My first blog of the new season. Wow. And to think it really only took about a month. For me, that's not bad. And, um, yeah, this is supposed to be a weekly type of thing.
Anyhow...
The lines are set. And I'm not too sure what to think. How's that for opinion?
Spreading the top offensive players throughout the lines is a good theory. But will it work? Here's how things look heading into the season opener.
D. Sedin H. Sedin Raymond
Naslund Kesler Shannon
Cooke Morrison Pyatt
And pick three of Burrows, Ritchie, Linden, Cowan and Isbister for the fourth line.
I know what Alain Vigneault is trying to do and if the players pull it off, of course it will be great.
Let's say for arguments sake that all three lines look dangerous against the Sharks. Then the coach can roll four lines, everyone will feel involved -- and more importantly -- the guys will feel confident on offence.
Here's the rub. This is pretty much the same team as last year. And let's not forget that the Canucks scored fewer goals than any Western Conference playoff team. Remember the playoffs? Sure Vancouver's first round playoff win over Dallas was exciting. However it should also be mentioned that the Canucks won that series in 7 games, and the three games they lost were all by shutout.
I hope that Mason Raymond is the real deal. He's getting every opportunity to show that he is. I mean, talk about a plum assignment. The last two guys that played with the twins had career years (Anson Carter, Taylor Pyatt). As for Ryan Shannon? I like his moxie. He begs off the Cup champs because he wants a chance to play more. Who can blame him? I mean, his linemates for much of last season were George Parros, Shawn Thornton and then Brad May. Not exactly a great environment for a small scorer.
So once again, will this work?
To be honest, I like the lines. And it gives the Canucks as good a chance to score as any combination.
I'm willing to give the 2007 Jack Adams winner the benefit of the doubt. Besides, offensively, there's no way to go but up. Hopefully.
I was waiting forever for your new blog!
Take your time, don't you?!
Anyways- yeah the new blood isn't scoring blood- everybody knows. But better new blood than old for this team I reckon.
And the Sedins are anmazing, and no one else has them, so...
were in big trouble this year.unless nazzy can find the magic of old,i dont see this team in the playoffs!!!
The Canucks are "spreading the offence throughout 4 lines"?
So let me get this straight, the Sedins are playing on all 4 lines?
Canucks will miss the Playoffs this year.
How are they spreading the wealth? The Canucks only have two good offensive players (the Sedins) and they are both going to be on the same line.
The Canucks are not cup contenders & Never did adress the need for more scoring inthe off season and are still one injury away from total self destruction, they need some insurance so Luongo doesn't have to win 1 goal games for them all season, the more games he plays the bigger the chance he gets hurt, for Canucks fans their hope resides in the Sedin's, Ohlund, Salo, and Naslund coaxing Forsberg to come to Vancouver so the can go to the next level
You crack me up, spreading the wealth, that's a good one. How exactly does one spread a single thirty goal scorer?
Not making the playoffs? What lunacy. Have a look around the conference, check out the goaltending and the defense that each team has and get back to me. Canucks got rid of Bulis and Chouinard, and kept pretty much the rest. What's so different? Oh yeah. A couple of exciting young players with speed and something to prove. Um, Bulis? good bye.
I would happily takes bets from any and all of the doubters on that have commented here. The Canucks are a ridiculously talented team. They have the league's best goalie and a top defensive core. Offense? It'll come, too. Scoring by committee worked pretty well last year. They played chess with the Stars in the first round and then had all of their grinders injured when they played the Ducks. Doubt them all you want, but they're a contender and they'll be playing in the playoff.
Great to see all the naysayers that were completely wrong last year singing the same tune...diobrain for example.
Our system works just fine, the Sedins are going to light it up again, Nazzy went from a giant minus player to a plus player in a system completely foreign to him, B Mo (who knows), Shannon/Pyatt/Raymond/$4m+ in cap room, and the best back end and coach in all of hockey, don't worry about us. Canucks WILL win the division again, we WILL make the playoffs and all the Edmonton/Calgary fans will be talking smack the entire time and it won't change a thing.
Now that Iron Mike is poised to tear apart Calgary at its seams, we'll take Huselius' 77pts on the Best Coast!
This is going to be a great year for the Canucks, plain and simple!
I'm not a big fan of Kesler as a center. He's one of the worst passers/hands on the team. Naslund's a good puck mover and a lot of plays could break down once they go through Kesler. Personally I don't think Naslund-Morrison-Cooke was given enough time last year.
You guys that think the canucks arent going to make the playoffs are rediculous, let see last year, we won the division, yeah i know we one by a point, didnt score alot of goals, but we still won it. The sedins are only going to increase there totals, dont look for a huge increase but nazzy and mo are going to add a few more pts, shannon and raymound are far well enough talented to pop in 15-20 goals, Bieska has shown well enough that he can produce, we got rid of tools like Bulis, chouinard and sopel, and our defence has never been stronger and deep, so where have we gone wrong? Yeah we didnt pick some "superstar" player to help our much needed offence (I am not going to debate that fact) but c'mon if we can win our div with 222 goals, a slight increase of 30-35 goals will give us the freaking conference...
MaxPower77,
The Sedins won't need to play on 4 lines if they can score for four lines like we hope... :P
Nah. But I do anticipate more goals. Ryan Shannon and Mason Raymond may just be the antidote to Chouinard syndrome. And I'll feel better from losing the playoff-grade Bulis when we call up the Hansenian One for a little elimination action. I think claims of winnimng our division are incredible at this point without even one game played against each of our division opponents.
Claims that we'll win the conference would and should make the Sedins wilt under pressure and whimper in the corner of the practice rink. We do not need this.
Soulsurf: The Canucks proved me wrong last year by keeping up their streak for longer than expected. But last year they came from nowhere and caught people by surprise in the second half of the season. This year, not only have a lot of other teams improved while the Canucks did nothing, but people will be gunning for the reigning division champs. The Sedins have a lot more pressure on them now.
And what was that about chess with Dallas last year? If by playing chess you mean getting dominated for the whole series and somehow pulling out a win anyway because Dallas has no offence either, then I agree. Then they went on to get absolutely schooled by a team that, unlike Vancouver, has depth at all positions, which is what is required for true success in this league.
Vancouver's first round playoff win over Dallas was exciting? I guess any series the Canucks win is exciting to a homer. I found it about as entertaining as peeling potatoes.
Diobrain,
Have the Canucks really not improved?
Compared to the Flames?
Oh, well, you do have Mike Keenan.
Congratulations. You can keep him now. :)
Diobrain...
Yes the Dallas series was less than exciting and I'd say it was a pretty even matchup so to say we "lucklily" got passed them in completely inaccurate...As for the Ducks series, first off I believe it was game 4 that we should have won and game 5 shouldn't have ended the way it did...For refs to be all hard-pressed for the majority of the season and playoffs and then miss a clear-cut hit from behind which resulted in the series ending goal is ludicrous...We put up a bigger challenge to the Ducks than any team they played...I mean we took them to OT 3 games out of the 5...
hmm, lookin forward to seeing raymond and shannon against real NHLers.
nevertheless, naslunds the guy im worried about which obviously is not a good thing. Its not his leadership, its his job on this team im thinking about.
Im intrigued to see how he plays at 34 years old. Imo he'l never be back to the status he once was but he can be a 25 goal 35 assist guy. The 6 million $ contract is for the 100 point naslund, who no longer exists on this team.
hopefully the shannon, nazzy, kess trio can mesh and create secondary scoring...