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???

How sweep it is!

"WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

That was the sound of hundreds of thousands of Canucks fans around the globe cheering as Alex Burrows buried the game winner with just 19 seconds left in overtime.

The Canucks, for the first time in their franchise history, have swept a 7-game series. And they did it with an amazingly solid series against what was, a week ago, a red-hot Blues team. Four things particularly impressed me about the Canucks' performance against St. Louis:

1. Luongo. Obviously. 5 goals allowed on 131 shots, for a ridiculous .962 save percentage just about says it all. For those of you keeping track, that's 1.25 goals on roughly 33 per game. Bobby Lou was spectacular, even though solid team play in front of him meant that he didn't always need to be.

2. Throughout the series, even on the rare occasion that St. Louis grabbed the momentum (see Period 1, Game 3 and Period 2/OT, Game 4) the Canucks displayed incredible poise to settle themselves down and keep playing their game. Rather than get frazzled, the 'Nucks rode out the Blues momentum and then went for the jugular to shut 'em down.

3. Depth. Give GM Mike Gillis kudos, because this squad showed that it is solid from Sedin to Johnson, Ohlund to Vaananen. Obviously the top line of Burrows (3G, 0A) and the Sedins (2G, 3A for Daniel and 1G, 3A for Henrik) was awesome. But how about the fourth line, who brought energy all game every game? And playoff rookie Kyle Wellwood, who showed resiliance and brought an as-yet-unseen toughness to the rink? And what about Mason Raymond, who drew into the lineup only because Taylor Pyatt was unable to play due to personal tragedy - Raymond didn't hit the scoresheet, but he brought intensity, speed and a signature moment when he flattened noted pest/trash-talker B.J. Crombeen in Game 3? Then there is the defence. The D was excellent at taking away shooting and passing lanes, thus shutting down the Blues skilled forwards, as well as mostly keeping the St. Louis forwards from crashing the crease.

4. The Canucks special teams were amazing in the series. The powerplay went a solid 4/18 (22%), and scored all three goals in a key Game 3 road win. The penalty killers, meanwhile... well, WOW. What else can you say? The Blues had 22 chances on the PP, and only scored one goal the entire series! Those 22 chances included three lengthy two-man advantages, as well as three powerplays in the OT period of Game 4. Three cheers to the Canucks PK for its yeoman's work in the series - thank goodness they'll have a lengthy rest to ice bruises from all those blocked shots.

So, to celebrate, enjoy this clip of the winning goal, post-game celebration, post-game interviews and, of course, the end-of-series handshake:

Leafs Bashing Week II - Canucks win, Leafs fans show their class

Last night's game between the Canucks and Maple Leafs was a highly emotional affair given Mats Sundin's return to Toronto. I like giving Leafs fans a hard time, but last night they were all class.

The night had some pretty special moments, beginning when Sundin was treated to a standing ovation when the scoreboard flashed a tribute to him during the first TV timeout (some of them booed when the play started up, but hey, it's hockey and he's on the other team so that's okay):



Then, after a late goal by Alex Burrows to send the game to OT and an exciting extra period, the scene was set for some drama in the shootout.

Blake was stopped by Luongo. Demitra scored on Toskala. Hagman was stopped by Luongo. Wellwood could have ended it, but he shot wide. Next up for the Leafs was Mikhail Grabovski - if he scored, it would give Sundin a chance to win it for his new team:



Classily the fans cheered when Sundin came out to shoot, and even when he scored. Pretty impressive stuff. Sundin was named the game's third star, giving him one more chance to feel the love from Leafs fans and an opportunity to salute them in return:



Ordinarily I would feel the urge to gloat about the Canucks victory over the hated Leafs. But based on what I saw last night I am disinclined to do so. Good on ya Leafs Nation. I hope the Canucks faithful give Markus Naslund a similar show of respect when he visits with the Rangers next season.

Proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence?

I had a random thought today: at one point (2005-06) the Canucks roster featured four of the more hated players in the game: Jarkko Ruutu, Matt Cooke, Alex Burrows and (oh yeah, him) Todd Bertuzzi.

While Brian Burke was no longer the GM at this point, his right hand man Dave Nonis had taken over the reigns. The squad still had Burke's fingerprints all over it though. And we all know what Brian Burke wants in a hockey team: "proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. That's how our teams play." That, and polysyllabism.

Given the amount of peskiness and cheap-shottery on this 05-06 squad (a 24-year old rookie named Kevin Bieksa also played half the season, racking up 77 penalty minutes in 39 games) how were the Canucks not the absolutely most reviled team in the NHL?

I figure it must be the fact that there were four affable, neutral Swedes on the team as well. Everyone loves the Swedes, right?