Whoooooooooo!

I have a feeling that Tay will probably not be joining us tomorrow and for sure Wednesday night, and I'm okay with that... I got my hug two weeks ago! *shakes pom poms* I &hearts you Ellie and I'm so proud of you!!

From the Silvertips website...
Everett Silvertips Vice President / General Manager Doug Soetaert announced Monday that 20 year old defenseman Taylor Ellington will be joining the Vancouver Canucks' AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, following the conclusion of his Everett Silvertips career. He is expected to arrive in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

As one of three 20- year-olds retained by the Silvertips this season, Ellington was appointed as an alternate captain prior to the start of the season and contributed with a fine campaign, posting career highs of 69 games played, six goals, 26 assists and 32 points. His efforts made him a deserving co-recipient along with Shane Harper of the Silvertips' Most Valuable Player Award, acknowledging his standout performance in leading the Silvertips to their sixth consecutive playoff appearance.

Through five seasons and a franchise-record 287 games played in a Silvertips uniform, the rugged defenseman finished with 14 goals and 52 assists for 66 points, along with 371 penalty minutes. Standing in at 6'2 and weighing 209 pounds, Ellington received several accolades throughout his junior career, including invitations to the 2006 ADT Canada-Russia Challenge and the 2007 Home Hardware CHL / NHL Top Prospects Game.

Ellington was selected in the third round (41st overall) in Everett's renowned 2003 WHL Bantam Draft that produced future first round NHL selections in Zach Hamill (Boston), Peter Mueller (Phoenix) and Leland Irving (Calgary) as well as early NHL selections in Ellington (Vancouver) and Brady Calla (Florida).

A Victoria, BC native, Taylor was selected in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks and signed a three-year entry contract with Vancouver on March 13th.

Another day, another dollar or two...

Good morning friends and neighbours out in the land of Puck. It's Monday, which means nothing other than there is a shitty game on Versus and I rolled into work at 9:30; but only because I have a standing 10:00 meeting. *sighs like Sid playing PSP*

And the party is over here in Tipsville as of about 10pm on Saturday night. The boys gave it a good ride, but just couldn't keep up with Tri-Cities; and so the season has come to an end. Considering a lot of experts picked the boys to finish 9th or 10th in the Western Conference, I think that coming in as 7th and making the playoffs is an achievement. It's just too bad that they had so many injuries and dropped some games that they looked like they had won; otherwise they might have finished higher and with a winning record.

I should have a season end post, but I think I might have to wait a few more days... I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to them, especially the three 20 year olds: Taylor Ellington, Graham Potuer and Daniel Bartek. They're really great guys; and with Tay and Potsie, they've been here 5 years, along with I've gotten to know Taylor a little better than the other two.

I guess the upside is that they will be going on to bigger and better things with either school or professionally; and that is where Taylor will be. He will either be playing in Victoria with the Canucks' ECHL club, the Salmon Kings, which is where another of our good pals Dan Gendur has had a great rookie campaign; or if he has a good camp, he might start the season in Winnipeg with the AHL Manitoba Moose with another former Tip, Shaun Heshka.

So, we're going into the second to the last week of the NHL season, and there are still logjams in both conferences for the last few spots, and I think it's going to come down to that last weekend. Talk about nail biters! I have two teams that are pretty sure of a spot unless they somehow lose all of their remaining games; but the last, aka Les Canards, are playing well but they're dependent on a few teams in front of them losing as well. *sends bad juju to Nashville and St. Louis* I know Lisa is feeling the same way for the Buffaslugs and maybe even the Kitties too since they're 10th and 9th right now, but only by a few points behind. *sends more bad juju to Montreal and the dirty Rangers*

And I also have some video this morning for those of you who also have a case of the Mondays...

Courtesy of the girls from Puckhuffers is a super funny video of Cabbie on the Street from Score Network, that has a few of my favorite boys in it.



I also wanted to share the video from the fabulous line brawl that was surrounded by the Canucks-Blackhawks game last night. The only bad part about this? Ben Eager didn't finish the job and rip Kevin Bieksa's shirt completely off! ;9 And holy shit are the sin bins huge at the Hawks' barn. I know the one at Comcast will fit only three comfortably or maybe 4 if they're the skinnier boys. ;)




Anywho... that's about it from me today. Have a good one youse guys!

Patty Party!

Happy St. Patty's to everyone! I'm not Irish or Catholic, but since my baby boys' color is green, I have collected a few green clothes and that just happens to be what I pulled out of the closet this morning.

And speaking of the Tips, I'm still a little mad at them, but I had to mention some good news coming from Hewitt Avenue yesterday afternoon. My good pal Taylor Ellington, who was drafted #33 in 2007 by the Canucks, signed his entry level contract yesterday. Whoooooooooooo!

He's had such a great season and worked so hard. He doubled his point total, doled out so many hard and good hits; and he also won part of the team MVP award. I'm so proud of him... and hopefully I'll get to give him a big bear hug tonight at Sporty's as he and Graham Potuer are going to be doing the weekly radio show.



Also, I thought it would be fun to see just how many boys named Patrick there are in the NHL, and I think I found a few good ones who are not only Patrick, but Patrik and Patrice.

Patrice Bergeron of the Bruins...


Patrick Kaleta and Lalime as well as assistant coach James Patrick from the Sabres...


Patrick Eaves who plays with the Canes...


Patrick Kane and Sharp of the Blackhawks...


A good Irish boy with the Oilers, Patty O'Sullivan...


Another French Patrick, Patrice Brisebois who is back with the Habs...


A Czech Patty, Patrik Elias...


PattyMarleau, captain of the Sharkies...


Swedish sweetie Patrik Berglund...


and of course the great Patty Roy...


Have a good day and don't drink too much beer... it makes the puck go all wonky on tv. :)

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm....

I really don't have a lot to say about the big boys since I wasn't home to watch any games last night; but I did catch the post game show of the Tips game and I heard about a great fight that one of the younger guys had. Cameron Abney is a kid who will hopefully be able to score a few goals in the future, but he's beginning to carve a niche out for himself as a fighter. He's doing okay so far, but he's still got to fill out a little so he doesn't hurt himself; 6'5" and a little less than 200 does not a good balance make. However, he's not 18 for a few more months, so by the time he's 20, I have a feeling he's going to be a bruiser... I've met his very large father. :)

Anyway, here's a clip of the very short tussle Cam had with Taylor Jordan of the Portland Winterhawks. It's not great quality, but it's not bad.



And I also wanted to share a video courtesy of the fine folks at WHL.ca about my baby boys and how the franchise has grown in 5 1/2 years. My favorite part, besides our goal horn is at about 2:00 with one of my favorite boys who is also a baby Canuck, Taylor Ellington.

So, enjoy a bit of the boys and I'll have more after hopefully a successful weekend both on the road Friday and back home Saturday.