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!
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Whitecaps hold Sounders off
The Vancouver Whitecaps - Seattle Sounders exhibition match earlier today was a pretty good display of soccer. The final score was 0-0 [Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun], but both teams had their chances. Seattle held most of the possession, which is what you'd expect from an MLS side against a Division II one, but they weren't able to convert on their scoring opportunities. Steve Zakuani was perhaps the Sounders' best player, constantly making things happen on the wing with his speed. He did score once, but it was nullified thanks to an offside. Kasey Keller also turned in a solid performance in net for the Sounders.
On the Whitecaps' side, there was some progress as well. New acquisition Blake Wheeler looked solid in midfield and had one of the team's better chances when he narrowly missed in the second half. Young striker Dever Orgill looked good as well, which is reassuring; he has been dominant with the residency team in the past, but didn't make too much of an impression in his limited time with the top squad last year. Marcus Haber and Charles Gbeke are definitely major losses up front, but if Orgill, Marlon James and Randy Edwini-Bonsu can step up, it may be a strong year for the Whitecaps.
As I pointed out in my preview over at Sounder at Heart, the Whitecaps are in a state of flux this year, both on the pitch and off. They're simultaneously building for MLS in 2011 and trying to compete in the new USSF Division II this season. If last year is any indication, the priority will be the future, but there's enough talent on this squad that they could contend this year as well; they did make the USL final last year, after all, and they have more potentially key pieces coming in than going out.
The biggest question will be up front, as Haber and Gbeke carried much of the weight on that front last season, and that's what makes a 0-0 game a tad troubling. It is just a friendly, though, and the team had plenty of chances. More importantly, their young players acquitted themselves quite well. Holding an MLS side to a draw is no small accomplishment; it's not a unrealistic one, but it's not to be shrugged off either. The Whitecaps played well today; we'll see if they can carry that momentum into the regular season.
[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]
On the Whitecaps' side, there was some progress as well. New acquisition Blake Wheeler looked solid in midfield and had one of the team's better chances when he narrowly missed in the second half. Young striker Dever Orgill looked good as well, which is reassuring; he has been dominant with the residency team in the past, but didn't make too much of an impression in his limited time with the top squad last year. Marcus Haber and Charles Gbeke are definitely major losses up front, but if Orgill, Marlon James and Randy Edwini-Bonsu can step up, it may be a strong year for the Whitecaps.
As I pointed out in my preview over at Sounder at Heart, the Whitecaps are in a state of flux this year, both on the pitch and off. They're simultaneously building for MLS in 2011 and trying to compete in the new USSF Division II this season. If last year is any indication, the priority will be the future, but there's enough talent on this squad that they could contend this year as well; they did make the USL final last year, after all, and they have more potentially key pieces coming in than going out.
The biggest question will be up front, as Haber and Gbeke carried much of the weight on that front last season, and that's what makes a 0-0 game a tad troubling. It is just a friendly, though, and the team had plenty of chances. More importantly, their young players acquitted themselves quite well. Holding an MLS side to a draw is no small accomplishment; it's not a unrealistic one, but it's not to be shrugged off either. The Whitecaps played well today; we'll see if they can carry that momentum into the regular season.
[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]
Sunday, February 28, 2010
More than a game
Hockey. At times, it's just a game. Men's hockey is a somewhat odd inclusion in the Winter Olympics, given that its athletes are by and large (Tore Vikingstads excluded) internationally-renowned millionaires. That's in sharp contrast to the rest of the athletes, who generally aren't living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. At the same time, the sport is the marquee event of the Winter Olympics, and the most accessible event for many; most people have at least a passing familiarity with the game and the rules, unlike sports like curling or figure skating. It deserves to be here, and it deserves to be the final event.
The problem with that, though, is that the men's hockey final takes on so much significance that it can overshadow the rest of the Games. This is especially true in Canada, where our national identity is so bound up with hockey. As I wrote earlier, that's a somewhat superficial comparison, because we are much, much more than that. It still is an accurate one, though; despite our differences and our other interests, by and large, we still have such an incredible overriding concern for hockey.
That's why I was a bit concerned before this game about a potential excess of Canadian pride. Often, our passion for hockey enters unrealistic territory; we take a page from Don Cherry's playbook and start to think that Canadians are the only ones who can play and the natural superpower. That's not the case anymore. Before the tournament, I did predict that Canada would win, but I figured that any of four teams (Canada, Russia, the U.S. and Sweden) had a good shot at the top spot, and Slovakia and Finland provided surprisingly good as well.
Hockey may be a Canadian game in origin, but it's moved well beyond the bounds of Canada and there are great players from all over the world. Jingoistic types like Cherry still fail to realize that, and in doing so, they put such pressure on Canada to win every tournament that it becomes unrealistic. The Canadians may have the best and the deepest lineup, but there's a lot of parity out there, and upsets are to be expected (as happened against the U.S. in the round-robin).
Still, if Canada had come up short here, as they very nearly did, it would have spoiled the Olympics for many. All the success the country had acheived, even tying for the most golds ever won in a Winter Olympics, would have been overlooked because of a less-than-expected performance in men's hockey. The celebrations would have gone on, but they would have been muted rather than exuberant. There would have been a lengthy post-mortem, complete with endless dissections of the roster selection and the coaches' decisions. In short, it would have cast a pall [Barry Petchesky, Deadspin] over everything else that had been acheived. Instead, this victory just puts a cap on the celebration [Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy]. That it came in such dramatic fashion, in such an outstanding game [Andy Hutchins, The Sporting Blog], is just the icing on the cake, and made the hockey tournament the perfect conclusion to the games.
Are there still issues to be addressed with Olympic hockey? Of course there are. For one thing, I've argued all tournament that the smaller NHL-size ice gave physical teams like Canada, the U.S. and Finland (who earned the bronze last night) a big advantage as opposed to the more wide-open style of play on the Olympic-size ice used in Turin in 2006. Timo Seppa, a Finnish-born hockey writer at Puck Prospectus who also runs Ice Hockey Metrics, made the same point in a preview of the Olympic tournament over at the SportsJudge Blog. That doesn't mean these teams would necessarily have failed on bigger ice, but it does raise an intriguing question as to how they'll perform in Russia in 2014. After all, Canadians may have some scoring talent these days, but we all know that a farmboy from Canada has to hit somebody.
First off, though, the NHL has to let their players go to those Olympics. As Phil Catelinet wrote, the Olympics are a tremendous promotional venue for the NHL. It's basically like two weeks of all-star games where the players actually care, and throwing nationalism into the equation gets many non-hockey fans and casual fans into the sport. The Olympics are like a gateway drug in that respect; some will get excited about them and then return to ignoring hockey, but others will become hooked. Unlike drug addiction itself, getting sports fans hooked on hockey is a good thing, particularly for the growth of the game in the U.S. That's why Gary Bettman has to realize how important the Olympics are to his league before 2014. Sure, it's a two-week break and it comes with injury issues and the like, but in the end, those are minor concerns compared to the promotion the NHL receives in return.
Still, in the end, the future can be worried about at a later date. This was the perfect conclusion to an imperfect, but highly exciting Games. In the grand scheme of things, it may be just one little victory in a simple game, but right now, it feels like so much more.
The problem with that, though, is that the men's hockey final takes on so much significance that it can overshadow the rest of the Games. This is especially true in Canada, where our national identity is so bound up with hockey. As I wrote earlier, that's a somewhat superficial comparison, because we are much, much more than that. It still is an accurate one, though; despite our differences and our other interests, by and large, we still have such an incredible overriding concern for hockey.
That's why I was a bit concerned before this game about a potential excess of Canadian pride. Often, our passion for hockey enters unrealistic territory; we take a page from Don Cherry's playbook and start to think that Canadians are the only ones who can play and the natural superpower. That's not the case anymore. Before the tournament, I did predict that Canada would win, but I figured that any of four teams (Canada, Russia, the U.S. and Sweden) had a good shot at the top spot, and Slovakia and Finland provided surprisingly good as well.
Hockey may be a Canadian game in origin, but it's moved well beyond the bounds of Canada and there are great players from all over the world. Jingoistic types like Cherry still fail to realize that, and in doing so, they put such pressure on Canada to win every tournament that it becomes unrealistic. The Canadians may have the best and the deepest lineup, but there's a lot of parity out there, and upsets are to be expected (as happened against the U.S. in the round-robin).
Still, if Canada had come up short here, as they very nearly did, it would have spoiled the Olympics for many. All the success the country had acheived, even tying for the most golds ever won in a Winter Olympics, would have been overlooked because of a less-than-expected performance in men's hockey. The celebrations would have gone on, but they would have been muted rather than exuberant. There would have been a lengthy post-mortem, complete with endless dissections of the roster selection and the coaches' decisions. In short, it would have cast a pall [Barry Petchesky, Deadspin] over everything else that had been acheived. Instead, this victory just puts a cap on the celebration [Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy]. That it came in such dramatic fashion, in such an outstanding game [Andy Hutchins, The Sporting Blog], is just the icing on the cake, and made the hockey tournament the perfect conclusion to the games.
Are there still issues to be addressed with Olympic hockey? Of course there are. For one thing, I've argued all tournament that the smaller NHL-size ice gave physical teams like Canada, the U.S. and Finland (who earned the bronze last night) a big advantage as opposed to the more wide-open style of play on the Olympic-size ice used in Turin in 2006. Timo Seppa, a Finnish-born hockey writer at Puck Prospectus who also runs Ice Hockey Metrics, made the same point in a preview of the Olympic tournament over at the SportsJudge Blog. That doesn't mean these teams would necessarily have failed on bigger ice, but it does raise an intriguing question as to how they'll perform in Russia in 2014. After all, Canadians may have some scoring talent these days, but we all know that a farmboy from Canada has to hit somebody.
First off, though, the NHL has to let their players go to those Olympics. As Phil Catelinet wrote, the Olympics are a tremendous promotional venue for the NHL. It's basically like two weeks of all-star games where the players actually care, and throwing nationalism into the equation gets many non-hockey fans and casual fans into the sport. The Olympics are like a gateway drug in that respect; some will get excited about them and then return to ignoring hockey, but others will become hooked. Unlike drug addiction itself, getting sports fans hooked on hockey is a good thing, particularly for the growth of the game in the U.S. That's why Gary Bettman has to realize how important the Olympics are to his league before 2014. Sure, it's a two-week break and it comes with injury issues and the like, but in the end, those are minor concerns compared to the promotion the NHL receives in return.
Still, in the end, the future can be worried about at a later date. This was the perfect conclusion to an imperfect, but highly exciting Games. In the grand scheme of things, it may be just one little victory in a simple game, but right now, it feels like so much more.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life: The Atmosphere
(Because you can never see this song too much, here it is again. From Monty Python's great The Life Of Brian.)
There's been a lot of criticism of these Winter Olympics over the past few weeks, much of it deserved and some of it even by me. However, what many of the critics are overlooking is that there are real positives to the event that also deserve coverage. One of the most significant bright spots so far has been the atmosphere the Olympics have brought to Vancouver.
The Vancouver area is a great place to live, but for all its charms, it often feels awfully restrained. In one of the Hardy Boys' novels, it was described as "a sleepy fishing village", and ABC sportscaster Jim McKay commented during the Vancouver Whitecaps' 1979 NASL series against the New York Cosmos that "Vancouver must be like the deserted village right now" thanks to all the people watching on television. The village characterization isn't particularly fair given the size of the Vancouver area, but it does seem a bit sleepy at times; many of the downtown bars often close before midnight, there are constant litanies of noise complaints, especially in some of the more affluent neighbourhoods, and there's rarely a sense of widespread civic excitement around anything except the Canucks (the other sports teams all have their fans, but don't seem to make as much of an impact on the area as a whole).
The Olympics have changed that. For the last few weeks, Vancouver has been a nonstop party. There are always groups of people in the streets, the bars are packed and the official pavilions all have massive lines. Certainly, much of that's thanks to visitors and tourists, but there's a genuine sense of local excitement as well. The Olympics are on everyone's mind and tongue, and most of the reaction has been very positive. Sure, there are plenty of protestors and cynics (myself included in that latter group), but they're significantly outnumbered by those who are having a great time. This isn't necessarily uniformly good, as there have been issues with drunkenness and abuse, and it's also very difficult to get around town thanks to the Olympic crush, but on the whole, the atmosphere has been tremendous. Here’s a few photos from one of my trips downtown on Friday to give you an idea what it’s been like. These are from my Blackberry rather than an actual camera, so the quality isn't great, but they do portray part of the story:
The Swiss pavilion, also on Granville Island, had one of the neatest exterior designs I saw. It was still standing, thanks to Canada's shootout victory over the Swiss in men's hockey the previous night. I wasn't able to get inside thanks to the lines, but there were definitely lots of people having a good time there.
This is the statue of noted Scottish poet Robbie Burns in Stanley Park. You can't see it very well thanks to the distance, but he's gotten into the Olympic spirit; someone put a pair of the coveted red Olympic mittens on him, and (oddly enough in Vancouver), they hadn't been stolen by the time I took the photo!
There's been a lot of criticism of these Winter Olympics over the past few weeks, much of it deserved and some of it even by me. However, what many of the critics are overlooking is that there are real positives to the event that also deserve coverage. One of the most significant bright spots so far has been the atmosphere the Olympics have brought to Vancouver.
The Vancouver area is a great place to live, but for all its charms, it often feels awfully restrained. In one of the Hardy Boys' novels, it was described as "a sleepy fishing village", and ABC sportscaster Jim McKay commented during the Vancouver Whitecaps' 1979 NASL series against the New York Cosmos that "Vancouver must be like the deserted village right now" thanks to all the people watching on television. The village characterization isn't particularly fair given the size of the Vancouver area, but it does seem a bit sleepy at times; many of the downtown bars often close before midnight, there are constant litanies of noise complaints, especially in some of the more affluent neighbourhoods, and there's rarely a sense of widespread civic excitement around anything except the Canucks (the other sports teams all have their fans, but don't seem to make as much of an impact on the area as a whole).
The Olympics have changed that. For the last few weeks, Vancouver has been a nonstop party. There are always groups of people in the streets, the bars are packed and the official pavilions all have massive lines. Certainly, much of that's thanks to visitors and tourists, but there's a genuine sense of local excitement as well. The Olympics are on everyone's mind and tongue, and most of the reaction has been very positive. Sure, there are plenty of protestors and cynics (myself included in that latter group), but they're significantly outnumbered by those who are having a great time. This isn't necessarily uniformly good, as there have been issues with drunkenness and abuse, and it's also very difficult to get around town thanks to the Olympic crush, but on the whole, the atmosphere has been tremendous. Here’s a few photos from one of my trips downtown on Friday to give you an idea what it’s been like. These are from my Blackberry rather than an actual camera, so the quality isn't great, but they do portray part of the story:
The first stop was at the Atlantic Pavilion, which is normally the Arts Club Theatre on Granville Island (a very cool former industrial area that's now a nightspot). I've been there several times over the years for some excellent plays. This time, I was there to drink Atlantic beer, moonshine and screech. This was awesome.
The Swiss pavilion, also on Granville Island, had one of the neatest exterior designs I saw. It was still standing, thanks to Canada's shootout victory over the Swiss in men's hockey the previous night. I wasn't able to get inside thanks to the lines, but there were definitely lots of people having a good time there.
This is the statue of noted Scottish poet Robbie Burns in Stanley Park. You can't see it very well thanks to the distance, but he's gotten into the Olympic spirit; someone put a pair of the coveted red Olympic mittens on him, and (oddly enough in Vancouver), they hadn't been stolen by the time I took the photo!
How can you tell the Germans like to party? Most countries have a small, single pavilion downtown. The Germans have one of those as well, but the German state of Saxony has its own pavilion, and it's one of the best in the city. Located in Stanley Park in the lovely Vancouver Rowing Club building, this place is crammed full of TVs and offers authentic Saxony beer and delicious sausages, pork steaks, potato pancakes and sauerkraut. Highlight of the trip.
Here's the Vancouver waterfront from the deck of the Saxony Pavilion. That view just screams "Winter Olympics," doesn't it?
I figured it would be an appropriate display of hoserism to wear my lumberjack shirt. Here's all the context you need:
And here's the lineup for the Royal Canadian Mint pavilion. This was reported to be as long as six hours at times over the weekend. More impressively, everyone seemed to be taking it in stride. To me, that showed just how excited people are about these Olympics. That doesn't make them perfect or beyond criticism, but it does show that they do have a bright side.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
