I would like to see two of these gentlemen in Vancouver next year (via clydeorama)

As hockey fans, our year has but two seasons: Springtime and Rosterbationtime. With the Canucks' defeat at the hands of the Kings, our part of the world has officially entered the latter. The good news is that, according to Government of British Columbia estimates, this year's rosterbation season could be the biggest in this province since the wild 2009, when the Sedins, Sundin, and Ohlund (as well as names like Gaborik, Hossa, and Bouwmeester) were all unrestricted free agents. That year, you may recall (if weeks of furious rosterbation didn't limit bloodflow to your hippocampus), the Canucks opted to roughly maintain the status quo, re-signing the Sedins and locking Kesler and Luongo into long-term extensions. Our big addition was Ehrhoff. Willie Mitchell was still a Canuck. Oh to be young again.

What will this year bring? Who knows? Let this thread be an outlet for your wildest fantasies. Rosterbation season is upon us, and there's only one right way to do it: publicly, loudly, and unapologetically.

Continue reading this post »

Last night's Blackhawks-Canucks game was unpleasant. Obviously the game, and maybe the Canucks' season, turned on the Duncan Keith elbow to Daniel Sedin's head. I felt at the time, and continue to feel, that absolutely no justice was done by the Canucks' subsequent, hilarious after-the-whistle-headlock festival. In the gamethread, I called for violence to be used against Duncan Keith as retribution. I have no doubt that I wasn't alone in thinking along these lines, or indeed in expressing it in the gamethread; however, I was the most explicit. I made several such comments; one I hadn't intended as a direct call for violence against Duncan Keith actually ended up eliciting the most anger. I'm not convinced that believing in corporal punishment is morally objectionable (or makes me not an actual fan of the game, whatever that means); nor, to be honest, do I really care. Regardless, expressing those reactions on this site was a shitty thing to do. Clearly, many people here found it upsetting, and I don't like the idea that I'd be responsible for anyone's reduced enjoyment of this website. I've buried the lead here, but I'd like to apologize to the readers of Nucks Misconduct for making those comments on this website.

This seems like the most logical place to ask, so I'm just gonna throw this out there. 

I'm trying to work with Vic's "close" script for the Ducks in 0910.  This is the URL I'm using:

http://timeonice.com/playershots0910close.php?team=ANA&first=20001&last=30000

It spits out a bunch of lovely data.  However, I'm not sure how to determine which player corresponds to which "player number".  A bunch of them match up just fine with the NHL's list of player numbers here, but some are definitely different (James Wisniewski, for instance, is listed on NHL.com as #20, even though I'm about 95% sure he had #34).  

Also, TOI lists some numbers that NHL doesn't at all; NHL.com doesn't believe the Anaheim Ducks iced a #13 last year, even though he apparently played 66 games and scored 3 goals for them (fwiw, hockeyreference is pretty sure #13 is Mike Brown, who actually played 75 games and scored 6 goals...).  [EDIT: This of course means Brown (or whoever #13 is) scored three goals in ES close situations, not as a whole.  FML.  I don't think this changes my questions, though.]     

So, Question #1: Does anyone know if there's a list hiding somewhere to make putting a name to a TOI "player number" easier?

Question #2: TOI lists a #17 as  having played 65 games for the Ducks.  I'm pretty sure this was two seperate players (Nokelainen prior to the deadline (50 games), Visnovsky thereafter (16)).  Is there any way to seperate their numbers?

Lastly, Question #3: A bunch of players appear to be missing one game (e.g. Perry only has data for 81 games, Getzlaf for 65, even though they played 82 and 66 respectively).  Is there a reason for that?

Thanks very much in advance. 

The Least You Need To Know

-Keith Ballard is a 5'11", 205ish-pound, left-hand-shooting defenceman from Baudette, Minnesota, which is pretty much Canada. 

-He's 27, was drafted 11th-overall by Buffalo in 2002, and has played for Phoenix and Florida in a 5-year career. 

-His counting numbers show 149 points (33+116) and a minus-11 +/- difference in 397 career NHL games. 

-He averages about one penalty minute per game played.  Left to his own devices, he'll get into about 3.5 fights this year.  He'll win, like, none of them, unless it's against Sidney Crosby (more on that later).

-Having played for Phoenix and Florida, he's never tasted postseason action at the NHL level--in fact, his only postseason experience at all seems to be 10 games with the USHL's Omaha Lancers in 2001. 

-He signed a six-year, $25.2M deal last September, preventing him from becoming an RFA.  He has 5 years @ 4.2 per left.

Okay.  An inauspicious start.  After the jump, a slightly more in-depth look at Keith Ballard.

Continue reading this post »

Dreger says Stephen Weiss is "among those available" now that Dale Tallon has taken over in Florida.  This follows similar speculation from Elliotte Friedman a few weeks ago:

Tough from several states away to realize if we're reading too much into Dale Tallon's introductory press conference, but it sounds like Stephen Weiss doesn't fit the new GM's mould in Florida. Weiss has a no-move. However, would a guy who really wants to be a winner be willing to waive? 

Cue the party. 

Divinyls - I Touch Myself (via emiamericarecords)

Hi Sharks fans.  I'm backing the other west coast team represented by a large marine animal, but if they can't get their PK together and get summarily knocked out, the Sidge has my full backing.  I really want to see Jumbo Joe get the monkey off his back, and JoePa, Clowe, Seto and Malhotra generally give me wood.

But enough about me: I wanted to help you celebrate tonight's bombing of Craig Anderson with one of my favourite songs ever--one that I think is very pertinent.  Hope you enjoy!

Human After All - Daft Punk (via klingp2004)

Gabe Desjardins, commandant of Behind The Net, yesterday put up the clearest objective demonstration--that I've seen--of what we all subjectively suspect/know: that Ryan Kesler is only partly human.

Link here.  He rates players' according to how well they're outperforming their expected ES Corsi.  If that sounds like gibberish, it's basically a measure of how well a player gets the puck moving north at 5-on-5; Kesler's third in the league behind Nashville's apparently-dynamic duo of Martin Erat and Marcel Goc (to be known henceforth as a single entity called Rat Gooch).  Nashville's surprising duo aside, I'd say the list passes the sniff test, with the Eurotwins, Lidstrom, Weber, Keith, Ovechkin, Bergeron, Suter, Marleau, Toews, Hossa, and Pavelski all dotting the top-30.   

I love it when Canucks do well, but does Kes have to do so well in a contract year?  I'm sure the guys at M&G and C&B have already forwarded that link to Kurt Overhardt several hundred times.

The problem:

The solution:

Schedule for Monday the 15th after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Let's get something out of the way right off the bat: Dallas F Steve Ott's a piece of shit.  He's obnoxious. His mother probably wishes somebody would catch him coming across the middle with his head down.  So if the question were literally "what would you say to Steve Ott?", the answers would probably be a collection of different rewordings of "dude, you're a huge bitch".  But, assuming Dallas is in a selling mood, what would you say to adding him to the Canucks before the trade deadline?

Continue reading this post »

I think, if Chip Kelly is worth his weight in feathers as a motivator, this loss could be very, very beneficial to the Ducks over the rest of the season. They're the laughingstock of CFB right now, and that "nobody respects us" nonsense really seems to play well among football players. At the very least, I expect Purdue to get hate-****ed next week.

Continue reading this post »

Currently (roughly 12:30 pst--2 hours ABS) the number one search on Google, according to Google Trends, is "Legarrette Blount".  #8 is "blount oregon".  Yikes.  This shit is mainstream.  After all the general goodwill the program has built up in college football circles over the past several years ("oh, those crazy scamps out west, with their goofy unis and high-flyin' offense")...Even if (when?  please?) he's removed from the team, the image of Blount going nuts will be the first thing Joe Q. Public thinks of when he hears the words "Oregon Ducks".  Worst day of Chip Kelly's life?

Anyway, here's to shredding the Boilermakers next week.