♪ 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.