I can't think of very many teams in all of sports who can come into a season with two pretty big injuries (Burrows and Salo) and still have the entire fan base and even "real media" prognosticators calling for them to win the championship. Such is the case with the 2010/2011 version of the Vancouver Canucks. With promises seemingly season after season that "this will finally be the year," it seems that everyone is hopping on the preseason bandwagon this time around for my favorite puck buddies. The question is: will this finally be the year it happens in British Columbia? With the the exciting prospect tournament recently starting across the NHL, and with the preseason for the Vannies only 7 days away, I though it was time to decide what we can expect for our beloved Orca.
The busy offseason:
For the Canucks, this was quite the busy offseason. I guess the second straight playoff loss to our new rivals in Chicago spurred that on. First was the trade. Vancouver sent Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner, and a second round pick to the Florida Panthers for Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskivich. While I completely understand going after a gritty defensive player after the blue line injuries plagued us last season, it was tough to say goodbye to Bernier and Grabs. Bernier, although he showed amazing talent, never really seemed to catch on with this fan base (outside of with me, who is the only one who seems to think he is seriously underrated). Meanwhile, we've been told how great Grabner will be for some time, and he had a brief chance to show that last year (even in the playoffs!). It would have been fun to see him develop, but hockey is a business, so we move on.
Next was the big free agent signing of Dan Hamhuis. Hammy left bigger money on the table in other markets just to come home to BC and play for us. He's going to be probably the biggest move we've made since getting Roberto Luongo (unless you want to argue that Samuelsson ended up being bigger than Hamhuis will be). The acquisition of Hamhuis, even with the probable first half of the season ending injury to Sami Salo, makes our blue line pretty darn solid.
Also signed was Manny Malhotra, who is shaping up to be the underrated move of the offseason for any team. While I am probably the only Orca fan who liked Kyle Wellwood, even I can see that Manny is a big (literally, bigger than Dub Dub) upgrade at third line center. Let's not forget about Raffi Torres, who had his signing fully examined in an earlier post. Shane O'Brien, although it seemed touch and go for a while there, was resigned as well. Wellwood is joined by Ryan Johnson (aka, Balls), as the Canucks drifting off into expried contract land.
The goaltending situation:
As with most offseasons, the Canucks have let Roberto Luongo's backup walk away. The sometimes solid fill in, Andrew Raycroft, joins the likes of Curtis Sanford, Jason LaBarbera, Danny Sabourin, Maxime Ouellet, Mika Noronen, and others who have long gone from the 'Nucks as well as from our memories. Now is the time for young standout Cory Schneider to take over as El Roberto's backup, and I think it's something us Canucks fans have been waiting for for some time.
While so much media attention has been given lately to Roberto Luongo giving up the "C," I think the bigger story is that the Vannies are bringing a new goaltending coach into the fray this upcoming season. Roland Melanson was hired as a full-time goalie coach to replace the part-time Ian Clark from last year. It'll be interesting to see what kind of impact it has on Bobby Lu, but I'd guess if he performs significantly better we should look toward the improved D and the lack of the Olympic pressure as the primary reasons.
Those lovely, lovely lines:
I think I had some line predictions up with the Raffi Torres post way back when, but it's always fun to look at it again (and again and again) and to also be wrong thanks to the constant line shuffling techniques of coach Alain Vigneault. This time around, we'll compare the line predictions of a tip top hockey website called "NHL Hot Stove" to my own predictions.
Top Line-
NHL-HS: Daniel-Henrik-Torres
LSF: Daniel-Henrik-Samuelsson
NHL-HS points out that Raymond-Kesler-Samuelsson had great chemistry last season, and feel that adding the gritty Torres to the Twins would be big business. I'll agree that Torre with the Twins would work, but so did Anson Carter with the Twins (and Jason King and Taylor Pyatt, et al). If you want to talk about chemisty, my top line has it. If you actually watched Vancouver last season, you saw the amazing work that the All-Swedish line put together. I don't see any reason to break up that talent, especially with Burr out until around December.
Second Line-
NHL-HS: Raymond-Kesler-Samuelsson
LSF: Raymond-Kesler-Torres
This is a bit of a change from my last predictions, where I had Hansen rolling all the way up with the second line. I guess I've had time to let the Raffi deal sink in a little more, and I'm thinking his style of play combined with the speed of Ma$e and Kes would be brilliant.
Third Line-
NHL-HS: Glass-Malhotra-Hodgson
LSF: Glass-Malhotra-Hansen
Again, this is a little different than my last time around. I think that NHL-HS is doing two things here, 1) underrating the Great Dane and 2) getting ahead of themselves on Hodgson being ready to go. Personaly, I think Hansen is going to have a breakout season, and like I said in a previous post, he may even be ready to go up on the second line this year.
Fourth line-
NHL-HS: Hordichuk-Rypien-Hansen
LSF: Shirokov-Rypien-Hodgson
How about that fourth line? While NHL-HS goes with Hordie and Ryp to bring the true fourth line banging type of squad, I'm going with more of a speedster line. I shift Hodgson to the right side to take away the pressures of being a center, for the time being, and go with Shirokov because I still believe in him as he continues to adjust to the NHL style of play.
Defensive Pairings-
NHL-HS:
Ballard & Hamhuis
Ehrhoff & Edler
Bieksa & O'Brien
LSF:
Hamhuis & Edler
Ehrhoff & Ballard
Bieksa & O'Brien
The only way we really differ on this one is that I feel Hamhuis and Ballard should be split up. It would be too weird to have two brand new Canucks pairing up together, and I think that mixing the newbies in with players who have already been around is the best idea. I still think Hamhuis and Edler may be one of the most exciting defensive pairings I can think of. SOB will be the odd man out once Salo heals, though.
How far will this team go?
If you like to believe the "real" media, we can look to CBS Sports' predictions for some crystal ball stuff. CBS has the Canucks winning their division (again) and finishing first overall in the West (President's Trophy?). Then, evidently, we'll beat the Blues 4 games to 1 in the quarterfinals, finally beat the Hawks 4-3 in the seminfinals, and then losing to the Kings (the Kings?) in the Western Finals. So it looks like the Penguins will beat the Kings to raise the Cup. Man, that'll suck. I'd be shocked if the 'Nucks lost to the Kings in the playoffs (bring it, Willie), but I wouldn't be shocked if we lost in the Western Finals.
I'll buy it, and agree that we'll make it all the way to the Conference Finals, but bow out before the really big show starts. I mean, winning the Stanley Cup would be magical, but then we really wouldn't be the Canucks that we've all grown to love and suffer with, would we?
7 days until the puck drops on the preseason against the hated Flamers.
Go Canucks Go.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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