You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Canucks fan who misses the regime of Coach John Tortorella and President/GM Mike Gillis. Around these parts, they’re nearly as reviled as Coach Mike Keenan and… Acting GM Mike Keenan.
There are loads of similarities. But who was worse? The answer doesn’t come as easily as you might think.
John Tortorella just can’t catch a break.
After Ryan Kesler & Co. played the United States out of medal contention this weekend, Torts publicly cheered for Team Sweden. He said he “doesn’t give a shit about Team Canada” because Mike Babcock benched Roberto Luongo and sat Dan Hamhuis for all but token minutes through the knockout games. He hoped Daniel Sedin would score a brace, Alex Edler would gather three assists, and the two of them would come back to Rogers Arena with gold around their necks and fire in their bellies.
Of course, it’s Hammer and @strombone1 bringing home the shiniest of shiny baubles, as the Swedes went without two of their three important Henriks — they even went without the equally viktig Nicklas Backstrom, as his migraine medication was found to be in violation of the IOC anti-doping policies. Even with those three in the lineup, they likely wouldn’t have touched this particular iteration of Team Canada, which was built not for sexy offensive flair, but rather for defensive tautness. But I digress. These are problems for Peter Forsberg and Tre Kronar, not for Torts.
More after the jump.
It’s here at last: episode 54 of the podcast, in which Chris and Jason discuss the most egregious omissions from Team Canada men’s hockey rosters, from 1972 right through to the 2014 Olympic team. Sadly, we neglected to include the sublime Tessa Bonhomme, whose sudden dismissal from the 2014 women’s squad sent shock waves through the sport.
• Intro
• Get ‘er rollin’
• 2014 Sochi Olympic snubs
• 2010 Vancouver Olympic snub
• 2006 Turin Olympic snub
• 2004 World Cup of Hockey snub
• World Championships snub
• 2002 Salt Lake Olympic snub
• 1998 Nagano Olympic snub
• 1996 World Cup of Hockey snub
• 1986 World Championships snub
• 1991 Canada Cup snub
• 1987 Canada Cup snub (hint: it’s the same dude!)
• 1972 Summit Series snub
• Wrap it up
• Time for a Change by the Orchid Highway
• Thanks for listening
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Day one of the 2014 Great Northwest Showcase saw the UBC Thunderbirds earn a dramatic come-from-behind win over the seven-time NCAA Division 1 champions from the U of North Datoka. The Team Formerly Known as the Fighting Sioux, which features a dozen NHL draft picks, including World Junior Gold Medalist Rocco Grimaldi, is the first NCAA varsity team to play in BC since 1999*.
The game offered up solid goaltending at both ends of the ice. Sophomore Zane Gothberg, a 2010 draft pick of the Boston Bruins, made 22 saves on 25 shots for UND, while keepers Matt Hewitt and Steven Stanford teamed up to make 26 saves for UBC.
More after the jump.
The Vancouver Giants put a stop to the best team in the CHL on Friday night, beating the Kelowna Rockets 4–2 at the Pacific Coliseum. The Rockets entered the night on a remarkable 16-game win streak, which most recently included back-to-back 7–2 spankings of the powerhouse Portland Winterhawks — in Portland.
Jackson Houck and Jared Rathjen continued strong play for the Giants, the former netting a hat trick and the latter stopping 24 of 26 shots against the explosive Kelowna attack. Anthony Ast had the other goal for the Giants in his first game back out of the walking boot he wore last week to protect a bruised bone in his ankle. Cain Franson and defenseman Arvin Atwal each had two assists in the win.
Jackson Whistle, who played 21 games for the Giants in 2011–12, lost to his former team for the first time. Whistle won all four games against Vancouver last year, but allowed four goals on 26 shots to earn the L this night.
Houck now has a team-high 22 goals on the season, tying him for ninth among WHL goal scorers. Despite playing 31 fewer games thus far, he is just one shy of his total for last season, his career best for goals scored. He will look to tally number 23 against these same Rockets in Kelowna on Saturday in the second half of this back-to-back series.
The title says it all. Global Morning News anchors Steve Darling & Sophie Lui jumped on the table hockey game with Jason this morning, giving some TV love to our September 20-21 event.
Weatherman for the ages Mark Madryga and traffic reporter extraordinaire Kaitlyn Herbst jumped in on the action, too.
Darling proved to be the top performer of the bunch, scoring thrice and looking pretty comfortable at the controls despite not having played in decades. Lui performed admirably for her first time, and full points to Herbst for transferring her love of soccer defensive play into some solid table hockey puck stoppage.
Madryga? He couldn’t translate his hockey smarts into a goal until he lifted the game right up off the table, a clear violation of both table hockey rules and weatherman etiquette.
But we’ll let it go this time, as long as he comes out to the media challenge on September 20. As for you, you can register for the tourney for just $25 here. Proceeds from the event will benefit Canuck Place and Five Hole for Food.
