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.