Cabbie visits Vancouver

Brooks Laich discusses a possible format
Originally uploaded by cabbie on the street.

Cabbie's so funny. Apparently there was a swarm of reporters today (53 at one count), with Cabbie from the Score being one of them. I tried looking for the segment but it probably will be up next week after the editing and whatnot because I couldn't find anything on the website. There was a little bit on NHL players and yoga which had some cute bits with Luongo and Getzlaf.

Oh! And me thinks Cabbie's flickr site will have some Canucks photos up soon!

Anyway, game on tomorrow night! 6pm start time folks!

Aside: I felt the need to have some visuals so this is Cabbie with Brooks Laich of the Washington Caps

A little nhl vid on Ohlund

I love the high fives that Mattias is giving in the middle of the video.

Another article giving some love to Ohlund

And because we love Mattias Ohlund around here, here's an article WOOTing Ohlie from Tony Gallagher:

All-round fine effort by prime-time Ohlund
April 20, 2009

ST. LOUIS — With 34 seconds remaining in the game here Sunday night, Mattias Ohlund made his only mistake of the evening when he put too much mustard on a clearing effort and iced the puck.

Everything else, pretty much gold. And while some say he’s slipped a little bit as he’s gotten older, he hasn’t slipped far if you watched him closely while the Vancouver Canucks were taking a guzzle hold on this series.

“What can you say?” said Sami Salo about Ohlund with a smile. “Big on penalty kill, big minutes, big-time player. That’s what it’s all about.”

In typical Ohlund fashion, he played down every aspect of his performance, which saw him take over for the normal lion on the kill, Willie Mitchell, on the left side of both two- man disadvantages — evidently the officials feeling such situations are acceptable as a way of getting the Blues into this series.

But with Ohlund looking every bit in his prime since the playoffs started, it just wasn’t happening for St. Louis, the big Swede blasting pucks around the boards, blocking shots, slipping little backhand clearing passes up the middle and generally making life more bearable for Roberto Luongo, who normally would have been trying to catch bullets in his teeth in such a situation.

“If you analyze why we’re taking all these penalties, I don’t really know what it is — whether we’re not moving our feet or what — but killing them off is a big part of the playoffs and with Willie our main PK guy, I had a little more work on that than normal. But I’ve felt pretty good most of the year and tonight we got it done on the kill.”

Ohlund managed to chip in the Canucks’ first goal on the power play, as well, although he was feeling like the goalie in the commercial who has the horseshoes drop out of his shorts afterwards.

“It was lucky, I mean I hardly hit the puck at all and it just kept going,” said the big Swede, who would love to stay with Vancouver next season but may be worth more than the Canucks can afford, given all the emerging talent that needs to fit under the umbrella.

Salo talked about how important it is to win faceoffs and pointed to Ryan Johnson’s great night on the draw, but after the win on those shorthanded situations the defenceman’s response to possession is crucial. Ohlund was at his best, coolly picking spots and hammering pucks out, getting far more ginger on those pucks than he did on the seeing-eye goal, all of which he’ll take, thank you.

“I’ve never felt we’ve done enough in playoffs here in Vancouver on the teams I’ve been on and that’s something we’d all like to change,” he said.

They appear to have set off in the right direction, and Ohlund is one of men leading the way.

Damn straight!

Canucks in 4! Who would have thunk?

OH MY GOD. Who is this team that's posing as our beloved Vancouver Canucks?

I know we've been doing the whole winning bit all season but it feels so abnormal. I'm ecstatic. I'm in shock. I'm actually dreaming of making the 3rd round. Don't wake me if I'm dreaming..

I thoroughly enjoyed the last game against the Blues though. An exciting comeback attempt from the Blues with a little bit of a soft goal to end it at the end of the 1st OT. =S

My fav players didn't let me down: Mattias Ohlund, Ryan Johnson - SOOO PROUD of you guys! Excellent play for Round 1! Hope you get over your cold soon, Mattias.

Have I mentioned yet that I'm so happy to hear Jim Hughson's voice again? *sigh*

Here's the winning goal:

Game 4 tomorrow!

Well, I obviously haven't been at a computer long enough to make a post for awhile.

The Canucks are up 3-0 in the series. Mats Sundin is injured with a mysterious lower body injury and missed game 3 and is questionable for game 4. Jannik Hansen came into the lineup (yay!) and Ryan Kesler was moved to the third line. Mattias Ohlund had the first Canucks goal which came at a good time as we were down 1 and the Blues had their feet over us.

Here's a swedish article from January that pretty much says everything we already knew - nothing is happening but Ohlund will command big money if the Canucks don't re-sign him and he goes into free agency..

Mattias Öhlund kräver högre lön - kan lämna Vancouver i sommar

VANCOUVER. Mattias Öhlund är Vancouvers bäste back.
Men efter elva säsonger i Canucks kan det här vara hans sista månader i klubben.
Förhandlingarna om ett nytt kontrakt har nämligen strandat.
- Nu har det gått så långt att det lockar att testa marknaden som unrestricted free agent i sommar, säger Öhlund till HockeyExpressen.se.

Han tjänar den här säsongen 28 miljoner kronor och vill ha ett rejält lönelyft i sitt nästa NHL-kontrakt.
Hans marknadsvärde lär ligga kring 40-52 miljoner kronor.
"Ligger stilla just nu"

Öhlund är Canucks trotjänare i försvaret. Han sliter i alla uppställningar - förstafemman, box play och power play.
Något som hans agenter J.P Barry och Claes Elefalk påtalat under förhandlingarna med Vancouvers nye klubbdirektör, Mike Gillis.
Själv säger Öhlund nu när halva säsongen gått:
- Vi har inte förhandlat speciellt mycket senaste tiden, den där biten ligger stilla just nu. Men Canucks måste väl fatta någon form av beslut om min framtid ganska snart.
Canucks riskerar bli utan pengar

Vad han syftar på är trading deadline den 3 mars.
Om klubben inte lyckas skriva ett nytt kontrakt med sin svenske backklippa före sommaren riskerar man att förlora honom till något annat NHL-lag utan ersättning 1juli.
Problemet för Canucks är att Öhlund har en klausul om "no-trade" i sitt nuvarande kontrakt.
Det innebär att man inte kan byta bort honom utan hans medgivande.
Stannar i NHL

Och sedan landslagskompisen Mats Sundin anslutit till laget har Öhlund inga tankar på att flytta på sig.
- Då ska det vara till något verkligt speciellt lag, men som jag ser det i dag vill jag avsluta säsongen här i Vancouver.
Några tankar på att som 32-åring packa ihop och flytta hem till Sverige för gott i sommar har han inte.
- Nej, jag vill fortsätta i NHL i några år till.
- Helst här i Vancouver, men kommer vi inte överens är jag beredd att flytta på mig i sommar.

Av Gunnar Nordström

2 Goal Game for Mattias!

OK, so I guess I'm a bit late to be posting about Ohlie's 2 goal game against Calgary back on April 7, 2009 but I have to go WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Go Ohlund!!

With the win against LA, we are currently in 3rd, having home ice advantage over Columbus but dammit, I wanted to play against Chicago (with home ice). Unfortunately, that's not gonna be happening.

Ticket sales for the first 2 home games of round 1 went on sale at 10am this morning and were promptly sold out. By the looks of it from cdc, a few lucky members were able to secure some seats but me and my friend weren't part of the lucky bunch. Oh well! Watching with friends at a pub is also great fun.. Maybe the next games that become available..

My friend's wedding is finally over with so I can go back to hockey immersion. I wonder if I can get away with putting up my Canucks flag in my window at the office?

Oh no! Sorry Taylor..

Taylor Pyatt's fiance, Carly Bragnalo was killed in a car crash in Jamaica yesterday.

Pyatt has left the Canucks and gone home to Thunder Bay.

Canucks lose 6-5 OT to the Ducks

Yesterday's game was not good.. Neither Luongo nor Ohlie had a good night. But we got a point out of it and clinched a playoff spot at least. It's funny how we're conditioned to expect the worst out of the Canucks but it seems like the guys are optimistic at going all the way..

Willie Mitchell: "I was having lunch with a couple of the guys and we all agreed this is a great opportunity in front of us. I've played 10 years and this is the best chance I've ever had to go the distance. That wasn't a good game for us tonight but this is a great chance.

"This is really exciting, to be honest with you. We're definitely stronger [than the last two years]. We've got scoring in more areas, a little more character, a little more speed. This is the best team I've ever been on."

Awww Willie!