Hope you had a great Christmas and that Santa brought what you were dreaming of.
Thanks for all the good wishes and right back at ya! Looking forward to lots more hockey good times in 2015.
It's been a pretty tech-y Christmas for me. I got an early start with Apple TV, which lets me watch my GameCentre Live games from all around the league on my TV, instead of just streaming on my computer. It's been great—the interface is very easy to use and now that every game in the league is available, it's so much fun to create my own "NHL on the Fly" experience on the rare evenings when my schedule permits.
I suspect Rogers will drop the price on GCL sometime after Christmas for the second half of the season. It's a shame that those Mark Messier commercials have stood in the way of people noticing that this is actually a very good product. Should be even more fun as we head into the playoff run.
Like a good blogger should, I spent a big chunk of the day yesterday upgrading my Mac all the way from Snow Leopard to OS Yosemite. So far so good, I think. The machine seems faster and more stable, and the new interface looks good. I just figured out how to scroll down web pages, which is making things a lot easier (space bar!).
The Canucks have one more day off, then will reconvene at Rogers Arena to practice on Saturday morning before heading to California for Sunday's tilt against Anaheim.
The holiday trade freeze will be lifted tomorrow. I don't expect to see any imminent action on the Canucks front. Zack Kassian and Jannik Hansen should be close to getting back into the lineup soon, which will give Willie Desjardins some interesting options heading into a tough stretch of the schedule.
World Juniors and Spengler Cup start today. All games from both tournaments will be broadcast on the TSN family of channels.
The Spengler Cup roster features a number of ex-Canucks and Canuck prospects, including goaltender Drew MacIntyre, defensemen Jim Vandermeer, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Ryan Parent, and forwards Jeff Tambellini and Byron Ritchie.
Over at World Juniors, you can catch Canucks prospect Thatcher Demko starting in net when Team USA takes on Finland at noon.
USA D: Butcher-Carlo/Hanifin-McCoshen/Werenski-DeAngelo-Collins. Demko starting in net. Halverson backing up. Nedel 3rd goalie.
— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) December 26, 2014Gustav Forsling and Team Sweden are facing the Czechs at 2 p.m. Pacific time, then Jake Virtanen and Team Canada play Slovakia at 5 p.m.
Canucks.com has a comprehensive preview of our prospects and their roles in the tournament.
Finally, a quick look down at the farm in Utica:
The Comets get back to work tonight as they host the Adirondack Flames. Utica went into the Christmas break leading the AHL with a 19-5-5 record for 43 point in 29 games. Goaltender Jacob Markstrom returned from injury in the last game before Christmas and looked good in a 4-1 win, also against the Flames.
Fittingly, the Comets will be hosting the AHL All-Star Game in late January. With his record, Travis Green has the inside track to being the head coach of the Western Conference squad.
After a rough inaugural season, the Comets have really fast-tracked to become one of the top teams in the American League in just their second year of operation. Can anyone remember a time in the past when the Canucks' farm team has had so much success?