Getting to Know You - Keith Ballard

Our Flavor of the Week - #4 Keith Ballard , aka Ball, Bally, KB4 or as my sister likes to call him, Mr. Thighs ;) . Keith is 26 years old and comes from Baudette, Minnisota. The Canucks acquired this left shooting defenceman from Florida in 2010.

Stats on Keith - Keith played 65 games in the 2010/2011 season, scored 2 goals and got 5 assists. In the playoff run, Keith played in 10 games with zero points.

Keith Clips -
Keith & George - this video shows Keith's humour. It's so one of my favorites of him. I'd hate to meet George in a dark alley on a rainy night.. especially with a Pupperoni in my pocket ;)
Derailing the TooToo - Clipping 5 yard penalty ! .. o wait, this isn't football .. wtf was officiating thinking ?
McGinn Payback - haha payback's a bitch eh McGinn;)
Flying Miller - nice hip Bally ! 
There are so many wicked hip checks by Keith, it's hard to pick just a few favorites.



 The Keith Controversy -  Was Keith's lack of ice time during the playoffs due to A.V's hate on for him ? or was it due to the fact that Keith forgot to shine when he was given the chance ? Many fans believe that coach Alain doesn't like Ballard very much and that is why Ballard didn't play more than 10 games in the playoffs. The jokes and debate that would go on about this was extremely entertaining.
Ballard supporters say - he wasn't given a fair chance and wasn't given enough ice time to get himself back up to top quality after coming back from an injury. Or maybe it was because A.V loves Rome too much to play Ballard instead of Rome ;) Or maybe it's because A.V. likes players that remind him of himself and Keith just doesn't have any 'Alain' in him. Keith is being payed far too much to not be playing. Keith and Alain must have had a huge fight causing Alain to bench Ballard as much as possible.... and on and on it went.
Personally, I feel Keith was given as much of a chance as any of the others. When he had the chance, he didn't shine and going into the playoffs is not the time to wait and see if he ever would.  Alain had his reasons for playing who he played, he got our team to the final game, I'm sure he knew what he was doing. I could go on about how Alberts had more hits with less ice time than Keith had, and how we all know that size and strength were something we needed in those final rounds...I could bring up how Tanev took the opportunity to shine while Keith unfortunately didn't...  but I won't ;)  I like Ballard and I hope he gets his confidence back & we get to see him lay many more of his wicked hip checks in the season ahead .


And last but not least, the reason Keith is also known as Mr.Thighs...

Great Thighs !!