Canucks

SMUG-PROJECTIONS: Fantasy Rankings: NHL Defensemen: AWESOME

by Tyler Rowe

You can hope to have about 47% as much fun as this woman in your fantasy drafts.

Back in August I put a detailed draft package together to give to my friends so they could draft my various fantasy hockey teams for me while I was away on vacation from early-September to mid-October. I laboured over ranking 225 skaters and 20 goalies, complete with nuanced instructions on which players to let fall, which to snatch early, which goalies were acceptable choices in which corresponding rounds, and so on. And this was just for the three points-only leagues I participate in annually. For my 2 multi-stat roto leagues, I painstakingly crafted two pre-rankings lists for autodraft on two seperate websites. I think my Yahoo draft list was a work of art, nay a masterpiece more beautiful than a dozen new seasons of Deadwood. Continue reading »

Cam Barker has Arrived!

By Tyler Rowe

This looks like a man who might enjoy west coast living.

This morning the Vancouver Canucks added 2004 3rd overall draft pick Cam Barker. Be still my beating heart, you say? The man who was once thought the preferable choice after Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, is now being counted on to fill in for injuries on the Vancouver blue line this season at the pro-rated cost of $700,000. To say that Barker’s pro hockey career has been a disappointment thus far might be an understatement. Continue reading »

We (really) Interrupt This Radio Silence to Bring You…

by Tyler Rowe

Thanks Juice, we’re glad we’re back too.

Hockey. Specifically NHL hockey, and even more pertinently than that, Canucks hockey. It has been six months and five days since our last post, and that was a drink recipe. It has been nearly seven months since our last post about Canucks hockey. I don’t remember how to write. There is a part of me that feels like the end of the lockout is like when Isildor didn’t destroy the one ring. What will the this dread force known as NHL hockey mean now that it is again let loose into our world? Well, since the lockout I have helped open a restaurant here in Victoria to some success. Brian is getting along very well at law school. I haven’t talked to Aidan in months, but am pretty sure he’s been good. Will this shortened season mean the undoing of these positive things? Let us not mince words: I am certain that the answer is yes. Continue reading »

The Luongo: Happy July 1st

By aidanbc

Welcome back, Smuglies. We now interrupt 6 weeks of radio silence to bring you… a cocktail recipe.

This is a completely different drink

July 1st, known across this land of ours as either Canada Day or Free Agent Frenzy Day, is coming up on Sunday. This year, July 1st is also the speculative deadline day for a Roberto Luongo trade, since it is the date when RFA goalie-of-the-future Cory Schneider hits the offer-sheet market.

A day so fraught with both sports-fan tension and chest-thumping nationalism naturally pairs well with just about any alcoholic beverage. But since this is the day we might be saying farewell to the greatest goaltender in our troubled franchise’s history, it deserves its own special drink. Read after the jump for the recipe to a cocktail bursting with both flavour and symbolism: The Luongo.
Continue reading »

What Am I Going To Do With My Time!? Part 3: Go Play Outside

By aidanbc

Bump, set, spike

The Canucks season has come to, by almost anyone’s expectations, a premature end. How should Canucks fans fill the evening hours in the weeks and months to come? The barely pseudonymous aidanbc examines this in a three-part SmugNation investigation: “What Am I Going To Do With My Time!?” In Part 1: Moar Spoarts! he suggested you get behind Vancouver’s other three pro sports teams. In Part 2: Give it Away he thought you should find a way to give back to your community. In the thrilling conclusion, he urges you to get off the grandstands and into the game.

I’m not particularly fond of gyms. Not that I have anything against them, I just find it difficult to find athletic inspiration in their dank, dim, constantly-buzzing confines.  Unfortunately, the dank, dim winters that characterize our coast don’t leave too many attractive workout options until springtime, whereupon we are invariably kept busy by the Canucks in the playoffs find ourselves with all kinds of free time on our hands. And is trading in watching sports for playing them such a bad thing? Of course not, fatso.

Now, if I just left this blog post at “go play outdoors”, we’d have two problems: I’d have written an unacceptably short post, and you’d probably get run over in the Rona parking lot or something, so let me offer some more specific guidance in how to make the most of your outside time.

For the Love of the Game

My first recommendation is that you play an actual sport. Maybe it’s just me, but I run a lot harder when chasing a frisbee (I’m sorry, I said actual sport didn’t I…) soccer ball than when I’m chasing a split time. Recreational sports are great for the camaraderie, the thrill of competition, and the consumption of adult beverages that invariably occurs, either during or after, depending on your team.

Most of my rec sports experience has been through university intramurals, or just plain old pickup games, so I when I recommend the following leagues, it’s simply as a Googler, but why wouldn’t you want to let me Google that for you?

For Vancouverites, the City of Vancouver website has a decent rundown of leagues and tournaments, though it’s from 2010, so some of the info is out of date. From sports to apparently competitive social events, Urban Rec seems to have quite a few offerings. Registration is now open.

For those of us in Smugtoria, the Victoria Sports and Social Club offers “Recess for Adults”. The Spring/Summer leagues have already begun play, but the club’s website indicates that registration is still available with a phone call to the office.

So head out there and get your sport on. You have so much to gain: fitness, fun, friends, and maybe even a little bit of humility. After you spend a summer muffing perfect sets into the volleyball net, maybe you’ll be a bit more forgiving of a season full of Mason Raymond crest-shots.

Be The Best At Exercising

For those of you who don’t like team sports, the West Coast is a great place to try to be the best at exercising. Vancouver’s Sea Wall and Victoria’s Dallas Road stretch offer some great fair weather running and cycling routes. The Vancouver Sun Run and the Times Colonist 10K are both in the rearview mirror, but that just means you have more time to prepare for falls events, like the Victoria Marathon and Half, and the 9.5 km James Cunningham Seawall Race in Vancouver, both in October (October!? You’ll be down to 4 minute kms with all this prep time!)

Running not your thing? How would you like to ride your bike the length of the Sea to Sky Highwy without having to share elbow room with Longhorn-bound Escalades? The September 8th Whistler Gran Fondo might just be for you. But at 122km in length, and that whole “cycling from sea-level to sky-level” thing, it’s probably a good time to grease up the gears, invite Lu over to get your PSIs up, and get those legs moving. You never know, you might just bump into the legendary Trevor Linden.

Pick it up

You don’t need to join a league or sign up for an event to get active this summer. Your city no doubt has its share of tennis courts and sports fields. When that perfect blue blazer of a day hits (spoiler alert: look out the window RIGHT NOW), call up your buds, grab some pops, and work off the disappointment of yet another Canucks early exit. Blow off enough steam, and you should be well primed to start it all over again in October.