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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 25, 2011 - 01:03am PT
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Regardless of the ultimate outcome (2nd OT still) and aside from his seemingly obligatory and patented illogical decision Luongo has been
unconcscious tonight! Almost 2:1 shot differential!
The save of the year though was Thomas' sick stick save last night.
edit:
Ha! I posted this two minutes too early.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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May 25, 2011 - 01:08am PT
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Yes! Yes! Yes!!!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 25, 2011 - 01:12am PT
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Did the puck actually cross the line?
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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May 25, 2011 - 01:15am PT
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Definitely crossed the Sharks goal line.
Yes! Yes! Yes!!!
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Paul_in_Van
Trad climber
Near Squampton
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May 25, 2011 - 02:15am PT
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Yes indeed. Go Canucks go. On the anniversary of our last Campbell cup win 17 years ago to the day.
Next up Boston or TB.
Not sure which I would prefer, travel sucks either way. Boston has a slower defense, but a better goalie than TB (refer to save yesterday as the above poster mentions).
TB has speed to kill up front. We have a pretty decent defense (specially if we get our couple of injured guys back).
Ah, either way it is good to win tonight.
P
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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May 25, 2011 - 02:23am PT
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Can't take sides not being a fan of either team. Fun game to watch, but what about the officiating?
The icing call which set up the faceoff where VC tied the game with 13 seconds left was a bad call, right?
Then in the 1st OT, as if shell shocked they called nothing. High sticks, tripping? It was a free for all.
VC did deserve to win the series regardless of the ugly details though.
Sharks looked relieved to be done really.
Bring it on Bruins!!!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 25, 2011 - 02:35am PT
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From that perspective, doesn't matter who wins. 1/3 to 1/2 the players on every team are Canadian, so we always win.
Of course, the thing drags on interminably, the death of 1,000 faceoffs. It's kind of embarrassing.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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May 25, 2011 - 11:22am PT
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Yeah, that overtime goal was a heart-breaker.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 27, 2011 - 05:14pm PT
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So the final begins in Vancouver next Wednesday, June 1st. Boston and Tampa Bay have their seventh game to decide who is in the final, and off we go. If the final goes seven games, the last game would be on June 15th, or possibly the opening day of the World Series - the 'world' championship that non-Americans aren't much welcome at.
A Vancouver team, the Millionaires, last won the Stanley Cup in 1915. (Surprising they kept playing during World War I.) A team from Victoria also won it in that period. No Canadian team has won the cup since Montreal in 1993, although heaps of Canadians have.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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May 28, 2011 - 01:42am PT
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What an epic seventh game!
Heartbreaker for Tampa and huge win for Tampa.
Hard to imagine two more evenly matched teams playing with more heart.
Roloson and his team mates expressions and obvious disappointment were enough to bring a tear to a glass eye.
It's going to be a hell of a final!
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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May 28, 2011 - 02:24am PT
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I didn't see the game the same way.
It was great to see an entire game with no penalties called, a credit to the officials and both teams.
But despite the low score Boston dominated to the end, when TB could not get posession for long enough to even pull their goalie.
The finals are gonna be awesome, and I don't think the Bruins are the team Vacouver would have chosen to face.
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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May 28, 2011 - 03:09am PT
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No penalties called?
Who benefits from that? The speed based skill team or the most physically punishing team. Sure there were no penalties, just a little outcome management, Gary Buttman style (ex-NBA exec).
Never forget the press conference when Buttman gets introduced as the new commish. He didn't know who Jeremy Roenick, who was also on hand, was. Pretty sure Buttman had never seen a hockey game before.
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thetennisguy
Mountain climber
Yuba City, CA
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May 28, 2011 - 06:06pm PT
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Happy for my friend in Boston (loved that series) ... I'm still bummed about the Sharks losing to Vancouver who proved to be an excellent team. It's been a another disappointing season for my Sharks ... it seems like they lost a lot of steam in the Detroit series ... the last game was a true heart breaker but it was a summary of what it's been like to watch the Sharks in last half of this "second season" the playoffs.
So as always ... shorten the damn season! But they won't there's too much greed involved.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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You'd think that there were playing soccer, with the number of goals that have been scored in the last games. No more firewagon hockey, sadly.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Boston could make Pizza out of Vancouver!
It ain't over till the fat lady sings!
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tooth
Trad climber
The Best Place On Earth
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Boston Pizzas here have been re-named Vancouver Pizzas.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Is this true?
Despite Stanley Cup drought, Canada isn't fully embracing the Canucks
A Canadian team hasn't won the championship since 1993, but there's some things about Vancouver (location, the city's beauty) that the rest of the country doesn't care for.
By Helene Elliott
May 31, 2011, 5:48 p.m.
Canada prides itself on having invented hockey, and it sometimes seems this vast country is united only by its passion for a game that mixes finesse with fisticuffs and celebrates players who carry on through the pain of separated shoulders and bashed-in noses.
Canada still produces more than half the players in the National Hockey League — the number has recently hovered around 53% — but no team based in Canada has won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Kings in 1993. Four of Canada's six teams have lost in the Cup finals since then: the Vancouver Canucks in 1994, Calgary Flames in 2004, Edmonton Oilers in 2006 and Ottawa Senators against the Ducks in 2007.
So it would seem logical that Canada's Cup-starved fans would back the Canucks over the Boston Bruins when the Cup finals start Wednesday at Vancouver's Rogers Arena.
Not so much.
The Canucks are getting great support in Vancouver, where cabs bear team placards, people wear team jerseys on busy downtown streets and prices for tickets through online resellers are averaging more than $1,000 per seat. But the Canucks aren't the popular choice across the country despite being the last team from Canada standing.
"It's a complex thing," said David Fransen, the consul general for Canada in Los Angeles and an avid hockey fan.
"It's tough because in Ontario you can be fans of Toronto, Detroit, Buffalo or Montreal and places beyond. In Alberta you're a fan of the Oilers or Flames, and at what point do you transfer that loyalty to Canada?"
For some fans that point hasn't arrived.
Columnist Joe O'Connor wrote in the National Post that cheering for the Canucks, who had the NHL's best record this season, "is like rooting for the New York Yankees: it cheapens the thrill. … Are we that hungry? Me? I'd rather starve, or wait, at least until the next Cinderella story comes along."
An editorial in the Toronto Sun that called the Cup finals "the greatest two weeks on the Canadian calendar" noted that many fans haven't adopted the Canucks. "Can't say as we blame them. The reason is simple. It's not their team. In fact, it would also be a safe bet more Canadians will be rooting for the Boston Bruins than cheering for Vancouver, even if both have 17 Canadians on their roster."
Why the hate?
Jealousy is a likely factor. Vancouver's mountain and sea vistas make it one of the world's most beautiful cities, and it has milder winters than the rest of Canada. Its success in hosting the Winter Olympics has given it new prominence internationally, too. Is it fair for Vancouver to have all that and the Stanley Cup too?
"Vancouver is now a place that is identified as having come of age and has a newfound sense of pride. It's unapologetic pride in its excellence. In the past there's been a tendency to be modest and even timid," Fransen said.
Some of the weak support stems from geography. The Canucks play most of their games while the more populous Eastern part of Canada is sleeping and their players aren't as familiar as those in Toronto or Montreal.
Tradition also plays a part. Canada's easternmost Maritime provinces have ancient ties to Boston through seafaring industries. And some fans respect the Bruins as one of the league's "Original Six" teams and see the Canucks, who joined the NHL in 1970, as lacking in history.
"This is kind of a different country on this side of the mountains," said Cam Cole, a columnist for the Vancouver Sun and six-year resident of Vancouver. "People look at it as tree-hugging, marijuana-smoking weirdoes out here. It's a strange world that nobody considers exactly like the rest of Canada.
"The other thing is they play so late that if you're watching you're kind of half paying attention. The center of the universe based on East Coast," he said, poking fun at Toronto's self-importance, "and the whole national perception is formed by that. There's not the same adoration as there is for Montreal or, God help us, Toronto."
Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows said he and his teammates want to win for each other, the organization and Canucks fans. "What happens outside doesn't impact my preparation or the way I'm going to feel if I win the Cup or if I don't," he said Tuesday.
"It's nice to bring the Stanley Cup to Canada because I'm Canadian. But at the same time I really don't care a whole lot about what people in Calgary or Edmonton or Quebec think."
Roy MacGregor, a much-honored columnist for the nationally distributed Globe and Mail, said hockey fans in Canada remain "hyper-sensitive" to the fact the Cup hasn't been won by a Canada-based team for so long. He said Vancouver's distance from Eastern-based media works against the Canucks' popularity more than the fact their top two players — twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin — are Swedish and that standout center Ryan Kesler is American.
Most Canadians, MacGregor said, "just aren't that familiar with the players. No one knew anything of Kevin Bieksa, for example. And Roberto Luongo has this huge national rep of not winning the big games, despite his Olympic win right there in Vancouver."
Had the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Eastern Conference championship instead of the Bruins, MacGregor said, French-Canadians would have backed the Lightning because of French players like Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.
Personal connections like that influence rooting interest. Fransen has long been a friend of Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli, who was an agent before becoming a club executive. Chiarelli represented Fransen's son, Aaron, who played major junior hockey.
"All that said, in the end I don't think anything trumps the fact that hockey is our national religion. Nothing binds Canada together the way hockey does," Fransen said.
MacGregor thinks the rest of Canada could be persuaded to back the Canucks.
"I think the country is warming to the idea," he said, "but it will take some early success in the final for them to leap aboard the bandwagon."
helene.elliott@latimes.com
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"People look at it as tree-hugging, marijuana-smoking weirdoes out here. It's a strange world that nobody considers exactly like the rest of Canada."
Now that I can believe.
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Mimi
climber
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We're watching.
Here are the anthems. Get ready for battle!
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Way to go Cannucks, 2 - zip.
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