It's just ONE Game

It wasn't the best outing for the Canucks last night as they couldn't muster up the chances when it mattered the most and the end result was Vancouver dropping Game 1 of a playoff series for the fourth series in a row dating back to 2012. 

This series will be very hard to point any fingers because of the situation that we are in but I would love to see us win at least one game. We are on the right track regardless and it will be refreshing to never hear the rebuild word with the Canucks until 2032 at the earliest. 

Just remember, Crosby lost his first playoff series in 2007. We need to learn from our mistakes and then we will be fine. Honestly, I wouldn't lose sleep with this team until we are selling out Rogers Arena again. Last night was a time to be thankful that we were able to resume the NHL season. 

Secondly, one game is too small of a sample size to make any knee jerking reactions to how the team needs to play better. The only thing I will say is that if we draw a few more penalties, I think it will be easier to shift the momentum.  At 2-0 last night it felt like 4-0. 

The other thing to remember is we lose our first round pick if we lose this series and I think we need that 1st this year considering we gave away our 2nd in the Toffoli trade. 

The scary part about the series is I think the first goal of the game might win every game this series. It will be much easier to make opinions about this series if we lose a game after scoring first. It will be very interesting to see how Minnesota responds after they go behind. 

Lastly, Markus Naslund is one of the best Canucks of all time and didn't win a playoff series for Vancouver untl he was 30 and didn't play in a playoff series until he was 29. (He was hurt in the 2001 playoffs). Bo Horvat is 25. 3-5 years ahead of Naslund. 

When you compare the two, Naslund has a bit better numbers but it isn't by much. 

2014–15	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	68	13	12	25	16	6	1	3	4	2
2015–16	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	82	16	24	40	18	—	—	—	—	—
2016–17	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	81	20	32	52	27	—	—	—	—	—
2017–18	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	64	22	22	44	10	—	—	—	—	—
2018–19	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	82	27	34	61	33	—	—	—	—	—
2019–20	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	69	22	31	53	21

1995-96	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	10	3	0	3	6	1	2	3	8
1996–97	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	78	21	20	41	30	—	—	—	—	—
1997–98	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	76	14	20	34	56	—	—	—	—	—
1998–99	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	80	36	30	66	74	—	—	—	—	—
1999–00	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	82	27	38	65	64	—	—	—	—	—
2000–01	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	72	41	34	75	58

CONCACAF Got it Right.... Finally!!!!

I'm super glad that CONCACAF found a way to give every team a shot at one of the three automatic spots for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

Canada, who sits seventh in Concacaf was faced with a daunting challenge before the Coronavirus which was to only compete with .5 of a spot for the upcoming world cup. This was going to be a challenge because they were going to punished because of lack of ranking points among other things.

This format isn't perfect by any means but it will do because of the current pandemic. Canada has six games between them and the new Octagonal last stage that the region has adopted this time around.

Early predictions are that Canada is the favorite to be one of the three teams to reach the final stage of qualifying. They would join the other five that have already qualified.

Personally, I'm not going to get much good sleep from now until when the draw takes place on August 14th. I don't want to see Guatemala in the group stage. Yes, I believe that we are better then them but with no home and away currently scheduled for the first group stage, I am very concerned that we will draw an away game for Pot 2. If that happens, that could be the Achilles heel for the Canadian Men's National team. Playing in Central America without a return leg is one thing that I believe would derail Canada's Qualifying hopes.

If they qualify for the second phase, they will play a home and away with Group E winner that is projected to be Haiti. Despite losing to Haiti at the 2019 Gold Cup, over a two legged tie I really fancy our chances. For one, we had a 2-0 lead in that quarterfinal game. Two, at home we still should be able to win at home and therefore we would have a different mindset up 2-0 in a two legged tie.

Here is a potential mock draft for the qualifying:

Group A[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	El Salvador	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	A2  Dominican Republic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	A3 Grenada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	A4 Cayman Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	A5 Bahamas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on a day in October 2020. Source: FIFA

Group B[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	B2 Nicaragua	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	B3  Barbados	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	B4 Dominica	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	B5 Aruba	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on a day in October 2020. Source: FIFA

Group C[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Curaçao	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	C2 Suriname	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	C3  Guyana	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	C4  Montserrat	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	C5 Anguilla	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on a day in October 2020. Source: FIFA

Group D[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Panama	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	D2 Saint Kitts and Nevis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	D3 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	D4 Cuba	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	D5 Turks and Caicos Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on a day in October 2020. Source: FIFA

Group E[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Haiti	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	E2 Guatemala	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	E3 Bermuda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	E4 Puerto Rico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	E5 U.S. Virgin Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on a day in October 2020. Source: FIFA

Group F[edit]

Pos	Team [  v t e  ]	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to second round
2	F2 Antigua and Barbuda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	F3 Belize	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	F4 Saint Lucia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	F5 British Virgin Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

   As the mock draw indicated, there is not much to worry about. If they draw an away game in pot 2 then they need to dig deep to get a result. There is not many teams to be concerned about in pots 3, 4 and 5 but I would hate for my worst nightmare to come true.


I'll have more on this in the coming weeks.

Mets 1, Braves 0

In a completely normal season and a completely healthy Jacob deGrom, we might have witnessed a complete game thrown the New York Mets Ace pitcher.

Instead, we were limited to a five inning masterpiece by deGrom who made Braves players look silly through the first half of the game.

The Mets handed it over to their bullpen after that and they picked off right where deGrom left off allowing only two hits in four pressure point innings for the Met relievers which put a short term end to nightmares of a bullpen that was terrible last year.

Yoenis Cespedes returned from a two year absence with a clutch seventh inning home-run that gave the Mets the only lead they needed today.

In a day that it was just good to get baseball back, the news of a 16 team playoff format is really good news for a team like New York who would have made the playoffs last year if it was a 16 team bracket. I really believe that this team is better than last years team.

Another thing to point out is that a Best of 3 should favor the team with better starting pitching and therefore, making the NLDS seems to be a realistic target for the Mets.

This should be considered a double win for New York. The Mets are in a great spot to make a run and I'll be looking forward to seeing it unfold.

Why Kraken???

I've been around sports for awhile now and I have never seen  a lot over my years but what happened yesterday with Seattle's NHL team is something I have a very hard time excepting. 

Kraken??? Where does this come from and how does this team win? From my understanding it is mythical Sea Creature. For me, the Detroit Red Wings already claimed the Mythical Sea Creature as they throw an Octopus on the ice before every game. 

For the colors, I painfully admit I like them but they do look like Rimouski Océanic's jersey's of the QMJHL that plays in the CHL. 

I guess I'm being a bit too picky. Naming sports teams can become original. It's too easy to name a team after an animal. In the mid 1990's the trend seemed to be naming teams after certain types of animals. Therefore, bears and dinosaurs turned into Grizzlies and Raptors of Vancouver and Toronto. Then, there was Thrashers and Bobcats and Pelicans for the last few animals. I like it when a name represents a city too make it their own. 

Karken does not belong to Seattle. According to Wikipedia, the Kraken lives off the coast of Norway and Seattle isn't in Norway. 

To be fair, naming a team is getting increasingly more difficult, Even some MLS teams are having to get creative. There are now 159 sports teams in North America if you include the MLS and CFL so a lot of the good ones are already taken. Most of the time it is not a good idea to name a team after someone else in the same league as you. Yes, I'm looking at you Ottawa. You can only have one Rough Riders in a nine team league. 

Then there are the 351 Div 1 NCAA basketball teams where multiple duplicates happen. So yes, good on them for having a very unique name but it will never be what I would have chosen.

I'm curious to see how everything transpires. I'm bitter because I want NBA or MLB expansion to come to Vancouver but there is likely only four more expansion teams in our lifetime in the Big 4. Two will go to NBA and two will go to MLB. 

I will not be a Krackhead. Not with my brother living so close to Seattle I will refuse to cheer for anything Seattle related. The two cities are rivals now.