Archive for December, 2008

Happy New Year to all……

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

And all the best…..

20 Year Drought is an embarrassing display of futility.

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

When a team knows that they are on the verge of having a 20 year losing drought to one team on home ice you would think that they would come out and use every ounce of their fiber to get the win and end this embarrassing drought of losses against the Flyers who are unbeaten with 10 wins and four ties here since a 5-3 defeat on Jan. 17, 1989

How can you not get ONE win in over 20 years at home against ONE team?

It is a very frustrating team to watch in these cases and looks like the drought may continue for another year as the Flyers may not be back now for a couple more years.

Sigh.

The Canucks had many chances to tie the game and the game literally fell onto the stick of Steve “Stone Hands” Bernier with 6 mins to go to see him shoot it directly into Birons Glove.

Corey Schneider replaced Curtis Sanford in the 2nd period and stopped 19 of 20 shots to record the loss.

The Canucks could only muster 11 shots in the Third period with most of those coming in the last 10 mins when it was another case of too little too late.

Vancouver now take to the road on a quick back to back against Nashville and Atlanta. Expect new pick up LaBarbera to get a start in Atlanta.

The Demon Goalie of LaBarbera – Canucks acquire backup goalie – Sanford on IR

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Canucks acquire G LaBarbera from Kings for 7th round pick. Curtis Sanford hurt his groin and is listed as week to week. The Canucks current starting goalie joins team captain on the IR with a week to week groin injury that is now plaguing the Vancouver Canucks netminders.

Expect LaBarbera to split full time duties with Corey Schnedier and pray that they find some consistency between them to carry us enough until Luongo gets back.

This team needs to review Roger Takahashi work for not looking after their goalies. This injury is becoming too frequent and is really in danger of ending our playoff hopes as the losses again start to mount.

Lets hope Jason can come in here and play well.

Flyers @ Canucks – 7PM – Canucks TV PPV HD – Salvation from a drubbing!

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

STATS LLC
Though the Philadelphia Flyers started their season-high road trip with disappointing results, they have a good shot to obtain a better outcome on their next stop.

The Flyers continue their six-game swing on Tuesday night in a city where they haven’t lost in nearly 20 years as they face the Vancouver Canucks.

Philadelphia (19-10-7) has climbed into second in the Atlantic Division by collecting 34 points with a 15-4-4 record since Nov. 11. Only Eastern Conference-leading Boston has gained more points (39) in that span.

But the Flyers haven’t been as sharp in the first two contests of their current trip, falling 5-1 in Chicago on Friday and enduring their first shutout of the season, 3-0 at Columbus on Saturday. They’ve been outshot by a combined 71-38 in those contests.

Though weather conditions complicated Philadelphia’s travel and practice times over the weekend, coach John Stevens refused to blame those issues.

Instead, he indicated that overall improvement, particularly on the penalty kill, is necessary to avoid the team’s first three-game losing streak since Nov. 2-8.

In the last 11 contests, opponents have converted 23.2 percent (13-for-56) of their man-advantage chances against the Flyers. Chicago went 2-for-8, while Columbus scored on one of its six opportunities.

“We can’t make excuses right now,” said Stevens, whose team has dropped four straight road contests. “We’ve got to regroup, we’ve got to tighten up, we’ve got to do the little things better. That includes staying out of the penalty box early in the game.”

Aside from avoiding mistakes, Philadelphia also looks to re-energize an offense that is averaging 3.39 goals, but has been kept scoreless in five consecutive periods since captain Mike Richards found the back of the net 7:42 into the game at Chicago.

Offensive production, though, hasn’t been a problem for the Flyers against the Canucks recently, especially on the road. They’ve totaled 65 goals in winning 12 of the last 15 matchups overall, and have outscored the Canucks 32-10 during a six-game winning streak in Vancouver that dates back to Dec. 31, 1995.

Philadelphia has nine wins and four ties since its last loss in Vancouver, 5-3 on Jan. 17, 1989. In the teams’ only meeting there over the last six-plus seasons, Richards had two goals and two assists to lead Philadelphia to an 8-2 victory on Oct. 10, 2007.

That’s the most goals the Canucks (20-14-3) have allowed in any game of the past four seasons, but they have been fairly stingy on defense this season as one of only four Western Conference teams yet to give up 100 goals.

Vancouver recorded its conference-high sixth shutout of the season on Sunday with a 3-0 win over visiting Ottawa as Curtis Sanford stopped 18 shots. Roberto Luongo has the other five shutouts.

“We played with discipline and we played with structure. We played with a lot of speed,” said Sanford, who improved to 3-2-0 with a 1.78 goals-against average in his last six games.

Luongo is among five Canucks regulars sidelined by injury after winger Taylor Pyatt broke his right foot in Friday night’s loss to Edmonton. Pyatt is expected to miss four weeks, while Luongo likely won’t return before the All-Star break due to a groin problem.

On Tuesday, Vancouver will conclude a three-game stretch at home, where it is 11-5-1. Daniel Sedin, the team leader with 37 points, has eight goals and five assists in his last nine home games.

Mats Sundin arrives in Vancouver and pulls groin coming off plane…….

Monday, December 29th, 2008

kidding. In a media scrum only available in Vancouver Mats Sundin was greeted at the airport as he arrived with several cameras shoved in his face.

The Mats has landed. How long until he plays?