Cheers and Jeers: December 5th

I’m bringing back one of CanucksArmy’s staples of old, Cheers and Jeers, a weekly feature where we look at a couple of items we like and another few we don’t like so much.

According to the CanucksArmy archives, Cheers and Jeers first hit the ground in the summer of 2011, following a lost season of NHL hockey that never happened. It was Cam Davie, former Managing Editor of CanucksArmy, who started it back in the day, and Thomas Drance carried it on from there. Davie brought it back last spring, but couldn’t continue it into this season.

Well, without any further adieu, let’s hand out some cheers and a couple of jeers, too.

Cheers to Daniel Sedin for hitting the 1,000 point mark last Thursday night in the Canucks win over the Nashville Predators. I’d hoped going into this season that he’d be able to hit that milestone in front of the Rogers Arena faithful, but if it had to be on the road, then I’m glad it happened on the final game of a road trip. At least the next game was at home and the milestone was still fresh in the hearts and minds of Canucks fans.

Jeers to Shaw Cable for apparently cutting out in the third period of the Canucks game in Nashville last Thursday, forcing many Canucks fans to miss Daniel’s 1,000th point as it happened. I mean, shit happens, and obviously it wasn’t intentional on Shaw’s part. I guess, jeers for poor timing? Like, could their coverage have cut out at any worse a moment?

Cheers to the Vancouver Canucks for their excellent pre-game ceremony in honour of Daniel’s 1,000th point — noticing a theme? It was great from start to finish. Having Markus Naslund narrate the video was awesome. Same goes for Derek Dorsett coming out to hand Daniel an award for the milestone. All the way through, full marks to the Canucks organization. They nailed that moment.

Jeers to the 4 PM start time on Saturday’s Canucks game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s just so blatantly catering to the Maple Leafs, which is understandably nauseating to Canucks fans. It sucks. When they’re on the Canucks’ turf, it should be played at the normal time home games are played in Vancouver.

Cheers to November’s rookie of the month, Brock Boeser. Boeser put up 16 points in 15 November games for the Canucks and spent a solid chunk of the month at the top of the NHL’s rookie scoring leaderboard. At this rate, Boeser has a legitimate shot at winning the Calder Trophy. Wouldn’t that be a nice development?

Jeers to the Carolina Hurricanes, just because they’re the Canucks opposition for tonight, and if you’re at CanucksArmy, I have to assume you’re a fan of the team. And I can guarantee we’ll have post-game coverage for this game, too.

Cheers to Derek Dorsett for carving out a successful NHL career and living out his dream. I hate the Dorsett news as much as the next guy. You don’t want anyone to get hurt, much less suffer a career-ending injury. That part of this sucks, and definitely doesn’t qualify for cheers. But I think Dorsett’s careers is worth celebrating on the whole. Dorsett was a seventh-round pick who still managed to carve out a ten-year career that saw him play 515 games and amass 1314 penalty minutes in that span.

When you remember Dorsett’s career, though, don’t focus on the fights or the penalty minutes. I mean, sure, that’s fine, I guess — if you’re into that kind of thing. For me, that’s a sidebar to the fact that Dorsett was a good fourth-liner who had legitimate utility on the penalty kill and in a checking role for the majority of his career. Dorsett was a warrior and he filled a role that most of the league’s general managers still covet, certainly, but he was a lot more than a fist-chucker for a significant portion of his career, and by all accounts an awesome guy from start to finish. I wish him the best in whatever follows.