A guy that Brian Burke describes as a ‘big time prick’ will be a big time presence on shelves come video game release day. Ryan Kesler has been selected as the cover boy for NHL 2K11, following in the footsteps of Joe Thornton, Martin St. Louis, Chris Drury, and Rick Nash amongst others. Quite frankly, we’re just glad it’s not a EA Sports cover and feeds the EA Sports Cover Boy Curse.
Big ups to Kes, and hopefully he can package up his run of good fortune with a great run to and through the playoffs. His Olympic play has truly put him on the map, and made Canuck fans realise why other teams hate playing this guy so much. But, shit, ain’t you glad when he’s playing for you?
Our disdain for Matt Cooke has been well documented on Blog Trot, primarily because he has the little man syndrome. It’s always the smallest guy in a group that yaps the most, and in this case, doesn’t back it up. He’s a cheap player, who is sorely overrated in every category outside of hitting, if that’s even possible.
This past weekend he gave us all another reason not to like him. In case you missed it, check out the clip of him laying a pretty brutal elbow to the head of Marc Savard. Reminscient of Steve Moore on Markus Naslund, except Savard wasn’t reaching for a puck. What’s insane is that Cooke stated it was shoulder on shoulder, I watched the instant replay, and I don’t even think their shoulders touched each other. We’re pretty sure the antique collecting pest will be handed a stiff suspension, but a silver lining to it all is present. He’s put a spotlight (yet, again) on head shots in the game, and respect amongst players. I’ll give some credit to the notion that players are faster and stronger, and equipment is heavier. But, you have to admit that respect plays a key component as well.
Here’s hoping Cooke is allowed back to play the Bruins and one of the Bruins tough guys lets ‘Cookie’ know what’s up. And, on a side note, how the hell can’t the commentators know who it is that’s on the ice? Seriously!
How money of a venue is the Commodore? Well, you really feel how cool it is when you see a kick ass rock show there, and a kick ass rock show it was on Saturday night. BRMC bought their extremely underrated punk rock sound to Vancouver this past weekend, and bought along The Whigs as their opening act.
Firstly, The Whigs, hailing from Athens, Georgia put on a solid set, and at the very least, generated a decent amount of interest from the crowd. Headed up by a close guitar holding frontman, a solid bass player, and a drummer who sets an insane pace. The Whigs aren’t completly unknown, having opened for Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, and performing on late night talk shows. However, they haven’t broke out of the big time yet either, evidenced by them doubling up as their own roadies. With the set that they played though, you can see them only getting bigger and bigger.
Speaking of bigger and bigger, you wonder why more people haven’t heard of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This trio is phenomenal, and live, they were amazing. Playing a huge setlist with an intense amount of energy, and charm, the band covered a two and half hour spread. Catching a band at this stage is almost catching lighting in a bottle. They carry a smaller fan base than other big bands, but an extremely loyal one. They can sell out a smaller venue with ease, so those who are in the crowd, really, truly want to be there. It’s surprising how much material this band can pull from, although, they are coming up on their fifth album, Beat the Devils Tattoo. Another big break or at least introduction to the mainstream, came when their track, ‘Done All Wrong’ was featured on the New Moon soundtrack.
Now, if you were lucky enough to be there on Saturday, they would’ve made a believer out of you. There were a couple in our group and the crowd, that were just getting familiar with the band their records, but by the end of it all were bona fide members of BRMC.
Check out a video from the show, and be sure to stick around for the ending.
We’re going to take you back to 1994, that year and the years around that time is really when hip hop and rap came into the mainstream. It was an era where the genre dominated charts, award shows, and album sales. Regulate was one of those great hip hop tracks that had a real smoothness to it, featuring two of the most recognizable voices in hip hop; Warren G and Nate Dogg. After this, Nate became dedicated to saying ‘huh’, ‘yeah’, and phrases that start with ‘If You ____ Like I _____’. That’s right 1994, the year of Mondeta sweatshirts, Ikeda and Request Jeans, and a pretty crazy time for music.
The NHL got back to business super quick coming off the Olympics, not only were they playing games the next day, they’ve got a trade deadline that hits today. Of course, locally, everyone is watching the Vancouver Canucks, a team that has consistently done very little at the trade deadline.
Now, you take a look at this year, and many have said that the team is close to getting a cup, we’re still party to those who say we are still a piece away. You take a look at the roster, and you can see the bad luck this team has faced. First off, on the defense, Kevin Bieksa, while due back soon, is recovering from a significant laceration on his calf. Not the easiest injury to recover from. On the other end, Willie Mitchell is suffering from a massive concussion after a massive hit from Evgeni Malkin. While the organization is saying that they expect him back, no one is giving any due date, and they won’t even confirm he’ll be back this season! Sounds like the guy gets dizzy just picking up the paper. So, that’s two top four d-men missing, that puts the focus on the blue line. Let’s be honest, with Sami Salo back there, there’s no guarantee we won’t have three on the mend soon.
Others have said that we need a third line winger, and there’s no doubt about that. Kyle Wellwood and Steve Bernier have not been performing this season. Some are asking to trade Pavol Demitra after a sucessful Robert Reichel like Olympics. Now, we’re saying, the guy has been injured for a good chunk of the season, there’s a chance that he’s rounding into form, so we’re not completely sold on trading him, even with his sketchy playoff history.
We don’t just have roster players to bait teams, we’ve got one of the biggest goalie prospects in the league, in Corey Schneider. We have an energetic prospect forward in Michael Grabner, in addition to Sergei Shirokov. We’d be completely ok with all of those being moved for strong players coming back.
That being said, it’s a quiet ass day, and at the time of this writing, there’s only been three trades!
Is it just us or are you too surprised that Bob Hartley can speak french? Not just speak it, but argue with someone in French. We always thought he was an American or European, not the Franco-Ontarion that he is. The ex Avs coach is arguing with Brisebois in this little clip, trading barbs about [...]
The Olympics feature a multitude of events and competitions in a wide variety of sports, and as always there are some events that are worth a little more dollar after the fact than others. We take a look at the events that ten years from now, you’d love to be able to say ‘I was [...]
One of the things we try to do as often as possible is post something here. Whether it’s a music video, a rant, or some ridiculous little story, we do try to get something out there as often as possible. But, after a two week celebration of sport, that now feels more like a bender, [...]
The Olympics kicked off with a lot of skepticism and negativity, plenty of folks were wondering why money wasn’t being spent elsewhere
and citing that there are no real benefits of millions of people watching our city on television, and thousands upon thousands visiting
day by day. Well, we ask, during these Olympics how many times did [...]
