Date Posted: May 20, 2011
Print Edition: May 13, 2011
A moment with Mooney
By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Pass it to Bulis is a Canucks blog that has been around for just over a year. Co-founded by Daniel “Skeeter” Wagner and UFV alumnus Harrison Mooney, the blog presents a fresh perspective on the face of the game. Mooney’s humourous takes and Skeeter’s analytical skills work well to present an entertaining view of a sometimes overly-serious topic for Vancouverites. Blog highlights include a California road trip to follow the Canucks – where the writers ended up sitting behind Manny Malhotra’s father-in-law, otherwise known as the father of Victoria’s basketball darling Steve Nash. Also, the bloggers initiated a scrabble battle against Dartmouth alum Tanner Glass, raising an estimated $8000 for Canuck Place in the process. Take pride, UFV – Mooney did us proud, beating Glass 344-313.
During an interview, he presented thoughts on the team and industry itself, starting by talking about the blog’s new home at The Vancouver Sun.
How long have you known this collaboration was coming?
Couple of weeks? It came up a little bit organically. Puck World wasn’t updating, Scott Brown (VS sports editor) likes our stuff, so I started needling him about the fact that our blog was better than his… through Twitter, direct messages. Eventually it just snowballed from there.
How do you feel about Steve Nash speaking up about Manny Malhotra’s condition?
I thought that was great. The thing is, the Canucks were trying to keep it under wraps because on the day of the surgery the last thing his family needs is to turn on the TV and hear, y’know, “today is a critical day for Manny Malhotra, if this surgery goes wrong he may never be able to see again…” if Steve Nash wants to go on Twitter or something, power to him because the last thing I want is the organisation to get involved and shut up the players, especially players they don’t control.
What’s your opinion on the Torres headshot at the end of the regular season? How does it play in with the issue of headshots in general?
It’s a headshot. Not intentional but it was to the head. I completely agreed with the decision to suspend him… but any goodwill I felt towards the NHL for doing the right thing and suspending for a headshot went right out the window as soon as I heard about the Justin Abdelkader hit. I mean Colin Campbell never does the right thing, he just suspends based on how loud the cries from the audience are.
Headshots in general are a big problem right now. What needs to change?
It’s a fairly loud issue and it’s still yet to be enforced properly. Players don’t know what the hits are, you have players saying, “Yeah I had my elbow up, I shouldn’t have done that,” and you have Torres saying, “My elbow was down, I thought it was clean.” If the players don’t know what a clean hit is, how are they supposed to make that adjustment?
Any thoughts on Keslurking?
It’s a locker room. These guys, they’re goofing around. It’s great to see a guy like Ryan Kesler be involved in that; last year and the year before he was maybe the most over-serious guy on in the NHL, and I think Kyle Wellwood said in an interview “I can’t imagine being as serious as Ryan Kesler,” and that it was Kesler’s biggest issue going into the playoffs. Get under his skin and all of a sudden he disappears, he’s off to the side retaliating and even scores, so I love the idea that he’s lightened up… you have Kesler and his Keslurking and Ballard who’s maybe the funniest hockey player the NHL has seen in a long time, and I think that it’s made for a better atmosphere for the players and it really does contribute to why they’re playing better this year.
And how has Henrik Sedin’s captaincy contributed to that, in your opinion?
He’s a relatively unemotional guy, and you need that out of your captain. I think that Roberto Luongo, his captaincy was a failed experiment not because he was a goalie, but because he doesn’t have the right personality to handle it. The improvement has been locker-room wide, because Henrik’s a great guy, and it’s also been great for Luongo, who’s been able to stop taking things so seriously and just tighten up a bit. When he’s loose, he plays fantastic, but he’s one of the few goalies I’ve ever seen that you can tell when he’s nervous – he doesn’t play as well when he’s nervous.
Any final thoughts on the team in general or the run to the Cup?
As far as I’m concerned, the Canucks are the best team in the league, and the only way they can lose is if they lose the mental battle. So as long as they can maintain that zen-like focus they’ve had all year and not retaliate and not get wrapped up in those chirping battles, they should be just fine. They’re a better hockey team, and as long as this stays about hockey they’ll survive.
