Random notes on the Canucks-Islanders game

January 8, 2008. GM Place. Final score: Vancouver Canucks 3, New York Islanders 2 by shootout. Vancouver outshoots the Islanders 45-28.

This might have been the sloppiest game I’ve seen all year at GM Place.

The Islanders’ game notes trumpeted: “CHRISTIE BRINKLEY SUPPORTS HER HOME TEAM.” That’s great for the 53-year-old supermodel, but can you actually be an “Uptown Girl” in Long Island?

Entering this tilt, the Islanders had three defensemen (Bruno Gervais, Brendan Witt, and the injured Radek Martinek) averaging over 20 minutes a game. Those three have combined for one goal between them. If Denis Potvin was playing today, you know he’d have more goals than that. And Denis Potvin is the same age as Christie Brinkley.

Byron Ritchie was stopped on two breakaways on the same shift in the first period. So far this season, Ritchie’s hands remind me of John McIntyre’s (another fourth-line center who played for the Canucks during their 1994 Stanley Cup finals run). As it turns out, the two are tied for career goals (24), although McIntyre played in 351 games, compared to Ritchie’s 295.

Mason Raymond needs to remember that when he plays with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, it’s their puck. Not his. Theirs. Go to the net and keep your stick on the ice.

The home team did not put a five-minute video tribute up on the JumboTron to mark the return of former Canuck Richard Park.

After a Nirvana song was played during a third-period stoppage, music weirdly continued to echo through the upper reaches of GM Place, clearly audible in the press box. It sounded like a disembodied Krist Novoselic practicing a bass solo he’d never get to perform on stage with the grunge kings.

Every time I see Andy Sutton play, I want to call him “Ken.” Then I catch myself.

Did the crowd give Trevor Linden a standing ovation when he skated to center ice to participate in the shootout because he’s the most beloved veteran player in Vancouver history, or because they knew in advance he was going to score like he always does?

Roberto Luongo allows two supremely cheesy goals (Bill Guerin’s shot from the corner in the second and a Ty-Conklin-would-have-handled-this-better fluffing of the puck to give Blake Comeau an open net in the third), but bests Rick DiPietro (whose tying goal surrendered to Daniel Sedin is also of the cheesy variety) in the shootout. End result: the Canucks get two points, and Mike Milbury still loses the Luongo deal of 2000.