One of the Canucks' favorite road trips is the West Coast Swing. This includes visiting the San Jose Sharks, Anahem Ducks and last but not least, the LA Kings. Not only is this a favorite road trip for the Canucks but for also their fans. See, its actually cheaper for fans in Vancouver to fly down south, get a hotel for the night and pay for their hockey ticket in the LOWER BOWL, than it is to pay for parking, get a few beers and get a ticket in the lower bowl behind the Canucks bench at Rogers Arena. Therefore, in the last few years there has been a massive influx of Canucks fans visiting the SoCal regions to cheer on their favorite team in blue and green. It doesn't hurt that the weather is warm and sunny while its quite miserable back in the North. So in a nutshell, here is the result of their road trip.
First up, the San Jose Sharks and a visit to the "Shark Tank". Now, San Jose has been a very good team in the last few years and have been developing a rivalry with the Canucks that is starting to look like the one we have with the Chicago Blackhawks. The bad blood seems to have gotten thicker since meeting the Sharks in the Western Conference Playoffs last season as Canucks beat the Sharks and went on to the Stanley Cup Final against Boston. Both teams play with great intensity and very physically and have some great offence skills up front. So this was a game to look forward to as the Canucks had already beaten them 3-2 in a game in the new season.
One of the most interesting things that came out of this game was Joe Thornton's immaturity level. As Captains Henrik and Joe were talking to the referee about how the penalties were being assessed after Kesler got punched in the face, Joe decided to be a little snot and shove his finger repeatedly into Henrik's face to which Henrik swatted away immediately several times. Being the gentle Swede he is, he didn't get angry but was irritated with Joe's behavior. I would have twisted and snapped his finger off had he done that to me, but thats just me.
Seriously, Joe, BOSTON BRUINS DON'T WANT U BACK, so you can stop auditioning!! If you can't play against the Sedins skill to skill, then maybe you should think about RETIRING as you have become a CLASSLESS and USELESS player anyways. Learn to RESPECT the SEDINS. ART ROSS TROPHY WINNERS BACK-TO-BACK Something you'll never be.
The game started out great. Canucks got on the board first with a goal banked off the skate of Andrew Ebbett. Ryan Kesler got the second goal but the game ended up getting tied and going to OT. The ending to this was eerily familiar to that of the game winning goal by Bieksa in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Bieksa was like a man on a mission shooting from everywhere he could and finally let a shot go from the blueline and have it go in. Everyone from the Canucks bench jumped over and mobbed Bieksa for the game winning goal. Its unfortunate that nobody noticed that Ebbett was standing in front of the goalie and was the one that tipped in the Bieksa shot. So while everyone was partying with Bieksa, Ebbett was ignored. Here's video evidence of what happened. See for yourself.
Here's Ebbett after he scored and celebrating his goal alone while watching everyone celebrating with Bieksa!
Here is Bieksa stealing Ebbett's celebration away from him. Can't blame him though...everyone thought it was his goal. Even me!
The Nucks dressed quickly after the game and headed out on an even quicker plane ride to Anaheim.
The Honda Centre is the home to the Anaheim Ducks but you wouldn't have known it on Dec 29th. The huge contingent of Canucks fans were all there ready to cheer on the Canucks. It looked more like a home game on TV than it did a road game. I'm talking thousands of Canucks fans...not hundreds. Don't believe me? Check this out! All that was missing was our goal scoring song!
Dan Murphy from Sportsnet had tweeted earlier that the team had put up $300 if Kevin Bieksa could fit in the words "milk hotdog" in his interview with him pre-game. Watch this to see if he got his $300.
Bieksa's interview with Dan Murphy from Sportsnet
I love this smirk from Bieksa as he looks over at his teammates behind the camera and tries to hold it together.
Milk hotdogs indeed.
After that interview, "#milkhotdogs" was trending in Canada for hours after on Twitter. If anyone was able to catch the post-game interview with Alex Burrows and Murphy, you would have noticed the words "cookies and milk" being mentioned. "We got 2 cookies after pouring on the milk." - referring to the win. Obviously another bet from the boys in blue and green.
The Vancouver Canucks were able to easily beat the Anaheim Ducks as they didn't put up too much of a fight. Hiller got chased out of the Ducks goal and sat on his bench looking like someone shot his dog while Ellis replaced him. Goals came from Henrik Sedin, Cody Hodgson, Mason Raymond and Daniel put in 2! It was a great night to watch our boys climb up to the top spot in the league.
Here's a highlight of one of the Sedin line goals! Tic-tac-toe baby! So Pretty!
So, the game ended 5-2 for our Nucks. Again, they didn't dilly dally in Anaheim either as they were all happy about the win and were ready to bus it out to Manhatten Beach in LA to party it up! Kevin Bieksa loves long bus rides. Chatting it up with Eagle (Edler) and Wolf Ninja (Ballard).
One of my friends was with the fans and also hit the beach strip that night and ended up partying with the Vancouver Canucks. The boys had a day off and went out to have some fun. Kevin Bieksa tweeted as such on Twitter. Here you see Kesler, Edler, Hammer and Weise? on bikes riding thru Manhatten Beach. Looks like they had fun.
The game against the LA Kings was played on New Years Eve. They were expected to win this game and come home on a good note. This was not to be. The first five minutes started off great with the Sedin twins passing into the offensive zone and Daniel making a sic backhand pass to Kevin Bieksa in the slot to drive it home 1-0! Thats his 4th goal of the year. Bieksa was continuing his hot steak of 5 points earlier...after that goal, he had 6!
Watch this beauty and his goal too! ;) Sorry..couldn't resist. But he is pretty to look at, don't ya think?
Here is another look at that in picture form as it was the only goal highlight from that night. Look how happy he is. Its a Burrows and Sedins sandwich. :))
After that goal, the game seem to get away from them. The Kings were able to take over the rest of the game and had our boys chasing after them and taking bad penalties and were never able to get any momentum their way. They couldnt even capitalize on a 5 on 3. If they had, maybe they could have gotten back in the game. But as it was, the game ended in a 4-1 loss to the Kings.
The Canucks made a quick exit after the game and celebrated their New Years Eve 38,000 feet up in the air as they flew home that same night.
AV was not pleased and informed the boyz before they boarded the plane that they had a practice scheduled for New Years Day and it was mandatory. They had a game coming up against the Sharks on Monday and wanted his boyz to be in good form after that dismal showing.
So that folks was the sum of the West Coast Swing. Happy New Year Canucks. Lets do this right and win that Cup in 2012!
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