What happened to CBC's 7-second delay?

I thought CBC instituted a 7-second delay after Don Cherry went off on French-Canadian visor-wearers. Thanks to 'Nucks and Pucks reader pete for reminding me in the comments of a previous post that the 7-second rule was not in effect during the Penguins post-game celebrations after capturing the Cup (Warning: some PG-13 language):



Aside from the obvious "Marc-Andre Fleury said WHAT?!?" moment, there are a few things that strike me as amusing from this clip:

• Scott Oake's response to Fleury's slip-up was "Fair enough." What, no "Marc-Andre, we're on live..." à la Shaquille O'Neal?

• Is it me, or is someone cackling madly in the background at Fleury's cussing?

• And finally, what the hell was the deal with Scott Oake's cheesy "Who do you share this Cup with?" question? He asked it to every freakin' Penguin on the ice or in the locker room. Yeesh, how cornball. Wonder if he went up to Lidstrom or Osgood afterward and asked them with whom they share this devastating, heartbreaking loss.

Thanks to pete for inspiring this post!

Revisiting my postseason predictions: Part II

Here is Part II of my postmortem on my playoff predictions (Part I can be found here), covering my Round 3 and Stanley Cup Final picks. Again, I know this happened a long time ago, but many things prevented me from prioritizing the revisitation of my playoff picks.

As per my regular season prediction evaluations, I will use the following scale to evaluate my selections:

A - Nailed the pick exactly right
B - In the ballpark but not right on
C - A pretty misguided pick, but you can kind of understand why I made it
F - Epic fail

Round 3 - Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6)
Predicted: Penguins in 7
Actual: Penguins in 4
Grade: C-
Yeah I picked the team right, but I thought this would be a WAY closer series than it was. This series marked the playoff coming-out party for Evgeni Malkin, who had 6 goals and 3 assists in the four games, including this hat-trick effort in Game 2:



And because that third goal was so amazing, let's watch it one more time:



Round 3 - Western Conference

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (4)
Predicted: Red Wings in 6
Actual: Red Wings in 5
Grade: B
Having learned my lesson about underestimating the Blackhawks, I thought they would give Detroit a tougher time than they did. In the end the Wings were too good and too experienced to make the mistakes that cost the Canucks their Round 2 series against the 'Hawks.

Stanley Cup Final

Detroit Red Wings vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
Predicted: Penguins in 7
Actual: Penguins in 7
Grade: A+
I picked this before the series began, but was unable to post due to some computer issues while I was traveling. I stuck with my pick despite the Red Wings winning the first two games and appearing to have a pretty strong lock on their second straight Cup. So I give myself a little extra credit for having the option of bailing on my pick, but sticking with it and in the end getting it right on. And here is the conclusion to what was a fantastic 2009 NHL Playoffs*:



* Watching this again makes me remember how ridiculously dramatic Game 7 was! What a great playoffs all round.

SB Nation and my first Fan Post

If you haven't heard about SB Nation, it is well worth checking out. SBN acts as a sort of umbrella for a variety of high quality sports blogs covering nearly every NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB teams, as well as a variety of other sports including NCAA basketball and football. SB Nation is self-described as:

"a collection of over 200 individual communities, each offering high quality year-round coverage and conversation led by fans who are passionate about their favorite teams, leagues or sports."

One exciting feature of SB Nation are Fan Posts, which allow everyday fans to contribute their insight to a well known and respected blog. The posts appear on a sidebar of the main site and may get picked up on the main page of the blog.

The Vancouver Canucks SB Nation blog is 'Nucks Misconduct, which is well worth checking out. I have occasionally linked to it from 'Nucks and Pucks, and if you haven't checked it out yet I suggest you do so. It has quickly become one of my daily stops on the ol' World Wide Web.

Furthermore, I have officially entered the Fan Posts fray and have contributed my first post to 'Nucks Misconduct. It is fun to reach a wider audience than my small, but loyal (thanks guys!) readership, and I'm happy to see that the post has generated a fair bit of discussion about the upcoming Canucks season.

I'll still be writing here on 'Nucks and Pucks, but plan to contribute the occasional post on SB Nation. So keep your eyes peeled to 'Nucks Misconduct and you might just see a familiar writer popping up on the sidebar from time to time!

Revisiting my postseason predictions: Part I

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future." - Niels Bohr

"The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears." - Bill Vaughn

These two quotations capture the spirit of this post. Firstly, that prediction is often more luck than science and thus frequently inaccurate. And secondly, unlike the groundhog, I am standing to face the music of my predictions for the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yeah, I know the playoffs ended months ago, but it took me a while to get 'round to this. Sorry.

Part 1 will give a postmortem on the Rounds 1 and 2 predictions, and Part 2 will cover Round 3 and the Stanley Cup Final. As per my regular season prediction evaluations, I will use the following scale to evaluate my selections:

A - Nailed the pick exactly right
B - In the ballpark but not right on
C - A pretty misguided pick, but you can kind of understand why I made it
F - Epic fail

Round 1 - Eastern Conference

Boston Bruins (1) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8)
Predicted: Bruins in 5
Actual: Bruins in 4
Grade: A-
I thought the Habs would steal one, but the Bs ended the Canadiens Centennial Season on a low note.

Washington Capitals (2) vs. New York Rangers (7)
Predicted: Capital in 6
Actual: Capitals in 7
Grade: B+
I was close, but I did not give the Rangers enough credit for pushing the Caps to the wall, before they stormed back to take the series.

New Jersey Devils (3) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6)
Predicted: Hurricanes in 6
Actual: Hurricanes in 7
Grade: A
I am giving myself an 'A' because the 'Canes were the underdog, although I thought they would finish off the Devils without going to Game 7.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5)
Predicted: Penguins in 7
Actual: Penguins in 6
Grade: B+
A great series, but not as close as I had expected.

Round 1 - Western Conference

San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8)
Predicted: Sharks in 6
Actual: Ducks in 6
Grade: F+
Not sure if that grade even exists. I did not think the Sharks would tank (wah-wah) in the First Round, however I did expect a lot from the Ducks. So it's a fail, but one with a + attached to it.

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7)
Predicted: Blue Jackets in 7
Actual: Red Wings in 4
Grade: F-
As a counter to my F+, this is a resounding F-. I had a feeling one of the Sharks or Wings would get upset, but clearly made the wrong pick. How terrible a call was this? Well, let's see: I picked the Western Conference champions, who lost the Cup by one goal in Game 7, to lose in the First Round; and I picked the Blue Jackets to win the series, when in fact they failed to win a game. Brutal!

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs. St. Louis Blues (6)
Predicted: Canucks in 4
Actual: Canucks in 4
Grade: A+
NAILED IT!!! For once in my life my optimism about the Canucks was not misplaced. Well, until the second round at least.

Chicago Blackhawks (4) vs. Calgary Flames (5)
Predicted: Blackhawks in 6
Actual: Blackhawks in 6
Grade: A
Another one dead on! Though less of an out-on-a-limb pick than a Canucks sweep. At the time, I was extremely happy with this result. Until the Canucks played the Blackhawks. Ugh.


Round 2 - Eastern Conference

Boston Bruins (1) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6)
Predicted: Bruins in 6
Actual: Hurricanes in 7
Grade: C-
I am still not sure if I overestimated the Bruins or underestimated the Hurricanes. Either way, the 'Canes upset the Bs by taking the series in 7 games.

Washington Capitals (2) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (4)
Predicted: Penguins in 6
Actual: Penguins in 7
Grade: B
This was a mind-blowingly entertaining series. I was right that the Pens would win, though I thought they would do so more handily than they did. I definitely underestimated the Capitals in this one.

Round 2 - Wetern Conference

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8)
Predicted: Red Wings in 7
Actual: Red Wings in 7
Grade: A
The at-the-time Cup champs showed resilience in overcoming the challenge from the Ducks. This was the third 7-game series of the Second Round.

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (4)
Predicted: Canucks in 5
Actual: Blackhawks in 6
Grade: F
Let's not talk about it, 'kay?

Coming soon: Part II of my playoff prediction postmortem.

Gallery: Ugly uniform portraits

In the wake of my new NHL marketing suggestion - Worst Uniform Night - I was inspired to create some images of what this may look like in reality. What follows is a gallery of portraits featuring contemporary NHLers sporting some of their respective teams' worst ever uniforms.

Please note, the following portraits are very ghetto - I can only do so much in Microsoft Paint, and the $1 I've earned in ad revenue over the past year won't quite cover an upgrade to Photoshop. Let me know if you enjoy these, and I'll try to do some more of them. If you have suggestions for players/uniforms you'd like to see, then fire away in the comments section.

Portrait #1 - Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows, "'V' for Vendetta"


Portrait #2 - Keith Tkachuk, "Tuning up for the game"


Portrait #3 - Mike Richards, "All for one, and one for Cooperall!"


More to come???

A new NHL marketing idea: Worst uniform night

As sports and hockey become increasingly intertwined (see Sean Avery, pink jerseys, $50 NHL trucker hats, etc.) and the public appetite for sports lists (see SportsCentre Top 10, Best Damn Sports Show Top 50 ------ lists, etc.) explodes on the internet, a number of highly entertaining lists have documented some of the worst jerseys ever to grace the rink, court or field.

toptenz.net offers this list of, you guessed it, the Top 10 Ugliest Sports Uniforms of all-time. Hockey is represented by the Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers (both of which I personally love) as well as, of course, the 1980s Canucks 'V' jersey. Meanwhile ESPN Page 2 provides a great visual overview of some of the worst third jerseys in NHL history. Two of these jerseys (LA Kings and Anaheim Mighty Ducks) make it on to Page 2's list of "The ugliest ducklings in sport," along with the infamous Cooperalls sported by the Whalers and the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1980s. From Page 2:

3. Philadelphia Flyers, 1982-83 and Hartford Whalers, 1982-83.
Ah, yes -- the Cooperalls season, when the Flyers and Whalers tried to drag hockey out of the short-pants era and were nearly laughed out of the league. Hartford's trousers had stripes; Philly's were sometimes striped, sometimes just logo-emblazoned at the ankle. After one season, the league put the kibosh on these (although they later showed up elsewhere).

Given the entertainment value of these ugly, yet still awesome, uniforms, I propose a new NHL marketing gimmick: once night per season, a series of teams will square off sporting the ugliest uniforms from their respective team histories.

Think how this would look on TV: the Canucks powerplay, sporting its home yellow jerseys with black pants and a lovely Halloweeen 'V' on each, works the puck against the St. Louis Blues PK, which is sporting these beauties that apparently never saw the light of day thanks to Mike Keenan (one thing he did right, apparently). Henrik Sedin passes to Daniel at the side of the net for a tap-in, and as the horn blares four Canucks mob Daniel, looking like a swarm of bumblebees converging on a pot of honey.

Or imagine John Tavares, rocking the New York Islanders' Captain Highliner duds, trying to dangle in the Philadephia Flyers zone, only to get slammed into the boards by a Cooperall-clad Chris Pronger. This would, of course, launch an all-out brawl in which Ray Emery and Martin Biron square off at centre-ice in a glorious mish-mash of hideous jerseys and flying fists.

Or how about Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri, looking like candy-canes or barbershop poles, working a 2-1 against the Coyotes, who are sporting jerseys that give new meaning to the phrase Coyote Ugly? Or a battle of California between the Kings and Ducks, featuring the Angry-Duck-Smashing-Through-the-Ice against the Purple-Bearded, Asymmetrically-Placed King?

The possibilities, while not endless, are certainly tantalizing. How great would this look in HD? How much extra attention would be garnered by otherwise uninteresting match-ups? A November game between the Islanders and Coyotes wouldn't usually be more than an afterthought for 99% of hockey fans, let alone casual sports-viewers - if properly marketed, however, an Ugly Uniform Match could be a huge draw.

If the NHL wanted to generate more fan interest, it could hold online voting to determine which teams would participate in the games (personally I think this should be a double-header) and which jerseys they should wear. It could maintain veto power if the choice of jerseys would cause issues for the players (for example two yellow jerseys) but otherwise it would be left up to the fans. As every team now plays each other at least once, the match-ups could be determined by fans before the schedule is released, allowing the league some flexibility in determining how to fit these (usually unusual) match-ups in the schedule.

So whaddya think? It may be a dumb idea, and it will likely never happen, but here's dreaming. The NHL would be a much more interesting place if this idea ever got adopted.

Who will have the best goaltending at the 2010 Olympics?

My friend Becky (R.A. DePalma in the Comments) emailed me about an ESPN article, suggesting that the USA might have superior goaltending to Canada at the 2010 Olympics. From Becky:

I just wanted to know what you think of this statement from a Scott Burnside article: (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4369012) 10. Right now, who has the better goaltending lineup for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics? The Canadians likely will go with Martin Brodeur, who hasn't advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs since 2003, and Roberto Luongo, who imploded in the second round this past postseason and has never played in a conference finals game, let alone a Stanley Cup finals matchup. The Americans will go with Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas and Ryan Miller, who has backstopped the Buffalo Sabres to two berths in the Eastern Conference finals since the end of the lockout. Just asking. I wanted to post the question of what do people think about this on your blog... I think that it is foolish to say that Thomas and Miller are better than Luongo and Brodeur just because they have had more post-season success. Was it Luongo who imploded or the Canucks defense? Do we possibly think that the Canadian defense will be the same? And what illusion is it that Olympic hockey is between the USA and Canada. There are many other countries contending for that championship.

So, as Becky asks, what are your thoughts about goaltending for Canada, the US or any other team? Feel free to join the conversation in the comments sections.

Personally, I think Canada has the deepest selection, but that at the tournament many other countries have great goalies who can step up and lead a charge if they get hot. Here's my breakdown of the netminding situation for some of the countries in the tournament:

Canada - I don't think you can go wrong with either Brodeur or Luongo. I know some people (including Scott Burnside) are worried about the relative lack of playoff success by the two goalies in the past few seasons. However, anyone who is championing Cam Ward over these two should remember that he didn't exactly light it up in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Penguins: the Pens outscored the Hurricanes 20-9 in four games (a GAA of 5.00 for those of you scoring at home). By comparison, the Canucks were outscored 23-19 in 6 games (a 3.83 GAA) by the Blackhawks in the Second Round. The two Finals goalies were both Canadian, but would you really feel comfortable with Chris Osgood or Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes in Vancouver? Yeah, me neither.

In the end, I think one of Luongo or Brodeur will seize the moment and be The Guy for Canada - and I think either of them will do a lights-out job of trying to push their team to Gold Medal glory.

United States - I think Ryan Miller is a very good goalie, but I wouldn't put him in the same category as Luongo, Broduer, Henrik Lundqvist or Evgeni Nabokov. Still, if he can get hot or if Tim Thomas can continue his remarkable run from the past season, then the US might become a Cinderella in this tournament.

However, I don't think Burnside's insinuation that the US has superior goaltending to Canada because Thomas won the Vezina and Miller helped the Sabres to two Eastern Conference Finals carries any water. Brodeur won the previous two Vezinas to Thomas (narrowly beating out Luongo in 2006-07, a season in which Luongo was also runner-up for the Hart and Pearson Trophies). And if you're going to claim that 2006-07 was too long ago to have relevance to this deabte, then check out the last time Miller played in the Conference Finals. Oh yeah, it was also the last time the Sabres made the playoffs.

Russia - Russia is pretty solid in net, thanks to Evgeni Nabokov. If he falters, youngster Semyon Varlamov proved in the playoffs that he can play at a high level for at least a short period of time. And don't count out Nikolai Khabibulin, who will be 37 by the time the Games begin. While many are slagging the Oilers for signing the 'Bulin Wall, he did record the third highest GAA in the league last season and helped the Blackhawks to the Western Conference Final - no mean feat. Khabibulin wasn't invited to the Russian orientation camp, but I would imagine that a strong start to the NHL season would put him in contention.

Sweden - Henrik Lundqvist, who helped Sweden capture the Gold Medal in 2006, is one of the best goalies in the league. As long as he's healthy, the Swedes will be a favourite - along with Russia and Canada - in 2010.

Finland - Finland is a bit of a goaltending factory, so the team is guaranteed to have solid netminding. Unfortunately the rest of the Finns' line-up is not as strong, but with the likes of Niklas Backstrom, Miikka Kiprusoff, Pekka Rinne, Vesa Toskala, Kari Lehtonen and Antero Niittymaki to choose from, you have to assume they'll be solid between the pipes. Did you know that Finland's only Gold Medal ever in men's ice hockey came in the 1995 World Championships. In all the tournaments they've competed in (World Championships, World Cups, Canada Cups, Olympics) since 1939, they have just the one first place, nine second place and six third place finishes.

Czech Republic - The Czechs are not as strong between the pipes since the retirement of Dominik Hasek, but still have Tomas Vokoun to backstop them. If he falters, the fortunes of the Czech team could head south very quickly.

Goaltending isn't everything, but in a short tournament whose latter rounds are single-knockout it can prove to be the key to success. Anyone who remembers the 1996 World Cup, whose MVP was US goalie Mike Richter, can attest to the huge impact that top-notch goaltending can have on an already-talented roster.

Okay, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Who has the best goaltending heading into the 2010 Olympics?

We're Number 4?

Okay, I'm done all of my work for my Masters, so let's get back into some hockey after a long summer hiatus! What better way to kick it off then with some positive news, or at least a reason for optimism. Or skepticism.

Ross McKeon of Yahoo! Sports released his mid-summer Power Rankings, in which he ranks all 30 NHL teams. And guess who sits at Number 4? From McKeon's column:

4. Vancouver Canucks – You want an early Calder Trophy candidate? Remember the name Cody Hodgson, the 19-year-old center the Canucks drafted 10th overall in 2008. He’s got a great chance not only to make Vancouver’s opening-night roster, but to excel right off the bat. Oh, and don’t be surprised if Mats Sundin returns to Vancouver once he decides he’s not done yet.

Aside from his apparent inside knowledge and/or speculation about Mats Sundin, McKeon's main reason for ranking the Canucks this high seems to be Cody Hodgson. Now I'm as excited as anyone for his arrival, but I think that Canucks fans need to be cautious about expecting too much from a kid who is two years away from being able to buy a beer when the Canucks are on the road against 24 of the NHL's teams. The signs point toward Hodgson becoming a Linden-esque franchise cornerstone, but he clearly has a lot to accomplish before meeting such expectations. And expecting him to have an all-star rookie season may be bit much. If he gets 60 points I will be ecstatic about his potential.

So, not to be a downer, but I think McKeon may have overestimated the Canucks' fortunes. I think they have a decent chance to beat out Calgary for the Northwest Division crown. I do not anticipate them being better than every Western Conference team except the Chicago Blackhawks. Sorry, but the Canucks have a lot to prove before you can put them ahead of the Detroit Red Wings or even the San Jose Sharks. And I'm not certain that, as things stand, they're necessarily better than the Anaheim Ducks or the Flames.

I don't know the last time the 'Nucks would have placed this high in any kind of ranking. Certainly not since the West Coast Express era, assuming a sane person was compiling the rankings. Maybe I'm uneasy with too much preseason Canucks hype because I feel like it setting them up to fail. 20+ years as a Canucks fan has made me suspicious of claims about the greatness of a given squad. Based on the Canucks' two best results (1982 and 1994) it seems like our best moments come when no one expects them.