This is my dedication to the best team in the NHL. They had an awesome second half in 2000! If you want to know why I love them so much, it's because one, they're the local team, two, the 1994 playoffs, and three, Pavel Bure. Yeah, he's gone now, and left in a bad way, but he is one of the biggest reasons why I watched Canucks games when I was younger.
Here's some stuff you will find on this page:
NEWS!!!2000-7-14 Mark Messier sucks. The Ranjers suck. In other news, on July 6, the Canucks released their 2000-2001 schedule. See it here. As you can see, the schedule makers also suck. The Canucks don't even play the Hurricanes once, which means no Marty Gelinas or Artrus Irbe :( I just have to hope that the Leafs or Canadiens or Senators or Flames or Oilers will play them on Hockey Night in Canada. The Canucks don't go to New York to play either the Islanders, or the Ranjers. It would have been nice for the Nucks to go into MSG and beat the crap out of the Rangers. And they didn't continue the tradition of playing the Flyers on New Year's Eve. And this year we would have won! Ugh. We should play the Leafs more. The Canucks also have a 2-week road trip in March because we're hosting the World Figure Skating Championships here in Vancouver. I'm also annoyed that they're having training camp in Sweden just because of the Sedins. First of all, that deprives us loyal Vancouver fans of our team, and second, all that travel and jet lag might affect their on-ice performance. Well I hope not. BTW, pre-season tickets are a rip-off!
2000-6-26 (Kirk McLean and Ed "Jovocop","Special Ed" Jovanovski's Birthdays Lots has happened! On Friday, June 23, the NHL welcomed the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild into the NHL with the expansion draft. The Columbus Blue Jackets chose not to select any players from the Canucks, but the Wild chose Darrrrrby Hendrickon, and Steffan Nilsson, who the Canucks drafted in 1988 and's been "in the system" for 12 years. Then, also on Friday, Brad May, who was given permission by Brian Burke to go off and sign an contract with whomever he wanted, inked a 3-year deal worth 3.3 mil with the Phoenix Coyotes. In return, the Canucks get a conditional draft pick in 2001. However, in Brian Burke's own words, "The only way we'll get something from this is if he goes to France and bathes in the holy waters in Lourdes." So, yeah...He needs to score *40* goals for us to get the pick. Geez! His career high is 18, ok! I'm very upset about this, needless to say. I'm gonna miss May Day...:( In essence, we've traded Marty Gelinas for Geoff Sanderson for Brad May for a nonexistent draft pick. Urg!!...Anyway, on Saturday, June 24, the Canucks drafted Swift Current Bronco centre Nathan Smith with their first round pick, 23rd overall (from Florida in the Bure deal). He kicked ass at the CHL Prospects Game. And with their 3rd round pick, 71st overall, the Canucks picked the 2000 Memorial Cup Champion Rimouski Océanic's Thatcher Bell, another centre. Also a good player IMO. But what I'm ***really*** excited about is the fact that the Canucks drafted Halifax Mooseheads centre Brandon Reid with their 7th pick 208th overall!I know that doesn't *sound* good, but it's cuz he's short (5'8)...and we all know what can happen if you take a chance on a short, speedy guy! So, hopefully, one day he'll make it! He tried out for the new york rangers (I just finished watching Mystery, Alaska, and don't know what to say...but those damn rangers should have lost...funny movie, bad hockey movie!) before the 1999-2000 season, and thank god, he didn't make it...And now he's a Canuck draft pick. For more detail about the Canucks 2000 draft picks, click here. In other news, on June 19, 2000, the Canucks announced that they've reached a minor league affiliation agreement with the IHL's Kansas City Blades. This ends the six year affiliation with the AHL's Syracuse Crunch, which had its highs and lows...The Crunch had a fantastic 1999-2000 campaign with Stan Smyl at the helm, and he'll follow the prospects to Kansas city to be their head coach again. Good luck to all the draft picks and everyone else involved!
2000-5-11 I haven't updated in...forever...The Vancouver Canucks have missed the playoffs, but, give them credit for the great effort! They came back from being 13 points out of the playoffs before the All-Star break to battle right back into the race. They missed the playoffs by a mere 4 points, after an OT loss (The great and wonderful and talented Andrew Cassels tied it with 10 seconds left...and geez, the Oilers had an open net...) in a thrilling game. The Canucks finished the 1999-2000 season with a 30-37-15-8 record, with 83 points in 82 games. That's a ***25*** point improvement from last season, and a 7 win improvement! And, also these awesome Canucks are playing for Canada at the World Hockey Championships on St. Peterburg, Russia: Adrian Aucoin, Todd Bertuzzi, Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer!!!!! Andrew Cassels was also picked, but got injured. :( Also, Chris O'Sullivan and Darby Hendrickson played for the USA, and Lubomir Vaic played for silver medal winning Team Slovakia.
99-12-19 Brian Burke, in another trade, has shipped BILLY MUCKALT, Kevin (Weeksie) Weekes, and Dave Scatchard to the New York Islanders for goalie Felix (The Cat) Potvin and a 2nd and 3rd round pick for 2000. Yes, I love The Cat, but his play has not been good this year, albeit behind the horrid Islanders' defence, but really, we just gave up 3 good young players. I'm really sad that we traded Billy, and Weeksie was playing well lately I thought, and I thought they would be more patient with Scatch. But Bryan McCabe and Bret Hedican were traded, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. And my favourite players always get traded. Good luck on Long Isle Dave, Billy and Weeksie! And bienvenue au Vancouver, Felix!
