And So it Begins

It’s finally time for the start of the NHL regular season to get under way tonight when the Canucks take on the Calgary Flames in Calgary. The Canucks finished the pre-season with a 7-0-2 record and look to start the season 1-0 with a victory tonight. With that said hopefully I didn’t just jinx them from doing so. I look forward to this season knowing that the team looks good on paper, but I want to know how they perform on the ice together other than a few pre-season games that I barely watched. The game will be shown on CBC at 7:00pm PST And here are the lineups for tonights game for each team.

Canucks Lines

Sedin – Sedin – Burrows
Shirokov – Kesler – Samuelsson
Raymond – Wellwood – Bernier
Hordichuk – Johnson – Rypien

Mitchell – Salo
Edler – Ehrhoff
O’Brien – Bieksa

Luongo
Raycroft

Flames Lines

Moss – Jokinen – Iginla
Dawes – Langkow – Bourque
Glencross – Conroy – Boyd
Sjostrom – Nystrom – Prust

Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester
Kronwall – Pardy

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Who am I looking out for the most in the first few games?

Sergei Shirokov Why? Because he really impressed me in the 2 games that he played and shows that he can put the puck in the net and I would really like to see him put up some really solid numbers and show what kind of talent he has and he will be on the second line with Kesler and Samuelson along with the Sedins on the Power play in tonights game.

Christian Ehrhoff Why? I want to see how he plays his defensive position and see how his QB skills are on the power play and how he plays with Edler.

Mason Raymond Why? I want to see him score in more than just shootouts and see him not get knocked off the puck so easily as he has in the past.

Luongo Signs Long Term Deal

Luongo Get's Extension

Today the Vancouver Canucks signed Roberto Luongo to a 12 year deal that kicks in next season. ESPN is reporting it as a 64 million dollar contract. If that number is correct  the contract would average out to 5.33 million a season. Normally I would hate on long term deals handed out on players. Call me a homer, but I think this is a fantatisc deal for the Canucks and I hope it works out.

First Post in Awhile

Today the Vancouver Canucks acquired Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich from the San Jose Sharks for Pat White and Daniel Rahimi. They also signed Mathieu Schneider. With the new arrivals that means that the Canucks now have a total of 10 defensemen on one-way contracts and are over the cap $2-$4 million depending on what the term of the Schneider contract. In my opinion I think it will be  Kevin Bieksa that will be moved to shed some salary to get under the cap.

So this is what karma is

The Vancouver Canucks have signed Andrew Raycroft to back-up Roberto Luongo next season. Raycroft spent last season in Colorado where they finished 27th place in the NHL behind the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning. Raycroft joins his 4th NHL team in 4 years.

The reason for this title is because I’ve done nothing but make fun of Raycroft for the last 3 years and at the Leafs for when they traded Tuukka Rask for him instead of Justin Pogge. And now he’s on my favourite team.

Coming Up Short

The B.C. Lions fell short to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the season opener last night to a score of 28-24. Turnovers were a big problem for both teams last night where they combined for 15 turnovers. The Lions tied a club record of 9 sacks allowed for the third time in team history.

I don’t know which was worse last night. The O-line and backs not blocking or Buck Pierce not getting the ball out of his hands fast enough. It seemed like he was standing in the pocket for almost the entire game without getting the ball out of his hands. I’m not sure that I agreed with Wally Buono’s decision to bring in Jarious Jackson for the last play of the game. Sure Jarious is known for his long bombs, but coming into the game cold without any playing time to get loose. He was less effective and the ball wobbled all the way into the Riders hands.

Last night was a night to forget that’s for sure.

Canucks Sign Mikael Samuelsson

The Vancouver Canucks have signed Mikael Samuelsson to a 3 year deal at a rumored 2.5 million a year. Samuelsson, last season in Detroit put up 19 goals and 21 assists playing on the 3rd and 4th lines and manning the point on the Power-play.  He play’s on the right wing and has previously played with the Sedin’s in international play at the World Championships and at the Olympics. Could that be were Alain Vigneault put’s him and at the same time re-unites Alex Burrows with Ryan Kesler or does Samuelsson play on the 3rd or 4th line? Hard to say right now I guess.

Yesterday’s Minor League Signings

Nolan Baumgartner – terms no disclosed

Lawrence Nycholat 1 year one-way

Matt Pope – terms not disclosed

Tanner Glass 1 year two-way contract

Free Agency Day 1: Canucks Signings

Earlier today the Vancouver Canucks re-signed the Sedin twins a for a 5 year deal that averages to $6.1 million a year per player. I like this signing a lot but the price coud’ve been a few 100,000 less then could’ve been a lot better.

The Canucks have also signed Aaron Rome to a 1 year deal for 525k 1 way contract. Rome played most of last year in the AHL playing for Columbus’ Farm team, the Syracuse Crunch.

I will update this with all the signings the Canucks do today.

Today is June 30th, guess what that means.

We want contract

With today being the last day for the Canucks GM Mike Gillis to negotiate a new contract for the Sedin twins exlusively, what will happen? Will they re-sign for that 12 year deal or will they take less years or test the free agent market? Personally I like the Sedin’s and all but a 12 year contract seems way too long for them to be here. I would rather see them sign a 6-7 year deal instead, it’s still long deal and not a lifetime. I’ve never liked the idea of 10-15 year contracts handed out to players. Sure you keep your superstars around for a long time at a lower cap hit, but it just looks weird too me. Then there’s the high possibilty of testing the free agent market where there’s talk of them going to Toronto because of the Brian Burke factor. I have no idea what will happen with their contracts and where they will sign, we can only guess and speculate.

Looking Forward

I’m looking forward to the start of the B.C. Lions 2009 season this coming Friday. After last years disappointing finish to the season(11-7) and the close loss in the West Finals to the eventual Grey Cup Champion Calgary Stampeeders. This Lions fan, and many others are hoping for a better year all around. Can they do it? With the losses of the CFL’s Most Out-Standing Defensive Player, Cameron Wake and Slotback Jason Clermont it might be a little bit tough. The Lions still have other gamebreakers in Geroy Simon and Paris Jackson on offense and Brent Johnson and Barron Miles on defense. They should still be able to stay in games depending on how well everyone else does around them.

The Lions lost both their pre-season games by small margins(30-37 to Calgary and 19-31 to Edmonton). Rookie QB Travis Lulay was impressive in both his outings, but failed to bring the Leos back when he entered late in the games. Let’s hope the regular season goes better than the pre-season.

The B.C. Lions take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium in Regina at 6:00 PM PST on TSN and Team 1040.

Around the league

The regular season kicks off this Wednesday July 1st with two games, both are on TSN:

• The Hamilton Tiger-Cats host the Toronto Argonauts at 4:00 PM PST
• The Calgary Stampeeders host the Montreal Alouettes in a Grey Cup rematch at 7:00 PM PST

And on Thursday the Winnipeg Bluebombers visit the Edmonton Eskimos at 6:00 PM PST

GO LIONS GO!!!

Let’s get it started

My first blog entry ever, yay. Anyways my name is Matt and my favourite sports are hockey, football and baseball. My favourite teams are the Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Seahawks, BC Lions and the Toronto Blue Jays.  I’ll be covering these teams in most of my entries. I also enjoy playing video games on my Xbox 360.