How The West Was Won

Ok imagine this, I'm sitting in a darkened house, my 2 and 3 year old kids are fast asleep, my boyfriend is asleep on the couch beside where I'm sitting. I'm watching the game on my laptop because the cbc.ca feed was 8 seconds ahead of my TV feed, headphones on so I don't disturb anyone. Kevin Bieksa scores....what do I do? There's a moment of wanting to jump up and scream, a moment of hesitation because everyone in my house is asleep. So what did I do? I fist pumped into the air and let the water I had just tried to drink milliseconds before the goal dribble out of my mouth. Yup, not the prettiest and I would have and still would give just about anything to be in Vancouver right now and for the next 2 weeks. I thought my biggest regret was not making it back to Vancouver for the Olympics, but that is nothing compared to how badly I wish I was in Vancouver right now.  The scariest part is I don't think it has totally set in yet that the Canucks have made it to The Stanley Cup Finals, I think I still may be in a bit of shock about it all.

Last night this clip from the movie Hardball kept playing over and over in my head, (because you know....I am so a little black kid playing baseball)


Anyway, I've done it the last 2 rounds so I'll do it again. To any new readers, I am very aware they will never read this, it's just my way of getting my thoughts out.

Dear Keith Ballard,
Keith, Darling, we need to have a talk. For my own sanity, and the sanity of all your fans NEVER...EVER..again try to block or grab the puck with your hand when you are in front of your own net. I seriously face palmed myself on that goal last night, I wouldn't be surprised if I have a hand mark on my face today, I haven't looked in a mirror yet. I guess at least this time you didn't throw it into your own net, just deflected it. With that bit of crap out of the way, I am so excited and happy that you got to play in that game last night and be on the ice for the celebration. I think I saw you dancing in the corner of one shot, or maybe you were tripping over the stupid confetti crap but I'm hoping someone, somewhere has a clip of it. The t-shirts you guys got are grey, I guess that's a good thing since you apparently like grey shirts so much.

Dear Baby Tanev,
How the hell does it feel? I thought you had a crazy time when, last year you were undrafted, playing college hockey and then less then a year later you were part of the top 6 uninjured defencemen for the second half  of the regular season for the Canucks. Then after (un)fortunate injuries to Christian Ehrhoff and Aaron Rome you get called up and play in 2 round 3 playoff games. This must be unreal for you, I was almost more excited for you last night then Ballard, and that says a lot. For the record, I will probably always call you 'baby' Tanev, even when..or if...you lose that little baby face you have.

Dear  Mason Raymond,
Are you at the dentist yet? I keep getting the most disgusting scared look on my face when I look at this picture.  I'm sure there was no pain last night, but that must be pretty sore today, wow. Nice to see you are finally getting some facial hair, I think my grandma still has more though.

Dear Kevin Bieksa,
Holy crap dude, I don't think there are even words to describe how I feel about you right now. I'll own up to it, I was calling for a Bieksa trade 9-10 months ago. Am I ever glad that didn't happen. I told my friend Paul before game 1 that you would be 'the guy' this series, I never dreamed just how true that would be.

Dear Luc Bourdon,
Once again, Thank you.

And now onto some others, I have no idea where my mind will be in approximately 2 weeks time, either way I doubt I'll get this out so I'll do it now. To some of the, somewhat , behind the scenes crew in The Canucks Organization

Dear Nicole Van Zanten (aka @VanCanucks),
I am so glad I finally caved and signed up for twitter last summer. The experience has been amazing and the Canucks twitter is the most interactive I've seen of any NHL team. You are rocking it, it's been a huge help with keeping up to date since I am a Canucks fan stuck in Edmonton. Thank you for all your hard work so far, and for everything still to come. If I ever get out to Vancouver in the near future I would love to buy you a coffee or something.

Dear Derek Jory (aka @Canucksgame),
You, my darling, are a thing of beauty. Not only do you keep me up to date when I  have been unable to watch games, you have me laughing like a crazy woman the whole time. I can be in the worst mood ever, and I just have to look at a @canucksgame tweet, or something posted on Fort Nucks and I'm usually in tears laughing.  You've also given me some great material over the season in my unintended apparent goal of making fun of Keith Ballard in every way possible with this blog.

Dear Tina Rogers (aka @tinarogers)
Thank you so much for sending me those playoff towels and that t-shirt. You made me day- you made my month. I usually have to beg people for months to get anything sent this way, whether from the team store or just Canucks stuff in general. It's been tough sitting here in Edmonton  and watching everything going on in Vancouver, so thanks for sending me a little part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs celebration. Would love to thank you in person whenever I manage to get out to Vancouver again.

Lastly, to my main reporter man....

Dear Ian Walker (aka @walkerbigtalker)
You are the man. I can not express how much appreciation I have for you, obviously for running the little piece on my findings about Ballard inability to dress himself properly but for everything else you do to. As I have mentioned to you before, I love the different approach you take with what you write. You have managed to make me like  and even shed a tear for a few players who, before I read your articles, all I wanted to do was slap. As I've said to the others being able to read what  you write helps me keep up to date even though I am a province away from my team. I am excited for what these next 2 weeks hold and what you will be talking about.

The best bloggers around....

Dear Harrison Mooney, Daniel Wagner, and Qris Johnson (aka Pass It To Bulis),
You guys rock my socks. Thank you for Watching every game, and reporting about each accurately and hilariously.  My little blog definitely looks up to your giant blog. When my son was in the hospital in February one of the things I was most pissed off about was the fact I couldn't get an internet connection in the hospital to read your 'I Watched This Game' about the games I missed.

Anyway, this may look like I'm writing this because something is over and done but as I said above this is not the case. In approximately 2 weeks, I am going to have crazy thoughts, either good or bad so I wanted to make sure I got these thank you's out of the way before then.


I promise to stop rambling soon but there is one last item of business. This is probably where any credibility I may have built up over the last 5 months of having this blog, gets shot straight out the window. However, I am female, but with the dirty mind of a male, so there is absolutely no way for me to go at this in an appropriate manner. Last night while everything was starting to settle down a bit after the win @kleine_snowdrop dropped this bomb in my inbox.

Like I said, no appropriate way to go at this picture, but it had to be shared because I laughed for a good 5 minutes.  I have no problem admitting that I do find Keith Ballard good looking, it's a natural thing and if you're going to look at me the wrong way for it, so be it.  People make jokes to me all the time regarding him and I usually make inappropriate comments right back. I think most of the time people are looking for a reaction out of me, so I give it to them. I don't really mean any of it, it's just how I am and the people who know  me and talk to me on a regular basis know that. Know my actual hockey knowledge comes first. Anyway,  I put this picture on facebook last night, going about my marry inappropriate way and I had to laugh this morning because the people to comment to me about it were my very own mom, and my Aunt. Both oblivious to where I went with it, at least at first.

Thank you to every single 1..or maybe the 1 person who actually made it through all this rambling. I'm still riding my high from the game last night. I am extremely excited for what is to come, and extremely excited to be along for the ride with everyone. Lets get 'er done.

I Can Breathe Again

 I've watched this like 10 times now and still get butterflies and teary eyed each time.



What. A. Game. wow.  I have so many random thoughts I'm just going to go let it all flow the best way I know how.

Dear everyone,
I'm sorry for being such a downer in my past few posts, but I honestly could not let go of games 4 and 5. To all my twitter, facebook, SF, BBM peeps, thank you for some what keeping me sane. I said yesterday morning that I wasn't going to be on facebook until after the game, all the messages, texts, bbm's and such with people saying they wanted to hear my thoughts to keep them sane made me smile. However, my thoughts last night would not have kept anyone sane. I don't think my mom even messaged me, until after the game to ask if I was still alive. Ask @chellebelle87 or @ericjjohnson79 who had the (dis)pleasure of talking to me throughout the game, at one point last night one of them  told me I have a problem, and I couldn't even take offense to it. ......or take my facebook status update when Burrows scored as an example.  

"BURROWS YOU CRAZY FRENCH BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

For those who don't know me personally and don't have me on facebook, don't worry about the 'french bastard' part. If you knew my last name, you'd call me a french bastard to.  I am very happy to have all of you to talk to and cheer with moving on to round 2 and beyond.

Dear Keith Ballard,
How does it feel? I know you were 'pissed off' with the losses and being scratched. What a game last night! I LOVE your hip check, there's nothing quite like it...ok I lied...maybe an Alex Burrows goal in OT to advance to the 2nd round is a fair bit better but your hip checks are still a thing of beauty. Keep it up, I really hope I see you in every game for the rest of the playoffs, playing like you did last night or even better. I am still disapointed the jersey I won looked like crap and I had to return it. I'm going to start saving my pennies to buy one now.

Dear Roberto Luongo,
I can't lie, I criticized you and picked apart your every move over the past 7 games, but you were great. It must feel awesome to finally beat the Blackhawks. Loved your comment about it almost being better then when you helped Team Canada win gold in the 2010 Olympics, that is a lot of emotion to show through considering it's only the first round. Feel a little lighter this morning? that monkey is long gone, eh?

Dear Alex Burrows,
I hurt myself on your first goal last night. I jumped up and then realized my laptop was about to fly across the room and bent in a weird way to grab it. I can't turn my head to the left but at least, unlike last night, I can now stand up straight without crazy back pain. Not going to lie,when you took that penalty in OT I was ready to poke you in the eye but you redeemed yourself. I wanted to sleep in my Burrows jersey last night, but was pretty sure my boyfriend wouldn't be to impressed waking up to find me beside him curled up in it.

Dear Corey Crawford,
I had a love/hate relationship with watching you play, you stood on your head and I have no idea how stopped some of the Canucks shots. I was in awe watching you at some moments, and I detest everything about The Blackhawks so that is a huge compliment. You have a very promising future ahead of you, good luck (just hopefully not to much luck against the Canucks in the future, sorry)


Dear Theo Fleury,
When you made the comments the Canucks would be out in the first round, I laughed and moved on not thinking much of it. When *a few* rotten Canucks fans tried to personally attack you for it, I was disgusted. I have huge huge respect for you and admire your courage, but I have to say that I have lost some respect for you. I am in no way saying that what that fans have said to you is right, it is very wrong but you seem to be dragging it out. Is it really necessary to re-tweet everything said? and to lump all Canucks fans together as one? You seem to be finding joy in lumping all Canucks fans together with the assholes, I don't get it.  It is almost like you're doing it for personal gain, because the media has jumped on it and it's getting your name all over the place. Once again, I have read your book twice, have huge respect and admire you but lately I'm just kind of shaking my head.

Dear Dan Tencer,
What do you have to say now?

and Finally best of all....

Dear Luc,
Thank you.

Bring on round 2...and some more of this:

I Don't Even Know...

I woke up this morning feeling hungover and I haven't even touched a drop of alcohol since the game I went to on April 5th. I feel like I'm at a loss for words but really I have so much to say I just have no idea how to properly get it out. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I love hockey and it is a major part of my life. The Canucks will always be my team win or lose, I don't care I'm not going to go chase around different teams who are playing better. Maybe I let hockey run my life to much? A little known fact is I have a son who was conceived the week Luc Bourdon died, care to take a guess what my son's middle name is? The Canucks are a major factor in my life, I love everything about this team, except for their performance the past 2 games.

It's not the fact they lost that has me feeling the need to go find a punching bag and put my fist through it, it's the way they lost. 7-2 and 5-0, does that sound like the Canucks we have known all season? perhaps the one game but never in a million years would I have expected the performance I saw last night. It looked like they had no pride, maybe they are taking this whole ' put the last one behind us' shit to easily, because that 7-2 game should of been remembered and used as fuel to play a hell of a lot better then they did last night.

I knew they weren't going to do this in 4 straight, or 16 straight to the cup and people were commenting last night that you'd think the Canucks had just been knocked out. It's pretty clear that if they keep playing the way they have these past 2 games they will be, and I will be furious and sad but at the same time absolutely disappointed in this group of guys. If they had lost 3-2, or something a little closer showing that they actually tried I would be able to accept the losses. They are better then this and everyone knows this is the best Canucks team they've seen yet, they need to start showing it again.

I mentioned Luc Bourdon earlier, last night after the game I couldn't concentrate on anything so I just went to bed and turned my ipod on. The 2nd song that came on was "big leagues" by Tom Cochrane, I put it on repeat and think I must of listened to it at least 5 times.  I'd only met him once, but I still get sad every time I think about him. It makes me sad that someone with such a bright future is gone way to early. I'm not even sure what this has to do with anything but it was just a really weird moment last night.

Anyway, Let's hope the Canucks can do it for Manny and do it for Luc and just do it in general, this was way to great of a regular season to even have the thought of not making it past the first round. They still have two more chances to get back on track, lets hope they do it with the first one.

On another note I tweeted last night " At Least AV can't hold this against Ballard", it made a few people laugh.  Quite a few people seemed genuinely shocked last night when Ballard was a scratch, I was not. I'm pretty sure I'm one of his biggest fans and while maybe I don't completely understand it, I saw it coming from a mile away. I told quite a few people this and most of them thought I was crazy, but obviously I wasn't. Yes he hasn't played up to his potential, but he also hasn't really been given the opportunity to, he needs the minute to get himself going. The inconsistent ice times and then being a healthy scratch are going to make it really hard for him to show management what he has to offer during these playoffs. I think they've already given up, and that really burns my cheese. It's sad when my blog is being found by search terms like " Why does Alain Vigneault  hate Keith Ballard" and " What did Keith Ballard do to AV".