Canucks And Beyond
Another week has flown by, pushing us closer to the very unofficial playoff prognostication benchmark of US Thanksgiving. Ken Holland’s theory that postseason positions were almost entirely set by the American holiday becomes less and less accurate as time goes by and the NHL’s parity deepens.
The St. Louis Blues bucked the trend more than anyone; from worst in the league at New Years to a Stanley Cup victory in the 2018-’19 season. I was at a Blues morning skate early that season in Toronto when the players and coaches were arguing, trying to figure out the power play.
In early December of 2018 I went to a Blues game in St. Louis and remember thinking how dead the building was … I recall someone referring to it as “a morgue”. “Tough times” the press box security guy said. Boy how that changed.
Each year, the movement up and down the standings increases as the season progresses, with a handful of teams sliding in or out, rather than just a limit of one or two.
Regardless, this season the Canucks will get it in, while the Kraken are trying to prove my non-playoff prediction wrong with a four-game winning streak at the moment.
Simmer’s Sunday 9
1) There’s a number of ways to describe how bad the Blackhawks are right now, but we’ll just leave it at that. Saturday night was the perfect time to insert Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs back into the line-up.
With the Canucks being pissed off about recent home performances, mildly desperate, and with young Chicago star centre Connor Bedard back in his hometome, it was practically a sure thing that Silovs would pick up a win. He did, 4-1, his first victory of the season.
What does it mean? It means Kevin Lankinen is still the number-one goalie until, if and when, Thatcher Demko returns to full health.
2) Eight days of Canucks ex-Russians: Ilya Mikheyev must have felt good with a little mini-‘revenge’, scoring the opening goal of the game for Chicago, just his second overall this season.
Andrei Kuzmenko failed to pick up a point for the Flames as Vancouver beat Calgary 3-1 on Tuesday night, and Vasily Podkolzin didn’t tally anything either, despite the fact his Oilers beat the Canucks 7-3 last Saturday night.
3) Victoria, BC native Matt Irwin has hung up his professional hockey skates. The 36-year-old defenceman played 65 games last season for the Abbotsford Canucks in the American Hockey League. That, after 461 NHL games between six different clubs.
Undrafted, Irwin made a whole lot out of what originally appeared to be not much. After playing for Nanaimo in the BCHL, the 20-year-old shipped off to play US college hockey for UMass-Amherst. After two seasons there he skedaddled down the Massachusetts Turnpike to Worcester where he played AHL hockey for the San Jose Sharks organization for two-and-a-half seasons.
On January 20th, 2013, he played 19-minutes in his first NHL game for the Sharks against the Flames in Calgary. He scored his first NHL goal six nights later at home against Semyon Varlamov of the Avalanche.
4) Daniel Sprong played his first game back with the Kraken on Saturday afternoon as Seattle defeated the visiting New York Islanders 3-2. “Spronger” played 10:55 of ice time over 13 shifts, no points, and a minus-1.
Sprong played nine games for the Canucks before being traded.
The club puts its four-game win streak on the line on Sunday evening against the New York Rangers. All of those wins have come at Climate Pledge Arena.
5) Sidney Crosby is on the verge of 600 career NHL goals. His next chance to get that one will come Tuesday night at home as the Penguins host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
There’s a number of reasons to appreciate his career as it enters its twilight. Here’s an excerpt from an article I did back in October of 2022, reminding Kraken fans (and Canucks fans – earlier there had been a Vancouver version) to appreciate the history they were seeing unfold.
Prior to the major renovations at Madison Square Garden over the last decade, there was a little group of folks associated with the NHL and MSG Network who used to watch all of the Rangers games from the Zamboni corner along with NYC detectives and NHL security guys Steve and Geno. My pal Stan “the Maven” Fischler, honoured this past week by the New York Islanders for his decades of media work, was one of them. Stan and I were astonished, but not entirely, the way Crosby once reacted to a mouthy fan.
The fan was sitting with his young son and when Sid came off the ice in the corner following the end of a period, the man starting lambasting Crosby with expletives. Sid actually reacted and yelled back at the guy, not upset by being the target of the ire, but yelling back because he felt the guy was setting a bad example and using foul language in front of the kid.
“Nice example you’re setting for your son!!” Crosby yelled.
It was a throwback to a different time and standard, that’s for sure. We couldn’t help but appreciate it.
‘Sid the Kid’ and I have crossed paths many times since his rookie season. Here’s some fun memories in that article.
6) My remarkable and unjustified ban from the Vancouver Canucks press box has reached 778 days. It’s a true comedy of errors.
It’s actually kind of fun to have something to bitch about for the first time ever after four decades of joyous life experience and pure hockey bliss. Which, looking back at all of the incredible class acts I’ve worked with and been associated with over the years, makes it that much more unbelievable.
Thank you to the PR and management staffs of the NHL, the Ducks, Bruins, Sabres, Flames, Hurricanes, Blackhawks, Avalanche, Blue Jackets, Stars, Red Wings, Oilers, Panthers, Kings, Wild, Canadiens, Predators, Devils, Islanders, Senators, Flyers, Penguins, Sharks, Kraken, Blues, Lightning, Maple Leafs, Golden Knights, Capitals, and Jets for their continued support and professionalism.
7) Congratulations and best of luck to Michigander Dakota Joshua on his return to the Canucks line-up following his battle with testicular cancer. He’s two games into it and no one should doubt his persistence. Last season is a great example: he went from head coach Rick Tocchet’s dog house in training camp to becoming one of the squad’s key forwards.
8) I’m bouncing back from a little bug; we’ll get to those aforementioned and touted stories and interviews here shortly …
9) In the meantime, enjoy the hockey collection at the simmerpuck channel at Youtube. For fun today, let’s flashback to the preseason conversation with Vancouver Canucks Sportsnet analyst Dave Tomlinson and see how things line up.
Until next time, enjoy the hockey action!! Canucks host the Nashville Predators on Sunday evening.
