Sententiae Draconis

This is how I feel right now. Canucks lost in overtime last night. So that's that for the season.

This series was tough, and it really showed the weaknesses of our team without Daniel Sedin (never be concussed again, pls!). But I think in the end the Kings won it because they played better than everyone was expecting. The Kings were a good team throughout the regular season, but they were a team that didn't score - and they changed that in the playoffs. So fuck. At least the Canucks didn't have a total mental breakdown like the Penguins did. Holy shit that series was ridiculous! But despite the gaffes, my boys still played defence.

Dear Canucks,

I still love you. You're great. And you bring me great joy even when we lose in the first round (although that does suck). I know that some of you might not be back with the team next year and I'll miss you. I know that there will be some new guys and I hope that they fit in well with this truly awesome group.

And I don't care what anyone says, winning the President's Trophy (best record in the regular season) twice in a row is still super awesome! (Even if it was kind of an accident this year.)

Continue to be awesome, boys. I'll see you next year.

Love,
Me

At least I can watch hockey without feeling stressed about the outcome now. Also - if Ottawa wins tonight then they've won their series! (And then the Canucks won't be the only 1st place team knocked out by 8th...) GO SENS GO!

Check this out! It's a Map of the birthplaces of all the current NHL players!

http://www.everyoneelseisdoingit.com/maps/NHL_2011-12.html

That is a cool distribution.

Notable:
Furthest North = a bunch of Swedes (not surprising), followed by a clump in Anchorage, Alaska, and Jordin Tootoo in Churchill, Manitoba
Furthest South = Robyn Regehr from Recife, Brazil, followed by Some guy I've never heard of from some place I've never heard of near Indonesia
There is a guy (Ryan O'Marra) who was born in Tokyo, Japan!
There is another guy (Richard Park) from Seoul, South Korea!
There is a guy from Sardinia!
Despite the fact that there are loads of Swedes and Finns, there is only one guy from Norway (I've always wondered about this - it seems odd to me).
There are LOTS from all over Canada (or at least the parts of Canada where there are actually people).

This is a map of where people were born, not where they grew up (which might be a more interesting distribution, but harder to gather data), so it's flawed. For example the city where my family lived when I was born didn't have a hospital, so I was born in the city next door. Then we moved two months later to another country, but the point is that I never lived in the place where I was born.

In conclusion: Maps are cool. :)

Instead of working on my Roman aqueducts paper (which - at least aqueducts are super cool) I'm trolling around the internet looking at hockey blogs and being greatly amused.

Here are some things that deserve sharing because of awesomeness. :)

The Sedin Twins are different people (sort of)
This is an article from before the All Star game that's talking about the Twins and how they've played together their entire lives. How they are still different people despite their identicalness. And asking the other Canucks how to tell them apart.

Best quotes (ie almost all of it):
[if they're drafted to different All Star Teams]the mirror image Swedes always could consider punishing their antagonists with a switcheroo. They're both certain the only ones that could tell would be teammates.
"No," Henrik said definitively when asked if anyone other than fellow Canucks All-Stars Alexander Edler and Cody Hodgson would notice. "You're right, we should do that."
...
Defenseman Kevin Bieksa figured out one difference when he lived in the same building as Henrik and often would spot Daniel waiting for his brother in the parking lot.
Despite being the Canucks' captain, Henrik has a bad habit of running late.
"Danny's always on time," Edler said. "Henrik is always a couple minutes late."
It drives his punctual younger brother (by minutes) crazy.
"He hates when people are late," Henrik said. "I'm usually late."
Within that dynamic, Bieksa said Daniel emerges as the more "responsible" of these road-trip roommates, dictating their schedule and keeping Henrik "in line."
"Hank is going to say he's the one in charge, for sure," Bieksa has said of the differences. "And Danny might even say nobody is just because he's a humble kind of guy. But we all know Danny is the one in charge. And Hank still wants to retain that older-brother status, too, so he tries to boss Danny around sometimes and Danny takes it, which is the funny thing. But Danny is usually the one in charge when push comes to shove."
Edler, who knows them as well as anyone after being taken under their collective wing when he made the move from Sweden to Vancouver, seemed to agree with Bieksa.
"Danny might be in charge. He makes the more smart decisions," Edler said with a mischievous grin. "They are twins, but they are still two different people."
...
As for which twin really us in charge, it may not matter. Daniel may arrive first, but if he's the one waiting around, isn't Henrik really dictating the schedule?
"Well, he thinks he's in charge," Henrik said of Daniel.
"I am in charge," said Daniel, "but he doesn't care."

I love them. :)


Also there's a new campaign going around to help end Homophobia in sports and Hockey in particular. There's a pretty comprehensive article over at Puck Daddy, and a shorter one in the Toronto Sun which features my guy Tanner Glass, who is a former Canuck, a current Winnipeg Jet and an all around awesome guy (if only he were better at hockey and could have stayed on my team - I miss ya Tanner!).

The Campaign is call "You Can Play" and it's being spearheaded by Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke and his son Patrick who is a scout for the Flyers. They're trying to make the league a safer space for gay athletes starting by reducing homophobic language to begin with. And it's in memory of Brendan Burke (son and brother) who died in a car accident. He was a hockey player, he wasn't in the NHL, but he came out in 2009, which is awesome.

Anyway they're trying to get a lot of NHL players to speak out about it and they've already got over 30 who are going to be in various TV spots. It's really awesome to see some of these guys speaking up about it. Especially since considering the number of Canadians and Europeans in the League I've been expecting hockey to be a more accepting place than some of the other major sports (still not easy - but yeah).

I'm super happy that some of them are even calling guys on homophobic language in Games! From the Toronto Sun article:

If Glass hears an opposing player use a gay slur during a game, he’ll let him know he’s crossed the line.
“The language has got to be the first thing to go,” Glass told the Winnipeg Sun, Monday. “You hear it all the time.”
The reaction he gets tells him there’s hope, but still a ways to go in educating the rank-and-file in the macho world of pro hockey.
“Some guys will be, ‘Yeah, well, f--- you,’ or whatever,” Glass said. “But some guys are like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.’ ”

Tanner Glass, I love you! Please continue to be awesome!

Anyway here's a TV spot:


And sometimes looking at the comments section is not filled with sadness. Examples:
From the Puck Daddy Comments section

(It's still weird for me being in places on the internet where the assumed gender is male.)

More photos of attractive hockey players. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. :)


Henrick Lundqvist - Goaltender, NY Rangers (also a Swedish twin, but his twin is not on the same team as him, and not a goalie)


Dreamy...


Swedes from the All Star Game! Lundqvist (Rangers), Henrik Sedin (Canucks), Eric Karlsson (Senators), Daniel Sedin (Canucks), Daniel Alfredsson (Senators - I love him too), Alex Edler (Canucks - my hockey boyfriend)


Jarome Iginla - Calgary Flames. When he smiles everything is right with the world.


Patrick Sharp - I should hate him because he's a Blackhawk... but look at that face!


Edler's spot for GQ...


I actually have this photo saved as "Cory Schneider looks into your soul.jpg" - Canucks, natch.


Harrison Mooney (Blogger, Pass it to Bulis) with trophy and Tanner Glass (then Canucks, now Jets) - okay, so Tanner's not actually that attractive, but I like his smile and I actually think that his mullet is kinda endearing. Plus it helps that he's an awesome person. :)


This is unrelated to attractiveness. I just have no idea what Alex Burrows is doing. But it's hilarious!

Life's been pretty busy, but generally good.

This weekend we had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with seven of the usual crowd. I made cheesy mashed potatoes which is a family tradition (and even moreso - I'm always the one who makes it) - and they were a big hit.

Tonight I'm going to a poker game which is a tradition among some of the department. Buy in is $10, and it's reasonably competitive - but I'm resigned to loosing everything. As long as it's a fun time with the guys I'm cool with it. So that should be fun - I should make myself a poker hands cheat-sheet before I go.

The NHL hockey season has started up again and the Canucks are playing right now. I'm listening to the game. And it's currently 5-4 for Philidelphia in the 3rd period. I dislike the Flyers at the best of time, but this is not helping. Although I'm still not too worried about the game.

I bought a new knitting pattern and I think that I'm going to use it for a Christmas present. But I think that I need to get one more ball of yarn, since I might not have enough. I'm excited to start. ;)

Why are all of the books for my next two presentations in German and French? The French is okay - but Deutsch? Lame. I do not speak German. Oh well, I've got enough time to Google Translate what I need. My main text for the shipwreck I'm looking at is called "Das Wrack". Oh Germans - you're so ... German.

I get to make stone tools in my Anthro class. Partially that's awesome, but partially I'd rather just find some good stones and shape them to make a wall instead. Bifacial what? Although our TA did his Masters' Thesis on stone tools used in high-risk situations like hunting polar bears and sea lions. And that is wicked cool.

Anyway... dinner calls!

I am a huge ball of stress for the game tonight.

It's game seven! That means whoever wins tonight wins the whole bloody thing!

The Stanley Cup - which Vancouver has not won in its forty year history. And this is the best shot we've had in seventeen years.

And the media is making me even more angry than usual.

And poor Mason Raymond got his back broken last game. (And the stupid Boston fans jeered him for diving long after he was lying on the ice in obvious pain. Stay Classy.)

(Also, do you remember Rome's hit on Horton last week that was scary for injury? It was a late hit and definitely not intent to injure but he got a four game suspension. Turn that around on Monday so that the Canucks player is the one who's injured, and Boston gets nothing. Not even an interference call on the play. It's not that I think that Boychuck did it on purpose, but can you say double standard? Especially since Rome hit Horton in the middle of the open ice and Boychuck finished his check into the boards while Raymond's head was between Boychuck's legs. It's a fast game and that wasn't done on purpose, but it's a much more dangerous position in my mind. Also this is the second time in the last few months that a Boston player has broken someone's spine. I don't care if it was on purpose or not - someone needs to look into that.)

Also I may go insane if (when - sigh) I hear someone say that Roberto shouldn't be starting in net tonight. Yes he played like crap on Monday. He's still our best goaltender.

Anyway, I'm going to go for a wander through the crowds downtown tonight and then watch the game at home with friends and then maybe go downtown for craziness afterwards.

Think good thoughts! (My head thinks we're going to win because of the home ice advantage which has been a big thing in this series - but my heart may explode in the meantime.)

Whatever happens after this I'll be able to get back to thinking about the rest of my life.

YE GODS!!! OVERTIME!!!! IN GAME SEVEN!!!!!!

On the up side - VICTORY! Take that Blackhawks! (Nobody likes you anyway.)

Several heart attacks and a beautiful goal by Alex Burrows (aka the biggest Frenchmen who's father is English - like from the UK English - EVAR) and Chicago is out and Vancouver (aka the good guys) are moving on to the next round.

If you had told me at the beginning of this series that it would take seven games to beat the Blackhawks, I would have thought that you were being overly pessimistic. But it's true. My boys were on the brink of what might have been the biggest collapse in NHL history if not all of professional sports. And when Toews tied it up with only two minutes remaining and prevented us from wining in regulation I nearly flipped my shit.

But then Burrows scored!!!! :) And now all is right with the world. - Until the second round starts... which is soon.

This game was all the more crazy for me because the GC Founders' Dinner was tonight so I wasn't able to watch most of it! Instead I was sitting listening to a bunch of long and boring speeches about people I'd never heard of, which were told in a way that suggested I should know who these people were. Very awful. But Spicy J was watching the game and I got him to text me updates on the score. And then things finished up in time for me to watch the last minute of play before overtime. Thank the gods for technology!

(Ironic Curling icon is Ironic. *grin*)

Why is it that every year after the Canucks get out of the playoffs (and other teams too - I just pay the closest attention to the Canucks) people start clamouring about how terrible certain players are and how wrong and bad everything is and how our coach was an idiot? Or alternatively make blanket statements like - the other team was simply better. No contest.

Blah blah blah.

I should really know better than to read the comments by fans on TSN.com and other sports pages. It's the internet and people always make statements as if they are experts, even (and especially) the people who don't watch all the games.

Everybody's talking about how the Canucks choked on home ice. Luongo sucks. He should never have had the captaincy (and my favourite - this just proves how good the Canadian Olympic team was because they won the game despite having Lu in net. Are you fucking kidding me? Roberto outplayed Martin Brodeur - arguably the best goaltender ever - in that tournament and that's why he got the start in the gold medal game. STFU!). And then they start wailing on Alain Vigneault's coaching. He won the Jack Adams Award for best coaching in the league in 2007, they don't give those out to just anybody!

The main problem I have with sports fans and commentary is that everyone making them seem to have the attention span of a goldfish. Chicago and Vancouver are two good and (I think) well matched teams. Everyone's talking about how the Canucks choked at home - but they're forgetting to mention how the Blackhawks did too. Game 1 and Game 5 were both completely dominated by the Canucks. In fact all the commentators were saying after Game 1 that this series was going to go to the Canucks no problem, after a game like that.

The only reason we're not going to a Game 7 (in Chicago where we were VERY good) is because the 'Hawks managed to come back in Game 2. That was the victory in this series. The only truly even period in the whole series was last night in the first when both teams were playing their best. It was a fantastic period of hockey - great scoring chances on both sides and amazing saves from both goaltenders. And at the end of that period the score was goose-eggs. And then Byfuglien smashed Edler's knee in a clean hit (I hate Byfuglien). And Salo was already playing wounded, and suddenly the Canucks were playing with four D instead of six. I know it's an excuse, but I think it's a pretty good one. Also I agree that we need better depth on Defence, if our best option is having Salo play while injured instead of pulling up someone else. (Also I really miss Willie Mitchell. Please make your head stop being concussed.)

So no, I don't think the Blackhawks are a better team than the Canucks. I think they're pretty much equal in skill. And it's balls that this has happened for the second year in a row, but we're still one of the top eight teams in the league (30 teams) - top four in our conference (15 teams). This is nothing to sneeze at. (Also I am reasonably certain we would have beat Detroit if we played them instead of Chicago - which almost happened).

So stop talking about us like we're the Toronto Maple Laughs - we are not only getting into the playoffs we are getting past the first round.

The bright side is that I won't have to miss any games while I'm in Italy. It doesn't seem all the bright at the moment though.

And now it's the Sharks and the 'Hawks in the conference final - and I'm still pissed at them, but damn I want the 'Hawks to win. The Sharks are all bums.

In other news - Dear Habs, please beat the Penguins tonight. They don't belong in the Northern Hemisphere anyway and Sidney Crosby is bland and annoying (yes even when he scores in overtime against the Americans).
Love, Me.

While I was in Scotland I had a good time encouraging stormsearch in her newfound love of hockey. It's not as strong as L's (...yet) but after hearing her response to the Men's Gold Medal game the other day, I feel there is hope for her. *grin*

(There is something really wonderful about getting people in Scotland to fall in love with Hockey. It's just so... improbable.)

Anyway, we naturally got to talking about attractive hockey players. I am certainly one of the first to admit that most hockey players should really leave their helmets on. A lifetime of helmet hair and being knocked about on the ice does not a pretty face make. Yeah, sure I find them all super attractive when they are on the ice and skating - because skating is pretty and very awesome when it is done well (exhibit a - Speed Skaters). But I really don't find many hockey players to be attractive off the ice as well as on. (I feel there must be a similar effect with rugby players too...)

But there are a few exceptions. And some of them even manage to remain attractive after long careers. (Kirk Mueller is a good example... but I'm not going to talk about him today.) I maintain that when Jarome Iginla smiles, everything is right with the world. Naturally stormsearch wanted proof. So instead of just sending the evidence to her I thought I would share with all of you lovely people as well.

And so I give you pictorial evidence of Jarome's amazing smile.

Jarome Iginla - #12 - Captain of the Calgary Flames - Gold Medalist in the 2010 Olympics



( More evidence under the cut! )

The season opener was tonight (totally more important than the paper I have due tomorrow) and it was the Canucks versus the Flames in Vancouver. The game was dedicated to Luc Bourdon, the Canucks defenceman who died this summer in a motorcycle accident. And as Alex Borrows said at the end of the game he was definitely with us. Everything went well for us. Our passes were crisp, we did phenomenally on the rush, Roberto stood on his head in the net. And the score reflected that.

6-0 Bitches!

And people keep saying that the Canucks can't score!

What a way to start the season!

It's a good thing I have to finish up that paper, because there is no way I could sleep right now anyway!

I am going to be happy for a week! (or more)

And his name is Roberto Luongo! aka my Hockey Boyfriend. aka the Canucks' lead Goaltender.

But wait, you say! Roberto is a goaltender - goaltender's can't be Captains!

True, there hasn't been a goaltender Captain since Bill Durnan Captained the Montreal Canadiens in the '47-'48 season. And true, he isn't allowed to wear the 'C' on the ice, adn he won't be able to take any ceremonial face-offs. BUT he totally IS the leader of the team, by example and by loud talking-ness!

(Also that's why they've annouced three alternates.)

His Alternates are defencemen Willie Mitchell and Mattias Ohlund, and forward Ryan Kesler.

As Head Couch Alain Vigneault said "Opening face-offs will be done by Mattias because he's the longest running Canuck, and since William likes to talk the most, we'll have him talk to the referee."

I love Alain Vigneault. He's great. I especially love that he calls Willie Mitchell (who was one of my top choices for Captain when I didn't think Roberto could get it) 'William.'

I am so looking forward to this season! First game is on the 9th against the Flames and they're playing it on CBC despite the fact that it's a Thursday! Also I'm going to a game in December with hobbitbabe (who is probably the only one of you who understands what I'm talking about... or cares...)!!!!

And now the important question: when I get my Canucks jersey do I get one with Luongo's name and number or Edler's? It's a tough call!