The First Canucks Goalie Captain

Luongo is receiving a lot of praise especially after posting three consecutive shut outs. And rightfully so, after years and years of mediocre goalies coming in and out of Vancouver, it is great to finally have a goalie that won't make you panic in the last 5 minutes of a game. And Luongo is also the first goalie to be named Captain in 61 seasons...or is he?

From the ashes of the dark ages of the Keenan era, rose the West Coast Express which led to sell out crowds, with an exponential growth in fans. These fans relate to whoever was playing when they started watching, and with each passing year it seems that the memories of '94 fade further and further away.

The team, that were one goal away from tying game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, had a lot of reasons contributing to their success: Linden's leadership, Bure's skill, hard nosed defensemen, coaching of Pat Quinn. But there was one reason why the Canucks made it all the way to the end, and he was the first ever Canuck goalie captain: Captain Kirk.

The original No. 1, the original goalie Captain, Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected, the last of the great Stand-Up goalies, Mr. Cool as a Cucumber: Kirk McLean. Back before every goalie in the league adopted Patrick Roy's butterfly style, goalies played a stand-up style of goaltending, where they relied less on positioning and more on pure awesomeness. The gist of the style is to basically stay on your feet and pray that your reflexes are faster then a puck going up to 100 mph.

In the '94 playoffs, McLean posted 4 shut-outs, 2.29 GAA, and had 1 assist (that's one more then my entire ice hockey career). Numbers don't tell the whole tale though. The Canucks fought their way back from being down 3 games to 1 to play game 7 against the hated Calgary Flames. The game went to overtime, where Flames' all star Theo Fleury came streaking down the right wing on a two on one and passed it over to Robert Reichel who had a wide open net. McLean came sliding over and kicked out what was supposed to be a sure goal with his toe, his toe! This save is known by fans as "The Save"



How do top this though? You go into Madison Square Gardens, and you stop America's team the New York Rangers 52 times! Here's all 52 saves:



There is no doubt in my mind that if the Canucks had went all the way in '94, McLean would've received the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff's MVP). Brian Leetch stole McLean's Conn Smythe Trophy, that's right I said it, he stole it. So what if he had 34 points in 23 playoff games, McLean stopped the whole team 52 times in one game!

I'm done venting, here are a bunch of pictures of McLean that I found on Google: the Iconic McLean Linden after a grueling game 6 against he Rangers, sporting the Lion Mask, no butterfly for Captain Kirk, 1990 All-Star, Calm Cool and Collected, on the cover of NHL 95, the greatest men to have ever worn a Canucks jersey, I can't even look at the last two pictures, they're of McLean in a Panther's jersey 97-99, and in a *cringe* Rangers jersey 99-01. I hate you Keenan.

Where Luongo Fails, Steven Succeeds

Roberto Luongo went into Wednesday night's game against the Avalanche with three consecutive shut outs. Hoping to set a franchise best shut out streak Luongo showed why he's Vancouver's best player by stopping all 16 shots fired against him in the first period.

Going into the second period, it looked as if Luongo would deny every shot that came at him; that was until there was a mad scramble in front of the net. With Louie sprawled across the ice, the puck somehow found it's way onto Svatos' stick who then roofed it up and over the down Captain. This ended Luongo's shut out streak at 242 minutes and 36 seconds, enough to rewrite the franchise record, but not enough to record the fourth consecutive shut out.

That really is quite pathetic. I, on the other hand, pulled through to continue my shut out streak at a magnificent 6 straight games. That's right ladies and gentlemen, that's 6 straight games of scoreless hockey on my part. That's 360 minutes of regulation time, and approximately 8 minutes of overtime as two of the games went into extra time. Luongo could only wish he had my streak.

In the sixth game of the season, the Sharks faced off against the ever so eager to hit Cubz. In one of the highest scoring games of the season, I stuck with my guns, played text book hockey and remained pointless in the season for the sixth straight game.

We started off with a short roster as some of the team could not make it to the game. This meant that there weren't any set lines, and so the feared Chow Dang Chen line was rarely out together. Despite not being on the same line, Chow was able to tip in a point shot off of one of our defensemen not named Chen.

As mentioned it was a high scoring affair with the Sharks leading 6-4 in the third, but somehow managed to squander the lead to let the Cubz back in with under two minutes to go in the third. Unfortunately over-time did nothing except to lengthen my scoreless streak, and the game ended in the anti-climax tie of 6-6.

The Cubz were a physical team who were itching to hit any chance they got, but for the most part the Sharks matched in terms of intensity. Where on one occasion the puck was in the Cubz zone for well over two minutes straight.

Despite the failures of Roberto Luongo to continue his shut out streak, I predict that my shut out streak will go beyond what is countable. During the Canucks Avalanche game, Chris Cuthbert commented that Adam Foote was on an 82 game scoreless drought, which I intend to shatter beyond recognition. Instead of forward, maybe I should play goal next game, then at least a goaless streak would be something to brag about.

Bwarararrrr!!!

Yesterday I talked to a lady who's name was Mrs. Wookey.

Honestly do I need to write anything else in this post? How awesome is it if your last name is Wookey? Sure it's misspelled (Wookie) but having your last name be Wookey is just plain cool. I had to bite my lip to refrain from acting stupid, there's so much I could've said...

1) Bwarararrrr!!!
2) Where's Han?
3) Shaved recently?
4) You looked better in the movies.
5) You cleaned up a lot better then Peter Mayhew
6) How come in Episode III you help Yoda escape Kashyyyk, but in Episode VI you seem to have no recollection of Yoda.
7) How come in Episode IV Han and Luke both get a medal at the ceremony where as you have to play second fiddle, even though you helped as much as anyone in destroying the Death Star?
8) If you have a Wookie life debt to Han which is why you owe him your life, what happens if someone else saves your life? Do you owe two life debts? Would you have to leave Han if the second life debt requests you to do so?

I'm still waiting for the day when I meet a Skywalker, I wouldn't let them out of my sight. I'd pretty much talk their ear off, and then take pictures of said fallen ear.

Top of the Line

Tuesday was the rematch between the Sharks and the Killer Ice Bunnies. Last time we met it was a pretty one sided affair, but it was also an exhibition game which didn't mean anything.

With one of our top defensemen out with a season ending knee injury, suffered last game, I was expecting another grueling game of pretending to play as a defensemen. When the lines were read out, I was surprisingly playing forward (my crappy skating skills finally over came the need for defensemen). Not only was I playing forward, I was now winging on quite possibly the deadliest line to have ever been assembled.

Legion of Doom line, KLM line, Triple Crown line, Punch line, West Coast Express, Production Line, Life Line, any line with 80's Wayne Gretzky, meet your maker: the Chow Dang Chen line.

What we lack in skill, speed, skill, ability to stop, shot power, shot accuracy, shooting overall, passing, grit, skating, mobility, flexibility, agility, balance, depth, intimidation, strength, vision, experience, defense, offense, potential, hockey sense, sixth sense, common sense, jerseys that fit properly, we made up in the fact that we almost never come in offside as we're not fast enough to over skate the puck.

Back to the game: we fell behind 1-0 early, but had the tying goal in the second. It became clear early on that unlike the previous game where defense was the problem, the defense was the highlight this game, whereas it was the offense that was lacking this game.

On a completely separate and unrelated note, my move from defense to offense this game wasn't going too well. Someone must've tipped off the Killer Ice Bunnies prior to the game about the famed Chow Dang Chen line, as despite our best efforts, we were held pointless.

One of the girls on the opposing team somehow ended up on a clear breakaway from the center line on. She made her way in and potted it five hole on our goalie. If that was me in net I would have probably faked an injury right then and there, but apparently our goalie has far more class then me. He shook it off and played fantastic the rest of the game. In the third a puck was wristed in from the blue line and was tipped by one of our players pass the other team's goalie, tying the game at 2 a piece.

The third period solved nothing so we proceeded to over time having tied 2-2. On the powerplay in over time, the other team took a lot of bad penalties throughout the game, the puck made its way into the opposing teams zone. I was panicking on the bench about how I would cough up the puck in overtime, and during this time we scored. I didn't see how it went in, I'm just glad it did.

The other team played decent, we would've won in regulation had we converted on the MANY powerplays that we had, but we won and that's all that matters. Although being held pointless throughout the night, this was the first night in our newly formed top line. Chemistry comes first, scoring comes second. Maybe next game we'll try the triangle offense, where Chow streaks in first while Dang and Chen lag behind. I'm expecting goals in bunches the next game.