Canucks: Hank wins the Hart

It was a big day for the Canucks, with Henrik Sedin taking home the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player. I've got some thoughts on the matter and how the voting broke down over at Canuck Puck; check them out!

Canucks - Blackhawks: Previews and live blogs

This evening will see the debut of one of the most anticipated second-round series in the NHL playoffs, with the Vancouver Canucks traveling to Chicago to try and avenge their second-round defeat at the hands of the Blackhawks last year. It should be an outstanding matchup; the teams are very good and very even, and there's a burgeoning rivalry between them. I'll be live-blogging Game I here and at Canuck Puck starting at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific; make sure to stop by then! To keep you busy until the puck drops, I also have two previews up over at Canuck Puck, one interviewing Jim Neveau of Paint It Blackhawks and one with my series prediction and the best previews from around the web. Check those out, and then come back here at 8 for the live blog!

Canadian Hosers 4, Outdated Monarchical Institutions 2

So, the Canucks finally knocked off the Los Angeles Kings for good. My thoughts on the game and the series are up over at Canuck Puck, along with some excellent topical videos, but if you don't want to read that, here's another video for you.



What can we take from this series? Sum it up, please, Dennis.

"Listen -- strange league executives lying about icy ponds and distributing video-review judgements is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical bureaucratic ceremony!"

Well, Dennis comes on a little strong, but he's right about one thing. For now, it's time to say goodbye to the Kings.

Back to the grind

Apologies for the lack of posting here lately; I've been swamped at the day job and then spent last weekend snowboarding in Vernon, so I haven't had a lot of time to blog. I did get a new piece up at Canuck Puck on how the team's loss to Detroit Saturday night isn't as bad as it looks, so you can check that out if you haven't already. Also, a note to Vancouver (and area) readers; I'm planning to attend the official Canucks Tweetup tomorrow night, so if you're there, say hi! Anyway, we should be back to your regularly scheduled madness shortly; I've got a bunch of CIS thoughts on the way, as well as several professional sports posts set for this week. Until then, enjoy some Skid Row:

A slave to the grind

My apologies for my lack of posts here recently. The downside of spending a week in Calgary covering the Grey Cup was it meant I had a lot of regular work to deal with upon my return (making the above song appropriate), which hasn't given me a lot of time for blogging recently. I do have a lot of things I'm working on, though, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few of them up in the coming days. Until then, you can check out some of the Canucks' posts I've managed to get up over at Canuck Puck. Hope to have more for you here soon!

The Link Train: Where the bell tolls for thee

Welcome to the final edition of The Link Train for this week. It will return Monday, so feel free to send me anything you come across this weekend, either in the comments or via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. I'll also be live-blogging the B.C. Lions - Winnipeg Blue Bombers game here tonight at 7:30 p.m. Pacific (4:30 p.m. Eastern), so come join me then!

Video of the Day: Metallica - For Whom The Bell Tolls




This is a classic. It's tough to go wrong with a song based on my favourite Hemingway novel, and this one is a perfect combination of the best parts of metal; a thumping bass line, killer guitar riffs, a solid drum beat and a generally dark but meaningful overall feel. One of Metallica's best in my mind, and they've had a lot of good ones over the years.

My Links:

- A piece on Ryan Kesler, David Backes, the American Olympic hockey team and why you might not want to insult the wives of future teammates [Canuck Puck].

- My story on Jimmy Camazzolla, who's played in the BCJHL, the WHL, the AHL and the NHL, as well as leagues in Germany and Italy. He's the new coach of the Junior B Delta Ice Hawks [South Delta Leader].

The Best of the Intertubes:

Football:

- Jack Bedell breaks down tonight's CFL games [The Red Zone].

- B.C. Lions Den writer Vanya Tucherov weighs in on what it's like to follow the CFL from the States [CFL.ca].

- Richard Zussman previews the University of Saskatchewan Huskies [The CIS Blog].

- Steve Sheiner (who I interviewed earlier this month) has some good thoughts from Dolphins' training camp [Blog With A Porpoise].

- Brad Gagnon has an interesting piece on the new-look Buccaneers [Goal-Line Stand].

- Hustler of Culture looks at the Dallas Cowboys [Style Points].


Baseball:

- Jonah Keri makes the case for Joe Mauer, AL MVP, and looks at the NL MVP race [jonahkeri.com].

- Matt Clapp on how the Cubs should try Angel Guzman at closer [The Friendly Blogfines].

- Eyebleaf looks at the increasing success enjoyed by wealthy MLB teams [Sports and the City].

- Drew Fairservice on how poor the Blue Jays are defensively these days (partly thanks to the departure of the amazing Scott Rolen and the decent Alex Rios, which I panned here and here) [Ghostrunner on First].

- Ian Hunter takes another look at Brandon League vs. Jesse Carlson [Blue Jay Hunter].


Soccer:

- Steven Cohen has decided to end World Soccer Daily after a boycott campaign [Last Minute, Second Leg].

- A statement on the matter by the Liverpool Football Club New York, which led the boycott [Empire of the Kop].

- Landon Donovan to France? [Jason Davis, Match Fit USA]

- thefuseproject previews this weekend's MLS games [Avoiding The Drop].

- Duane Rollins looks back at Canada's failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup and what it all means [The 24th Minute].


Hockey:

- Erin Nicks weighs in on Dany Heatley's press conference and his demands for options, attention and pancakes. Made me think of this video [The Universal Cynic].

- Vance on the differing perceptions of this year's Sabres [Double-Edged Sabres].

- James Mirtle on the comments on character flying back and forth in the Coyotes/Balsillie case [From The Rink].


Basketball:

- Henry Abbott on the LeBron-Shaq dynamics in Cleveland [TrueHoop].

- Steve Nash: also good at Who Wants To Be A Millionaire [J.E. Skeets, Ball Don't Lie].

- John Stockton: Hall-of-Fame inductee, but still unrecognized [A Stern Warning].


Other Sports:

- Matt Clapp on why his blog's namesake isn't quitting tennis or becoming irrelevant any time soon [Sharapova's Thigh].

- Tiger Woods' real feelings about losing [The Gally Blog].

Links, tunes and live blogs

I'll be live-blogging the B.C. Lions - Toronto Argonauts game here and at Out of Left Field at 7:30 Eastern/4:30 Pacific. Until then, here's some links to the other stuff I've been writing and some of the best stories from around the web, as well as some tuneage to get you all pumped for the game.

My pieces:

- Here's the story of Canucks' prospect Sergei Shirokov and his quest to escape the KHL [Canuck Puck].

- Here's a link to the newest edition of The Whole 110 Yards, my weekly CFL column over at The Rookies.

- The Vancouver Olympics are now only six months away. I have a story on one local group's Olympic preparations in The South Delta Leader, where I'm working for the next few weeks.

- My weekly Phoenix Pub column took aim at the lack of proper standards and treatment around concussions in sports.

- As part of those aforementioned Olympic preparations, the Richmond-Vancouver-Vancouver Airport SkyTrain line is opening on Monday. It will see heavy use during the Olympics, especially transporting athletes, journalists and officials downtown from the airport. I have a story (and a video) talking to some local transit users about their thoughts on the line [The South Delta Leader].

Best of the Interwebs:

- Shakey gives us Landon Donovan's real backstory [Style Points].

- The Pirates Fan on the worst members of Steeler Nation [The Phoenix Pub].

- Weed Against Speed on an upcoming Toronto charity soccer game featuring members of Great Big Sea, Broken Social Scene, Weezer, Bedouin Soundclash and More [Sportress of Blogitude]

- Duane Rollins on Canadian international striker Simeon Jackson's potential Premiership move [The 24th Minute]

- Chilltown on why Tim Wakefield is The Most Interesting Knuckleballer In The World [The Rookies]

- A very painful injury to the Mariners' Adrian Beltre [Gunaxin]

- Adam Best on 30 sports figures who could be aliens [Fan Addict]

- Jason Davis on Landon Donovan apparently contracting swine flu before the U.S. national team's game against Mexico [Match Fit USA]

- Brian Wawryshyn on why football is, after all, just a game [B.C. Lions Den]

Tunage:
Here's a classic most appropriate for a game in Toronto. See you shortly for the live blog!

Back In Black

Apologies for the lack of content around here lately. I've been working full-time for the past couple of weeks, filling in for editor Kurt Langmann at the Aldergrove Star, and have been swamped with other writing in my downtime, so I haven't had a lot of time to blog here. Don't panic, though; today's my last day, so things should hopefully return to normality soon and anything you still can't cope with will then be your own problem! Anyway, I'll hopefully have a real post up before the end of the day. I'm also planning to live-blog the B.C. Lions - Hamilton Tiger-Cats game tomorrow (7:30 P.M. Eastern) and the Vancouver Whitecaps - Cleveland City Stars game Saturday (7 P.M. Eastern) but until then, here's a few links to some of the other pieces I've been writing.

- A report on the BC Peewee and Bantam baseball provincials coming up this weekend. [The Aldergrove Star]

- The second part of my list of annoying fan traditions. Everyone's favourite fake umpires are on it! [The Rookies]

- My thoughts on the Canucks bringing back Kyle Wellwood. [Canuck Puck]

- A story on a group attempting to raise the profile of girls' hockey locally. Some interesting numbers on just how popular guys' minor hockey leagues are compared to girls' leagues. [The Aldergrove Star]

- My weekly column at The Phoenix Pub. This week, it's on why our ever-lessening amounts of free time favour football fandom over following baseball. [The Phoenix Pub]

- Not sports, but interesting: a story I wrote on the impact the recent heat waves and thunderstorms in the Lower Mainland had on a local fair. I even took the photo! [The Aldergrove Star]

- Also not sports, and perhaps not even interesting: my editorial in this week's paper on the recent restrictions on police Taser use in B.C. [The Aldergrove Star]

On the road, and a take on Andrew Raycroft

I'm on the road down in Washington State this weekend, so posting will be a bit scarce. Catching the Mariners - Rangers game later today, though, which should be a lot of fun. Anyways, I did manage to complete a Canuck Puck take on the Andrew Raycroft signing: check it out! I'll be back with plenty more sports coverage here in the next few days.

I'm back!

Apologies for the horribly long absence; I had to spend most of the past week preparing for a move and then flew across the country yesterday. I'm back in the blogging saddle now, though, and have plenty of stuff planned here for the next few days. Until then, here's a link to two of the pieces I've managed to write in the meantime and some other pieces I've enjoyed reading recently.

- A piece I wrote Monday at Canuck Puck on the Canucks' involvement in free agent rumours and laying out my blueprint for Vancouver's free-agency moves.
- A piece analyzing the top 10 picks of the NHL draft I co-wrote over at The Rookies.
- An interesting piece by First Derivative over at The Phoenix Pub on why the acquisition of Marian Hossa may hurt the Blackhawks thanks to the length of his deal.
- Neate has a breakdown of the CFL players from the CIS ranks over at Out of Left Field.
- A great piece from Joe Posnanski on the Royals' problems handling injuries.

Thanks for putting up with me during this absence! We now return you to your regularly scheduled Sporting Madness programming.

Where has all the writing gone?

Apologies for things being slow around here lately; I've been pretty swamped with other writing work. I'll try to get a full new post up tonight, but until then, I thought I'd share a few of the other pieces I've been working on. Hope you enjoy them! Feel free to leave comments on them at those sites or here, or send them to me via e-mail (andrew_bucholtz AT hotmail.com) or Twitter. Thanks as always for reading!

- Over at my new blog, Canuck Puck, I have an analysis of how the Sedin twins stack up against other elite NHL players and why resigning them would be a great Moneypuck move.

- At The Phoenix Pub, I have a few thoughts on how the recent increase in statistical analysis has changed sports. It's a bit of a follow-up to the piece I wrote here the other day about the (partial) demise of Moneyball.

- At The Rookies, I have a piece looking at the most annoying fan traditions in sports.

The launch of a new site

It's time to announce another exciting new venture. I'm now running a new blog, Canuck Puck. It's going to be mostly focused on the Canucks, but also will touch on deeper issues in the NHL from time to time. The idea's to bring subtle, detailed analysis to the Canucks. It's also part of the great Fanball Network, which is an excellent group of blogs across a wide variety of sports. You can check out my introductory post here.

P.S. If you liked my draft posts from earlier this week, I have more analysis of them over at The Phoenix Pub. Suggestions on how to improve the method or thoughts on the data are much appreciated!