Hey, how YOU doing?

IMG_4634
Originally uploaded by Vaughan.

Once again, I was randomly surfing and came across a cute picture. Something that'll just make you go "Awww.." Doesn't everyone love chocolate labs?

Sweden's pumpkin face jersey

So Sweden's national team is named, Tre Kronor, which translates to "Three Crowns." I guess I'd known that the "Jersey that looked like a badly carved pumpkin" was supposed to represent the three crowns but couldn't they have taken a less literal approach in their jersey/logo design?

From Wikipedia, on Tre Kronor (a little history lesson):

Three Crowns, or Tre Kronor, is a national emblem of Sweden. Nominally they are three coronets ordered two above one which is present in the Coat of Arms of the Realm of Sweden. The history of this symbol isn't entirely clear. Most historians believe it was brought from Germany to Sweden by Albrekt of Mecklenburg in the late fourteenth century. The symbolism is in this theory believed to be a representation of the three wise men, also known as the three kings, that came to visit Jesus at the epiphany. Another theory is that the three crowns simply represented the three old kingdoms that joined to later form Sweden, Three crowns one kingdom. However, that theory is less widely accepted. Another theory is that the three crowns were leftovers after yet another failed attempt at creating a Scandinavian union and that the crowns represent the royal families of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Swedes generally don't know any of these theories and what the symbol is believed to represent, and this is mostly a subject discussed among historians.

The crowns sat on top of the old royal palace in Stockholm, which was hence called Tre Kronor, and which burned down in 1697. Later, they were reinstated on top of the tower of Stockholm's City Hall, and (to some controversy) have come to symbolize Stockholm as well as Sweden as a whole.

Amazingly enough, now is an appropriate moment for this picture, (may it never find its way onto The Mattias Ohlund Appreciation Page).

Mattias' wife, Linda, would never approve of him going out in public with such bold primary colours. *shake head* Thank god the hockey world is less discriminating with bad fashion... for the players' sake.

So can we all agree that defensive hockey is BAD?

A snippet from an article on Swedish hockey,
Sweden: Inside Tre Kronor's historic double crown

Despite Team Sweden's success, there were whispers that the club needed to update its playing style; that it had become too staid and defensive, even with the presence of elite talent capable of lighting up the scoreboard.

That perception was underscored by the undeniably dull finals against Finland (played in a two-match format that year). A combined total of one goal -- a shot through traffic by Sweden's Johan Tornberg in the opener -- was scored by the two teams in the two games.

"Yeah, it wasn't really outstanding hockey," says Forsberg. "Both teams kind of concentrated too much on defense. There wasn't much room out there. But you have to know how to win 1-0 or 2-1 also. You aren't going to score five or six goals every game. Finland only had I think one or two of its NHL players and they concentrated on shutting us down."

Ducks trying not to sink

So I hear Edmonton once again came out the winner in a 5-4 game. Though I'm not certain as to how the game went, I wonder how the Oilers could have let the Ducks come back after being down 4.. (i.e. Oilers 4, Ducks 0) Tsk, tsk, Roloson..

Canucks' psychologist

So I saw this BC Business magazine article "Mind Games" by Kerry Banks that talked about Saul Miller. I was thinking all throughout the season that the team needed a psychologist and I guess at one point they did have one. Apparently Mattias was an individual client at one point.

Here's a little snippet of the article:

Los Angeles reporters soon became curious about the slim little guy with glasses that the players called ‘Yoda.’ When Rams head coach John Robinson heard of their interest he took Miller aside and told him bluntly, “I don’t want to read in the papers that you’re the cause of our success. If I do, you’re fired.”

Selling your skills without openly broadcasting them when you’re on the job is a delicate tightrope that Miller has learned to walk through during his years as a performance psychologist. Of course, Miller doesn’t presume to take all the credit for the success of his clients. Besides, as he explains, mind tuning is an invisible art. “You really don’t want them to think it’s you. You want them to think it’s them. And the truth is – it is them.”

In Miller’s case, ‘them’ covers a lot of territory. In the last 25 years he has worked with teams in 30 different sports, including the BC Lions, Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Grizzlies, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues. His individual clients have included Tiger Williams, Mattias Ohlund, Cliff Ronning, Eric Dickerson, Richard Zokol, Nancy Lopez and numerous Canadian Olympians.

But the North Vancouver psychologist doesn’t limit his work to the athletic realm. His extensive list of corporate clients includes Canada Life, CIBC, Cominco, IBM, Motorola, Nike, Sony, Telus, ICBC and BC Hydro. “There are several similarities between sports and business,” says Miller, who charges out at $200 an hour. “The bottom line is very evident in both fields. In sport there is a commitment to continuous improvement. It’s exactly the same in business – the status quo is never good enough.”

Thanks...

Thanks to that poster on the guestbook who took the time to say some very nice things:

Hey there! Very glad that someone took the time and effort to start an Ohlund appreciation page. As a fan of the Vancouver Canucks, I definately enjoy reading about the players as much as watching the games. Hope you'll continue to update this site and please don't abandon it like how others have abandoned various websites or the yahoo fan club.

Haha.. well as long as I continue to not really have a social life, then the life of the Ohlund Appreciation page is secure! =D

Sutter says no to Vancouver Coaching and Crawford to go to L.A.

From rotoworld.com:

Brent Sutter has allegedly rejected an offer to be considered for the vacant Canucks' head coaching position.
Sutter, the owner, GM and head coach of the WHL's Red Deer Rebels, said he was contacted recently by Canuck assistant GM Steve Tambellini. "At this point, it's not something I'd be interested in because I'm happy doing what I'm doing," Sutter said. May. 20 - 12:00 pm et

and from guelphmercury.com:

Marc Crawford will reportedly be introduced as the new coach of the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.

The Kings scheduled a morning news conference and said yesterday that the new coach would be revealed.

A source told The Canadian Press that the Kings are expected to hire former Vancouver and Colorado coach Marc Crawford as the replacement for John Torchetti, who was behind the bench for the final 12 games last season after Andy Murray was fired.

The move will be the first made by Dean Lombardi, hired last month to succeed Dave Taylor as general manager.

The 46-year-old Crawford spent the last seven seasons as coach of the Canucks, who made the playoffs four times in a row before finishing ninth in the Western Conference this season.

Crawford, who led the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup championship in 1996, was 246-197-70 with Vancouver, but only won one post-season series. The Canucks twice lost a Game 7 on home ice under his leadership.

Is there a fan club out there?

Considering celebrity and sports idols can only be held in such high regard for so long a time (for normal people at least), it's no wonder that the webpages and fan groups have become defunct for those idols who've passed their time as 'Flavour of the Month'. The websites that have been dedicated to Mattias were started awhile back and it's obvious in their lack of updating. I don't think that there is a current website dedicated to Mattias Ohlund. The fan listing I joined got canned and the fan club that used to be on yahoo is no more either.

I was able to find a few xanga blogs on Ohlund but it just wasn't satisfying enough. I wanted pictures, stories, background.. and eventually as I collected them myself, it seemed annoying not to have them easily accessible. Creating a website seemed the logical solution..

I imagine that http://ohlund.atspace.com and www.mainlymattias.blogspot.com will eventually come to the same fate as its predecessors but for the moment, I have the time and the energy to put into building them up. It still has the appeal of something fresh and new.. =P

I cannot imagine a time when looking at pictures of Mattias Ohlund would ever become tiresome...

3 Months to get crawl stats

As a newbie webmaster, I'm pretty fascinated at all things like SEO and stats and whatnot. I logged on to my google sitemaps and only after 3 months have they given me crawl stats and page analysis! Checked the TL & Co website and it has it too! *shrug* OK, at least I know now that those do exist... lol.

Jarkko Ruutu and Sami Salo with medals

Jarkko and Sami
Originally uploaded by Stadin kundi.

Hahaha!! If the little girl was replaced by a bigger girl, this might be a naughty pic.

I miss Canuck hockey

I've been cheering for the Oilers since the Canucks dropped out of the Cup race but I must admit that I'm just not as into it. "Playoff hockey is exciting hockey!" ... hmm, actually I beg to differ. I'm not sure if I'm just a Canuck hockey fan or if Playoff hockey is boring defensive style hockey. It's probably a little of both. The Sharks plugged up and the Oilers really couldn't go anywhere in the third. It's so frustrating (and boring) to watch.

My Favourite Mattias Ohlund photo

Am sooo sleepy. Evver since the new dog came into our lives I haven't had the same amount of sleep. It's almost akin to having a child. I'm irritable, lacking sleep, lacking a social life and living a life that revolves around the stupid thing.

Luc Bourdon - 3 year contract with Canucks

(CP) -- The chances of Luc Bourdon wearing Vancouver Canucks colours next season got better with the NHL club's announcement Thursday it had signed the 19-year-old defenceman to a three-year rookie contract.

The Canucks drafted Bourdon 10th overall in the 2005 draft. The big blue-liner played so well at training camp in September that Vancouver gave him a long look before sending him back to junior.

"Without being under contract, you can play as well as you want, but you can't play in the league without a signed standard players' contract," Canucks GM Dave Nonis said Thursday in a conference call. "It gives him a clear opportunity to come in here and have the best camp he can possibly have and be in a position to stick."

Right now, there's room on the blue-line with Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund the only other Canucks defencemen under contract for next season, although Nonis has the rest of the summer to address that.

Haven't talked about Mattias Ohlund in awhile

Since there's no accessible news on Mattias Ohlund I guess I'll just post pics on the blog... and random musings when they arise.

Oh, and woo hoo for the Oilers and Colorado!! 7th and 8th seeds oust the 2nd and 1st. What a beauty! Didn't we tell you that the NW division is the division to beat?!

Just sad the Canucks aren't there.. but props to the Oil.. rooting for you guys!