Black Ice Vancouver

“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. We’ll wait until we get a look at what is in the motion passed on third reading.”  –Bobby Orr

While I’ve got my derogatory nicknames  at the ready in case the big
additions to the Canucks’ defensive corps prove useless (Hamhouse, Keith
Dullard), there’s really no reason to be anything but optimistic about that
end of the ice this season. Willie Mitchell’s big smiling face will be
missed, of course, and swapping Shane O’Brien for Andrew Alberts is sure to
be a lateral move barring some big surprises, but overall, bearing in mind
the frankly weak back end the team iced at the end of last season one could
only see this summer’s acquisitions as a big step forward.

It’s clear that the demanding fans will be holding both Ballard and Hamhuis
to high standards as soon as the puck drops, and as a city we’re not known
for being fair to our hockey team, but I’m going to flip that shit around
and state unequivocally that I love them already.  Why not? They both put up
good numbers on teams with no real shot, they’re strong, young, and they
want to be here. Through the first two games they’ve shown signs of the dependability and authoritative physical presence Vancouver needs. I freely admit to an unhealthy appreciation as a fan of
players who were either ineffectual (O, Magic Mittens) or a straight-up
liability (still on your side, Brent Sopel), but I’m also a fan of
Kasparitis-quality hip-checks and good solid workhorse defense. Alberts,
since he deserves some mention, just has to be a #6. To be the supposedly
worst player on this Canucks blue line isn’t an unenviable position, with
the calibre of talent they’ve got on paper. The obvious holes in the team
have been filled, so I’m going to be a little disappointed if there isn’t
one total fuck-up in the roster just for comic relief. What I’m saying is, I
can’t say I wish him ill, but no matter how well Alberts plays I’m going to
miss Shane O’Brien.

So I’m devoting this afternoon to sitting in my underwear reading stats,
smoking cigarettes, and trying to think of *endearing* nicknames, like Beef
Ballard and The Ham Sandwich. Those really could go either way, now that I
think about it. Maybe I’m just hungry.

–Clayton Pierrot

“From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all.” –Albert Camus

Well I certainly tried to figured out the Canucks salary-cap high-wire act and came up with very little at the end of the day. But I tried and that is half-the battle (don’t ask about the other half of that battle, the argument is too cumbersome in-and-of itself).

Last year I had this couch. It belonged to my roommate but it was quickly co-opted by myself. It was sort of an old-lady couch with flowers — minus the plastic. I fell asleep to Sportsnet Connected every night on this couch in my clothes. I watched all the Canucks games on this couch. It was my office. My sanctuary. My home.

I recently returned home from a social-model brainwashing experiment and I have encamped at a new fixed address — and a new couch. I fell asleep on my new couch last night to the exuberant tenor of Don Taylor reading by-lines and I had a dream that my roommate’s converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses on their trip to China. I don’t know if this is some strange, convoluted foreshadowing of things to come — the Canucks don’t play until tomorrow night — but I got a strange feeling nonetheless and it hasn’t sat well with me all day.

Anyhow, I suppose that with a new couch comes new opinions. So here goes: I think letting go of Morrison is gonna sting the Canucks down the road but it won’t kill them. It will just make them stronger I suppose, whatever the hell that means (ask Nietzsche). The nostalgia factor was enticing, if not necessarily practical. On that note, I like the Peter Shaefer move. It was all economics, but perhaps he will play that Selanne roll I was talking about in my last post.

Hordichuk was done. Don’t miss him. His presence on the team was becoming moot. He was well liked in the dressing room, but magnanimity doesn’t score goals.

Claytron and I will probably miss ripping on Shane-the-big-mistake-O’Brien but he sort of ran himself out of the city. Hearing Vigneault’s gracious parting words about O’Brien yesterday on Team 1040 only cements the fact that he never really bought-in despite the Canucks’ brass giving him every opportunity.

With that said, you have to give Gillis credit for actually giving creed to his reclamation projects (despite none of them actually having worked out). He gives them all a chance, but has become unafraid to let them go if opportunities knocking fall on deaf ears (like when I’m sleeping in on Saturday morning and the JW’s come-a-preachin’ with their Chinese bibles).

Anyhow, that is about it for me right now.  Tomorrow is the big day, puck drops at 7:00 pm. All this pre-season action has tired me out.

I need a nap on my new couch.