Boom Goes the Dynamite

It's Sabby time tonight in the desert. I'm excited to see this team respond around the seldom-used backup tonight. Let's call a 4-2 win by the Canucks tonight to cushion their lead a bit more. Daniel hits 31, Linden pops one in, Sopel gets his first on the reunion tour '07 and, what the heck, Cowan notches one just to see if it'll wake people who bother going to the game in Phoenix.

As for around the league? I would be content with:

1. The Preds destroying Calgary. Kipper lets in 4 straight in the first all from Zidlicky on the PP. He's on my fantasy team and has been worthless as of late...
2. Tim Thomas shutting out the Wild. Chara, in a fight of rage, eats Lemaire.
3. Doug Weight bringing down the Stars. Turco pulls his groin. Lindros gives Modano a purple nurple.
4. Islanders crush the Rangers. Smyth scores 5 goals. This will annoy both Oiler and Ranger fans.

And, in case the title of this post throws you, then shame on you. Go let youtube make you feel special.

******

UPDATE: You can't make this stuff up...on the three year anniversary of Bertuzzi/Moore, Chris Simon decides to take off Ryan Hollweg's face. Ugh, I'll prepare myself for a morning onslaught of stories from people who don't watch hockey but will act like experts anyway and call it too violent. If only Chris was a Cincinnati Bengal with a gun, we'd have no juicy story here...

Fun with digits

482 - The amount of consecutive Canuck games Brendan Morrison has played, breaking tying Linden's franchise record
52.24% - The percentage of respondents on canucks.com who feel that the 6-1 thrashing of the Leafs in January was the best win of the season so far
35 - Number of wins for Alain Vigneault in his first season as coach, tying Tom Renny's franchise record
23 - Number of one goal victories for Vancouver this year; leads the NHL
17-3-3 - Canucks in their last 23 games
8 - Number of seasons Markus Naslund has scored 20 or more goals, tying Stan Smyl's franchise record
7-2-1 - Canucks in their last 10 games
6 - Current ranking in the NHL standings
5 - Current length of winning streak
3 - Current ranking in the Western Conference
3 - Number of Daniel Sedin OT goals, tied for first in the league with Briere
1 - Long awaited and well deserved NHL victories for Dany "Jekyll" Sabourin

And, one more non-Canuck related stat for ya...

1 - The number of additional Eastern Conference players who, along with the entire Western conference and much of the northern hemisphere, want Sean Avery dead.

See ya soon Marc.

Photo is courtesy of the Ultimate Canucks Search. Not sure who’s winning it yet, but I’m all for just giving it to any of the dogs. Or this girl who I respect for her talent. Seriously. Her talent.

Will the real Sabourin please stand up?

Dany to the Sabourin is manning the big hole tonight against the Ducks. So which Dany will we see tonight? Jekyll or Hyde? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’ll pick off where Luongo leaves off. More or less.

Prediction: 4-3 Canucks in OT. Pronger, Nieds and Kunitz all score off their throats. Daniel, Pyatt, Morrison and Cooke net Dany his first NHL win. Luongo sits on the bench, plays some Sudoku and tries to scratch out the “Cloutier blows” bench graffiti with his skate.

Didn't we just do this?

The Oilers are like the bad guy in the final scene of what's likely a crappy movie you catch on cable when you're bored. The hero (think Bruce Willis in Die Hard) shoots the bad guy (think Bruce Willis in The Jackal) directly in the face, he falls down a flight of stairs, crashes through a window and lands on the lawn three floors below. Bruce goes to check on the woman he no doubt will plow during the credit roll (think Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element) and the bad guy crashes through the side glass door with chicken wire to wrap around the hero's neck. Bruce (the good one) shoves broken glass through Bruce's (the bad one) neck and he slowly bleeds to death on some lovely kitchen floor tile. Bruce (yes, the good one) strolls off into the sunset with Milla in one hand and a cigar in the other while Bruce (yes, the bad one) flicks open an eye and growls...presumably at the shard of glass in his throat. Or the fact he doesn't get Milla and, yes, we understand this pain all too well.

So yeah, why won't the Oilers just go away? Oh right, because we're in the most ridiculous division in the damn league. Somehow the Oilers can lose all of December and be within striking distance of the Luongnucks. Seems about right.

On the plus side, the Oilers are useless on the man advantage against the Canucks (1 for 34 on the season) and have lose three straight since humiliating Sabourin some time ago. On the negative side, the Canucks sucked against the Flames on Saturday and lost out in the valuable Sean Avery sweepstakes. Damn you Sather, you win again.

At any rate, both teams will beat the shit out of each other again. Assuming the Oilers play with more anger in their strides, this goes to OT or a shootout in which Vancouver wins. The Oil will be happy with a point, the Canucks will be happy with the extra one.