Gameday - Canucks at Sabres
Oct 17, 2008 NHL
The unbeaten Buffalo Sabres square off against the Vancouver Canucks tonight at HSBC Arena, with a 7:30pm start time. Vancouver played an OT game against the Red Wings last night in Detroit, winning 27 seconds into extra time, so they may be a bit tired coming in. They are 3-1, having beaten their rival the Calgary Flames twice also. Vancouver’s one loss came against the Washington Capitals, with Luongo getting pulled out of mercy (D allowed a crapload of shots).
There will be a few familar faces coming back to Buffalo tonight, as Steve Bernier is with the Canucks. He has the sweet assignment of skating with the Sedin twins. Taylor Pyatt returns as well. On the injury front, I haven’t seen anything about Tim Connolly yet, but this would be the ’seven day’ timeframe Lindy gave for his back injury. We’ll see. If Tim doesn’t go, we’ll probably seen more of Ellis just because he’s already here.
Barring a spur of the moment ticket purchase, I’ll be manning the PC tonight while the game is on. Let’s see 4 and 0!
Tags: buffalo, canucks, connolly, ellis, Hockey, injury, luongo, NHL, no the other sedin, pyatt, sabres, sedin, Steve Bernier, vancouver
HNIC - Order Is Restored
Oct 12, 2008 NHL
Now, THAT was the Leafs team we expected to see this year, am I right? Does this mean our PK is otherworldly (to keep Montreal off the board) or just that Toronto is so bad that they can’t stop anybody’s power play? We’ll find out.
Don Cherry was in mid-season form last night. He called out Ron Wilson for having his young defensemen keep two hands on the stick at all times, and showed a couple of times where skilled players in front of the net could spin off of that and get a point-blank shot. He also mentioned that Steve Bernier got 2, 5 and 10 for trying to protect one of the Sedin twins…what the fuck? I watched part of that game but missed all the extra penalties. Skilled players are getting slew-footed, punched and speared and the league is doing the discipline in the wrong direction. Think about everything the NFL does to try and protect QBs, and compare that with the beatdown Sid the Kid gets every game.
He finished up railing against John Tavares dropping out of the 1 spot for prospects, believing that he is being watched too critically after he got put in that spot. It went off in a tangent about the Leafs ignoring Ontario prospects. I love that Ron MacLean used the point against him, as the last all-North American team won the Cup, against his Bruins.
Tags: calgary, Canadiens, canucks, don cherry, flames, Hockey, maple leafs, Montreal, NFL, NHL, no the other sedin, sedin, Steve Bernier, toronto, vancouver, wilson
It’s Finally Here!
Oct 9, 2008 NHL
The ‘North American portion’ of the NHL schedule gets underway tonight, with four games. Your only 7pm option is the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Detroit Red Wings, a game which will be seen on Versus or CBC depending on where you are. The Wings are raising their Stanley Cup banner, but I doubt Versus viewers will see it, as there is a special 3 hour Sidney Crosby interview they need to get through (I kid, I kid!). The schedule is rounded out with three late games: Boston at Colorado (VS), Calgary at Vancouver (CBC) and Anaheim at San Jose (local coverage as far as I can tell). I wish all teams a good season, and may no superstars get Tom Brady’d on the opening weekend, unless it’s Sean Avery.
Tags: anaheim, avalanche, boston, bruins, calgary, canucks, colorado, crosby, detroit, ducks, flames, Hockey, maple leafs, NHL, red wings, san jose, sharks, stanley cup, toronto, vancouver
Random Buffalo Sports Stuff
Donte Whitner guarantees the Bills make the playoffs. Please do, while home playoff games are still played here, okay?
Steve Bernier, now of the Vancouver Canucks, signed an offer sheet with the Blues. The Canucks matched it, sparking, uh, nothing like the war of words between Lowe and Burke.
Jason Smith is off the list, and he’s with the Sens. Time to call Teppo! (my son is hopeful)
Tags: bills, blues, buffalo, canucks, Hockey, NHL, numminen, ottawa, sabres, senators, signing, smith, st. louis, Steve Bernier, vancouver, whitner
Big Bear Gone for Picks
Jul 4, 2008 NHL
The Buffalo Sabres have traded forward Steve Bernier (acquired as part of the deal that sent Soupy to the Sharks) to the Vancouver Canucks for a 2010 second round pick and a 2009 third. Bernier had 9 points in 17 games with the Sabres last season. It’s not the player fans wanted to be traded, despite his uneven play when he came over (really only had one or two impressive games), but sometimes teams just don’t want your cast-offs. I mean, I suppose the Lightning had already done too much this FA period.
Tags: buffalo, canucks, Hockey, NHL, sabres, Steve Bernier, trade, vancouver
Sekera Staves Off Elimination
Mar 31, 2008 NHL
For at least one more day. Buffalo got the win in OT, but the loser point for Boston takes some of the margin for error that the Sabres have. They HAVE to win all their games, and hope that the teams ahead of them start losing in regulation. For the full playoff scenario, go here.
I was a little disappointed, I didn’t get to see the whole game, but I was really expecting something that more resembled the Calgary/Vancouver game of last night. Those teams were so amped up that there was rough stuff after every whistle it seemed like (and the litany of roughing penalties and 10 minute misconducts bears that out). I wish I hadn’t felt so sick and could’ve stayed up to see that whole game.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, boston, bruins, calgary, canucks, flames, Hockey, NHL, sabres, sekera, vancouver
Upon Further Review…(Pronger sits for 8)
Mar 15, 2008 NHL
The league flipped it’s decision to suspend Chris Pronger of the Ducks for his stomp on Ryan Kesler of the Canucks, after viewing some tape that had not been considered originally. Anaheim only has 9 games left so he will be out until the last game of the season on April 6th. Unfortunate coincidence for the league that they had to switch it up after this article.
Tags: anaheim, canucks, ducks, kesler, pronger, stomp, suspension, vancouver
The Best Vancouver of 1975 Had to Offer
Here it is…the Mike Robitaille spot aired on HNIC all those years ago. Stick around to the end for Rob Ray’s reaction. Priceless.
Tags: canucks, Hockey, NHL, ray, robitaille, sabres, vancouver
