Three Days Late, and a Three Dolla Bill Y'all

I wanted to get this up sooner, but life happened, so this one is now for the peeps.

I took diligent notes while carefully studying a combination of a 40" Samsung LCD and the bottom of several bottles of Molson Canadian. I was watching the Calgary @ Vancouver game on Saturday night, and it was a doozy. Probably one of the best games so far this year, as the cliche goes, it had playoff hockey written all over it. So without further ado...

1st Period

• During the anthem, you could see Iginla talking to himself with his head down, and his eyes closed psyching himself up. He came out flying in that first period, and the Canucks helped him keep the fire going.
• A lot of scoring chances right off the bat, but I thought that Giordano's stick check on the Sedin's two-on-one was pivotal, upon second look it appeared as if Henrik had lost the handle on his own.
• I thought Mason Raymond (who I will now call RayRay) had the five-hole for sure when he put if off the post on the two-on-one with Burrows.
• Programming related entry: Can you fuckers tell me why I can't get CBC HNIC broadcast in HD? The NHL Network was carrying the Buds/Pens game in HD, its the same fucking broadcast. Why not do a double-header? No American interest in two Canadian teams? What a bunch of bullshit.
• Borq's goal was just pure determination. Around the defenseman, hard to the net, goes short side of the shoulder, and his momentum coming through the crease has him knock another Canucks down. Nice goal.
• Samuelsson is pissed. That Swedish team snub really sent him over the edge, he fired that thing like he was trying to get it into the parking lot. Nice feed from RayRay from behind the goal line.
• Burrows was fluffing up Phaneuf nice and early.
• Lukowich's first night in a Canucks jersey? BC boy's lifelong dream? Really?
• Prust vs. Rypien was a brutal fight, there was a lot of animosity in that one.
• Vancouver was giving pucks away left and right.
• Gio and Glass get into it at the end of the first, just bad blood.

2nd Period

• Twin intuition? The Sedin's goal was awesome, just totally knowing where the other's going to be, and where to put (or leave) the puck.
• Love the line combination of Kesler-Samuelsson-Raymond almost as much as Burrows-Sedin-Sedin.
• Flukey second goal for Calgary, but as always, it looks good on paper.
• J-Bouw has looked a little lost at times out there. I would just like to point out... Jay Bouwmeester - 2G-15A-17Pts - +12 - 2.6% Shooting - $6.68mil/yr., Mark Giordano - 5G-13A-18Pts - +7 - 8.9% Shooting - $892k/yr. Just sayin'.
• Huge hit by Luk on Borq.
• Ehrhoff's game is simple, he only goes for the puck. I'm not fooled by his +/-.
• Kesler & Phaneuf tie up and then Kesler gives the linesman this look of 'get him the fuck off of me.'
• Kipper makes a huge save on the Sedin tip. CBC flashes stats of Kip, in the last 20 games he went 11-6-3, has a .941 save percentage, and has allowed 2 goals or less in 16 of those 20. Ridiculous.
• In the penalty box, you can see the official yell at Gio telling him to move over. Marko gives the official a look of death, then looks at Phaneuf, who's in the box with him, and is basically like 'who the fuck does this guy think he is?!' Hilarious.
• Kipper makes an awesome save on D. Sedin on the power play, and then follows it up with a big stop on Ehrhoff's shot.
• At the end of the second, there's the usual pleasantries exchanged. The interaction between Iginla and Luongo was pretty interesting. Phaneuf does his usual chest thumping. A-neuf.

3rd Period

• Somehow 10minute misconducts were handed out to RayRay & Gio. I didn't even see them involved in the scrum.
• It seemed like only a matter of time before Willie and Iggy would throw down. But of course we won't see it because this game's too damn close.
• Nasty, nasty 3rd period.
• Both Glass and Borq should have been penalized for their hits from behind, Borq more so, but Glass got it. Stupid retaliation in a game like this.
• Is it me, or does Lu look out of shape or completely out of position at times? I know he usually does his fish out of water impression whenever anyone brushes past him, but I'm not talking about that. Half the time it seems like he's struggling to get back up after he ends up on the ice.
• Bill McCreary is one of the better referees in the League, but he's missed a lot of calls so far.
• The Flames have been going hard to the net all night.
• What the hell was the Orangutan thinking by trying to cover the puck? There's too much time on the clock for that you Finnish idiot. I always think that's a bush-league manuever anyway.
• The end of the third should have been followed up with a 20minute OT of 5 on 5, and then another, and another...
• Every thing was going in in the shootout, could have gone either way.

All in all, a great game.