Read Zeimers take here:

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/puckworld/archive/2010/08/23/this-is-your-former-captain-speaking.aspx

In other news. Apparently Brain Burke is pissed at the signing of Bill Sweatt last week by Gillis. Toronto won the rights to the talented college winger last month but couldn’t sign him. He is projected to play in the same vein as Mason Raymond.

Look for Gillis to continue to plug holes with the departure of Grabner and Bernier last month. For every bad move Gillis makes, he makes at least two good ones. I think the Sweatt Brothers will mark an impact on depth that the Canucks have been lacking in a while.

Talk Soon

It was announced that the naming rights for GM Place have been purchased by Rogers, the Canucks will now be playing at the newly christened Rogers Arena. Blah, Blah, Blah. I actually sort of, kind of liked GM Place (sorry Naomi Klein), but I’m sure I’ll adjust. I’m not as attached as Torontonians were to their beloved SkyDome. Alas, the winds of change are blowing.

In other news of relative consequence, the Canucks announced this week that assistance coach Ryan Walter got the pink slip and will be replaced by Newell Brown.

(Could it have something to do with this?)

I’m all for a little coaching shake up, especially something that could bring a little consistency to a flaccid penalty kill (18th overall last year) and a bullshit goals-against (20th overall). Whether this falls under Browns jurisdiction isn’t known yet. If MG has any foresight he will keep the coaching staff on a short leash this year as the expectations on this nucleus run pretty high. Given the fire-sale of key support players in Chicago this summer you gotta wonder if the Canucks main arch-rival this year may be simply themselves.

In other news, word on the street is that Canucks brass have a few moves up their sleeve that may be exercized in the coming weeks. MG has been making little moves like signing Lee Sweattin May that could have huge upswing for a team aching for a bonafide support cast. The talent on this roster is indisputable, but this talent needs a figurative vitamin-E shot in the guise of a dark-horse-blue chip or Cody Hodgson. That might be enough to put em over the top.

Tom Larscheid and another dude.

It was announced the other day that long time Canucks radio color-commentator, Tom Larscheid, would retire. He will be replaced by Deutsche Eishockey Liga stalwart, Dave Tomlinson. There seems to be evidence that Larscheid was given the slip for a younger, prettier (imagine Tomlinson’s blue eyes piercing through your radio) model.

Larscheid was a goof, albeit a loveable one. Tomlinson may be Ferraro-lite, but he still has this up on the former Whale:

The former Alder Mannheim Eagle frozen in time right before he is sent to Germany.

He won a number of championships and accolades during his hockey career in Europe, but you know that in his heart-of-hearts he was thinking the whole time, “one day I’m gonna go home, usurp a local media legend, then call the color on local radio when the hometeam wins a Stanley Cup in their 40th season in the NHL.” It brings a new meaning to hockey cliche No. 36 – great vision for the ice.

Larchaid had a fine run and some memorable quotes and antics and but he was just another cog in the loser wheel this city has been spinning for a  long time. Out with the old and in with the…let’s see those retro jerseys again:

Okay, now I have the metaphysical grip to win a Stanley Cup.

Oh, and who gives a holy shit who calls the shots when/if the Canucks ever manage to win. They win. Right? So fuck you bloggers, eh. I’m tired and I’m now going to bed.

Thanks to Icethics.info for this scoop. I love retro-shit and I love the Canucks, what a happy marriage that makes us. The ‘Fucks wear this five times throughout the year to mark the 40th anniversary of NHL hockey in Vancouver.

Is it just me or does Henrik just bleed: most-under-appreciated-league-MVP-ever?

Is God so powerful that he can make a league MVP so unloveable that even he can’t love him?

“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

I went and saw Inception yesterday and it has been knawing at my craw all day what it might take to break into the sub-concious of the Vancouver fanbase and plant a seed. THIS IS OUR YEAR VANCOUVER. The writing is on the wall. We got a Hart Trophy winner, 20-goal scorers coming our unholy openings and we got depth, DEPTH, down the middle (should Cody Hodgson take flight the plot bifurcates).

Raymond got his term and management got their money, so there is one more piece in an ever expanding arsenal. What else can an anorexic fan ask for? What more does one need?

Vancouver for so long has been hampered by a civic-wide parasite of negative self-talk. THEY’RE A BUNCH OF BUMS. LUONGO SUCKS. BURE IS GAY. Call it, the curse of Cyclone Taylor or the curse of the Denman Arena. Call it whatever. The fact is, every time “this is the year,” the team in question 1981, 1994, 2003, 2010 stumbles at some point in the post-season and the collective fan base loses confidence. Then, like a line of parasitic dominoes, the entire team loses their collective shit.

So getting back to Inception. What we need this year is a mantra: THIS IS OUR YEAR. We cannot waver from this accord. Ideas are too powerful, too dangerous if used incorrectly in this age.

The curious case of Sami Salo has turned what was once a head-scratching, head-shaking, WTF moment, into a casual understanding that the Fragile Finn has nothing less then a glass jaw. At some point in the season commentators will miss him because of a dip in numbers from the defence. This will pass.

There is no feeling so bad that it will not pass eventually.

Salo will be missed but he must be sent to the Albatross graveyard in the sky. His presence, much like Nathan LaFayette’s goal-post in ‘94, is far too much for the the fragile psyche of this city to handle.

In the interim let it be of comfort that MG has assemble THE TEAM and this is THE YEAR. Quite frankly because this is THE WINDOW.

If the Canucks don’t accomplish in the next two years what they are capable of doing than they can have another curse to draw on. One of a strange Finnish man who came all the way to Canada to gain his soul through hockey, but somehow lost his body in the process.

He has a Gold medal. Henrik has an Art Ross. Samuelsson has a Cup. The Sedins have Gold medals. Kesler was the best non-Gold winning player at the Olympics this year. This team has balls. They have finesse. They just need a will, a heart.

I think that edge comes in the guise of Alex Burrows.

He will be the difference maker. Mark my words. At the beginning of the year I called Henrik to score more then 90 points. He did. Now I’m calling out Burrows to keep the pulse.

Otherwise Vancouver has no chance.

Then The Great One stepped down as coach of Coyotes (perhaps the most astute assist of his storied career) and Tippet took over the fledgling team.

The desert dogs have stormed through the regular season collecting 100 point so far this year (with 5 in hand) and now sit on the brink of overtaking the Sharks for the Pacific Division title.

Not bad for an NHL team owned by the other 29 NHL teams.

Despite the conflict of interest the Coyotes walked into GM place with a 47-23-6 record and six point ahead of the Canucks in the Western Conference.

The Canucks made last nights game look easy. Henrik collected three more points and Luongo made 32 saves for a decisive 4-1 victory. Burrows scored again to increase his season total to 35 goals

The team looked good. Kesler was given a game misconduct for a questionable boarding call Derek Morris. These calls are tough and you have to give the referee some grace, especially when it comes to head shots.

I don’t know. All is well.

Next Up — Los Angeles

I got hit in the head with a puck yesterday.

My face split open, the bone above my eye was exposed, blood pooled around my head like an ever expanding circle of crimson.

It was the best feeling ever.

I feel like a warrior-poet every time I strap on the pads and hit the ice. Like some kind of futuristic winter gladiator.

I told the guy beside me on the bus the other day, “we need a war, our young men are bored, they have nothing to do.”

“Well, they’re killing each other anyways,” we replied.

“Exactly.”

At the end of the day Tampa Bay has two top-10 point producers in the league yet they sit in 11th in the East.

My question is: what is Vancouver gonna do with our Art Ross winner and Gold Medal winner in this rust-age of parity?

Next Up — San Jose

From now on I’m either watching them live or I’m playing hockey myself. No more of this armchair GM bullshit.

Luongo couldn’t stop a beach ball filled with pink butterflies last night, but Kesler played his guts out and they still lost to the lowly Oil. I don’t get this team anymore.

Lou is the “best” goalie in the league but he loses to the worst team in the league. In games where it is his job to score at least 3 points, Henrik only gets 1. I’m just sayin’. There are some problems here and if they are not fixed pronto, another division title is not gonna mean shit when we get another shellacking in the second round of the playoffs.

It has nothing to do with the talent on this team. I think it has to do with the TEAM for this team. As gay as it sounds, if they don’t work and play together as a team, they are going to lose like individuals and suffer the agony alone.

It was still pretty entertaining to watch the Canucks lose like only Canucks lose. I guess that’s how we have fun here in Vancouverville –  by watching the subtly of defeat in our favorite losers.

Next Up — Anaheim

Earlier in the season I predicted that if Vancouver had any shot in the post-season they would need at least one 90+ point performer. I also predicted that that performer would be Henrik. Lo-and-behold, I looked at the scoring leaders this morning and there sits Hank, two points back of Ovechkin with 95 tallies.

That’s impressive. (Not to mention, Henrik is having a stellar year too.)

It takes me back to the draft of 1999 (in GM Place) when Brian Burke pulled off the “Sedin Miracle” and took the ginger pair 2nd and 3rd respectively. Looking back it was a skilled move by an up-and-coming GM who has been the most prominent front-office tactician in the NHL this past decade.

Vancouver let him go, but Gillis managed to convince the twins to stick around.

When I heard that Brian Burke’s son was been killed a few months back I felt terrible for the guy. Paired with the defeat of his Team USA last month at the hands of Team Canada (in GM Place no less) it has not been a good couple months for the Boston born blowhard. But that doesn’t take away from the debt Vancouver fans still owe the man.

So Thanks Brian Burke, we owe you.

If Henrik Sedin is hoisting a Conn Smyth Trophy along with a Stanley Cup this spring it will be, in part,  owing to the genius of Brian.

Next Up — Edmonton