Oh-lund oh-shit

Mattias Ohlund signs with the Tampa Bay Lightning (7 years, 3.75 million)

Winner: Ohlund. No need to be clever here. Ohlund’s career is in decline and all Canucks fans saw it in the Blackhawks series. To score a seven-year deal for about the same money he was making in the prime of his career? Tampa ownership has done it again.

Loser: Every other General Manager. Unfortunately, the marketplace is dictated by deals like this one and the Bouwmeester deal, and so even though economists are predicting doom and gloom for the cap over the next few years, the price of defensive help just went up.

Closing the deal on swedish twins = increased scoring

The Sedins have signed with the Canucks on a 5-year deal for $6.1 million apiece, leaving this guy extremely pumped.

Winner: Mike Gillis and his iron balls. Despite pressure from fans and media about the possibility of losing his two top scoring players, Gillis refused to budge from his offer of a 5 year deal, rumored to be worth about $5.6 million a year. When all looked lost, Gillis hopped on a plane to Sweden and told the Sedins what was up, offering a million bucks more (combined) then he originally offered. The Sedins are now practically signed on Gillis' terms, meaning that they fit into whatever plan this godsent genius has in store for Canucks fans.

Loser: JP Barry. Whatever tipped the balance and led the Sedins to sign this morning, it sure wasn't JP Barry, their agent. A couple weeks ago, it leaked that he was asking for identical 12-year, $63 million deals, which would keep the cap hit low, but keep the Sedins in blue and green until they were 40. When the Canucks refused to budge from a 5-year counteroffer, Barry seemed intent on letting the Sedins skip the hometown discount and find more money elsewhere. On an agent's salary, his original proposal would have netted him a cool $12-15 million in fees, but under Gillis' plan? About $6 million. No small potatoes, even for a couple of successful bloggers like ourselves, but being undermined by your clients and losing $6-9 million bucks on a deal can't be easy. Now, if he could just get Sundin to make up his mind..

Quick Update

A proposed trade that would have sent Heatley to the Oilers for Smid, Cogliano, and Penner has been shot down by Heatley himself, he of the no-trade clause.

Winners: The Northwest Division. With no disrespect to the Oilers trade bait, our division just dodged a 50-goal scoring bullet. And while players need thick skins to deal with the business of sports, it surely must create a little tension between management and the three players involved. Awkward...we totally still want you guys...

Losers: The Tourism Board of Edmonton. A storied history, respected coaching, some young talent, a passionate fan base and a 7.5 million dollar salary were not enough to sell Heatley on Edmonton. What chance do these poor folks have?

Free Agent Frenzy: HCP's got you covered

As the title suggests, we here at the Half Court Press got you covered when it comes to Free Agency frenzy. Sam will handle the basketball end of things, while I'll be covering hockey deals, which I'm sure will be much more interesting and entertaining to read about. We'll find the winner(s) and loser(s) of each deal, starting with a player who has quickly changed from being loved here in Vancouver to being vilified, in the course of about 20 minutes:

Signing: Jay Bouwmeester: (5 years, $33.4 milion to the Calgary Flames)

Winner: Darryl Sutter - Sutter has had a good couple weeks, first by hiring his brother Brent as head coach, bringing the number of Sutters in the organization to 5, and bringing the club's "unfortunate looking" index to a whopping 8 stars (system of measurement unclear, but 8 stars would undoubtedly be quite high). He also got a jump on free agency by signing the most coveted UFA defensemen. Bouwmeester is only 25, so Sutter's deal will take the former Panther through the prime of his career, which is projected to be quite successful. He also prevented two division rivals from signing him, the Canucks and Oilers, both of whom were speculated to make serious offers come July 1.

Loser: Darryl Sutter - Knowing Bouwmeester was aware he would look fantastic in blue and green (who doesn't? it accentuates the eyes) he was forced to pay a premium on the puck-moving defenseman, and sign him for a cap hit of $6.6 million per season. Between Iggy, Langkow, Jokinen, Phaneuf, Bouwmeester, Regehr, Sarich and Kipper, that's about $44 million commited to 8 players, leaving 12 million and change to go around for 15 players. No doubt the Flames have some moves up their sleeves (like moving Sarich ASAP), but considering the problems the team had last year (needing to play several late season games with 3 forward lines), Sutter's painted himself into a corner. What happens in the case of an injury to one of their high priced players? Usually, teams can save cap room by using skilled entry-level players, but outside of Backlund the Flames' prospect pool is weak or traded away. And down the road? Apart from Jokinen, whose deal is up next year, these players are all locked up long term at these prices, meaning the Flames will be in a similar situation for the next THREE YEARS. Sure, the talent looks very solid, but Sutter will have to do a great deal of tricksy maneuvering to make it work.

Trade: NYR trades centre Scott Gomez, winger Tom Pyatt and defenceman Mike Busto to Montreal for winger Chris Higgins and defencemen Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko (yeah I copied and pasted. Way too many names.)

Winner: Glen Sather, James Dolan. The deal allows Sather to temporarily escape the type of cap hell that eagerly awaits Sutter. It gives him some flexibility to lock up young talent, and momentarily help people forget about the $6.5 million a year mistake that is Wade Redden. James Dolan, the owner of the Madison Square Garden Corporation, saves a little coin and can use Gomez' $8 million a year to support the flourishing Knicks basketball team.

Loser: Vincent Lecavalier: Rumored for months to be headed to his hometown city that loves hockey (and apparently, wanted him there), Montreal's acquisition of another front line center means he's forced to stay in Tampa, where apathetic fans, an ownership struggles and a fantasy-league player management style will leave the Lighting, even with all their young talent, out of contention for many years to come.

That's all for tonight. Check in tomorrow for some updates.

Top 5 Canucks Moments

Yeah, the season didn't turn out the way we here at The Half Court Press hoped. With a chance to take a 3-1 series lead over Chicago, the Canucks blew it and lost the next 2 to get knocked out, and lost their chance to lose to the Red Wings in 5. Still, the year far exceeded the hopes of the hockey Nostradami over at ESPN or The Hockey News. Although the future of the Sedins and Luongo are uncertain, Gillis seems like a man with a plan, and with the success of Cody "Sexual Healing" Hodgson, Cory Schnieder (sexually suggestive nickname pending) and the Moose battling in the AHL Finals, the future looks up for the Canucks. With that in mind, here are the top five Canucks moments from the past year.

5. After the haters scoffed at our 6-1 preseason, no one, not even me, could have predicted an absolutely perfect first game. After a classy, emotional tribute to the fallen Luc Bourdon, the Canucks proceeded to demolish the Flamers 6-0, capped off by this shorty of Rypiens. Props to Sam with the heads up call of Hank for the first goal. The lone Flames fan at our bar is still crying himself to sleep every night.

4. After being 13 points back of those very Flames with 2 months to go in the season, and the Flames making some big moves on trade deadline day, people were all ready to put the Flames in the class of the West. Not so fast Flamers. The Canucks went on a tear, and eventually won the division on the last game of the season, by making it into overtime and then capping it off with a Hank goal. The Canucks regular season ended as a fitting "Hank sandwich", and my 2008-2009 Division Champions banner was hoisted over my Wild-loving roommates' door. (The goal is around the 1:44 mark)

3. When Gillis announced that he had offered Mats Sundin a whopping $10 million to come play for the Canucks (after passing on Kyle Beach at the draft..which may have turned out well after all..) I thought he was crazy. And then I liked it. And thus began a roller coaster of emotion, which didn't end after the elation of him actually signing 6 months later. Looking back, Gillis probably made the right move, if nothing else but to set up this fairytale moment at the Air Canada Centre.

2. After losing one of his best friends, both on and off the ice, Alex Burrows broke out in a big way, putting up career numbers and eerily scoring 28 goals to honor his buddy, #28 Luc Bourdon. After scoring in OT to complete the first-round sweep of St. Louis, Burrows did the celebration that Bourdon was famous for in Juniors, as a fitting tribute. RIP, Luc.

1. And finally, if Alex Burrows hadn't scored this next goal for the Canucks, they may have been buried beneath the Wild and Flames in the standings, out of the playoffs and with a total loss of direction. After acquiring Sundin, and getting Luongo back from injury, the Canucks didn't improve, stretching a long homestand into an eight-game losing streak, including nine straight on home ice. After blowing a 3rd period lead against Carolina, and then handed them a late powerplay, the streak seemed doomed to continue. And then, this happened:

And the rest is history. Next year, I expect all of the above to be Cody Hodgson highlights.

Honerable mention: Trevor Linden night, and this. Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye, indeed.

real problems vs sports

In the midst of a deep recession, the collapse and bankruptcy of GM (marking the greatest industrial failure in United States history), climate change, a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, failing health care and education systems, North Korea successfully launching nuclear missiles, and a newly appointed Supreme Court justice, it's good to see that the US government is focused on things that actually matter. Democrat congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee is demanding that the NBA look into and change its controversial age rule. This comes shortly after a Congressional Subcommittee was formed to determine whether the NCAA football Bowl Championship Series should be revised into a playoff system. Seriously? I mean...seriously? I don't know if this speaks worse about these self-serving congressmen trying to make a name for themselves, or the fact that the divisive American political system is broken. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas (by the way, if Texas succeeds from the United States, will it become the InterNational Football League?) put it best, when he asked: "if we don't see some action in the next two months on a voluntary switch...it needs to be something that you need to start discussing." No, you grandstanding, reporter-assaulting, science-doubting assholes, its not. People in your districts and right across the country you swore to represent are losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their health care, their sons and daughters oversees, and their faith in their own government. The intricacies of a draft rule designed to protect education and the proper determination of a team ranking based on mathematics are NOT priorities for the only institution with the ability to fix thousands of real problems affecting real people every day. You're undermining your country and ruining the reputations of those in government who are actually trying to do some good. Stop trying to pretend these are real issues, grow up, and do your fucking jobs. End rant. 

However, if the US government were to mandate that the NHL be put back on ESPN, that'd be totally awesome.

Wings in 6, Lakers in 5.

basketball fix'n's

Now that the hockey season is effectively over, I really wish I could watch and enjoy the basketball playoffs. But I can't. I can't sit through a tedious game that drags on and is ultimately determined by the referees. After listening to bill simmons' b.s. report giving several quality suggestions to fix hockey with no recent knowlege of the game, I figured I could give it a try for basketball. Without resorting to trampolines and hoops of fire (which would be seriously badass), here are my 5 easy-bake measures to fix the game of basketball.

1. Timeout rules: Between time-outs and intentional fouls, the last minute of a basketball game can run 10 or 15 minutes. Instead of 6 full and 1 -20 second time out PER HALF, make it 2 full and 3-20 second time outs per half. 20 seconds is more than enough time to draw up a play, and while advertisers might not like it, every single other person ever will. Also, no more time-outs during play. Frantic action is what creates epic plays. The same way a quarterback can't call a timeout when he's under pressure, the same way a hockey player can't call a timeout to get a faceoff in the offensive zone, and the same way baseball...okay, bad example. But the NBA needs timeout reform. With Stern's recent comment that they might institute MORE timeouts in the form of a challenge system for fouls at the end of the game, the league is moving in the completely wrong direction. Which brings me to:

2. Referees and fouls: The NBA has the consistantly worst-rated refereeing of any major sport. Watching some old Jordan games, the games flowed back and forth. Now, fouls or violations are called on almost every posession. There were 61 fouls called in Game 3 of the Dallas-Denver game, and a non-call that may have cost the Mavs their season. So how to change it?
Step 1: Increase the penalty for diving. Right now, the NBA occasionally fines players for diving. That hasn't worked. If a player dives, kick him out of the game. If its caught on tape after the game instead, suspend him for a game.
Step 2: Any intentional foul outside of the 2 minute mark of the end of the game gets three foul shots. As clever a nickname as it was, Hack-a-Shaq and strategies like it have a similar effect on ruining the game's flow.
Step 3: Decrease the foul-out limit from 6 to 5, like in college. If players have less margin for error, they foul less.
Step 4: Start calling travelling again. For all the badassness of four-step windmill dunks, its taken the focus off of ball-movement and put it onto individuality. There's a reason the dunk-contest is an All-Star sideshow and basketball is basketball.
These reforms might sound harsh, especially diving infractions, but the game has lost its flow, and the only way to bring it back is to cut the whistles and stoppages. Less eagerness to foul also means more room for stars to be stars. Two points is two points on the scoresheet, but to a fan, a passing play to create a layup is much more exciting then well-crafted free-throw form.

3. More playoff beards.

4. Cut the number of games. This suggestion has been talked about before, and probably will never happen. Less games means less revenue for the team and for the players. But lets face it: each Conference has its clear winners and losers, and nothing more is decided in 82 games than would be in 60. This year would have been much more efficient if we had determined the winner by a Lakers-Cavs-Celtics tourny in November. The NBA: where predictability happens.

5. Which brings me to my last point. Scrap the "where amazing happens" and bring in whatever the basketball equivalent of this is:



Any other ideas?