started this, but I just perpetuated it. It’s more truth than fiction, but strictly platonic, Sammy. I’m a happily married man.

It all started with an episode of The Crazy Canucks. I said that it seemed like we were being called the “Vancouver Luongos” with the way that the media talked about team as the season got under way. With my favorite boy from last year, Carter, now with Columbus, I’ve been searching for someone to fill his place in terms of my favorite player. Perhaps this is a bit too much of an extreme, but I have to say that the last few days has made this guy rise to the top of my list.

Be sure to check out more on The Crazy Canucks podcast. We’ll be recording episode number four later this week. Been a crazy last few games on the road, but at least we’re up in the wins and points columns. Can’t fail to mention that a lot of that is in part to Sammy “The Friendly Ghost” Salo.