4, 5, 16, 41.

This is where the collective heads on TSN got together and ranked the four obvious Vancouver Canucks among their Top 50 players. Daniel, and Henrik Sedin, respectively with top 10 nods, Ryan Kesler, and Roberto Luongo made the list, with perhaps an overlooked player or two.

<complaining>

The first two players put up by TSN are sort of expected. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are up there because you can't put any other two in those spots. One of my issues with TSN is that they defer to conventional wisdom. Daniel Sedin wins the scoring race? Put him ahead of Henrik, for no reason in particular.

Continue reading this post »

Some of us have been arguing back and forth about Manny Malhotra's play and whether or not it has been good enough (not only in general but also for his $2.5 million salary) in the comments sections. I'm taking the unpopular stance that he has not been. Why? Because I find his 19-game pointless drought to be both unfortunate and unacceptable. I think his defensive play and faceoff prowess has been excellent. So let's take a closer look at Mr. Malhotra.

Continue reading this post »

I'm not trying to turn NM into an anti-Hordichuk rag, but if others keep asking insane questions about what direction the Canucks go with their fourth line muscle, I can't help myself. Instead I'll just list some facts and leave the rest up to you to vote on.

Alex Bolduc and Guillaume Desbiens are long shots to make the squad which leaves Rick Rypien, Darcy Hordichuk and Tanner Glass as the most logical fourth line enforcers. Of course no matter what there's help in other areas: Andrew Alberts, SOB and Kevin Bieksa on defense aren't strangers to mixing it up, Ryan Kesler will occasionally fight, Jannik Hansen will crack his hand over any willing participent, Victor Oreskovich can certainly try (but we recommend he sticks to forechecking), Burrows sometimes answers the bell and Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard weren't adverse to the dirty stuff on their previous teams either. But if we entertain that you need one go-to guy to drop the mitts (which is a tenuous argument to begin with), those three are the ponies in the race.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at them, including a review of their fights last year and their (meager) contributions at even strength.

Continue reading this post »

Back in mid-September Brad Lukowich, the Cranbrook B.C. native told Canucks nation that it was his dream and goal all along to play for the Canucks. He was quoted saying: "The first team we always called anytime I was a free agent was Vancouver, unfortunately they had a lot of D back then as well and it just wasn’t in the works for me." He also said: "I take care of my own end first, do everything defensively, and if anything offensive happens, that’s a bonus for me. I take care of my end first and it’s not a glorifying job but the wins are very glorifying for me."

He then played a few games for the Canucks in preseason and did what he said he'd do: playing defensively sound hockey and bringing a physical presence to the Canucks' blue line. The only problem was that his $1.8 million salary brought some strain to the Canucks' cap situation, and he would be an expensive player to have sit on the bench, as Shane O'Brien was chosen as the 6th D-man.

Continue reading this post »

The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year.

Wikipedia

I've abused this Seinfeld plot at least once a season for the past four years because sadly, once every season Vancouver looks so adrift and uninterested in playing up to the level of the best teams (to speak nothing of playoff bound teams) that I need Frank Constanza to get involved.

Botchford touches on a lot of the recent spat of weaknesses the team has shown, among them are poor defensive reads and horrific penalty killing. We may as well add in a snake-bitten power play and questionable shot decisions. Or, as Vigneault put it, the lack of timely goals. Or, as Sean said this week, Vancouver is the only team without a loser point in overtime. And how bad does this truth sound -

"I’m a goaltender, I can’t score," Roberto Luongo said.

No he can't. Bottom line - though the record may not reflect it, Vancouver is barely a .500 team and there's a lot in there to be concerned about.

They'll eventually string together a winning streak here and there, but they are setting themselves up to need exactly what they did last year: an unbelievable second half to narrow the gap between them and the elite Western teams. Only now they'll have to do it with less star power, an epic road trip and under the assumption they can stay healthy from here on out, including their best players laying it on the line in the Olympics.

It's tough to go from such a high (overpowering NJ and Philly in back to back games) to such a low like the past two losses, so perhaps this airing of grievances if premature. But after watching Nashville - a team they need to beat in order to get to the playoffs - not just be better on the puck at both ends of the rink but flat out dominant, my Constanza voice started screaming.

So I'm curious, what grievances might you have?

-As Tweeted yesterday, the Islanders have 1 more point than the Canucks.

-The Canucks are only 1 point ahead of now 1 point behind the Oilers

-Vancouver is now 3 points out of a playoff spot and 7 points behind the Northwest Division-leading Avalanche.

-Kyle Wellwood and Sami Salo have zero goals and 2 points this season. Darcy Hordichuk has 1 goal and 2 points in less games. Matt Pettinger had 1 goal and 2 points in 7 games played. Rick Rypien has more points than they do (3). The last time Wellwood scored a goal was in game 4 of the St. Louis series. The last time he scored a regular season goal was on April 4 against the Oilers. In his last 72 regular season games played, he has scored 7 goals and 8 assists. He has 18 shots in 19 games this season.

The last time Sami Salo scored a goal was in game 2 of the Chicago series. The last time he scored in the regular season was March 1 against Columbus. That was about 36 regular season games ago. Where's the cannon, Sami? Oh right, "guys block more shots nowadays."

-Alexander Edler has hit the net 42 times in 23 games played this season. He has 0 goals. The last time he scored a goal was in game 2 of the Chicago series. The last time he scored a goal in the regular season was March 27 against Colorado. Last season the Canucks were 8-1-1 when Edler scored a goal. Somebody buy this guy one of them Sears kiddie nets with targets on it for Xmas. And make sure you give it to him a few weeks early.

-Brendan Morrison has scored 7 goals and 17 points in 23 games with the Capitals this season. He makes only $300,000 more than Wellwood does. Yeah yeah, he plays with higher-skilled players, but it's still sad. It almost makes me wish....

-There are 2 teams in the NHL that do not have an overtime/shootout loss this season: Pittsburgh and Vancouver. That is more of an intriguing stat than anything else, but if a few of those 11 losses were decided in OT or a shootout, things would not look so bad. Edit: I see The Province has just caught on to this concept.

It's time for Vancouver to shed the .500 hockey club image. It's not good enough. Teams that finished 8th in the Eastern and Western Conferences last season were 11 and 9 games above .500 hockey. Consecutive wins over Colorado and a hard fought 1-0 loss to Chicago is a good start. Let's hope they continue to progress. The guys that are slumping are going to have to snap out of it, and quick.

"I don't think that team worked that hard tonight," Ryan Kesler said of the Oilers. "And we got out-worked."

I don't know if that assessment by the Keslord is quite accurate. I thought the Canucks worked hard last night, but are having a tough time scoring. The loss of Daniel Sedin stings now doesn't it? Thinking Pavol Demitra would be a big help right now (god forbid)? Well I wouldn't blame you. As the Province put it today:

Whether the Canucks ran into a hot goalie in Nikolai Khabibulin or not, it's evident skill and goal-scoring are not their strong suits. Not with Pavol Demitra and Daniel Sedin sidelined, along with their 480 career goals. Without finesse, the Canucks, especially their remaining forwards — who have 512 career goals combined — need elbow grease.

Sure, Khabibulin was playing great last night, but there were numerous occasions where the Canucks could have buried their chances and didn't. The Samuelsson chance to stuff it in comes to mind. He put it right into Khabby's pads and not into the open net.

Continue reading this post »

Before you jump headlong into your Thanksgiving weekend, let's talk about the recent Spike TV blog that says not only are the Canucks one of the top ten teams (#5 in fact) with the most annoying fans, but since Montreal is at #9, that makes us the worst in the NHL. At long last, we're the best at something!

And to be ranked as such from a channel that shows basically nothing other than enlightening police car chase videos and UFC is certainly nothing to be scoffed at.

A lot of you know my deal: I ain't from the city nor am I celebrating a holiday this weekend...unless being happy pumpkin ale is finally widely accessible is permission to celebrate? I'm just another jackass blogger in another basement (yo Ma! Meatloaf!). Even Sean isn't technically from Vancouver but he could probably chime in with something more genuine than I can, that is if he wasn't fighting off bears on whatever trip he's on.

Part of me is fine with being labeled the most irritating. So be it. Hell we should be proud of it, promote it on shirts or those flags on all the cars. Give this girl her own TV show. Have special annoying lattes. Between periods Fin can trip opposing fans down the stairs and then the goal horn sounds. I don't know, it's marketing fodder during a recession, what's not to like?

Continue reading this post »