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Tagged: Pavol Demitra

Putting Things into Proper Perspective

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Putting Things into Proper Perspective

As sports fans in general (and hockey fans in particular) continue to mourn the tragic plane crash in Russia that claimed 43 lives (including players and coaches from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team), many people have named the summer of 2011 as the worst-ever in the history of hockey.  And when you consider the sudden deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak (all within the last four months), it’s hard to disagree. This latest tragedy affects different people across the world for various reasons.  Canucks fans are fondly remembering Pavol Demitra, who played here for two seasons and...

Remembering Pavol Demitra

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Remembering Pavol Demitra

I was going to start a series of posts previewing the 2011/2012 Vancouver Canucks today. But in light of this morning’s tragedy in Russia, in which a plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing members of the KHL team, Lokomotiv, I thought I’d start the series with a look at one of the victims, former Canuck, Pavol Demitra. What we remember: Perhaps one of our most lasting memories of Demitra in Vancouver wasn’t his play as a Canuck, but rather his performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He represented 9th-ranked Slovakia, which upset Team Sweden in the quarterfinals and came within...

Canucks vs. Kings Game 6 Game Day Links

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Canucks vs. Kings Game 6 Game Day Links

Photo credit: canucks.nhl.com The Canucks can close off their Western Conference Quarterfinal Series against the LA Kings tonight. Can they go for the jugular? Or do they allow the Kings a chance at Game 7 on Tuesday? Can the Kings stop the ‘S-Train’? And if they do, can they also stop the Canucks’ secondary scorers? Here are today’s game day links: Go for the jugular. [TSN; Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province; Ed Willes, Vancouver Province; Ryan Sullivan, News 1130] Kings sticking with Quick. [Jim Jamieson, Vancouver Province; Helene Elliott, LA Times; Eric Stephens, OC Register] How do you stop the ‘S-Train’?...

Distinct Kicking Ass Motion

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Distinct Kicking Ass Motion

Photo credit: canucks.nhl.com The Canucks, left looking for their swagger after Game 3, seem to now have found it in spades. I don’t know what happened or what was said in their locker room during the second intermission of Game 4. Whatever it was, the players have responded positively and are playing great hockey. They’ve scored 11 goals – 8 ESG, 2 PPG and 1 empty-netter – in the last four periods. Even their penalty-kill has been a bit better. They’ve allowed just 1 PPGA in the last 7 Kings powerplays, and even killed a brief 5-on-3 against them last...

Canucks vs. Kings: Game 3 Game Day Links

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Canucks vs. Kings: Game 3 Game Day Links

The Canucks take their show on the road with the series tied at 1-1. Can they play better than their 19-20-2 regular season road record indicates? Without the benefit of last change, how can the Canucks contain Drew Doughty? Can Demitra prove that he’s no Justin Williams? Can the Canucks stop taking stupid penalties? Time to shed road kill reputation. [Monte Stewart, AOL FanHouse; Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province; Jeff Patterson, Georgia Straight; Greg Beacham, AP via Washington Post] Doughty is dangerous. [Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun; Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province;

Canucks vs. Kings: Game 2 Game Day Links

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Canucks vs. Kings: Game 2 Game Day Links

Photo credit: canucks.nhl.com The Canucks and Kings meet for Game 2 of their Western Conference Quarterfinal Series tonight at 7:00 PM. Does Drew Doughty dare go in Alex Edler’s space again? Will Pavol Demitra show up? Can Andrew Alberts cut back on the dumb penalties? All this and more in today’s game day links: I hope Alex Edler eats his Wheaties for breakfast again. [Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun] Paging Pavol. [Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun, Allan Muir, Sports Illustrated] Rome still out. That means more of Alberts. [Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun] AV has Alberts’ back. [Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun] LA wants...

Two Sides of the Demitra Coin

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Two Sides of the Demitra Coin

Not too long ago, in fact about 2 and a half weeks ago, in the ramp up to the “first deadline” before the roster freeze everyone had marked Demitra as on their trade block. Then came the Olympics and Canucks fans are already excited to have him back on the team. I knew from the beginning that Demitra was only going to get better during the Olympics and he showed that from game to game. Heck if Halak and the rest of the Slovak team hadn’t imploded in the 3rd period of their bronze medal game it would be Pavol...

Demitra’s New Role

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Demitra’s New Role

With Demitra factoring back into the equation it looks like as far as forwards go we’re back at square one. The same problem we were going to have to deal with in game one of the season had we not been hit with that ridiculous number of simultaneous injuries. The interesting thing is now that we’re half way through the season the players have formed this chemistry that I for one wouldn’t want to tinker with. I know Vigneault’s a smart man and I have a feeling he isn’t going to tinker with things too much either. That means the...

MSM links for May 15, 2009

MSM

MSM links for May 15, 2009

Gillis prepares for a busy summer (Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province) Considering adversity, a decent job by Vigneault (Ben Kuzma, Vancouver Province) One big, happy hockey family (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun) Vancouver Canucks re-sign Steve Bernier for two years (Vancouver Sun) Demitra and three others to go under knife (Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun) “It’s not easy playing just once a month,” LaBarbera says (Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun) Yeah, we lost, but that was some great hockey (Vancouver Sun) ‘I felt we were the better team,’ Canucks GM says (Matthew Sekeres, Globe and Mail) Canucks clean out lockers after loss (AP via...

MSM links for May 6, 2009

MSM

MSM links for May 6, 2009

Canucks stand tall to snatch 2-1 series lead over Chicago (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province) Sexy it wasn’t, but tactics put Canucks in lead (Ed Willes, Vancouver Province) Canucks moved by Pyatt’s gritty return (Ed Willes, Vancouver Province) Canucks rebound impressive (Ed Willes, Vancouver Province) Salo flies to Chicago for Game 4 (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province) Passion added to winning formula (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun) Canucks grab series lead with 3-1 win over Blackhawks (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun) Pyatt right where he needed to be (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun) Salo could be back in lineup for Game 4 (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver...

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