Recap: 2/9/2007 Canucks vs Predators

In our fourth match up of the year against the Predators, the Canucks once again played at the level of our competition and barely managed to squeak out a victory over a much less talented team. The 5-3 victory was only thanks to an all-out effort by Mike Smouter (a.k.a. “Sid the Kid”) who pretty much single-handedly won the game for the Canucks by scoring four goals. The team as a whole played like a bunch of Timbit hockey players scurrying around the ice chasing the puck in a pack. This is not the first time the Canucks have played poorly against teams in the bottom of the standings – it has pretty much been a theme through-out the season. While other teams beat these weaker teams by ten goals or more, the Canucks forget that just showing up does not guarantee a victory. Scoring a goal within the first 20 seconds, the Canucks decided it was going to be an easy game and then just sat down and waited for the buzzer to go, while watching the Predators hack away at pucks in front of our net. Now it may have been the absence of coaches, or star players such as Arie, Joel, James, and Rich, or the addition of a scorekeeper to the lineup, but we can definitely play much better. This writer is somewhat apologetic for being a bit harsh, but we only got two games left before the playoffs when the games actually count, so let’s start playing some stellar hockey!
Oh – and you’ll never guess what happened… Wade has surpassed the 40 minute penalty maximum. I don’t think anyone bet on Wade being the first to reach 40 ;) Granted, I’d say 30 of those minutes were moronic miss-conduct penalties handed out by a ref with a personal vendetta against number 16.

Anyways, here’s the video for this week. I’m a little disappointed in the way whatever band this is just butchered one of my all time favorite songs, but I guess Robert Smith and I will just have to live with it.