The other five Canadian teams would love to have the ‘tough’ decisions the Canucks get to deal with.
We are truly jealous of Vancouverites at this time of year, though not because of the weather. It's their hockey team that makes the Rest of Canada gaze westward in envy.
Four Canadian teams currently inhabit the bottom seven spots in the National Hockey League, while the Canucks ride happily atop the tables, the best outfit in the entire league and seemingly on cruise control towards their fourth division crown in five years.
No two teams combined out of Montreal (13th), Calgary (24th), Ottawa (26th), Toronto (27th) or Edmonton (28th) have, in their past 10 games combined, more points than the Canucks do in their past 10, going 8-0-2.
Alas, while people like Brent Sutter, Bryan Murray, Ron Wilson and Brian Burke fret over their job security, the biggest concerns for Canucks GM Mike Gillis and coach Alain Vigneault are how to fit another fine defenceman under the salary cap once Sami Salo returns. Or, whether the excellent young backup is playing better goal these days than the fine Olympic starter.
See, even the Canucks have some tough decisions to make. It's not easy, up there on top.
Tom Kostopoulos didn't learn anything when he drilled Mike Van Ryn into the boards back on Nov. 8, 2008, when he was a Montreal Canadiens winger playing in Toronto.
And, judging by his and the Calgary Flames' response to his six-game suspension, there doesn't seem to have been a lot learned by his latest production, a blatant head shot that broke Detroit defenceman Brad Stuart's jaw.
And this, dear readers, is why Colin Campbell's job is nearly impossible.
Flames GM Jay Feaster, a highly intelligent and reasonable man, actually put pen to paper to endorse the Kostopoulos hit. "Tom hit him in the chest and finished his check through him," was one inanity among many in Feaster's press release.
Another: "He did not target the head, and we do not believe the head was the initial point of contact."
Jay. We get that you're trying to become a Flame here. That this is one of those seminal moments where you either back one player or you lose all of them.
But there's this website. It's called YouTube.
Your fans aren't dummies. Even your local scribes, to their credit, had this one pinned as a lengthy suspension right from the start.
Stuart was vulnerable, his head was not lowered, and Kostopoulos had ample time -- even in the lightning-fast NHL -- to target the chest. He didn't, and now the second half of Stuart's season is in jeopardy.
Kostopoulos gets six games, and he too is whining about it. "I delivered a legal check to an opponent playing the puck."
Wrong and wrong, Tom.
We applaud Campbell here, for a change. Six games seems a new, longer level for a hit like this. At their GM meetings in Boca Raton this March, GMs will be asked if the term "long" should mean 10 games, not six.
If there were more 10-gamers, we might finally see a slow-down in headshots.
How many similarities are there between Murray's situation in Ottawa and Darryl Sutter's former gig in Calgary? Too many, if you're Murray.
This is Murray's seventh year with the Senators, where he began as a coach before moving up to the GM chair. It was Sutter's ninth season, after beginning as the Flames coach.
The Flames went on an unsuspected Stanley Cup run in '04, Sutter's first as GM. The Senators went on their run in '07, early in Murray's tenure.
Neither team has won a playoff series since the Conference Final that vaulted them into the Cup, and now both teams will miss the playoffs this season.
It was Sutter's time to go -- every NHL exec meets his expiry date eventually. Now, with a goaltending issue that he's never been able to solve, a couple of bad contracts and a team without a prayer, it is Murray's time.
Head coach Cory Clouston, who has been dealt an impossible hand by his GM, will be collateral damage when the axe falls on both after the season. That's too bad for Clouston, a good young coach whose only sin is that he couldn't win without any goaltending.
What do you do if you are the Edmonton Oilers?
You're likely going to draft Top 3 in June, which means you're in on feisty and skilled left winger Gabriel Landeskog, 6-foot-4 centre Sean Couturier, and super Swedish defenceman Adam Larsson, all listed high on central scouting's mid-season rankings, released Monday.
They badly need a centre with size, and their defence is a train wreck. But scouts say that Landeskog comes with some physicality and attitude, a needed change for one of the easiest teams to play against in the NHL.
At this point in the rebuild, Edmonton needs size, grit, more skill… Let's face it, they need it all.
Throw in Red Deer centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and as long as the Oilers stay in the Top 4 come draft day they'll be able to scratch one of their many itches.
