Category: Hockey

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Announcing a new podcast: The Crazy Canucks

A few months ago, Rebecca[miss604] and I brainstormed an idea for a podcast that seemed too good to pass up. With the friends that we have been making in the world of blogging and podcasting, The Crazy Canucks was born.

We’ve brought together Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, the Canucks Hockey Blog, the Canucks Outsider, Miss604, and my adventures with RadioZoom into a podcast that is probably unlike anything you’ve heard before, and nothing like anything I’ve ever been apart of. And you don’t need an iPod to listen!

The Crazy Canucks

[krey-zee, kuh-nuhks]

Local Canuck Bloggers to Host a Weekly Roundtable Podcast this 06/07 NHL Season

Current album art: The Crazy Canucks podcastVANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (October 2, 2006) – Coming this October is a podcast the likes of which Vancouver has never seen. It will be a collaboration of hockey bloggers and the brainchild of a podcaster who all have one thing in common: The Vancouver Canucks.

The Crazy Canucks will be a weekly podcast about the team, the players, the organization and the league. Our goal is to have a fan’s point of view, since we’re not cable TV and we’re not local sports radio. Agree or disagree, leave us a written or audio comment and tell us how you really feel.

Listen and subscribe to the podcast, which will be available weekly on TheCrazyCanucks.com.

For more information contact: feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com

Look for the premiere episode to debut this week as the Canucks kick off the regular season on Thursday. Subscribe or listen directly on the website. It doesn’t matter how you hear it as much as it matters that you come be apart of the podcast. Afterall, we’re fans just like you.

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RadioZoom Episode #113 – Hockey Talk: Canucks Hockey Blog (canuckshockey.blogspot.com)

Another adventure with interviewing bloggers who publish content about my favorite hockey team, episode #113 is served.

A Skype interview with blogger J.J. Guerrero from the Canucks Hockey Blog, Rebecca and I learn more about the guy behind the blog, why he loves the Vancouver Canucks, and gather some insights about the team. The other interesting thing to note about J.J. is that he worked at GM Place for about nine years as an usher. He has a lot of knowledge about the team other that just loving the guys like we do. We don’t spend a lot of time setting up the episode because it really speaks for itself. If you dig hockey, then you’ll really enjoy this one.

45:02 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Just another day, but I’m another year older

Canucks vs. Anaheim for my birthdayWhat can I say? It’s been an incredible weekend of birthday happiness.

There was Snow Patrol on Thursday night(which I have yet to make my review post about yet), dinner with my Canadian family on Friday, Mexican food with my Canadian friends on Saturday, and the Canucks vs. Ducks at GM place tonight. I’ve said it a lot already, but you only turn twenty-eight once, right?

There are so many thanks that need to go out to so many people. So many good times were had over the period of four days, not to mention the cards, gifts, and alcohol, consumed or given as presents, from everyone.

Just before the puck dropped tonight at GM Place, my parents called me on my cell. It was a moment of true analogy. The beer we had just purchased was foam all the way to the brim and slightly spilling over as my folks wished me a happy birthday. That’s what today had climaxed to, and I don’t think it could have gotten better than that, not to mention that the Canucks preveiled, 4-3 in a shootout.

Poncho's! As I write this, The Reverend Don Deeley is making his way through his weekly radio show at WYEP in Pittsburgh, dedicating a good portion of the selections my way, all for my birthday. He emailed me to give me a heads up, thinking I wouldn’t be listening, but I’ve been streaming in from the beginning. That means a lot, and I thank you so much, Don. Anytime I can take over airwaves through the use of my voice or a barrage of song requests, I’m so there.

I also want to mention thanks to some fellow bloggers for extending some birthday wishes. J.J. from the Canucks Hockey Blog met up with us ahead of the game tonight, providing me with another, frosty beverage for my other hand. Yvonne sent in an email as well as getting a voicemail from Uncle Weed. Even the woman who cuts my hair called me, but Minoo was more concerned about how Rebecca liked the coloring of her hair after there were some issues with getting that all done.

Rebecca had her hair coloredMost importantly, Rebecca has made this an amazing birthday. This has been the first time that we’ve been able to be together for it, and she has made it more incredible than I could have ever imagined. Everything you could probably imagine about her being a wonderful person is true, but I have that and a lot more with everyday that goes by.

Thanks to everyone. Just because your name isn’t on here and the exact contribution to this weekend isn’t listed, that doesn’t mean that it’s insignificant. There’s just so much, and I’ll keep those for myself. Memories are always the best gift that can be given.

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Collection of blogs to feed your Canucks need

Welcome to September. Ok, the month is nearly over, but pre-season hockey kicked off this week. On top of that, my birthday is on Sunday. Rumor has it, Rebecca might have gotten us tickets to the Canucks game for the same day against Anaheim. This might be a secret, but I am almost positive that we’re going to be there. I’m almost shaking with excitement as I type this. An amazing way to celebrate my first birthday in Vancouver.

The hockey blogs are ramping up for the coming season, so I thought I would do my best to share some of my favorites for getting news on the Canucks. I should also mention that the commentary is the best thing about these sites. Afterall, what else are blogs for if you can’t share some of your personality while posting away about the team, or teams, that you love, not to mention the team, or teams, that you don’t.

  • Vancouver Canucks Op Ed [http://www.vancouvercanucksoped.com]
    • I liked Alanah’s stuff before we interviewed her on the podcast[radiozoom#108], and she is an incredible source of what’s happening with the Canucks. Readers chime in with comments, and she responds with more insight to what she’s posting. That conversation alone can give you more about what you want to know.
  • Canucks Hockey Blog [http://canuckshockey.blogspot.com]
    • J.J. knows his stuff. The guy worked at GM Place for a number of years and has season tickets for the Canucks. Do you need anything more to tell you that he loves this team? J.J. offers great insight into what’s going on with the team, and I loved his coverage on the salary cap situation. I had the opportunity to meet him recently, and he is a super cool guy. We hope to interview him on the podcast in the very near future.
  • Canucks Outsider Podcast [http://hockeynw.com]
    • I can’t fail to throw a podcast into this, but DaveO does do some blogging on this site as well. The guy knows his stuff and has done a lot to teach me about the history of the team. Hasn’t been much since the Hurricanes won the final last season(of which he totally called from day one of the playoffs), so I hope he starts back up when the season returns. Plus, I know the guy. Go check out his stuff because I said so.
  • Miss604 [http://miss604.com]
    • Gotta plug Rebecca’s blog because she does some great blogging about the Canucks, and she is, afterall, my wife. Expect more as the season kicks into full swing.
  • Waiting for Stanley [http://hockey-madness.blogspot.com]
    • Three guys contributing to one blog makes for a lot of content coming from this site. They cover more than just the Canucks, but the things they cover give you a good overview with what is going on with the teams that will be coming up against Vancouver. “Waiting for Stanley” refers to the Stanley Cup, of course. With the Sedin twins pictured in the banner at the top of the page, this is the story for much of Vancouver fans.
  • Orland Kurtenblog [http://orlandkurtenblog.blogspot.com]
    • These guys crack me up. They’re new to the scene, as of July, but I like their take on the Canucks. They have a lot of knowledge in terms of the history of the team, and the commentary is hilarious. I dig the posts about Canucks players of past, and stuff like Celebrity Hockey Look Alikes crack me up.
  • Canucks.com Blog [http://blog.canucks.com]
    • Last, but not least, the official Canucks blog. However, there is a lot to be desired from this one. It’s a tad messy to sort out, and I’m not sure who the guys are that are posting, officially, on behalf of the organization. They also do live blogging of the games and have players do their own posts from time to time. It’s a great resource, but finding all of those elements that I just pointed out can be a little difficult.

That’s all I have for now, and I know that there are more blogs about the Canucks out there. Feel free to post a comment about them, but the ones that I just listed are the ones that I’m reading on a regular basis. I have so many RSS feeds that I check up on everyday, so if there are others that you think I should be paying attention to, let me know.

All of that being said, it’s going to be a crazy season coming up. Nothing is on TV until the regular season kicks off in October, so I have no way to judge anything except what I read about it in the blogs or catch from the media.

Yo! Luongo(that’s for you, Alanah) makes his debut in a Canucks jersey tonight in San Jose, and my favorite boy, Anson Carter, made his way to the Blue Jackets(where Federov just went out for the next six weeks with an injury SUCKER!). I don’t know what to expect. Maybe the game against Anaheim on Sunday, that Rebecca might be taking me to, will tell me more.

With hope, I’ll be doing my own posts from time to time about the Canucks, but keep listening to RadioZoom. Rebecca and I always love talking hockey there.

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Canucks 2006 broadcast schedule

J.J. over at the Canucks Hockey Blog posted an update to an older post about catching this season on TV. If you check out his post, you can get the full run down of when and where you can catch all the Canucks games this season. Well, not all of the games.

Bumping this up now that Sportsnet and the Canucks have agreed on a multi-year deal. I’ve updated the Canucks broadcast TV schedule above to include all Sportsnet and pay-per-view games this season.

80 of 82 games are going to be on TV this season, the first time in recent years that not all Canucks games will be shown. The two games not on TV are: the Oct. 21st game @ Nashville and the Apr. 7th game @ San Jose. [canuckshockeyblog]

Another intesting detail that many fans would be interested in that that the number of pay-per-view games appears to be 17. One would think that the two dates not being televised would get ear marked for PPV, but looks like we’ll be listening to Shorthouse on the radio for those games.

Lord knows that people would probably pay for it, but two more games would make buying all the PPV games in one package a tad more expensive. You can always get those special cable or satellite packages to catch games in other markets if those two games are that important.

This year’s regular season TV schedule once again includes 45 broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific, with 13 games on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, 17 on Canucks TV and five games on TSN. Jim Hughson and John Garrett will once again be calling games on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific. [canucks.com]

I like Jim Hughson at the helm for play-by-play, and it’s hard to contest Shorthouse, be it on the radio or TV. It might just be me, but the color commentators often make me cringe, whoever they bring in for any game. “Roll up the rim to win!” is not the first thing that pops into my head when some one scores a goal, and “I like, I love it, I wanna see more of it” is just… well… need I say more?

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Change is a constant element to the NHL now

Even with the pre-season around the corner, nothing is for certain with the Canucks. I’m not sure that we can have a sense of being settled on the faces on the bench for the coming season, yet alone for the next few years. Movers and shakers is the phrase that comes to mind.

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) – The massive overhaul of the Vancouver Canucks doesn’t faze left winger Daniel Sedin.Fourteen players may be gone from last year’s roster, but the Swede says the new-look team may surprise some people.

Sedin admits it’s sad that linemate Anson Carter is gone but he feels Jason King or Jan Bulis could be a good fit with the twins.

Despite Markus Naslund being mentioned in trade rumours with Philadelphia for Simon Gagne, Sedin says the captain is looking forward to coming back. [cknw]

There’s a lot there to kind of take in for Canucks fans, but the keywords of “massive overhaul” is something we can all be pretty used to by now. Granted that the team has been thrown into a rebuilding phase, I can’t be too sure that things like this will stop anytime soon. It’s the new league, and we’re going to have to adjust.

I’ll admit my ignorance and say that I haven’t paid enough attention to other teams in the NHL to compare any similarites with what is going on within the Canucks organization. Sure, players are shifting around, but the way we have, no one knows what to expect. New coach and lots of new players, I’m totally scratching my head.

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Gives whole new meaning to cold war

There was a lot of “Where in the world is Evgeni Malkin” being played last week[espn], but the fallout from the whole ordeal has the Russians pretty ticked off.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has declared an all-out war on the National Hockey League (NHL), accusing the North Americans of stealing its best players.

Russian hockey officials were up in arms after several top players, including teenage prodigy Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ number one pick in 2004, walked out on their contracts with Russian clubs to pursue a career in the NHL.

The Malkin case has been front-page news on both sides of the Atlantic since the young Russian secretly left his club Metallurg Magnitogorsk at Helsinki airport earlier this month.

Malkin, considered the best player in the world outside the NHL, vanished for several days before resurfacing in the United States last week and declaring his wish to play for Pittsburgh. [reuters]

The article continues to show how upset the Russians are, demanding that there will be legal action that will go after “a lot more” money than they wanted for a transfer deal on Malkin[wiki] prior to his dissappearance.

It’s a situation that echoes times long gone, and the fallout might be worse as time goes on in terms of relations between the two leagues. Malkin was more the able to leave the Russian league, but the Pittsburgh Penguins would have had to pay a few million dollars for him, much more compared to the $200,000 that gets dished out to other European nations who already have an agreement for such transfers.

As pissed off as Russia is now, I’m not sure we’ll see them come to an agreement anytime soon. For the longest time, their league has been considered second place to the NHL in terms of the players of their respective leagues. It makes you want to say, can’t we all just get along?

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RadioZoom Episode #108 – Hockey Talk: VancouverCanucksOpEd.com

A very special episode because this episode was a very fun one to record.

A Skype interview with blogger Alanah Downie from Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, Rebecca and I find out more about the history of the blog, thoughts on the coming hockey season, and plenty about our favorite team, the Vancouver Canucks. It’s one of our daily stops for the latest news and discussions about the team, so having Alanah on the podcast was a lot of fun and a real treat. We hope it won’t be the last time.

This is another venture using Ubercaster, as well as the first Skype interview in the history of the podcast.

47:36 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Bring back the old because the new bites

The recently leaked, new Buffalo Sabres logoI realize that the statement that I am about to make might make me seem incredibly judgemental and like one of those people who are against change so much that I should just relax and take it like a man. I really don’t care. I don’t like this new logo.

The Buffalo Sabres are apparently ditching the threads they have been wearing since about 1996. The original colors are making a come back, which I’m not totally against. I also think it’s great that they are bringing back the original blue and gold digs for their third jersey for the coming season.

This logo, to me, stinks. I like the one they’ve had for the past ten years, but perhaps change isn’t the worst thing to happen after that long of time. But Reebok designed this, and it’s the best they could come up with? It makes me think, “Wooosh!! Buffalo!!” I might toss in some spirit fingers and glitter, too.

I’m not the only one kinda depressed by the design. Fix The Logo is a website devoted to getting it changed. Sign the petition if you please. I can’t say I’m a Sabres fan by any means, but their fans deserve something better than… that.

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Bring the Salmon Kings under the Canucks

Aside from the news about next season’s schedule being released[vancouversun] for the Canucks, the other news of interest about the team is that we are in the business of finding a new ECHL affiliate after cutting ties with the Columbia Inferno in South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CP) – The Columbia Inferno of the ECHL announced Monday that the team is no longer affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks and Manitoba Moose.

The Inferno had been linked to the organization for the past five years. Goaltender Alex Auld and forward Alex Burrows are among the players who spent time in Columbia before playing for the Canucks. [cbc]

A story I caught the other day[vancouversun] painted the likely picture of the Victoria Salmon Kings becoming the new choice. The idea was being tossed around prior to the seperation with the Inferno, but the deal is far from being final for the team in B.C.’s capitol.

I’m all for it. It’d be wonderful for the folks on the island and a great marketing move for the team. On top of that, it brings the kids coming up to the NHL much closer to the parent organization that they are working so hard to get to. It’d be great for folks in Victoria to see the team grow and move on to GM Place. That might make them want to hop a boat and check out more games in Vancouver, not that there is any weakness in drawing fans to the games around here at all.

Bottom line, I just like the idea a lot. I would even go as far as saying that I’d be more interested in checking out a Salmon Kings game while vacationing in Victoria if I knew that they were linked with the Canucks.