And so it begins....

Ballard showed up for practice all ready to start a fresh new season, score lots of goals, play lots of minutes, throw some great hipchecks, but then he was met by AV and its quite clear what went down.

Ballard "Hey Coach! I'm here ready to start the season!"
AV " You're still here? just go sit in the damn press box"

Ballard " You can't make me!"


and so begins the new season.

Boom Boom......Ballard..... Hates California?

Saw some people pointing out something after Ballard's fight last game, so lets take a look his fights this season.




November 11th 2011 Ballard vs Perry (Anaheim Ducks)


January 17th 2012 Ballard vs Fraser (LA Kings)


January 21st 2012 Ballard vs Pavelski ( San Jose Sharks)

He is literally fighting for his spot on the Canucks lately but another observation is that Keith Ballard hates California. Why? What did California do to Keith Ballard?

In other news, yesterday at the Canucks Super Skills competition Ballard managed to beat Mason Raymond for fastest skater. I knew he was speedy from his end to end rushes that usually amount to nothing but I was definitely not expecting him to beat Raymond, even if just by a fraction of  a second.

If anybody needs me in the next couple of weeks I will be in the corner of my parents basement, in my underwear, clutching my Ballard t-shirt. I may return after February 27th.

Dear Keith

Dear Keith,

I know I said I was going to leave you alone for awhile and pick on David Booth, but we have some serious business to take care of. Last night. The game. The shot. What. The. Deuce. I defend you constantly all the time but all I can do after last nights swing in a miss(At least goalies feel safer when you swing your stick around the net these days) is laugh, to keep from crying.  I want you to go get a hockey dictionary and look up the term "one timer" Here..I'll even show you.

Have a better understanding of it now?..perhaps a visual will help

Now since you're already in your basement sulking at what you didn't do last night, I want you to start practicing. Wipe away the tears, hold your head high and practice one timers until it feels like your arms are going to fall off. Then, I want you to go make a tuhamkey sandwich and get your ass back down there and practice some more.


I expect better of you next time,
Christine

The Situation Booth

Get it?

ha...ha.



Yeah I laughed, at my ability to come up with absolutely horrible names for things.

I decided it's time to give poor Ballard a little break and I think I may now zone in on poor David Booth. As a friend pointed out the other day, if I ever touched a bible *I* would burst into flames (I have great friends, eh?) so I'm not sure exactly how this will work.

Really though, how can you not love the guy? the ladies love him for his looks and the men for his play, of late anyway. His tweets are so randomly awesome you can't help but want to pinch his cheeks.

 Whoever can actually admit to doing a shake weight work out is awesome in my books.

 Priceless.

 Well, I'd hope he would have a hard time misplacing his fingers...

 Well see now I have to burst his bubble. I give you Celery Bread

 When I was growing up there was a house up the block that would give you a trick or a treat depending on how you knocked on the door, I got the trick a couple times.... I felt kind of ripped off, but really it makes sense.

Now that he's out for awhile with a knee injury I can only hope for some awesome tweets to work with.

The Tooth That Was..

During Tuesday nights Canucks game a horribly tragic incident took place, Kevin Bieksa took an elbow to the face and he lost his front tooth, girls everywhere screamed...... I figured it's only fitting that we take a look back a the life of his front tooth.


It lived a very fulfilling life:

it had interviews with Cabbie

It read many books

It had many friends

Survived a few roommate spats

It's The Season of Giving, Right?

Imagine being 5 years old and living in Calgary, being a huge Canucks fan you are still out showing support for your team with a Canucks jersey and hat on. You have a man in his 40's wearing  a flames jersey come up to you and tell you that you need to ' watch it or your going to get beat up' completely serious, not joking at all. What would you think of Flames fans? Take that story and reverse it and you have a boy named Jake in Vancouver in his Flames jersey. Needless to say, he doesn't think Canucks fans are very nice...

Jake is now 7 and with the help of his dad made a video for the Calgary Flames "Brand Your Passion" contest. He has reached the top 4. Even as a Canucks fan I can chuckle at this video.




We can all laugh at that, we've been hearing/seeing jokes like that for so long it just doesn't really hurt, right?

NOW. I need a favour. It's a tough one. I need you lovely people to help little Jake out, go to the Flames Facebook page, you will have to 'like' it, but this can be undone later. Then you can vote for his video, it's called 'Cup', it's the first one on the voting page found HERE. 

It's the Season of giving, lets give Jake something to cheer about because we all know his hockey team doesn't give him much reason to cheer.

Coffee with Ballard

 I had the chance to sit down with Keith Ballard for coffee yesterday. It was pretty crazy actually, I was just sitting there after doing some shopping at the pet store and this guy walks up to me and asks if he can have some Pupperoni. I told him sure, if I could ask him a few questions first.

This is how it went down


Christine: Are you aware that you only just passed the Canucks goalies in assists since being a Canuck?

Keith: .... I have always had more hipchecks!

Christine: So there's been some talk about a twitter account that is apparently yours.First it had a 2 and people were confused. I pointed out that the account had been around since January and at that point everyone had figured you'd be gone so maybe you were hoping to go to a team that you could have your 2 back. It has since changed to 4 and you have locked your account. Whats going on?

Keith: Well I was hoping to get more followers then Bieksa and Kesler but then I realized it wasn't going to happen... I'm as bad at twitter as I am at pranks and pumpkin carving.

Christine: Have you got your pants hemmed yet?

Keith: No

Christine: Why not?

Keith: I'm spending all my time working on my shootout technique so I'm ready, I know my time is coming!

Christine: Did you do some work in the off season to help with your fear of shootouts?

Keith: Did you see my shootouts in practice? I was 1 of only 3 players to score. Now I just need to buy AV a house so he will let me out there.

Christine: You scored a goal in the first regular season game of the season, I thought your time had come....What happened?

Keith: I really thought so to and I'm working on it. I'm off to a slow start, again...but I'm completely confident in myself and believe I will do better. I may bring a rabbit with me again on the next road trip.

Christine: You seem to miss the net a lot when you shoot, did you know the net hasn't moved position at all since you've been playing?

Keith: I still get a little nervous when I get the chance to shoot, I'm working on it and 100 percent confident in myself. I was kind of hoping to play a trick on the goalies, you know.. let them think I can't hit the actual net...then BAM it's in....it's a work in progress.

Christine: Have you talked to Chris Tanev lately? I miss seeing his little baby face

Keith: You miss it? I have nobody around here to pass on my knowledge to, everybody thinks they know how to play better then me.

Christine: What are your thoughts on the recent 'controversy' with Schneider and Luongo?

Keith: Well, you haven't seen me swing my stick at either of their heads yet have you?

Christine: ok... Moving on.... How's George doing?

Keith: He's good. Still just doing his thing... being small, not afraid to take on dogs bigger then him....but really..if anybody wants to send him some pupperoni....

Christine: hmm I see he takes after you. So, How about Aaron Ro.....

Keith: This interview is done.

And with that he got up and walked away with his head hung low. I saw him stop at the garbage on the way out, it appears he was grabbing some left over tuna, ham and turkey. My only guess is he needed some comfort food, in the form of a tuhamkey sandwich. I hope Derek Jory is ready for him. 

Thankfully, I do have this one picture to remember the time I had coffee with Keith Ballard.

An Explanation of Sorts

I tried to log into my blog account earlier and couldn't even remember my password, I was quite disappointed in myself. I had been so good with finding something to talk about almost every day last season. I've posted a couple things this season but not much, and it's not for lack of material to go on. I don't think I need to give everyone an explanation but I am going to go personal and tell everybody what's going on.

On September 1st I packed my children up and left a very bad relationship. A relationship I was in for 4 years that had me go through things I do not wish on my worst enemy. He never knew about this blog, it was my way of escaping from the real world for awhile. He never would of let me do it if he knew.

It was Rypien's death that made me realize I needed to make changes in my life before I ended up in that same lonely place. That and thanks to the wonderful world of twitter and hockey, I met a great friend who was able to convince me, and help me make these changes. So, I made the changes, I left and I am much happier now. I love walking into my living room and seeing hockey pictures and posters everywhere, knowing nobody can tell me what I can or can not hang up in my house.

I figured that once I was out of that relationship and on my own I would be able to blog more freely and would have more content but it hasn't really worked out that way. I still make fun of Ballard and say really random crap on twitter and facebook but I just haven't been able to make myself sit down and blog the way I did last season. My son also decided to dump his milk and water on my nice laptop one morning while watching cartoons and completely fried the keyboard so I was computerless for awhile.

I finally have a new (used) netbook thanks to my sister, I have internet set up so I can watch games again, and I'm hoping it's the start of a new time. I really hope to start blogging more again about Ballard and hockey in general. I think a 'Dear Keith' is long over due.....or maybe it will be a 'Damnit Keith'

Keith Ballard Is Still Afraid Of Screwing Things Up

There was pretty much none stop talk about Ballard's season last year and doing better this year. How his confidence was shattered and all that blah, blah we've all heard it and read it 10 million times by now. Sad thing is, poor Keith is still afraid of screwing up............even at pumpkin carving.





On an unrelated to confidence or lack there of note, it is great to see so many players out carving pumpkins with the kids at Canuck Place. If I remember correctly last year there was only 2 or 3 players there.

Last Week in Ballywood

Have to say I'm quite disappointed that Keith Ballard is no longer on pace for 82 goals, I mean really I was expecting him to be superman this season. He made up for it though. How?.....Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike Taylor Hall? (for no particular reason, just because)



BOOM. I enjoyed that way more then I probably should.

Then there is Darcy Hordichuk, I used to like him a lot as a canuck. Then he had to start all this chirping and really piss me off


Thank you Ballard. You didn't even have to try there.



I love when he goes low


Too low apparently. I love a good Ballard hipcheck with play by play from John Shorthouse.




I need a cold shower.

Ballard Is My Homeboy

So I was sitting here thinking, man I hope Keith Ballard says something funny or SOMETHING so I can blog about it tomorrow. Then I go upstairs to put my daughter to bed and come back downstairs, lay down on the couch and HE SCORES. I jumped up so fast and screamed "WHAT?!?!" that I'm pretty sure I wont be able to move my neck in the morning.

What.A.Beautiful.Goal.



Then twitter goes down. Clearly Ballard's amazing play broke twitter. I am officially crazy excited that hockey is back and for Ballard being on pace for 82 goals.

All the Ballard excitement aside, I am extremely disappointed that Matt Cooke scored not only 1 but 2 damn goals. I guess when you aren't thinking about trying to knock someone's head off it's a lot easier to score.

Hockey is Back!!

A Couple of weeks ago it came out that Ryan Kesler would be posing nude in a magazine coming out. My first thought wasn't how hot it was going to be, but what Kevin Bieksa's reaction would be, I even mentioned it to Ian Walker.

So here is the picture:

Now, I am female and as I've mentioned before I have no problem admitting I think a player is good looking. HOWEVER, that picture is not attractive at all in my opinion. Kesler can be a good looking dude, but that picture just has way too much muscle. I gave him the benefit of the doubt but some of the lines that came out of Kevin Bieksa's lovely little mouth yesterday about it were great.


(thanks PITB, couldn't find it on youtube to put up  before)

And onto some real matters in no particular order. Just go read them, you wont be sorry.

• Canucks Volpatti reflects on life after burns

• I have always liked the guy, and knew to watch for him because of a friend who grew up where he did .What a story though, go read it. NOW!  

• Cooke convinced videos, coaching will keep him from bad hits. 

• Ha...haha...ha. I'll believe the little prick when I see it for at least a season.

• Keith Ballard excited about fresh start on Canuck Blueline 

• This doesn't need any explanation. 

I am definitely excited for hockey to be back, a distraction from some stuff going on in my life right now. Hopefully I can get back into a regular blogging schedule as I failed horribly the past 2 months.

BallyWood

Keith Ballard appears to be an interesting character off ice. So I must go through my favourite off ice moments from the season



George is small, but all man and not afraid to defend himself. I'm pretty sure Keith is talking about himself.

How can we forget his horrible fail of a prank on Kevin Bieksa? The picture in itself is great. If you haven't read it, you must.



at the 17 second mark is where we learn just how mature 28 year old Keith Ballard is. He steals the ball away from the guys, tells them they can't play and then plays himself.


Not long before this I told him he needed to out do the Keslerbomb, so what does he do? tries to steal it. Good job Keith, good job.

Here is where we discover the reasons behind his horrible season. He has scoliosis and borderline osteoporosis. He sucks at shooting and thinks the definition of clutch is not falling down. Poor Keith


Here Ballard admits to keeping a rabbit in his bag. The guys just plain weird.


Here he admits to being a nerd, are we really surprised by this at all?


Finally, Let's all take a minute to look at his inability to dress himself properly considering how much money he makes:

and please remember.....when all else fails....

Favourite Bally Moments Part 1

I need a pick me up....

Obviously when looking back at his season, his off ice antics were far more entertaining then most of his on ice. I do have some on ice moments I loved though.



Can you imagine the aneurysm Alain Vigneault would have if Ballard was in this position anytime past November?


HIPS!


ok so the only reason I'm throwing this horrible fight in here is because I love the name Abdelkader


HIPS!


So he CAN Score....


only twice in a season though


HIPS!


Not a great fight, but a Ballard fight none the less.


not the greatest but I'll never ignore Ballard's hips.


out of my way, asshole.


clipping....clipping?.... I'll clip you.

Last but not least....my favourite on ice Ballard moment of the season

BOOM

It's Almost That Time Again..

It's true. It is. It's almost time for hockey to start back up. I'm slowly getting back into the groove of reading information on prospects and such. While my friends of teams like the Flames and Oilers are really excited for hockey to be back, I am not there. I think I am ready, and then I watch clips from last season or read talk of the playoffs and panic strikes. My anxiety levels go past Keith Ballard sitting in the press box and right through the roof. I'm trying to be excited, I really am but I keep getting flash backs.....

Sitting alone in my living room watching Game 7, refusing to believe it was actually over. Shedding a few tears, trying to pull myself together and saying ' it's just a game'...that turned into ' it's just a god damn game'...which then turned into ' holy fucking hell I'm going to smash my laptop into pieces'. Even now my chest feels all tight when I think back to everything that went through my head that night. (ok, maybe that's partly to do with the fact I'm wearing my Tanner Glass Scrabble Champ shirt and it looks like his face is on my boob). Then came the rioting. I knew it would come no matter what but it was still shocking, sitting up alone until well after midnight watching it all unfold on CTV.

I want to have flashbacks of the happy times. Alex Burrows' and Kevin Bieksa's great goals don't work, because I just remember being so exciting thinking ' holy shit, this may actually happen'.  I wish I could think back to just watching regular season games that weren't life or death, chirping some of my Oilers and Flames fan friends. I just can't seem to remember exactly what that's like. Hopefully once the first regular season game gets here I will feel that excitement again. Dealing with some personal crap in my own life, hopefully it will be a nice distraction.

I am excited for these things

• Seeing Keith Ballard actually play again
• Seeing Chris Tanev continue to be awesome
• Keith Ballard's first hipcheck of the season
• Seeing Mason Raymond skate again
• Hopefully, once I get some stuff sorted out, get back to Vancouver for a home game. It's been way to long.
• Gathering up as many Canucks fans as I can here in Edmonton and watching a game somewhere

That's all I have right now. Anyway, while you're reading  check out this great story on Tanner Glass giving back to his home town. also Alixiswright37's great blog post  "A Day In The Life Of A Canucks Fan". Hopefully I have more to say soon.

Rick Rypien

This wasn't exactly what I had imagined my first post back would be, and I'm not sure if I'm even ready for anything more then this at this point. However, Some things have to be said.



Rick Rypien. 5'11'. 190lbs. Hockey player. Forward. Enforcer. Son. Brother. Cousin. Friend. Gone.

He had some personal issues, it wasn't totally made public, but rumours flew. When he went after a fan at the beginning of the season and then left the team it was very apparent he had something going on. When he came back to play with the Moose late in the season I remember everything on twitter was about his beard. I remember thinking ' I'm so glad he's dealt with whatever is wrong and he's looking forward to a happy, healthy life again'. Apparently I was wrong, or maybe he was better then and the demons took over again.

Mike Gillis said in a press conference today that Rypien's problems were never drug or alcohol related and he didn't even want anything prescribed.  That doesn't leave much else does it?Sure I didn't know him personally, but when you passionate about something like hockey, a team, all the players you learn a lot about them and it almost feels like you do know them. It breaks my heart to think about how alone he must of felt, for whatever reason.

I was out at the store last night and a friend in the states who barely knows what hockey is messaged me saying ' Rick Rypien?'. At first I thought...what the hell? is he trying to get to know hockey or something? then something clicked, I remembered the beginning of the season, the leave of absense. I instantly knew.
No.
No.
He didn't.
He couldn't have.
Please god don't let my thoughts be true.

Right away I signed onto twitter and started to see everyone's tweets. I was already in a crappy mood and I just kind of stood in the middle of the store and dropped everything and just couldn't figure out what to do with myself.  I gathered my thoughts a bit and instantly thought of @alixiswright37 as we have had a few conversations about him, his jersey she has and such throughout the season. I thought I hope she's dealing with this shocking news better then I am. Really though, it shouldn't have been so shocking if just by someone saying his name, I knew what it had to be.

Nobody should EVER feel like there is no way out, or that they are completely alone. I in no way have ill feelings towards him for what he choose to do, but it breaks my heart that he did it. I've had a few rough years as I entered adulthood. I've hit rock bottom but somehow pulled myself back up. I now have 2 beautiful children and even though I'm going through some really rough times I know I could never ever do that to them. I have, however, felt completely and utterly alone, like nobody cared. Sometimes you just have to reach out, take that deep breath and send that e-mail or text to a friend. I reached out to someone I barely knew, someone I had only really contacted to have a drink with when I was home earlier this month to congratulate him on something. One night though, I decided to tell him some things I've kept quiet and that had been eating away at me for quite some time. He listened, he told me what he thought, he continued talking to me. He's helped me through a lot lately.

You have to reach out, even if it's to a stranger. Even if you do it anonymously.  I have no idea who all reads what I'm writing but I know depression hits every kind of person, and some are really good at hiding it. Just talk to somebody. Make up a new e-mail so nobody knows who you are and take that step. My contact information is on the right hand side of this page. If anybody reading this feels the need to talk, click that e-mail link. I can try to give advice, I can help you find information to help, or I can just sit there and listen. I'm always around in some form thanks to modern technology, my blackberry is always on me. Nobody deserves to feel what Rypien must of felt in those last days. Nobody. Ever.

It saddens me that on a big scale, Rick Rypien will be remembered as the Canuck player that went after a Wild fan. I refuse to remember him that way, instead I will remember him as the guy who stood up for himself and his teammates, no matter how big the guy coming after him was.

So, Here's to you Rick. I hope you are at peace now. If anything, know you have given me new determination to fight through what I'm going through right now. One day I plan on getting a dog,  I've decided this dog's name will be Rypien. I'm not sure why exactly, but it just seems fitting. 

Little Break

As anyone who follows my blog knows I haven't been saying much lately. I've decided to take a little break, and will probably start blogging again after I get back from my trip to Vancouver next month. Feel free to email me or send a message on twitter if you want.

Christine

Was At A Loss For Words

I'm a horrible person, I'd been so good about blogging something almost every day since January and now I haven't said a thing in a week. Truth is besides my feelings about the riot I haven't exactly known what to say, or how I feel. I thought maybe if the Canucks lost in game 7 I may shed a tear, sit in a state of shock and disappointment, but that never happened. Instead everything got focused on the riot, and yes I shed a tear for that.

The beginning of the season I knew the Canucks had a great team, with the potential to go far but I was always cautiously optimistic. As the season went on I became more and more optimistic, it was a great season and they set many records and lead the league in many categories. I still sat quietly wondering if they would actually do it. I was happy enough that I actually was able to watch the Canucks live twice this season. Even though the 2nd game, I'd rather forget the outcome of.

When the playoffs came around in April and everyone was on the "sweep" bandwagon in the Chicago series, it drove me nuts as you saw in my posts back then. When that series went as long as it did I started to wonder even more. The Nashville series was some boring hockey at times, but the fans were amazing and I quite enjoyed it. I had a more personal connection with the Sharks series as one of my good friends is a Sharks fan. We had some hilarious conversations via BBM during games and even chirping absolutely stupid stuff on none game days. Then came the Bruins. By then I was way more optimistic that it would happen, then came those 2 damn games in Boston. Everyone was all ' they are still in it' and all that but honestly, I Wasn't so sure. . Then we all know it went to game 7. 1 game to determine who wins the Stanley Cup, again I was cautiously optimistic but once it was 2-0 I basically knew it was over. I still watched the entire game, because I have never turned a game off because of how they are playing. In the Chicago series I turned the absolute blow out game off for maybe 5 minutes, just to collect my thoughts and keep myself from throwing my laptop across the room.

So there are some random fast thoughts about the season and mostly the playoffs. I am working at compiling some of my favourite moments of the regular season and playoffs to post about. It's getting harder as the weather is nicer so the ' stay inside curled up on the couch watching a movie because its -40' days don't happen and I'm busy with my kids outside most days now. I also have some Keith Ballard thoughts I need to get out properly.  I don't know what exactly will come of my blog through the summer, I may just 'close' it until pre season when  I will have more things to talk about again, I'm not sure. I've also decided to dive into the world of CFL football, which should be interesting. Hockey has also been my main sport but I've done the basketball and baseball thing to, so naturally football is next.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good off season so far, I will have more to say, hopefully, soon.

Dear World

I'm sad.

I'm angry.

I'm downright pissed right off.

And none of it is even about the game, I'm not even ready to try to talk about that.
I was hoping win or loss I would be able to come and just say something about the game, thank the team and move on. Instead I have spent the morning trying to defend myself to people who don't see the difference between real fans, and the 'fans' from last night and the people who didn't even go down there with the purpose of watching the game.

I don't know what's bugging me more, the idiots who rioted last night, or the people that are painting all Canucks fans, Vancourites and just hockey fans in general with one brush. I don't know how many facebook status's and tweets I've seen saying " stupid hockey fans", "embarassing Canucks fans". I guess I can see how un knowledgeable people would look at it. People who don't give the game of hockey, or their fans the time of day in the first place.

They see that the riot happened after a Canucks game, and see some people with jerseys on and automatically just lump us all together. I can tell you, putting on a jersey or a t-shirt does not make you a Canucks fan. I can almost guarantee you that most of the people you saw down there with Canucks jerseys or t-shirts on involved in the riot, had just bought them in the past few months. You know the "sweet! the team is doing well, its cool to wear Canucks gear!" type people.

Trouble makers in Vancouver saw an opportunity and they took full advantage of it. With the constant reminders from the Media and other fans around the league using it as chirps, it gave them something to think about. It gave them something to try to outdo and something they knew they would get attention for. When people head downtown with balaclavas and molotov cocktails, they were not going down with the intention to enjoy the game. Period. I don't care if they threw on a Canucks jersey or t-shirt to fit in. You can't pull the ' what about the people in Linden jerseys, they've obviously been fans a long time if they have that'. No, no they haven't. Linden jerseys are still available everywhere, and lots of people wear them so once again seen as the cool thing to wear.

That being said not all went down there for that purpose. There were also the young drunks, but once again I don't believe they were rioting because of the loss. They were doing it because they are young, drunk and just like to start stuff. I know the types, I think anybody who attended high school knows those types. Once again, not true Canucks fans.

True Canucks fans were to upset after the game, after the performance by the team to care.

True Canucks fans left the downtown core before the game was over because they knew that the people down there purely to get drunk and have a 'good time', were getting out of hand already. The game wasn't even out of reach at that point.

I'm angry that I now have to sit here and defend myself, and fellow fans against it all. Other teams fans chirped us because of the 1994 riots, I hoped and prayed that it wouldn't happen again but who was I kidding? Really, I think everyone saw it coming. Im angry that people will not see the point I'm making about true fans, trouble makers and drunk bandwagoners.

I'm angry  that my beautiful city was put to shame. That once again people will not understand that it wasn't the true fans doing this. The world, for the most part, thought highly of Vancouver after the 2010 Olympics and now that is all gone. It sickened me watching the footage on CTV and Global last night, and to go on twitter and see that it was being broadcast as breaking news in places as far away as Australia. I lived in Vancouver for 19 years and wish I could live there again now, I know the true beauty and and love the city actually has. I really hope people are able to look past this, and that people see news coverage of the good citizens and real fans that were downtown bright and early this morning helping the city clean up.

Finally, I'm angry that I've sat here talking about this, instead of trying to piece together what happened these past 2 months with my hockey team. Why they had the ability to win the Cup, but seemed to not quite play to their ability. I'm angry, so it's probably not even the best time to try to figure it out. It will come in a future blog post though. 

This picture was posted on twitter this morning, I guess it sums it all up. On the Bay building downtown.

The real true fans and citizens of Vancouver are taking the fall for this when it's not how it was, and we're still saying sorry.  Those in Vancouver are downtown this morning helping to clean up the mess.

I hope that people who recognize people they know in the riot footage do the right thing and turn them in. If you have pictures of people directly doing the damage please get in contact with  the Vancouver Police( 604-717-2541) or e-mail them to Robbery@vpd.ca.

This and That

My thoughts are so all over the place that I am going to bullet this bad boy

• Keith Ballard looked like he had a decent game if you just look at his 2 shots and 6 blocked shots. Then you look at the -2,  that horrid cluster something or other that lead to the 3rd goal and the fact that half of his blocked shots were recoveries form his own bad giveaways....suddenly it doesn't look so good. 

• 1 on 1 with Keith Ballard - He says again his confidence is fine.
• I don't believe him. Look at his facial expression, the tone of his voice in that interview. Maybe I'm crazy but I feel  sorry for the Keith Ballard in that interview.  Anyone have a screen shot of when they showed him on the bench after the 3rd goal?

• I do believe the teams confidence is fine like he says they *know* they are better then they played the past 2 games. 
• Ballard hasn't had this chance.

•  Kevin Bieksa says he thought Ballard played alright and will get better as the series goes on. If he is even in next game it better be a complete turn around. 
• This goes for the whole team.

• I hope this is all out of Luongo's head and he can put it behind him and play amazing the next 2 or 3 games. I called a second loss last night if Bruins scored first, but I guess thats sort of a give in. I also said it would be another 7-8 goal game if Luongo wasn't pulled after the 4th one. I'm glad he got out for his own sanity, however I never would of been one of the idiot fans CHEERING as he was pulled. 

• I'm kind of surprised people still get mad at the Sedin "sister' or 'girl' comments. No matter what anyone says, what the Sedins do, somebody will ALWAYS do this. Just ignore it.
• Saying that, it is a bit of a different circumstance when media says it versus just other fans.

• Speaking of Media, Jason Botchford's tweets last night at about 1am my time were highly, highly amusing. I'm disapointed over half of them are gone this morning, but I completely understand why.

• Am I worried? honestly, kind of. We need a huge Canucks win on Friday. I know they have the potential to do it, I know they can do it. They just can't play as a whole, not singling out anybody, like they have the last 2 games. 

• I guess I didn't really add any insight, I'm pretty sure I've seen everything I've said 10 times over in the past 12 hours. Oh well. Go Canucks go. 

•  I've listened to the song below on repeat while typing this out. It's so stupid its great and has helped me not have a little freak out. I may have even danced a little bit.