Without going on about him too long, Eddie Lack really seems like a fine young man. (Young? He’s 27!)
Seems a young lady went to the game last night and it was her birthday. Lack noticed.
That’s pretty cool.
255 favourites? That’s a lot.
Steve Ewen and I had a long chat about what Lack’s form means for the future of the Canucks in goal (plus a look at what’s gone wrong for the Giants this season – so much more was expected and they’re struggling to make the playoffs – and of course the high-flying Stealth). Check out this week’s edition of Province Sports Radio: Casual Tuesdays with Steve.
The Home Team
Canucks beat Anaheim 2-1 last night. It was classic stuff from Eddie Lack – and that’s just talking about his post-game media chat. Botch has some fantastic stuff from the Canucks’ netminder in the Provies (and a whole lot more, of course).
There’s no denying the win was a lucky one. Eddie Lack stood on his head and the Canucks managed to get two timely goals. But timely goals are just a nice euphemism – they’re all about luck. Luck will only get you so far in the playoffs, something Tony Gallagher highlights in his post-game column. That was the first time this season the Ducks had lost a one-goal game all year.
This was the first time the Canucks had beaten the Ducks in regulation time in 9 tries – the last win was a Cory Schneider-backstopped 5-0 win in January 2013. As Ed Willes notes, the Canucks have turned around their record against “Hotel California” this season. Last year, there were just two wins. This year, already five.
Great to see Wyatt’s back in action over at The Legion of Blog. He’s got a rundown of what you Twitterers where saying during the game.
He also shared this gem on the Tweet-machine last night:
Last but not least, JJ’s got his Hat Trick up this morning already.
Canadian Content
An arena in Terrace has cancelled adult drop-in hockey because players won’t stop spitting on the benches and in the penalty boxes. Seriously.
You’ve probably noticed I like linking to James Mirtle. It’s not just because of the numbers – I really enjoy his angle. He stands apart from so many of his peers, and his sticks by it. This is a very interesting look at Carey Price’s MVP credentials.
The Montreal Gazette’s Jack Todd weighed in as well, pondering whether, if you could go back in time, would you draft Carey Price first overall instead of Sid the Kid? It’s a very intriguing run-down of the machinations in the Canadiens’ management at the time.
Gotta love Vic Rauter.
The Flames are still sitting in a playoff spot, even after their epic Brier road trip. Seven games away, losing their captain and dealing away a key forward didn’t seem like a formula for success. And yet…they went 4-2-1 on the trip. Kristen Odland of the Herald has the run down.
Very cool story from Nick Cotsonika, on the NHL’s first Russian referee. Evgeny Romasko worked the Oilers vs. Red Wings game last night, prompting Nail Yakupov to grab a pic with Romasko and his referee partner, Paul Devorski:
And, finally…’Oh, you Leafs.”
You’ve got to feel a bit for Peter Horachek. Handed the interim head coach role after Randy Carlyle was sacked, he’s lost 22 out of 27 games. It’s hard to pin it all on him – the team was running on smoke and mirrors before he was handed the job – but you have to wonder how much this run will stick to him in the future. He’s had plenty of supporters in the past but people only remember your last job. ‘
But there’s also the angle that no matter what you say about Carlyle, at least he got his team to score goals. That’s pretty contrarian, but maybe it’s the best angle. Maybe he really did look at his shoddy lineup and said, simply, we can’t play defence anyway, so why bother?
Conor McDavid, by the way, has points in 27 straight games.
Whitecaps break
Weebs took days to mull over Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Toronto, but he’s landed a quality discussion of the game.
Fishing the Pacific
The Penguins and Sharks went to a shootout last night. Their team Twitter accounts had a go at each other:
The Sharks won, something Fear The Fin credited to Antti Niemi. (Worth noting: Evgeni Malkin was +29 in shot differential. Yes, plus 29.)
James Wisniewski’s gear was shipped all over the US by FedEx. Steve Ewen has the hilarious tale.
Last Lap
David Pastrnak, star rookie for the Bruins, needs to learn a little bit about a. how to use Twitter without making yourself look silly b. how to meet new people. Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky explains how Pastrnak, 18, made some interesting choices on accounts to follow before he headed to Ottawa on a road trip.
Remember Rodney McCray? I know Steve Ewen does.
It seems in 2006, the Portland Beavers commemorated the 15th anniversary of McCray’s meeting with the outfield fence by giving away a Rodney McCray bobblehead, complete with Bobble-Fence. Fox Sports’ Rob Neyer made a video with his.
Nice cheeky stuff from CP’s Vancouver guy, Josh Clipperton:
Last week, Steve Ewen and I were joking about whether Jaromir Jagr would be the key to selling hockey in Florida. Maybe we were wrong, if he’s got little kids mimicking his classic hairdo:
Do you know who Jay Mariotti is? He’s a former Chicago sports writer who’s had some run-ins with the law. He plead ‘no contest’ twice to domestic abuse charges and lost his jobs as a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times and as a panelist for ESPN’s sports banter panel show Around The Horn. Now he’s been hired to be the ‘sports director’ for the San Francisco Examiner, a mostly online free paper in the Bay Area.
For his part, Mariotti wants to stop hearing about his past from people on Twitter:
But that also didn’t stop him from taking a pot shot at ESPN host Jason Whitlock. Or at least trying to; you see, in the tweet below, he had a kid who goes to Marquette University. The ESPN guy, his handle is @whitlockjason. Oops.
Mariotti has since deleted the original tweet, plus as subsequent comment about Twitter users.
The internet, folks. It’s the best – and the worst.
