Today in Old: Hockey Hall of Fame Edition

Amidst my endless reading about the reinvention of the GOP / Obama's drones / Messina's ground game and everything else I could possibly consume about politics, I somehow stumbled across this:

Holy moly!  I had no idea Bure's career was Hall of Fame level, but hey, not my decision to make.  What is he even up to nowadays?

Anyway, I miss watching these guys.  This brings me back.  Joe Sakic went to high school one city over from Vancouver and I once stopped by to check out his graduation photo.  I want to say that I happened to be there for another purpose altogether, but that's probably wrong.

holycowvancouverisinthefinalsAHHHHHHHHHH

the above is pretty much how i feel right now. i know this is your number one source for all things hockey-related (in which case, how sad for you), and since i will be traveling the next few days, here we go!

1. here it is, kids. i am going to go franzen and just show my unabashed devotion instead of pretending that i'm not invested in this team. and i'm going to declare this love using one of the more recent forms of technologically-facilitated expression, the blog. zing! so what does this mean? i'm going to go one step above espn, yahoo, globe and mail, EA sports, and all of the other prognosticators and declare that the vancouver canucks will win in 6. the downside to this is that they will win in unfriendly territory. the upside is that i won't have to lose my mind during a game 7. and this is actually about me. sorry if you thought this was about the 40-year drought in vancouver or the 18-year drought in canada or cam neely returning to the town that prematurely rejected him or the fact that mark recchi is the oldest player to play in the stanley cup finals or that this is the first final featuring two french-canadian coaches or even the disappearance of the boston pizza chain in vancouver.

2. i am a bit worried about my hometown and i fear that they will just spontaneously combust. how is this different from 1994? here is my take. the '94 canucks were a good team, but the '11 are the freaking best team in the NHL. thus, the city, which is already beyond starved for a championship, is sitting on the edgiest of edges. want proof? here are two youtube clips that a vancouverite filmed. you'll see what i mean. the entire city is enveloped in this. don't expect anything to be accomplished in vancouver over the next two weeks. all of those straight-to-DVD films and USA dramas will have to be filmed elsewhere or take a hiatus.

3. aren't boston sports fans the worst? yeah, they totally are. i don't know if i can stomach a world in which all four of their teams dominate their respective leagues.

oh, you wanted like sports-y analysis? uh, i dunno, luongo is always a gamble, though he was channeling someone else during game 5 of the last round. he's been fairly consistent since his terrible mid-chicago series breakdown. nonetheless, it was news to me that guy was nominated for a vezina. apparently boston has a horrendous power play, while the canucks have one of the best in the playoffs. i don't know whether this means that the canucks should play very physically and forget about any disadvantages of playing shorthanded. fairly safe bet since the canucks' penalty kill is pretty darn good. nonetheless, why give the other team extra opportunities, even if they succeed only 9% of the time? i know so little about boston since the two teams rarely play. i guess chara is important?

we'll see what happens, dudes. we've been burned so many times that it is somewhat challenging to think that anything emerging from this town can actually win, but here's hoping.

yes, i know. why don't i live here, etc.

discovered this today, much to my delight:

Trevor Linden, C.M.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Member of the Order of Canada

For his ongoing sportsmanship and community engagement as a respected leader both on and off the ice.

checking in with stevie Y

how did i miss this? yzerman was inducted into the hockey hall of fame! along with pretty boy luc robitaille and snoozefest defenseman brian leetch. oh yeah, brett hull, blahblahblah. lamoriello looks a little stunned to find himself on that poster, btw.

what could be better than puppies?

c4ts, not sure if you're back from your vacation yet, but i have made the most wonderful discovery ever.

you can watch every episode of family freaking ties on the internets! well, okay, so only the first 4 seasons. i think that should keep you busy for a while at least. i'm so freaking excited i can't even deal.

and you were right, btw.

gocanada

two big canadian events today:

1) the greatest hockey player ever (at least to me) retired. this guy was my idol growing up - he wasn't the flashiest or the most dominant, but he always gave it his all. this was especially evident in the 7th game of the '94 stackley cup playoffs, when flash-in-the-pan pavel bure (who inexplicable beat out nicklas lidstrom for the calder trophy) completely choked while trevor linden scored 2 goals.

trevor, thanks for 20 years. you make me feel very old.

2) in a monumental move, canadian prime minister stephen harper apologized to the first nations people of canada. i wrote a very shoddy paper on this subject in law school. yeah yeah, i also submitted the paper 2 years after the deadline. that's not the focus here.

essentially, the canadian government, in conjunction with the anglican church, removed first nations (native) children from their homes and put them in "residential schools" in rural areas all across canada all for the the goal of assimilating or, to put it less politely, "kill[ing] the indian in the child." most of the children were sexually and/or physically abused. even those who somehow managed to escape such abuse were hardly educated, and forced into hard labor in these cold rural schools. if i remember my research correctly, i believe the last school was closed some time in the 1970s.

yes, the 1970s.

unfortunately, there has been some "residential school" fatigue among canadians since this has been in the news for decades now. nonetheless, the government created a compensation fund for the victims and a truth and reconciliation commission will conduct further studies on the lasting impact of these schools. now only if the japanese would issue a proper apology and some fracking compensation to the comfort women...

sha na na naaaa

why didn't i hear about this sooner? the cast of the greatest tv show ever reunited on the today show. okay, so minus brian bonsall, who apparently is suffering from some typical child actor issues. the show was totally genius and taught me a lot about reaganomics. let's take a minute to reminisce - my favorite moments of family ties (no googling went into this list, but you can consult a more authoritative source if you wish):

1) alex p. keaton and his girlfriend dancing to billy vera and the beaters at the train station before she's about to leave him. sob!
2) tom hanks as the keatons' crazy alcoholic uncle.
3) alex p. keaton mourning his friend's death (it may be his uncle's death. i may have to google this one). i think that one was a two-parter.
4) jennifer wanting to join the popular girls and constantly repeating, "like hi, okay?"
5) alex p. keaton takes speed or caffeine pills or some type of drugs to help him through finals. i believe this was the inspiration behind the infamous saved by the bell episode.

can we discuss the gimongous crush i had on michael j. fox? sigh.

ooh la la pierre

whoa, classy gent and lady byng winner pierre turgeon decided to hang up his skates after nineteen seasons in the NHL.

but you know what really gets to me about the wikipedia entry? the following used to have a totally different meaning when i was an uninformed youth back in canadia: "In 1991, Turgeon, along with Benoit Hogue, Uwe Krupp, and Dave McLlwain, was traded to the New York Islanders for Pat LaFontaine, Randy Wood, Randy Hillier and future considerations." y'know, the sabres were gonna sit around and contemplate for a while, scratch their chins and then get back to the islanders with what they wanted at some point down the line. i guess that literally is what happened, but the word "consideration," much like the word "reasonable," makes my brain melt now.

anyway, kind of nuts that turgeon never won a stanley cup. even ray bourque squeezed one in in his final season! alas, au revoir, pierre.

at least trevor linden is still in the game. whew.