Have you seen Mike Smith's Sv% this season? :heckno:

Have you seen their trades at the deadline?

Eddie Lack on WPG's first goal:

:lawl:

haha Eddy's the best

Not to mention:
Vancouver is tied with Columbus with the least amount of OTL in the league at 4.

This is one of those super long Grantland articles but well worth your time. Especially if you are a Willie Mitchell fan

The Roomies « - The Roomies «

I'm one of the guys who was pretty happy with Gillis for the most part, but letting Mitchell go was a huge mistake. He wanted to be here and he was one of our better defensemen, but MG had no faith in Willie's ability to recover from a concussion at his age. 2 Stanley Cups later ... :rukidding:

Also, another in a long-line of suspension-worthy events against that occurred against a Canuck that never got even so much as a phone call ... Malkin's hit from behind on Mitchell that put him out the rest of the season, last time Mitchell played for the Canucks.

I'm honestly happy Gillis let Mitchell go... Wanna know why???

Because he's a stand up good guy, great hockey player and if it wasn't for Gillis letting him go he would of never won two Stanley Cups!!!!

Umm, we may have won a Stanley Cup ...

that would be Hammer..and Aaron Rome

hahah

but yea..we would have won a cup...ugh

but hey.. Ekblad living with Willie is gonna be great for his career. Willie's a real leader and that was a great story
Ekblad is gonna be a stud

but really..this tweet... lawls

My son's first and middle names are Brendan Mitchell, named after #7 and #8. :)

willie is a good guy, played hockey with him when he visited mcneill and he hooked me up with game tickets 2 years ago when LA came to town and went out on the town.

willie is a good guy, i saw him at costco when he was still a Canuck

Willie is a good guy, I saw his long stick on TV when he was a Canuck

willie is a good guy, he picked up my lap tab at the 5

It's getting close to the 100th anniversary of the Vancouver Millionaires winning the Stanley Cup. -didn't realized that they revolutionized the game back in the day. No forward passes until the team owners put them in the league. The owners also put in line changes and blue lines into rules of the game.
The team's hall of fame player was Fred "Cyclone" Taylor.


It was all about the back pass, just like our current team's PP. :troll: The team wears the Millionaire jersey in the Colorado game tomorrow.

How the Vancouver Millionaires won the 1915 Stanley Cup and revolutionized hockey | Globalnews.ca


Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of the first and only time a Vancouver hockey team raised the Stanley Cup in victory. Except that they didn’t really get to raise the Cup at all.

On March 26, 1915, the Vancouver Millionaires defeated the Ottawa Senators at Denman Arena, winning the best-of-five series in three straight games to become Stanley Cup champions. The Senators, who were considered heavy favourites going into the series, were so confident they would win they didn’t bother bringing the Cup with them from back east.


The Millionaires had to wait a few months for the Cup to arrive, and Vancouver hockey fans have waited a century for it to come back.

Interest in the Millionaires has taken off in recent years, thanks in large part to the Vancouver Canucks wearing vintage Millionaires uniforms during last year’s Winter Classic at BC Place stadium. The Canucks will wear the retro unis during Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

While the Millionaires old-school sweaters may have connected with a modern audience, the brand of hockey that was played a century ago would be foreign to today’s hockey fan. But team founder Frank Patrick and his brother Lester did their best to modernize the game
From 1915-1926 the Stanley Cup was decided by the top teams from Canada’s east and west coast, teams that often competed in leagues that played by different rules.

The 1915 Stanley Cup saw the top team from the east coast’s National Hockey Association take on the winners of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, which was founded by the Patrick family.

During their time with the PCHA, the Patricks implemented changes to the game in the hopes that the hockey establishment out east would follow suit. They introduced the blue line and line changes, and were the first to have players wear numbers on the backs of their sweaters.

The PCHA was also the first league to allow the forward pass. Players back east weren’t allowed to advance the puck to a teammate who was ahead of them, forcing them to pass it behind them or to the side, as in rugby.

“The speed of the game [in the NHA], the speed that the puck advanced up the ice, was actually a lot slower,” says Craig Bowlsby, author of Empire of Ice: The Rise and Fall of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. “It was the Patrick brothers, and in particular the Vancouver Millionaires, that pushed the new rule of allowing the forward pass. That proved to be a big difference in the actual Stanley Cup contest.”

During the Stanley Cup series, games alternated between PCHA and NHA rules. Regardless of the rules they played under, the Millionaires dominated the Senators, outscoring Ottawa 26-8 over three games to sweep the series.
The Millionaires fast-paced style was no accident. President Frank Patrick assembled a team of uptempo players who could take advantage of the new rules. Patrick clearly had an eye for talent as seven of the 10 players on the team are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Chief among them was Fred “Cyclone” Taylor. Although he was a man of modest dimensions–5’8″, 165 lbs.–Taylor’s prowess on the ice turned him into the sport’s first star.

“He was sought after by all of the leagues in his prime,” says Bowlsby. “He even had lots of intrigue around who was going to sign him. People would carry contracts around with them and follow him around by train from city to city, hoping that he would sign a contract. In that respect, he must have felt like he was a superstar. And he was.”

Taylor died in Vancouver in 1979 at the age of 94. His hockey legacy lives on through his family. His grandson Mark Taylor played in the NHL and his great-grandson Trevor Cox currently plays in the WHL for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Taylor was paired with Mickey MacKay, a speedy forward from the Kootenays.

It’s enough to make Vancouver hockey fans feel sorry for themselves. If it’s any consolation, Vancouver’s century-long drought is not the longest losing streak among current Canadian NHL cities. Winnipeg won its only Stanley Cup back in 1902.


“They became the one-two punch,” says Bowlsby of Taylor and MacKay. “One would get an assist and one would score. They both knew what each other wanted and needed, and fed each other all the way up the ice. That was really important for Cyclone Taylor to have that kind of person with him.”

Veteran Frank Nighbor was a steady presence and the team’s best two-way forward while goaltender Hugh Lehman, who had come to the Millionaires from the New Westminster Royals, proved to be a critical component to the team’s Stanley Cup win. Playing goal was quite different in Lehman’s day, as keepers weren’t allowed to leave their feet to make a save.

In addition to being the team’s founder, Frank Patrick was also one of his team’s best players. More importantly, he was the architect of the Millionaires win and much of modern hockey.

It took a while, but the NHA eventually adopted Patrick’s rules and the forward pass became part of hockey.

A century later Vancouver hockey fans are waiting for a second Stanley Cup. After winning it all in 1915, the Milllionaires were runners-up in 1918, 1921, 1922 and 1923. In modern times, the Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982, 1994 and 2011, losing all three times.

Stars beat the flames in SO w00t

Tomorrow will be the biggest game yet...in the battle for McDavid. Arizona and Buffalo. A -4 point game. Who will tank harder?

It wasn't like Gillis just let Mitchell walk though. He was offered a fair contract given the circumstances, Mitchell would have had a year to prove himself. LA took the risk and overpaid for his services both in dollars and term at the time

Hoping my Sabres lose in regulation. Couple years into rebuild and we suck, so nothing to do but embrace and hope for a better draft pick. Just as long as we don't suck and rebuild for the next 10 years like the Oilers.

It's really a battle for Eichel, since 30th is guaranteed to draft at worst #2, which is fine as Eichel looks to be a generation talent as well. I have a gut feeling that whoever finishes last won't be drafting 1st overall, if you look at the past few NHL and even NBA draft lottery results, the the worst team hasn't won the lottery much. In the past 5 years in NHL, the worst team has only won the lottery draft once. In the NBA, the worst team has not won the lottery at all in the past 5 years, with a similar % chance as the NHL. Now watch the Kings or Bruins barely miss the playoffs and win the draft lotto for McDavid lol.

Speaking of tonights Arizona-Buffalo game, Coyotes radio color commentary guy and former NHLer Nick Boynton won't be calling the game because he bit a cop hahaha.

Ex-NHLer Boynton to be charged after allegedly biting cop | ProHockeyTalk

Lol i'll finally get to watch a game with them wearing the Millionaires jersey.
Work when we played the Wings, school when Heritage classic happened
:fuckthatshit:
lost both times anyways...hopefully tonight wouldn't be the case
Though the payout is looking pretty good for an Avs win...

Gillis offered him a 1-year, $1M contract with $2.5M in performance bonuses.

Our offer was the worst offer of the 5 that were leaked to the public (in total, Mitchell received 12 contract offers as per Dan Murphy, Aug 2/2010). San Jose and Washington both offered 1-year, guaranteed salary contracts of $3.5M. Los Angeles doubled the term. Detroit also offered a 1-year contract with more guaranteed salary ($1.75M + $1.75M in potential performance bonuses).

Mitchell didn't sign July 1, he signed in lateAugust. He had been cleared by doctors the first week of July and had been working out, symptom-free since mid-July. He ended up accepting an invites to work out for Los Angeles, San Jose, and Washington over several weeks and continued to express interest in signing with the Canucks (basically, he was using it was a negotiating tool).

fuck i jinxed myself, might miss the first period or most of the game
...i'm just not meant to watch them in this jersey lol.