[GDT] Vancouver Canucks @ San Jose Sharks, Nov 25, 7PM PST, SAP Center - Da Smash-em, Bash-em and Rack Up Da Points Game

[Rocket-68]

A Random Hockey Story

Ice hockey players can walk on water.
~Author Unknown

 

I grew up in the far reaches of northern New York State in a little hamlet comprised of ten houses, a church and a one-room schoolhouse. I have fond memories of an idyllic youth spent playing in the woods, biking for miles on country roads and spending hours exploring the shores of a brook at the bottom of the hill behind our house.

Especially the brook. It was a playground and oasis that served our youthful needs for all four seasons. In the spring, it was the place to build dams to reroute the fast-moving water. In the summer, it was a berth for our series of homemade rafts, only one of which, if memory serves me well, could actually float with one of us standing on it.

The fall was a time for quiet reflection by the brook. We would wile away hours traveling up and down its banks and play Pooh sticks on the narrow bridge that carried the small blacktop road up the hill to our hamlet.

But the best time of all at the brook was winter. As Christmas approached and the temperature dropped, my brother and I eagerly awaited the formation of the first layer of ice. By January, the ice was thick enough to skate on and that’s what we did, every chance we got.

On weekends, our friends and us raced down the long hill behind our house with skates, hockey sticks and shovels in hand. For it was almost always necessary to shovel snow from the surface to make our own private hockey rink.

Once the rink was cleared, we struggled with frozen fingers to lace up our skates. Two pairs of discarded boots served as makeshift goal posts for our rink of dreams. Hockey sticks that  had earlier been stuck upside down in the piled up snow were now retrieved and pucks were dropped so everyone could play.

Eventually we would break into two teams and play a pickup game until the score became too lopsided or the sun was too far below the horizon to see the puck anymore. The score was often secondary; the joy was in playing the game.

When we finally stopped for the day, we could feel our toes tingling as we took off our skates. We trudged back up the hill and into our warm house, our cheeks glowing like embers, our damp hair flattened against our foreheads and our bodies enveloped in fatigue.

As the winter progressed, our rink would become more sophisticated as we added makeshift nets and carved out seats from the snow banks. If we had ever figured out how to string up lights and run a 500-foot extension cord, we surely would have continued to play well into the night.

Sadly, the rink’s days were numbered. If we were lucky, we would continue to shovel off the next snowfall and continue playing. But if we faced freezing rain or a quick thaw, our rink would disappear for days or weeks at a time.

We knew our outdoor hockey season was short, which is why, I guess, we made the most of it. We packed in as many games as we could.

And once in a while, there would be a magical occurrence on our brook. Every few winters, we would be treated to a huge midwinter melt that swallowed up all the snow and was quickly followed by a flash freeze that turned our little brook into a clear perfect ice surface from shore to shore.

On those magical days, there were no makeshift nets or pairs of boots doubling as goal posts. We simply skated on our smooth glassy brook as far and as long as we wanted to, passing a puck back and forth until we finally had to turn around and skate home.

I remember the days of morning-to-night hockey with fondness. But there’s a special spot in my memory reserved for those few magical days when we skated on our own endless rink.

Author: David Martin

 

Overview

Canucks are coming off a 5-1 win while the Mighty Minnows went down in a shootout to Le Habs 3-2. The elephant in the room is "WILL ANDREI DRAW BACK INTO THE LINEUP?" He has to but Tocchet was right to have him up in the press box watching how the game should be played. A difficult start to his second season with only 3 goals, being ripped by Tocchet publicly and now polishing the pine. Will he be in the lineup tonight? Will he score a goal today if he does? I would have to think yes on both counts.

 

The Sharks are still a bad team but playing much better. Last game the Canucks did win 3-1 but the Sharks made it difficult, mainly by getting into the passing and shot lanes. Still, Vancouver carried the play more so than the Sharks did and deserved the win.

 

The other question is - will Petey and Kuz find their way back last season form? Strange to ask that of Petey, he with 28 points on the year and 7 off the league lead. Still, he isn't playing like himself which is both scary and good at the same time. Huggy and JT are ripping it up so the team is firing on 6.5 out or 8 cylinders and picking up points.

 

Quote of the Day:

"We need to play more possession hockey", Rick Tocchet on why the line shakeup.

 

By the Numbers

• Tonight marks the second of four meetings between the Canucks and Sharks this season: Nov. 2 (10-1 W), Nov. 20 (home), Nov. 25 (road), and Dec. 23 (home).
• Vancouver is 66-55-9-7 all-tie against San Jose, including a 30-26-4-5 record on home ice.
• The Canucks have won 10 straight games against the Sharks, with four of those wins coming at Rogers Arena.
• J.T. Miller leads all active Canucks skaters in scoring against the Sharks with 23 points (8-15-23) in 20 career games.
• Elias Pettersson has 17 points (5-12-17) in 16 career games against San Jose.
• Quinn Hughes has 16 points (5-11-16) in 12 career games versus the Sharks.
• Thatcher Demko is 9-0-0 with a 2.10 goals against average and a .928 save percentage in nine career games against San Jose.
• Casey DeSmith is 2-3-0 with a 3.45 goals against average and a .898 save percentage in five career games versus San Jose.

 

Canucks vs. Sharks Total and Moneyline

Take a look at the favorite, total and moneyline for this matchup at multiple sportsbooks.

	Canucks Moneyline	Sharks Moneyline	Total
BetMGM	-250	+200	6.5
FanDuel	-275	+220	6.5

Take the 'Nucks for the win but this time I would layoff on on the O/U.

 

Media

You know the drill, GO BUY A TICKET AND throw random objects at the opposing team - just kidding, no violence please, just your best one-liners hurled at the Sharks bench, and the zebras as needed. Otherwise go to your local watering hole and support your team and swill some beer.

 

TV: Sportnet Pacific, CityTV, SNE, SNO, ESPN+ and NBCS-CA

Radio: SportsNet 650

Streaming: lots on various Reddit threads 

 

Matchup Info

       

     

 

Da Roster

 

 

 

Da Zebras

 

Player Spotlight

 

Now for some fun stuff

Highlights from one of the best Canucks Games ... Game 8 Canucks vs Bruins

 

Highlights of one of the best when in his prime - Ryan Kesler

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Rocket-68

[Bounce000]

Last time I was this early I had to pay child support

[Goal_thecup]

Shark's Fin Soup tonight folks; not PC but yummy.

(Remember Kiddies: Comedy is not pretty.)

San Jose be doin' the Juolevi Bag Skate Dance.

C'mon everybody!  Let's roll with the fishes:

[Captain Hughes]

4-2 canucks I score the winner

[John.Tallhouse]

[Slegr]

Canucks 8, Sharks 1

Canucks goal scorers:

• Sergio Momesso (x2)
• Dana Murzyn
• Petr Nedved
• Anatoli Semenov
• Tom Fergus
• Dixon Ward
• Greg Adams

And three assists to Jiri Slegr.

Date: Dec. 18, 1992.

 

[Rip The Mesh]

We Got This!

 

 

[Bob Long]

just want to see the same effort from the last two games. 

 

Its hard to beat any team 3x in a row, even a bottom feeder. 

 

 

[nux_win]

Let's not take these guys too lightly.  They're an NHL team and have at least some pride.  But then again, if Kucherov can get 6 points then so can Captain Canuck.  Go Canucks Go!

[Dr.BRR]

9 minutes ago, nux_win said:

Let's not take these guys too lightly.  They're an NHL team and have at least some pride.  But then again, if Kucherov can get 6 points then so can Captain Canuck.  Go Canucks Go!

Last game it was 0-0 after the first and then SJ had a disallowed goal. Could of been a different outcome. Have to come out strong and keep it going. Im looking for Petey to get going. Nucks with 5-2- Petey with 2, Hogs with 1, Miller time and PDG with the other two. 

 

GO NUCKS GO

[DexM94]

53 minutes ago, Goal_thecup said:

Shark's Fin Soup tonight folks; not PC but yummy.

(Remember Kiddies: Comedy is not pretty.)

San Jose be doin' the Juolevi Bag Skate Dance.

C'mon everybody!  Let's roll with the fishes:

wow how can this be funny ?

[TheBearded1]

back to back

same time zone

Nucks are banged up

SJ still sucks

 

6-3 VAN

 

[Jess]

What a poll lol. None feel likely, but JT's a pretty elite defensive forward, so I picked him winning the Selke.

 

I'd normally give us a break on the 2nd of a back-to-back, but this is SJ, so we have to win this one.

[Bure10Kuzmenko96]

Come on Canucks win this one!

[EdgarM]

26 minutes ago, DexM94 said:

wow how can this be funny ?

I agree, I think thats actually pretty disgusting.

[Rip The Mesh]

In the NHL; There is no such thing as an easy win. If a team thinks that going in to a game, it's likely they'll blow it and it'll be that one that would've

got them into the playoffs or got the the first round seed they were hoping for...

I would imagine Coach Rick / Miller and likely the still young Pettersson and captain Hughes are aware of this...........

 

[420Fish]

48 minutes ago, DexM94 said:

wow how can this be funny ?

I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt, and imagine this could be funny for a second if I was twelve.

[SilentSam]

 

 

[Breadnbutta]

58 minutes ago, DexM94 said:

wow how can this be funny ?

 

31 minutes ago, EdgarM said:

I agree, I think thats actually pretty disgusting.

 

9 minutes ago, 420Fish said:

I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt, and imagine this could be funny for a second if I was twelve.

 

Don't be soft,  it's actually hilarious.

 

Fish for dinner tonight!

[SilentSam]

Oh ,  and..

 

 

 

 

[bishopshodan]

Roll'em up and smoke'm

 

Go Nucks.

[Goal_thecup]

1 hour ago, Dr.BRR said:

Last game it was 0-0 after the first and then SJ had a disallowed goal. Could of been a different outcome. Have to come out strong and keep it going. Im looking for Petey to get going. Nucks with 5-2- Petey with 2, Hogs with 1, Miller time and PDG with the other two. 

 

GO NUCKS GO

I thought Pettersson had a much-improved game last game; not quite Super Petey yet, but he's close..

[stawns]

1 hour ago, DexM94 said:

wow how can this be funny ?

Agreed, that was in very poor taste 

[stawns]

10 minutes ago, SilentSam said:

Oh ,  and..

 

 

 

 

Guy plays great going on a month and the second one thing happens, the usual.susoecys are on him, relentlessly 

[Karma-Kazi44]

56 minutes ago, -AJ- said:

What a poll lol. None feel likely, but JT's a pretty elite defensive forward, so I picked him winning the Selke.

 

I'd normally give us a break on the 2nd of a back-to-back, but this is SJ, so we have to win this one.

I was confused as it said most unlikely/likely. How do you answer that? Lol