Tonight was Game 6 of a very close series between the Canucks and the Predators. It shouldn’t have been a close series given the difference in “star power” between the teams. Unfortunately the Predators have managed to keep it a very close series, and tonight’s game was full of teeth gnashing, nail biting, and seat-edge-sitting. Stressful.

The outcome was positive and now for the first time in seventeen years the Canucks are in the third round. We’re really looking forward to game 1 this weekend!

Eileen and I went to the Canucks seat selection session last night to pick new seats for next season. The new season won’t start until October but we are still looking forward to it!

The seat selection process is both thrilling and depressing – GM Place has something like 18,800 seats for each game (sold out every night) and yet there are really only a handful of seats available when we get the opportunity to pick. We could have kept our same seats from last year, but we were looking for something a little better: less behind the goalie and more around the side towards the blue line. We also were interested to get closer to the front row.

We lucked out this year, there were a few seats that met our “upgrade” requirements: about half-way between the goal line and the blue line, and row 3. The picture here shows the view of the defensive zone net from our seat. Nice!

Its going to be a long summer waiting for the season to start!

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup tonight, marking the end of another hockey season. I’m disappointed the series didn’t go the full seven games, but I think the team with more skill won. The Flyers gave it the good fight but in the end they couldn’t put up enough of a fight to delay the eventual outcome. The ‘hawks didn’t have great goal tending, but they did have a pretty good top line and a really deep pool of talent and toughness to draw upon. And despite having Marion Hossa (the unlucky charm for teams of the last two years) they managed to pull out a convincing win. It will be interesting to see if this team is a one-time-only winner (like the Lightening, the Hurricanes, the Ducks) or if they can continue to be a dominant force like the Penguins and Wings have been.

Already looking forward to next season where we will be cheering for the Canucks again.

I’m watching the NHL season opener game right now, its between the Los Angles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks. To spice things up, its being held in London, England. Apparently they had to ship over a scoreboard, the boards and various other equipment. The game got off to a late start due to lighting issues.

We’ve also been attending a couple of Canucks pre-season games. We have new seats this year, still sitting behind the home goal although in row 10 (about 5 rows closer I think). The picture here is from our seats during the game against the Ducks, taken using the crappy little camera built into my RAZR phone.

I think I need a better camera. I probably need a better phone. I definitely need a phone with a better camera! Sadly the iPhone isn’t available in Canada yet, and I’m likely way too much of a cheap-skate to fork over $100 per month in charges. Although yes I would spend $500 on the phone though. I think the difference is that I don’t mind the one-time expense, but honestly I don’t get $20 per month of usage from my phone today, and paying five times as much just seems stupid.

Anyways, both Eileen and I are happy the hockey season as started again!

We were fortunate enough to attend the Vancouver Canucks vs. Dallas Stars Game 2 here in Vancouver but are relegated to watching CBC for today’s game.

The Dallas Stars are really strong defensively and appear to be winning the majority of face-offs. And the Canucks can’t stay out of the penalty box. Sigh. Let’s hope it doesn’t take four overtimes to win this time, but if that is what it takes to win then I’m all for it!

The other series I’ve been following include Detroit vs. Calgary and Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh. Yay the Flames are already down by two games; with some luck they’ll be out in five games. The Penguins probably don’t have what it takes to win their series but so far its been fun to watch.

I don’t know exactly when I started to really follow the NHL so closely. I didn’t grow up a huge fan of hockey. I can even recall not knowing much about hockey when we moved to Vancouver. But in the last few years both Eileen and I have really acquired a strong interest, even a passion, for the sport. And this time of year is so much fun, even watching teams I wouldn’t normally follow.

Been following the games? Got any picks to offer for the various Round 1 series?