Mid-summer Canuck thoughts

Below is my entry into the Canucks blogger contest. Top eight entries get picked for a playdown to see who can work for Canucks.com. How sweet would that be.

Here was my entry (could only be 500 words):

I remember it well. When Scott Niedermayer's wrist shot somehow found its way into the Canucks net to end our 2006-2007 season, the world stood still. I remember the look on Jannik Hansen's groggy face, wondering if Rob Niedermayer's elbow was still lodged in his trachea. I remember the befuddled look on Roberto Luongo's face (think Donald Brashear on "Are you smarter than an 8th Grader?"). I remember looking over at the other couch and seeing my wife in tears...my yearly confirmation that the Canucks season had indeed come to an end. I can see it like it was yesterday.

But time heals all wounds. Or at least soothes them a bit. As we plod through summer towards next season it is once again time for Canucks fans to hope. As they say, hope springs eternal. Well, maybe except the late 1990's when Mike Keenan traded hope for conditional draft picks. This summer we have more reason to be positive than ever. Last year's team showed us that we are making progress and that we are on the verge of something special. Our summer pickups have us excited. Our defence looks deep. Our stars are primed for good years. And don't forget that our goaltender is to his position as Martha Stewart is to home making (and tax evasion). Things are looking up.

So how do our Northwest Division competitors stack up this year? Let's focus in on the big summer news of our competition:

1) The Oilers: First thought is that they overpaid at 4 million/year for Fred Penner. He'll be making way more money than he ever did crawling out of that log and talking to the "word bird". Whats that? Oh...it was Dustin Penner? Well that makes a little more sense. Not complete sense but a little more.

2) The Flames: They got Mike Keenan...enough said. Actually, after the Penner signing I was thinking Keenan was going to pressure the Flames owners into signing Mr Dressup to a long term deal and maybe getting Finnegan in the package to play alongside Phaneuf.

3) The Wild: Umm, they have cool looking jerseys? And if you go on their website you can audition to be an anthem singer this year. Seriously, not many rumblings out of Minny this summer. They did re-sign Derek Boogaard so thats kind of exciting right? Right? Anyone?

4) The Avalanche: Nice pickup getting Ryan Smyth but he's not a new sight to Canucks fans. We'll just have to beat him in a new jersey that has a Yeti foot patch on the shoulder. By the way, it's hard to cheer against a guy like Joe Sakic. Jose Theodore...not so much.

So here we are in August. Canucks fans find themselves (in the words of Jack Johnson) sitting, waiting and wishing for the season to come. I don't know how much more time I can waste Youtubing videos of Kirk McLean pad-stacking Robert Reichel in 1994. For the love of Petri Skriko, lets get on with it! I am ready to go!

One last thing about how last season ended in my house. I swear to you this is true. When the tears finally stopped falling on that couch across from mine, I looked over and saw the most amazing thing. There was a little couch rainbow! I looked closer and saw the rainbow adorned with a Canuck logo and at its end I saw something incredible. The end of this rainbow held not a pot of gold...but a silver cup!

Okay, I totally lied but wouldn't that have been cool? Hope...it will mess you up. But real Canucks fans wouldn't have it any other way. It's our year.