A little presumptuous are we, Canucks fans?

 

A friend of mine was in Vancouver over the Memorial Day weekend -- before the Stanley Cup Finals began -- and snapped this photo of locals driving around the city with a mock-up of the cup. 

The Cup, I might add, the local team has not yet won. And I kind of get the feeling that after watching last night's spankdown of the Canucks by Boston, the momentum may have turned in the series to the Bruins. At the very least, it's pretty much impossible to root for the goon squad that is Vancouver after watching the savage hit by Aaron Rome on Bruins' defenseman Nathan Horton. 

The NHL -- reacting to the bad p.r. the hit rightly inspired and perhaps out of a desire to protect its players -- suspended Rome for four games, meaning he's justifiably gone for the rest of the series. The Bruins announced that Horton is out for the rest of the series with a severe concussion, meaning he's denied what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play for the Cup. 

Not to mention that severe concussions usually cost players who receive them many more than four games. Just ask Sidney Crosby. 

As for the NHL, its tolerance and encouragement of extracurricular violence has once again landed the world's premiere ice hockey league in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Why the team owners put up with a league run this way is beyond me. 

--S.H.

Canuckians!?

If you are watching the Kings playoff game tonight you probably saw what Jack Johnson had to deal with while serving time in the penalty box: brain-damaged Vancouver fans wearing aqua green skin-tight body suits.

Can you imagine ever seeing this at Staples Center? Another question: it's one thing for one dude to decide to do this, but what are the odds that nutjobs like this live in the same city?

Then again, this is Canada we're talking about, although Vancouver isn't exactly Winnipeg.

If you want to come out and give shit to opponents of my beer league team, please wear a skin tight fire engine red suit. 

UPDATE: I just read these guys are famous up north and have even created nicknames for themselves. Here's their website.

--Steve Hymon

Who do you want Kings to play in the playoffs?

Thanks to the NHL's liberal rules that allow a majority of the team's leagues into the playoffs, the Los Angeles Kings are almost certainly going to the post-season barring a catastrophic collapse in the next two weeks.

But how good are the Kings?

Throughout the season I've been trying to keep an eye on the transparent standings published occasionally by the New York Times. The transparent standings are a bit old-school, as they separate how a team performs in regulation from how it does in overtime.

The NHL standings, on the other hand, only show wins-losses-overtime losses. The standings do not show how many wins were the result of winning the skills competition at the end of overtime -- i.e. the shootout.

In the transparent standings, as of Friday morning, the Kings have a record of 30-25-18 in regulation, meaning they win 41% of their games in regulation. But they've excelled in overtime, going 12-6, including a 9-5 record in the shootout.

One team the Kings should be scared of is the Vancouver Canucks. They are 40-25-10 in regulation time for a win percentage of 53% in regulation. The Canucks are 6-4 in overtime as of Tuesday and 3-3 in the shootout. But who cares about the pedestrian OT stats? More often than not, the Canucks only need 60 minutes to put teams away.