Sunday April 13: Vancouver Canucks 5 - Calgary Flames 1

On Sunday night, I learned that the Vancouver Canucks toot their goal horn once for each goal that is scored. It speaks to how rarely the Canucks have tooted the horn with any frequency that I'm just noticing this now. Will hopefully have more of a chance to notice next season!

After all the drama at Sunday's game, reality is just starting to sink in: it's April 14 and I won't be going back to the rink until around September 25. More than five months without any live hockey. Dislike.

As the TEAM1040 crew pointed out last night, if there's a silver lining about the long summer, it's that Daniel Sedin will get plenty of time to recover from the injury he suffered after being pushed into the boards by Calgary's Paul Byron late in the second period.

After a scary stretch of time where Daniel was immobilized and taken off the ice on a stretcher, he was released from hospital on Sunday night, which is great news.

The Canucks are having their final media availability of the season this morning, so the quotes are starting to trickle in on Twitter. Daniel is there, taking questions, and says he's okay.

Daniel Sedin - “I was scared. But went to hospital, everything looked good. Feeling OK today.” #canucks

— Hosea Cheung (@hosea24hours) April 14, 2014

In other news, Ryan Kesler is insisting that he has never asked for a trade:

Ryan Kesler: "I didn't ask for a trade. It's best to keep that in house. Not going to comment — it's not right." #canucks

— Ben Kuzma (@benkuzma) April 14, 2014

We'll have all summer to deal with the rest of the fallout.

Now that the pall of Daniel's injury is lifting, I can go back to appreciating that last night's game had some high points. Daniel's two goals were his first multi-goal effort of the season, and the Sedins were really looking like their old selves again, so let's check out the highlights:



I really enjoyed Pat Quinn's Ring of Honour induction, and thought the team showed great signs of getting back to that powerful focus on legacy that they executed so well during the 40th anniversary season in 2010-11. It was great to see Jim Robson as MC. I could have listened all night as Pat started tracing his history with the team.

Here's the video, in case you missed it.



The team also made some good calls in how they executed Fan Appreciation Night. Canucks alumnae such as Dennis Kearns, Jack McIlhargey, Dave Babych, Cliff Ronning and Kirk McLean fanned out into the crowd handing out autographed jerseys and other prizes, and even Pavel Bure was a surprise guest—on hand as part of the inaugural awarding of the re-named "Pavel Bure Most Exciting Player Award" and do a charity presentation.

For all the speculation over the years about a rift between Pat and Pavel, or Trevor and Pavel, it was great to see all three of them together in the building on the same night.

This year's awards were downplayed—announced on the screen during TV timeouts. I think that was the right way to go, given the lack of pride anyone could take in this year's accomplishments.

You did a good job of identifying the winners in the comments yesterday!

Here's the official list:

• Cyclone Taylor – “Most Valuable Player”: Ryan Kesler (voted by fans)
• Walter (Babe) Pratt - “Best Defenceman”: Dan Hamhuis (voted by fans)
• Pavel Bure – “Most Exciting Player”: Zack Kassian (voted by fans)
• Fred J. Hume - “Unsung Hero”: Eddie Lack (voted by fans)
• Three Star Award: Ryan Kesler “Most Three Stars Selections”
• Cyrus H. McLean – “Leading Scorer”: Henrik Sedin

Henrik did crack the 50-point mark on Sunday, and Ryan Kesler scored his 25th goal. Not good, but not *quite* as bad as 48 points and 24 goals, respectively.

AHL Playoffs

The Utica Comets are four points behind the Oklahoma City Barons in the race for the last Western Conference playoff spot in the AHL, heading into the final week of the schedule. The Comets would also need to leapfrog Charlotte and Rockford to make it into the dance.

Nick Jensen and Frank Corrado were both re-assigned to the Comets on Monday, to help with that final playoff push.

Draft Lottery

Yes, the draft lottery will run live on TSN on Tuesday at 5 p.m. PT, right after their playoff fantasy special. The Canucks finished the season with a record of 36-35-11 for 83 points—tied with Carolina, who win the tiebreaker with 34 regulation/overtime wins compared to Vancouver's 31.

So, the Canucks are officially 25th overall and did #TankNation proud in the last week of the season, when it really counted. Nashville, incredibly, went 7-1-2 in their last 10 games, climbing all the way to 19th. It still wasn't enough to save the job of their coach Barry Trotz, who was let go today.

I don't expect John Tortorella to meet the same fate. As was pointed out on TEAM1040 after the game last night, Torts is the one guy who has worked closely with the players all year. Trevor Linden and his team would be well-advised to glean as much information as they can from him about the personnel that they have before making any decisions.

I wouldn't want to see Trotz come to Vancouver. In short, his coaching style is too defensive for my liking, and he hasn't shown much ability to develop young players.

Worst Person in Sports

The Canucks may not be as loathed anymore by the rest of the hockey world, but the US media has taken notice of events of the last week.

Keith Olbermann of ESPN2's "Olbermann" has dubbed Francesco Aquilini this week's "Worst Person in Sports." Skip to about the 2:00 mark to hear his reasoning: