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Vancouver Canucks: Their Role in the NHL's Greatest Rivalries |
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The PNE is underway, so summer's officially winding down.
Less than three weeks till the Young Stars tournament in Penticton, and less than a month till the Canucks' first preseason games. They'll start with the Kraft Hockeyville game in North Saanich on September 20th, followed up by a home game against the San Jose Sharks on September 21.
Today, a few odds and ends to keep us occupied as we count down these final days.
Greatest NHL Rivalries
I was happy to see the Canucks and Blackhawks get a nod in an entertaining piece from Sean McIndoe of Grantland about the greatest rivalries in NHL history:
The article's an excellent walk through some of the most memorable moments in NHL history. McIndoe also mentions the Canucks/Bruins rivalry from 2011 and our latest Canucks/Flames situation as being noteworthy. All the hate seems to have bubbled up in the last five years or so.
Eric Crawford Moves On
One of the men purged from the Canucks front office last month has found himself a new gig:
I guess that means the Habs will now be the first to get the inside scoop on the players on Eric's brother Marc Crawford's Zurich Lions over in the Swiss league, like the Canucks did when they signed Ronalds Kenins as a free agent.
The Lions will get more attention than usual from North Americans, since they're the team that signed 17-year-old Auston Matthews, next year's presumptive first-overall draft pick.
It makes sense for Matthews to spend a year playing at a senior level. He misses the NHL's draft cutoff age by just two days, turning 18 on September 17th.
Whitecaps Are Surging
I seem to have gotten my fill of soccer action earlier this summer watching the Womens' World Cup—and I'm not doing Stats for MLS anymore, so I haven't been following the Vancouver Whitecaps' season very closely. But it sounds like this might be a good time to hop on the bandwagon.
After a 1-0 win over Dallas on Saturday at B.C. Place, the Whitecaps now sit just one point behind the MLS Cup champion L.A. Galaxy in the league's Western Conference. They're 10 points clear of the playoff cut line, with 12 games left in a regular season that runs till the end of October.
The Whitecaps play a mid-week match this Wednesday at B.C. Place against the Montreal Impact.
The news is not so good for the B.C. Lions, who are lurching through their season with a 3-5 record. The great thing about a nine-team league? They could still make the playoffs if they turn things around in the second half of the season.
Over at Nat Bailey, the Vancouver Canadians' parent club, the Toronto Blue Jays, set a franchise record with 36 runs over three days as they swept the Anaheim Angels and took control of first place in the AL East.
The Canadians are currently 1.5 games back of the Everett Aquasox in the second-half standings for the Northwest League, with two weeks left in the schedule. They'll need to finish first to secure a spot in the playoffs.
The Canadians open a four-game homestand against Boise tonight at Nat Bailey Stadium.
Russians Fined for Bad Sportsmanship
The Russian hockey team got its wrist slapped for its bad behaviour after the gold medal game at the World Championships in Prague.
Russian team captain Ilya Kovalchuk has been singled out as the played who beckoned for his teammates to leave the ice before the Canadian anthem was played. A few Russian players, like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, did stay on the ice and pay their respects.
The Russians will host next year's World Championships, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I wonder if there will be any carryover from this incident?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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