another sam chan: the student blogger

There could be a million things I could write about after all the hockey action that has happened within the last 48 hours (Vancouver Giants going to the conference finals, Vancouver Canucks taking game 1) but I’ve decided to leave that to the pros and talk about something else. Thanks to inflation and the ridiculous popularity of the Canucks in Vancouver, I couldn’t afford to attend the first playoff game for the Canucks tonight. However, thanks to the NHL sponsoring an official ‘tweet up’, I don’t feel like I missed a thing. Before I go any further, a ‘Tweetup’ is really just a meetup of people from Twitter.

Canucklehead Twittering away at the NHLTweetup

Now a couple hours later, I realize that I just saw two of most powerful community driving things work together: sports and social media. There is nothing quite like what a sports team does to a city. I walked down the street in downtown Vancouver at 11:00pm at night without any fear that I would be shot for the first time in a long time because I knew I was just surrounded by other Canuckleheads, just like me. People would honk at my friends and scream out “Go Canucks Go”. You could start a conversation with anybody on the street by throwing random player’s names around. The feeling of community is tremendous and it is just as the marketing suggests: we are all Canucks.

NHL Tweetup Pregame, Picture taken by Miss604

Social media is a different beast. There’s tons of blogs and marketing ‘gurus’ who have been preaching this web 2.0 stuff for years, but regardless, I thought that it might be a quiet night (other than the screams in joy and agony) in terms of conversation since I was just hanging out with a bunch of strangers. But when I walked into the room, I quickly realized that I actually knew these people. It wasn’t like walking into a mall; these were people that had the same hobbies and interests as me and the night went by like any other night with your regular friends would. Is it possible to become real friends with somebody without ever meeting them? Five years ago, it would have been a straightaway ‘no’ (unless you’re one of those pen-pal advocates). But now, I’m not so sure. We sure looked like we had fun here:

To wrap things up before I forget what I’m talking about, the impact these two seemingly forms of ‘entertainment’ on community building is amazing and anybody doing business, politics, or anything that requires people to be involved should pay close attention.

Special Shout Out to Richard, who did an awesome job organizing the first ever #NHLTweetup.

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At the beginning of the season, I did some predictions on how the NHL standings would look after 82 regular season games. I was dead on for some (Canucks, Penguins, Flyers, Islanders) and completely out of the park for others (Blue Jackets, Bruins, Lightning, Rangers) so I thought it would be fun to do some playoff predictions now as well since the spots are all set. Here’s my first round predictions:

Round 1

Western Conference:

1 San Jose Sharks vs 8 Anaheim Ducks
Sharks in 6.

2 Detroit Red Wings vs 7 Columbus Blue Jackets
Wings in 5

3 Vancouver Canucks vs 6 St. Louis Blues
Canucks in 7

4 Chicago Blackhawks vs 5 Calgary Flames
Hawks in 6

Eastern Conference:

1 Boston Bruins vs 8 Montreal Canadians
Bruins in 4

2 Washington Capitals vs 7 New York Rangers
Rangers in 6

3 New Jersey Devils vs Carolina Hurricanes
Devils in 5

4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers
Penguins in 7

I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody’s predictions as well. Go Canucks!

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After watching the 6-0 season opener by the Canucks vs the Flames, one has to be amped for the season. Here are my predictions:

Western Conference:
1. Detroit
2. San Jose
3. Vancouver
4. Anaheim
5. Chicago
6. Dallas
7. Calgary
8. Edmonton

9. Phoenix
10. Minnesota
11. Columbus
12. Nashville
13. Colorado
14. St. Louis
15. L.A.

Eastern Conference:
1. New York Rangers
2. Montreal
3. Washington
4. Pittsburgh
5. Philadelphia
6. Ottawa
7. New Jersey
8. Tampa Bay

9. Boston
10. Buffalo
11. Carolina
12. Atlanta
13. Florida
14. Toronto
15. New York Islanders

Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton are basically interchangeable in my opinion, so I got to give the hometown a nod up. Lets see yours!

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I stayed up a little late (or early, depending on how you look at it) working on a submission for the Canucks.com blog contest. I realize I forgot to mention how amped I am about Steve Bernier. Well, if anybody from the Canucks is looking right now, STEVE BERNIER STEVE BERNIER STEVE BERNIER STEVE BERNIER . Check out the video of his first game in Buffalo. Wow, this guy has great hands. Check out that backhand pass. Let’s hope his first game back in the West will be even better. I really do believe he’s the second coming of Bertuzzi, minus the sucker punch. Just waiting on the ‘next Naslund’ now.

Sigh. Like most, I’m getting tired of the whole Mats Sundin thing, even to the point where I don’t really care anymore. I mean, sure he’s good, but he seriously is holding up the entire league. That, and that’s all Ek ever talks about anymore. I need some new stuff to read. The “soft deadline” is a sweet idea though. Next semester I’m gonna ask every prof if the due dates they give are soft deadlines.Anyways, here’s my submission:

There has been a wrenching feeling in my stomach the last few months. After a season which ended in a 7-1 loss to our playoff bound arch rivals, we lost our top two all time leading scorers and any remains of our West Coast Express line. Even though I’m overcome by grief, I still can’t help but feel excited for the upcoming season. Why? it’s actually quite simple:

Loss
Nobody likes the way we ended last season. The ones who were there last season have a sour taste in their mouth, I know I do. Sometimes, one has to fall to the bottom in order to rise to the top. I took some time off reading Canucks rumors to watch the Dark Knight the other night, The movie captured the humane side of Batman really well. Despite having all the money in the world, he felt pain, loss, and sometimes, he failed. However, that made him that much stronger. The same can be applied to our beloved Canucks. We felt lots of pain on our blueline. We suffered the tragic loss of Luc Bourdon. And, let’s not doubt ourselves; last year we failed, miserably. Ironically, that gives us more reason than ever to pay attention as we ice our most determined team yet.

Change
Any regular sports fan will tell you that one of the most exciting aspects of professional sports are trades. Trades provide a breath of fresh air and new hope. Like many others, I grew up following Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund religiously. Their class was always second to none and I always respected their attitudes on and off the ice. However, with the recent transactions like Darcy Hordichuk and Ryan Johnson, it is evident that we’ve decided to go with a different route: a team based on grit. As a longtime fan, this is new. Imagine a whole team of Burrows.

Youth
Youngsters like Mason Raymond, Ryan Shannon,, and Alex Edner have shown that they can be regulars on the team and Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieska are going to take larger roles in the dressing room. Remember all those times we were told to be patient and wait? This is what we were waiting for.

And there you go. Hey look, I haven’t even talked about that #13 guy! I will end off with one more reason though, but this reason warrants no further explanation:

we have Luongo.

Feel free to drop me a comment on how I did, and what I shoulda, coulda, woulda done. If you like what you’re reading, go ahead and share it with others! I also apologize for any random changes to the layout and look of this blog through out the next bit. I’m still in constant beta while I find something that is pleasing to your eyes.

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Roberto Luongo just hasn’t been good enough. I have to agree with Alain Vigneault. Our best player needs to play his best and that’s the only way the Canucks will ever get anywhere. Now that the season is officially over, let’s take a look at his stats.

0 goals in 73 games? Vancouver’s best player? Are we freaking kidding? That’s worse than Alexandre Diagle and Steve McCarthy! Okay, maybe not Alexandre Diagle who’s moved on to greener pastures. Oh wait, Luongo’s a goalie, he gets paid to stop goals, not score them. Silly me. Wait, somebody explain something to me. Has anybody ever won a hockey game by stopping goals? Has anybody ever made the playoffs by stopping goals? As Mr. Woodcock would say:

Rhetorical

I’m not a hockey player by any means (google: asian, small, and protective parents as child) but I find myself always relating hockey (and most sports really) to life. I fully understand (or so I think) the concept behind putting a defense first system in a game. The idea is that when you have solidified your own end, no matter who you are playing against, you are in control because they have come into your house. It is a very logical concept and is used by many people in many different formations. There’s only one problem with this conservative method, its a vote of non confidence in your team. By choosing to defend first, you are electing to let the other team attack you. Even metal thins after you bang on it with a hammer. This is not a case of iron sharpening iron, it is a case of rubber puck versus human wall. Eventually, the wall will break. In choosing to attack first, you must be so confident in your attack that the other team has to run back and literally have no time to even THINK about touching your house. In the same way, many people spend their lives defense first. They buy backup after backup, you know, in case stuff. Why buy a 5 pack of pencils? In case the first 4 break. Why buy vitamins? In case you get sick. Take chances, attack, score goals, its the only way you’ll win because otherwise, the best case scenario if you have a freak like Luongo to protect your house is 0-0. But even Luongo needs to take a break sometimes.

On a somewhat similar (lies, the only thing similar is the stupid hockey theme) topic, The after hours on the radio after the Edmonton/Vancouver game talked about a pretty interesting topic: Where does heart (in a hockey team, for those that don’t watch hockey and have been lost throughout this entire rant) come from? Both broadcasters seem to agree that it comes from leadership. When the leader pours his heart and passion out, the rest of the team follows. When the only guy without pads on who pours his heart and soul out is Alex Burrows, you’ve got a problem. Let me just say I love Markus Naslund. (not in a I want to bed him way). He’s a complete (cliche coming…wait for it) class act on and off the ice and the type of guy I’d want my kids (or somebody I don’t hate’s kids) to look up to. You’ll never catch him spearing or spitting on somebody. In fact, you can’t even catch him blaming Steve Moore for his injury all those years ago…which ultimately led to the demise of Todd Bertuzzi and Vancouver’s best chance at a championship since 1994. However, does he have heart? You take a look at the the difference between Naslund’s interview and Luongo’s interview after the Edmonton game. Luongo was holding back tears, throwing out frustration, anger, sarcasm and was generally a nasty guy to talk to. Naslund looked glummy and threw out the “we have to blame ourselves, we’re really disappointed, blah blah blah” Newspapers will jump all over this and continue to say that Naslund has no heart, check out Luongo in tears, etc. etc. etc. While its no doubt that Luongo cared so much to be in tears, does having heart give you the right to be a jerk? Does being polite and throwing out “disappointment” cliches mean you don’t care? While I don’t mean to defend Naslund, it’s pathetic that you have to be pissed off and tear up to show you give a damn.

Considering I have a considerable amount of papers left to right, it makes no sense that I spend an hour’s worth writing 700+ words on here. However, without crying, swearing, or giving you attitude, the time spent should show you how much I care about this blog, knowing full well that since university students are on the brisk of exams, procrastination is on full bloom and I will take advantage of that in order to gain more views and achieve world domination.

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