♪ i've got the blues ♪

amazingly, tomorrow i will be here for most of a game!!!  so here's my gameplan: i will do the preview now, and update throughout the day tomorrow when i find more news and links.  at gametime, i will put up links to the gamethreads at both Nucks Misconduct and St. Louis Game Time (the Blues blog on SBNation), as well as posting game updates.  since it is new year's eve, i will be leaving to go party about halfway through the 3rd period, then have to work the next morning, so i will recap possibly friday night or saturday morning.
okay, here we go.

canucks at coyotes recap: 3-2 coyotes in the shootout
-boxscore, highlights, NHL.com recap, Nucks Misconduct recap, Yahoo! recap
the first half of the game was a bore.  if you thought the canucks knew how to trap, you should see the yotes: they have it down to a pat.  their defensive strategy is amazingly good, which explains how they're doing so surprisingly well right now.  in the 2nd, the teams started getting a little rougher, and there were quite a few scrums.  samuelsson scored in the 2nd, and wellwood tipped an edler shot to tie the game in the 3rd.  the game went to overtime (this was the 3rd overtime the canucks have played all year), then to the shootout.  labarbera (yes, luongo's understudy from last year) stopped all 3 shots and a yote got a goal on luongo in the shootout, and the coyotes handed the canucks their 1st overtime loss of the year.  with that win, the coyotes have now broken a franchise record with 10 straight wins at home, so i congratulate that team for doing so well this season (despite all the off-ice troubles during the summer).

team updates:
-so, it turns out that ryan johnson has a broken foot (why do i remember this happening before?), which is why the canucks called up alex bolduc from manitoba.
-mathieu schneider has been placed on waivers, due to disagreements with the team about ice time and stuff like that.  today, it became official that he doesn't want to wear a canucks sweater ever again, so canucks management are looking to trade him.
-in last night's game, kevin bieksa limped off the ice with a very apparent limp.  turns out he ended up with a skate cutting just above his ankle (this happened to his leg a couple years ago too), so he is on crutches and out for a while.  (how ironic that this happens just as schneider is leaving the team).  luckily, we still have 6 healthy defensemen not on waivers right now (mitchell, salo, edler, ehrhoff, o'brien and rome), so we can make due.  with the departure of schneider, rome would have become the 7th d-man, but for now he's #6.
-several olympic rosters were announced today.  luongo will play for canada, salo for finland, and ehrhoff for germany.  the american roster will be announced at the winter classic on saturday in boston, and kesler is an expected lock for that.
-conference standings (NHL.com will update it automatically as things change over the next days)

preview: canucks at blues, 4:00 pm on rogers sportsnet pacific
-comparative team stats, NHL.com preview, Yahoo! preview, Nucks Misconduct preview, St. Louis Game Time preview
last year, we swept them in the playoffs.  so far this year, they're getting revenge.  last time we were at the scottrade center, they whipped us 6-1 and all the spectators in the stands got free burgers.  just over a week ago, they were at gm place, and beat us 3-1.  time for the nucks to get their butts in gear against these young ones.

game on (check out Nucks Misconduct and St. Louis Game Time for threads to talk to people on)
-i was a little late getting home, so i missed an early powerplay failure
-rypper fights janssen.  both get fighting majors, but rypper also gets a match penalty for having tape on his hand.  blues get 5 minute powerplay
-luie makes huge save, o'brien trashtalks crombeen
-steen scores, blues are up 1-0.
-another canucks powerplay....
-.....and it's a failure, and the period ends with it.  1-0 blues after 1 period.
-2nd period begins.
-ehrhoff gets a penalty, but so does steen 12 seconds later.  4 on 4.....
-...and the blues score on the 4 on 4. 2-0 blues now.
-another canucks powerplay.....blown
-anther 4 on 4.....with nothing happening.
-andy mcdonald scores.  3-0 blues now.  tempted to switch to the canada-usa juniors game (i have the canucks-blues on tv and the canada-usa game on my laptop)
-about bloody time.  daniel sedin whacks in an ugly one.  3-1 now.
-woo boy, here we go, big scrum, quite a few fights trying to start.  sedins, burrows and o'brien all involved.  burrows is the only one in the box, but others went to dressing rooms.  blues powerplay.
-end of period, powerplay will carry over.  3-1 blues right now.  sounds like burrows got a 2 minute, o'brien got a 2 minute and a 10 minute, and a blues player got a 2 minute.
-alrighty, i'm probably not catching any of the 3rd, heading out to a new year's party.  check out nucks misconduct and st. louis game time for coverage of the third.  happy new year!

as always, check the sidebar for more stuff.  i'll put more up later.

after all the Christmas turkey......

sorry, i've been working a lot as well as celebrating the holiday season, so i haven't been consistent in watching games and updating here.  i will get here more regularily when i get back to school next week.

boxing day: canucks beat oilers 4-1
-boxscore, highlights, NHL.com recap

last night: canucks whip flames 5-1
-boxscore, highlights, NHL.com recap, Nucks Misconduct recap
i saw a bit of the game, so i have some fun facts: kiprusoff was pulled after the 1st period after the canucks had scored 4 times, including a flukey goal by raymond.  raymond had a hat trick!!!!  the flames were incredibly sloppy

team updates:
-lots of rumours have been flying about gillis wanting to trade certain players (schneider is now on the list), as well as looking for certain players (kovalchuk was one last week).  nothing has happened yet though.
-swedish Olympic roster was announced yesterday.  both sedins made the cut, but samuellson and edler didn't. canadian one to be announced wednesday (luongo), american one on saturday (kesler).  other potential olympians are salo for finland and demitra for slovakia (he's starting to practice with the canucks a bit again)
-conference standings. yes, that's right, by beating calgary last night we also jumped ahead of them in the standings!!!  7th in west, 2nd in NW.  now this is more like it!  now to get back to the top of the conference ideally before the Olympic road trip......

next games are tomorrow in phoenix at 6:00 pm on pay-per-view, then new year's eve in st. louis at 4:00 pm on rogers.  check out Five For Howling for Coyotes coverage, and St. Louis Game Time for Blues coverage.  as always, check the sidebar for more Canucks and NHL news.

Music City players pay a visit

team updates:
-conference standings
-johnson may have a broken foot after blocking a shot in the blues game, took the day off from practice yesterday.  salo also took the day off.  both will be playing tonight.
-sounds like vigneault is giving o'brien some praise.....article here.
-schneider is slated to return to the lineup after taking a few maintenance days off for personal reasons.
-edler is still day-to-day with the injured shoulder.

canucks-predators preview: 7:30 pm
-comparative team stats (look for vancouver and nashville)
-more previews: Nucks Misconduct, On The Forecheck, Yahoo!, NHL
-last meeting: 4-2 predators
last time these 2 teams played was a couple weeks ago in nashville, where the canucks were ending a 4-game eastern road trip.  after falling so easily to the blues, the canucks will want to right that wrong and get a 5th win out of this 8-game homestand.

game-threads:
if you are looking for a place to join others online to talk about the game during the game, go to Nucks Misconduct for the canucks side or On The Forecheck for the predators side and join the comment threads.  (i will be working again, so the links are just going to the main pages, and the game threads will be posted about an hour before the game)

canucks-predators recap: 4-1 canucks
-boxscore
-highlights

from lords to wretches....

okay, here's my plan.  my main posts here will be recaps of previous games and previews of upcoming games, as well as the occasional analytical post.  for quick updates, i'll post links, fanshots and comments at Nucks Misconduct.

canucks-capitals recap:  3-2 canucks
-boxscore
-highlights
-more reviews: Japer's Rink, Yahoo!, NHL
great game.  ovechkin was kept down to 3 shots and a -1.  raymond had 2 goals, the tie-maker and tie-breaker.  semin and kesler got a couple flukey goals, and clark scored for the caps.  luongo got a great save on semin's penalty shot.  great game for the canucks, shutting down a team like that is pretty damn hard.

in the meantime (canucks updates):
-conference standings
-grabner sent to manitoba
-demitra heads home to slovakia to see a specialist
-as always, more updates at the links on the sidebar

canucks - st. louis preview: 7:00 pm tonight
-comparative team stats (look for canucks and blues)
-previews: Nucks Misconduct, St. Louis Game Time, Yahoo!, NHL
-last meeting: november 10, 6-1 blowout by the blues
the team that we swept out of the playoffs last year pays a visit.  they already got a bit of revenge, mainly because the nucks left raycroft out to dry and let in 4 goals in the 1st period of that game.  that was when luie made his return from injury.  canucks will look to right that wrong tonight.  being hot and fired up against the capitals, they better keep that fire going against the conference basement-dwellers.

canucks - st. louis recap: 3-1 blues
-boxscore
-highlights
-reviews: Nucks Misconduct, St. Louis Game Time, Yahoo!, NHL
okay, i missed the game since i was at work, but it sounds like the canucks played poorly against a bad team again.  o'brien did get his first regular season goal with the canucks, david backes scored twice for the blues, and tkachuk got the insurance goal.

as always, i can be found on twitter or at nucks misconduct (links on sidebar)

i know, it's been forever.......

....but i've been doing most of my stuff over at Nucks Misconduct.
several things have happened so far this season:
-tons of injuries. several regulars get injured, kids get called up from manitoba, a couple kids get injured, more get called up, regulars come back, kids sent back down. daniel sedin was the most notable, breaking his foot in october and coming back in november. other smaller injuries happened here and there, including luongo, rypper, wellwood, grabner and bolduc.
-during the injury streak, there was tons of line-juggling, and lots of horrible play. luckily, we're just starting to get hot again.
-those sedins are on fire. henrik did quite well without daniel in the line-up, and now that he's back both are on fire. they've each had about 12-14 points in about 7 games, both have had recent hat tricks, and henrik is tied for 2nd in the league for points.
-ehrhoff fits into the defense quite lovely. he's 3rd in the league right now for +/-
-we're sitting at 19-15-0 right now, with a 22.9% powerplay (4th in league) and 79% penalty kill (21st in league, recently had a huge drop).
-since when has being tied in 9th in the league for number of wins with 19 results in being 10th in the West???? (conference standings here) seriously, the extra overtime points are having an effect on the standings. now last year, it helped us win the NW. this year, we don't have any yet!!! seriously, we're the only team that hasn't had any overtime losses (we've only been to overtime twice)!!!! this is allowing teams like dallas (with 10 OTL's already) to be tied with us for points. because of this, we're in 10th right now. i think the rules need to be changed.
-the olympic road trip. it is coming very soon. the canucks are on an 8-game homestand right now, and so far they've been doing okay at gaining some wins. but still, we really need to get ahead now to prepare for the worst. we play the caps in vancouver tomorrow night. (scores and schedule here)

well, i think that covers everything. i'll try to keep this updated more often. in the meantime, i can be found at Nucks Misconduct, as well as the other hockey blogs at SBNation when i make field trips (whether for nucks games or for socializing and learning about the other teams). i go by "missy" there. i can also be found on twitter.