These are for the fans who need something to believe in, but the Canucks need some of this in the room before Tuesday's game too.

Al Pacino's Inspirational Speech (via 7940962f)

Braveheart In Defiance Of The English Tyranny! BRAVO (via popthetime)

Rocky Balboa Motivational Speech - Kinetic Typography (via daronsneed)

Miracle - Coach Brooks Addresses Team Pre Game (via murphystar1)

Speech - Remember the Titans (via oobi01)

Vince Lombardi: Speech (via FootballFunFan)

Winston Churchill "finest hour" (best version) (via kosimpson)

Our Deepest Fear . . . (via DailyMotivation)

You want something. Go get it. Period. (via DailyMotivation)

and finally this.

The Vancouver Canucks :: Progression (via xEvolu7ioNx)

bring your best argument for why you think your goalie should start game 6.

for me it's schnieder, and by a country mile.  luongo gets pulled twice in 2 games, the team is not playing well in front of him and their body language and effort are horrible.  if you've watched the 16 playoff games and haven't figured out that the blackhawks have the book on luongo then i think you should put down the bong.  they've solved him like a one color rubics cube. AV needs to give the bhawks a new goalie to figure out.  starting schneider is a clear signal to the team that they need to change the way they play, and they usually put more effort into the defensive end when schneider starts.  luongo was a crutch in many instances in the first 3 games they won, patching up spotty play.  the crutch is broken, take it away and force them to work.

ok go.

put on your best dress and do your face blackhawks, because the canucks are taking you out.

this is not going to be long and drawn out, this is not going to be close, this is not going to be fun and exciting it's going to be clinical, methodical and efficient.

the last couple years the canucks had question marks and the blackhawks had answers, this year there won't be any questions, just beatings.

you don't get to where the canucks are by being mentally fragile, or having weak links in your roster, or getting lucky. you get to the top of every category in the nhl by dominating the rest of the league.

so go ahead and try to manage expectations. work the refs. play your mind games. while you're talking the canucks will be winning.

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you may or may not have read a previous fanpost i wrote which stated more or less the exact opposite viewpoint to this one.  that one was written in a fit of rage a couple weeks before the trade deadline and didn't really convey the core of what i was feeling at the time which was that the team needed to get some size and veteran grit at the deadline to be able to play a more playoff-ready brand of hockey.  here was the lineup they iced vs the blues the game before i wrote that, a game which they lost 3-2 and imo were outmuscled:

so what's changed my mind and given me a deep enough faith in the team to make me come out here and eat a little crow? 

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After watching every game this season I'm very impressed with the Canucks, who are clearly the best team ever assembled in Vancouver.  Hard to be upset about leading the entire NHL in points, top of the charts in PP, PK, GF, GA, but with my username you know I can find something and it is this: 

This team is skilled and fast and full of hard working quality human beings and still not built to win the playoffs.

The key stat is the one that Shorty made note of tonight, and has before which is that the Canucks have not won a game in which they were trailing after 1 period.  Granted, they haven't had much practice at that considering their stellar work scoring the first goal, but there have been enough chances in this season that the stat is not a fluke.  The key issue is that the Canucks have a difficult time grinding out wins.  The game against the Blues tonight is not unlike the game last week against the Ducks, or the game against the Rangers in January, and especially like the last 2 Chicago series - physical, called loosely, lots of uncalled clutch and grab and hook - and the result is the same in all cases.  Canucks get stifled, get run into the boards and can't play through adversity to come from behind. 

To be fair, some players step up and deal with the physical play well.  Samuelsson was physical, Kesler gives great effort, Hansen likewise and Tanner Glass tries hard, but the physical play runs really onesided overall and prevents the Canucks from playing to their strengths.  Burrows is constantly rag dolled in front of the net.  Raymond is not ever going to lug the puck through contact, and there is not nearly enough bulk on defense to clear the crease consistently or make forwards pay a price along the glass, even when you factor in all the currently injured blueliners.

I wanted to find some way to quantify why I think this is and how I did it was to plug the rosters of the Canucks and some comparable teams into excel and analyze them.  The teams I chose were DET, PHI, PIT, TBL and CHI, and the comparables were player sizes as listed on yahoo sports, both the weight and calculated BMI which is a good indication of a player's build.  Vancouver was dead last in average BMI, and that was with Chris Tanev listed at 199lbs, which seems at least 20lbs high.

Long story short, the playoffs are a grind, full of clutch and grab, eat the whistle bullshit and those games do not play to Vancouver's strengths.  If Mike Gillis doesn't look at this roster and see there is still some work to do to win a long string of those kinds of games then I have a hard time believing this team is going to find a way to claim the ultimate prize.

And just to be clear and clearly distant from a tedious dead horse, I'm not advocating getting any goons to fight.  I'm perfectly happy with a team lacking an enforcer.  This is about being able to handle the rigors of physical games and come out without a new player being put on IR ever other game.  This is about dealing with the predictable garbage that is playoff officiating.  And this is about finding a player or two that will take the body and actually make an impact.

A friend of mine from work is a huge Isles fan and told me that Tambellini is money in the shootout, which is good and useful given the loss of Wellwood.  Well I did a little youtubing and he was right, but tell me if you notice anything about his shootouts.  Laser wrister but you'd think some goalies might have a book on him at some point...

Look at about 2:30 into this one

More scouting from my friend: says that Isles fans expect good things from Tambellini every year, and he plays well in the minors and the NHL but the coaches don't give him minutes and no one knows why.  Says that he has more offensive skill than Kesler (witness his shot in the videos and I can believe that I guess) and plays a sound defensive game.

Training camp is going to be so full of intrigue this year the boards might just explode with the various forms of man-crushes.

• Nathan Horton  #16  Right Wing
• Height: 6-2  Weight: 229
• Shoots: Right
• Born: May 29, 1985 - Welland, Ontario
• Draft: 2003 - 1st round (3rd overall) by the Florida Panthers

According to the Sun-Sentinel (via kukla) Horton could be traded before the draft.  The article references the Sabres as a team that is in the hunt, and doesn't mention the other teams that have shown interest.  It also mentions that the Panthers are looking for a top-6 center, which the Canucks don't have available unless you count the rights to Kyle Wellwood.

I'd be willing to give up Mason Raymond and Steve Bernier, although i'm not sure if that's an appealing offer for Dale Tallon.  Heck, throw in Welly too.

I read through all the reports of the press conference today and one thing in particular stood out for me (from The Province):

-- On how he wants to see the team evolve.

"I think it's how your team comes together that determines your playoff success. I'm really happy that our team scores goals. I think that is the future of the league. ... Now we have to translate into playoff success. I think our core players are good enough, committed enough. I think we have to continue to adjust and make changes to where we can play any style of game."

Specifically I think that the last line is very important to how the offseason is going to go.  What that means to me is that the Canucks are currently built to be a great regular season team, but they don't have the horses to play any style of game and win.  They can do the high-flying up and down thing, but they're not so good with the grinding half-ice thing.  Looking at the roster as it was this past season that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, given the lack of size on the team and how pathetic they looked trying to clear the crease.

After reading that I would expect Gillis to put a premium on size and toughness in free agency and the draft, and I seriously hope that precludes any possibility of resigning Demitra.

True, I'm not a sunny optimist by nature, so all you clap harder cheerleaders out there feel free to pile on with barbs and flames but there is no way the Canucks make it past the Hawks in this or any other year with this roster.  They simply are not physically tough enough to make teams pay a price for all the douchebaggery that goes on in the playoffs.  This should not come as a surprise with all of 1 player with a listed weight higher than 220lbs.

For whatever reason Gillis has not thought it necessary to find some heft (with the one exception of Andrew Alberts, who doesn't play big anyway), so the lineup is stuffed full of small fast guys who get worn down by big teams and can't return the favor.  Even 1 big badass would make an enormous difference in this series.  Someone like Shea Weber who can lay the lumber and intimidate would change the attitude for the whole team, but the closest thing the Canucks have to that is ... Alex Edler?  SOB isn't hitting anyone.  God knows Alberts isn't imposing his will.  As hard as he plays and as many times as he takes the body Kesler bounces off people, he doesn't punish them.  Every Canuck that goes into the crease is easily tossed aside, unlike that fat asshole from Chicago who carries 3 players into the net with the puck.  The refs aren't going to call that crap, your team can't reciprocate, so you're screwed.

I'm more than happy to be proven wrong and eat my crow, but we've all seen this movie before and it doesn't end well for the good guys.

And only one of them is that horseshit disallowed goal.  I was pissed about that when I watched it, and reading the explanation of it just now means I'm much too wired to go to sleep any time soon, so let's rant bitches.

I am so sick of watching the Sedins try to make cute backhand cross ice passes in the offensive zone, or try to thread the needle to someone who might possibly be able to flick the puck at the net if only they could get a stick on it through 3 defenders, or completely predictably pass up an open shot on an odd man rush to cordially give the other twin a chance to score.  In case you hadn't noticed the Kings have scouted the twins and play the pass.  Every time.  And the twins pass it.  Every time.  Even Kyle Fucking Wellwood takes his tiny-ass stick and directs the puck at the net sometimes in these playoffs when there still might be a pass that he could make which has been a revelation for me.  He hasn't scored on any of those, but it must be surprising the hell out of Quick and everyone who has ever watched him play for the Canucks.  The Sedins though?  They only shoot if there has been the requisite number of pretty passes on the play.  Heaven forbid that they ever get a greasy goal - unless it's youtubeable they don't want it on their resume.

Do I even have to mention the penalty kill?  0% tonight?  The guys out there on the kill couldn't block a shot with a riot shield.  The Kings block more Kings shots than the Canucks do.  No Canuck defenseman seems capable of moving anyone out of the crease, Kings players set down roots there and grow leaves to make their screens more effective.  At the other end Jonathan Quick has 4-5 secret service in front of his net at all times taking bullets for him and clear-cutting the slot.  Sure, some Canucks try to block shots, by which they throw themselves on the ice in front of point men because that's what Balls does but they don't have what Balls has, which is timing so they're just polishing up the ice while Drew Doughty walks around for another seeing eye knuckleball to the top corner.  Seriously, I can't imagine that a penalty kill could be worse than it looks now if the Canucks just stood at the red line and hoped that the Kings might maybe miss the net a couple times out of pity.

Part of the problem is also Luongo.  He's either spitting out "re-purposed entrees" - as Darryl Reagh calls rebounds every game I've heard him call. Fuck I hate Versus - like a $6M pez dispenser, or he's just getting a piece of the shot and letting it trickle in behind him off his knob.  When he's on his game he makes more saves with his belly button than most goalies do with their pads, but right now he looks like a bigger, clumsier Brodeur out there flailing around and spraying the pucks he does save in random and unhelpful directions.

And that fucking drop pass in the neutral zone in every power play entry rush is going to make me have to buy a new TV because one of these times the remote control that I'm throwing is going to damage the one that I have.  The coach that thought that one up needs to be flogged within an inch of his life, given an aloe vera treatment, and then flogged again.  It gets the team set up in the zone 1 out of every 58 times they try it, so maybe they think it's working but it's not.  And neither is Pavol Demitra on the point, or anywhere else for that matter.  He's skating around a fair bit, might even be getting a tiny bit sweaty but he adds nothing to this team that this team needs unless they're actually trying to get to the golf course before it gets busy in May.

Alain Vignealt is being outcoached by Terry Murray.  The Kings have clearly scouted the Canucks and know their tendencies.  Their defensive system is designed to shut down point shots and whisk the puck away from the slot in the event of a rebound.  They bottle up the Sedins in their own zone for whole shifts, they intercept habit passes and they know the pet moves of all the Canuck players.  Canucks on the other hand are mystified by the fact that Doughty has puck handling skills so they keep running out at him in the hopes of seeing themselves in his highlight reels when he makes the hall of fame.  It's kind of like being in the hall, right?

The really sad thing is that The Canucks have become a first period team, where they used to be a third period team.  They come out of the tunnel like gangbusters and crush Kings players all over the ice in the first frame, and then mellow out and fade into the background as the game wears on, then shit the bed in the second period, then get respectable again, until they're forced into desperation mode late in the game and try all manner of ill-conceived hail mary passes and kamikaze pinches that piss the game away in the dying seconds.  And I hate the rollercoaster that puts me on.

But maybe you think this is all part of the plan and Vignealt has the Kings right where he wants them.  What do I know, I can't think straight right now anyway.

there, i said it.  pavol demitra doesn't fit in with the rest of the guys out there, he always seems to be playing a different tune than the rest of his linemates.  kesler, raymond and grabner on the other hand have great chemistry together.  i thought they looked good at the beginning of the year and they looked very dangerous yesterday.  easily the fastest line in the entire nhl, and all three skate hard both directions.  grabner looks like he is on the verge of breaking out in the same way that raymond broke out this year.  what's it say that i'd rather have grabs out there than demo?  well it says i hope they don't resign demitra when his contract comes up, and wouldn't it be nice to have an excuse to keep him out of the lineup for remainder.

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according to this tsn article.  the author (scott cullen) does some semi-sophisticated statistical analysis of all the lines in the nhl at 5 on 5 and when the numbers were crunched to this point in the season hank/dank/bank came out at the top of the list, topping the big lines from washington, chicago, san jose and, well, every other team.

also of note is that raymond/kesler/samuelsson is ranked 8th on that list, which is a big reason why the canucks are where they are imo.  pick your poison nhl, no other team has 2 completely separate lines in even the top 18 combos.  (the caps have 2 different wingers playing with ovechkin/backstrom at 2 and 3 on the list, and the stars 2nd line is the 19th best, and that's the only 2 teams with 2 entries in the top 20.)

what i found shocking were the pretty anemic 5 on 5 numbers of san jose's big 3.  clearly they do a lot of damage on the powerplay because their shot differential in particular is pretty sad for players of that calibre, especially when held up to the example of the sedin line.

so, yeah, the sedins (and the rest of the canucks) are having a pretty good year i'd say.