(This cross-post is my contribution to VCOE's 24-hour Blogathon. Go an over there and pledge your support!)

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WHY DOES VANCOUVER HATE SLOVAKS?

Vancouver is quite the diverse and cosmopolitan city. We have all kinds of people here and all of the cultures blend in and become snobby, coffee-sipping fashionitas regardless of where their families are originally from.

This cultural diversity has extended to the Vancouver Canucks, for the most part. The Canucks have had plenty of CZECHS (Slegr, Nedved, Malik, Bubla, Hlinka, Rucinsky, Beranek, Kucera), RUSSIANS (Bure, Mogilny, Chubarov, Semak, Sharifijanov, Oksiuta), FINNS (Salo, Ruutuu, Ruutu, Skriko, Lumme, Tikkanen), SWEDES (Too many to count), LATVIANS (Irbe, Vasiljevs), and even North Americans of ASIAN descent (Park, Kariya). The Canucks even drafted an AUSTRIAN (Grabner) in the first round on the 2006 Entry Draft and drafted a DANISH pastry not too long ago.

So, why doesn't this diversity extend to SLOVAKS, hmm??

Oh, trust me, this city hates Slovaks. I walk down the street and get bottles thrown at me all the time for no good reason. We have a Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver. The Slovaks? They might have a shed in the backyard of some guy's house, but that's about it.

Did ya know, that the total number of games played by SLOVAK players for the Vancouver Canucks is a mere 10.

10!!!

You have one of the great hockey countries in the world, and the Canucks have only had 10 games from Slovak players? Obvious proof of the Anti-Slovak policy at work.

Who were these brave souls who never got a true shot?

1. LUBOMIR VAIC - A player so awesome that there is an entire blog dedicated to his greatness.

Lubomir played 9 games over 2 seasons for the Canucks (97-98 and 99-00, getting about 2 minutes of ice time a game and scoring 1 goal and 1 assist. The only reason he got 9 games in the first place is because he pretended to be a Czech. One the Canucks got wind of his true background, they made sure to blacklist him from the team.

Sick of being stuck behind crap such as Darby Hendrickson, Vaic left for Europe to become a star in Finland and Czechia.

Did ya know that VAIC is a Slovakicized version of the German name WEISS? Well, you do now, suckers!

2. JOZEF BALEJ - A talented winger with a few issues, Balej seems to have bolted to Europe this off-season after is was obvious that he'd never get a shot with 'talented' Canadians such as Alex Burrows in the fold.

His count? 1 game and 1 assist. Apparently, his 82-points-a-season pace wasn't good enough for the Canucks.

The only country getting the shaft more than Slovakia is Germany, for which only Sven Butenschon (by my recollection) has represented that fine nation. He played 8 games with the Canucks last year and won't be back. Still, there are few fewer Germans in the NHL than Slovaks, so the Germans, by ratio of players available in the NHL to games played for the Canucks, are doing far better than the poor Slovaks.