Thursday, February 26, 2009

Brendan Witt is an idiot.


Pardon the language, but what the fuck is Brendan Witt thinking on this play? He should be gone for the season for such blatant disregard of his fellow player's safety and health. It's an obvious headshot on a player who has already had concussion problems. It would be nice if his teammates treated Witt the same way that the Stars treated Avery, but that's doubtful.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Trade Deadline Approacheth!


Ah, the trade deadline. The most over hyped “event” of the NHL season. Yes, even more than the All-Star game. It is a time where more is talked about than done, more speculated than accomplished. Still, there is a certain excitement to the unknown: will your favourite team make that big move and bring in that one golden player that you’ve been dreaming of? Or will they bring in Bryan Smolinksi. No offence to Smolinski, who’s a solid guy and a perfectly serviceable center forward, but there aren’t any fans out there praying, dreaming, wishing, hoping that their team will sign 
Smolinski, like the Canucks did a couple years ago. Fortunately, that won’t be happening as he isn’t signed to any team this season after playing for 8 different teams in his 16 year career.

In any case, it is rare, at least in the last decade, that a big trade at the deadline will propel a team to the Stanley Cup final. Brian Burke (shockingly) acquired Brad May at the deadline in 2007 for the Anaheim Ducks, a move that clearly was the difference maker in the playoffs. The Red Wings made the daring trade that brought Brad Stuart to the team, the player that put Detroit over the top to win the Stanley Cup. On the other hand, the Penguins added Marian Hossa, who was fantastic for the Penguins and a major reason they made it to the cup finals. So, occasionally, a player can make a difference. For the most part, however, your favourite team will not be making a blockbuster move. 

As a fan of the Canucks, I am even more certain that a major move is not forthcoming. Mike Gillis, the rookie GM of the Canucks, has stated as much in this article on Canucks.com: “Unless we have an opportunity to do something really big I think we're going to be pretty quiet.” Honestly, this isn’t bad news in the least. The Canucks have received the pleasant surprise of the emergence of Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler as top-six forwards, leaving them with a third-line composed of three borderline top-six forwards in Taylor Pyatt, Steve Bernier, and Kyle Wellwood to fill in if they can't keep up their torrid pace. When it comes to forwards, the Canucks are likely feeling very comfortable at the moment. The Canucks may want to bring in a bottom-six forward to shore up the third or fourth lines, perhaps to play as checking line center in place of Kyle Wellwood; perhaps someone like Bryan Smolinski. Damn.

The Canucks also have a good core of defensemen. There is a lot of talk of bringing in a puck-moving offensive defensemen, but Kevin Bieksa and Alex Edler have stepped up in the latter half of the season to provide some solid point production from the back end. Bieksa is sitting 18th in scoring amongst defensemen, ahead of the much-ballyhooed Jay Bouwmeester, while playing in 9 fewer games.

Speaking of Jay Bouwmeester, he has been the center of oodles of trade rumours leading up to the deadline, but I’m one of the few who doubt 
he will be going anywhere. The Panthers are sitting in a playoff position and Bouwmeester is a vital part of both their offence and defence and they are very unlikely to move him unless a ridiculous deal comes along. So, Canucks fans dreaming of Jay Bouwmeester anchoring the Vancouver power play can stop dreaming and accept the fact that Mike Gillis won’t be making many moves at the trade deadline. Unless it’s to sign Bryan Smolinski as a free agent.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I've got 99 wolves...

Complete the title at your leisure.

I was perusing the various blogs of current and former friends and happened upon Zach Rock's Xanga, which hasn't been updated in 2 years. Once upon a time, I played Dungeons & Dragons with him, which has nothing to do with anything.

In any case, he posted a link to 99 wolves hurling themselves into a glass wall. It's pretty much the greatest thing I have ever seen.


Long Term ADD

While I'm not foolish enough to think that I have readers, anyone who happened to stumble on this website in the last several months has probably noticed that I have not updated it since I first began the website with such blind enthusiasm. I'm beginning to think I have Long-Term Attention Defecit Disorder, or LTADD (Lieutenant Addition). My many interests, hobbies, and obsessions are too varied and dissimilar to allow me to focus on any one of them for extended periods of time. Thus, for two weeks in July 2008, I was obsessed with watching and reviewing movies and sharing the thoughts I had with the general public. 

After those two weeks subsided, my attention wandered, either to my punk rock band The Neverknown or to my poetry (two of my poems are soon to be published in [spaces]) or to the intricacies of the Vancouver Canucks off-season or to some other fleeting interest that will likely turn around and roundkick me in the face like a tired Chuck Norris meme sometime in the near future.

With that said, I was obviously overly ambitious in my plan to make such a tightly-focussed blog. However, I enjoy the name "No Spoiler Warnings" too much to let it simply lapse and fade into internet oblivion. From now on, this blog will focus on whatever catches my fancy at any particular point in time. Thus, you may well see the occassional movie review full of spoilers and devoid of warnings, but you will also see music reviews, thoughts on sports, poems and short fiction, various musings on culture and communication, and a copious amount of superfluous verbiage.

Enjoy.