Vancouver 1st place in Northwest Division????

[hockeyislife]

Was just going over Dobber\'s guide when something caught my eye. Dobber has Vancouver not only making the playoffs, but winning the Northwest Division.

Does anyone else think this is a bit of a stretch? Yes, they have one of the best goalies on the planet in Roberto Luongo, but even he couldn\'t get them into the playoffs last year.

At the end of last season, Vancouver fired a good GM in Dave Nonis, and brought in former player agent Mike Gillis. Gillis talked a good talk, about how the franchise was going to make major moves and get things going right. So far that has included:

Trading for Steve Bernier, a RFA, and then not signing him ASAP. This allowed St.Louis to offer him $2.5 million for one season, after Gillis tried to pry away David Backes to a 3yr/$7.5 million deal. David Backes???

Signed perennially injured forward Pavol Demitra to a 2yr/$8 million deal.

Backed a truckload of money($20 Million/2yrs)up to Mats Sundin\'s house...only to have him say \'no thanks\'.

Picked up Kyle Wellwood off of waivers from the Leafs. How bad do you have to be to be waived by the Leafs????

Signed Darcy Hordichuk and Ryan Johnson. Ummm... why???

What Vancouver needed to do was to get improved second line scoring over last year\'s combo or Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund. They haven\'t done that. Vancouver needed to get a D-man who plays 82 games a year. They didn\'t do that either. So, how can a team that hasn\'t improved itself over the off-season, suddenly be the front runners in the Northwest Division. Edmonton made significant improvements, Calgary tinkered. Minnesota and Colorado lost some key performers, so I can see them slipping down the standings. But Vancouver in first????

Now, this is all my own conjecture. Perhaps they will win the division. I don\'t see it, not for a second. Making the playoffs? Even that will take some doing.

Just my $.02

[doulos]

After watching 2 preseason games of the Canucks there are a few reasons why I think the Canucks have a very good shot at winning the division, and as an Oiler fan I HATE that I am writing this post but it\'s the way I see things.

1) Their upgrades are more significant then their losses.

I really do believe this. Morrison and Naslund are no longer the players they once were and if Demitra can stay healthy, then between him, Bernier and Wellwood, they should be able to replace the offense lost there. You\'ll also be getting a guy like Mason Raymond who can provide a bit more punch this year as well.

2) Their defense can\'t possibly be as injured as last year.

Yes, you are going to see Salo get injured and Ohlund will likely miss at least a little time as well. But Bieksa, Mitchell, Edler etc should likely remain healthy for the year and that\'s going to be huge.

3) Luongo will rebound.

There were certain distractions combined with a down year for Luongo and he was still a top 10 goalie in the league for the year. With a healthier defense, the whole \"I\'m having a baby - woohoo\" thing out of the way, and a desire to get back to the playoffs, I see a HUGE year from Luongo ahead. Watching him in the preseason reminded me of how good this guy really is, and he makes it look easy.

4) The rest of the Northwest is a crap shoot.

Edmonton - As much as I think SO can be predicted \'somewhat\', 30/32 for Garon in the SO won\'t happen. The team is still quite young, with injury concerns, a goaltending situation which \'could\' be ok, but could also be bad. The Oiler \'could\' do very well as a team this year, but history would show then generally teams that are as young as they are and that have experienced as many changes as they have experienced, will not see a HUGE amount of success.

Calgary - It could easily be argued that the moves they made were lateral at best. With Keenan running the show I really am not confident this team can do a heck of a lot of damage. I do like Cammalerri though.

Minnesota - Solid. Like always. No big changes, they might win the division I guess, but would anyone care? They\'ll just lose in the playoffs yet again.

Colorado - A bit time year from Stastny has to be expected but there\'s lots of questions here as well, so who knows.

Really, the entire Division is up in the air. The Canucks play a style which should lead to a lot of close games and 3-2 wins, and with Luongo winning the Vezina.

[typo88]

I am actually quite shocked at how many knowlegeable hockey minds are writing off the canucks this year. 2 years ago they won the NW division, upset a very good Dallas squad, and had a HARD fought series with the ducks which went against them in game 4 when selanne tied the game with under 20 seconds left in the 3rd. That made the series 3-1 ducks instead of 2-2 (moen scored in OT). The Roster that accomplished ALLLL of that was actually slightly worse then the current canucks roster. Before people attack the canucks and make predictions of 13th/14th in the west, they really need to analyze what happened last season.

First and foremost, Luongo wasnt Luongo, but his wife was also an entire continent away going through a \"problematic\" pregnancy, alone. For all the men out there who can relate, how do you think He felt?

The d-core when healthy, is arguably the deepest top to bottom in the league. FOr some reason when Bieksa loses 48 games, Mitchell loses 10 games, Ohlund loses 29 games, Salo loses 19 games, and Krajiek loses 43 games; thes players seem to lose talent in the eyes of hockey pundits. This d-core suffered a string of injuries that is almost unprecedent in the NHL.

The forward group in vancouver now is actually more skilled then the one of 2 seasons ago. While im not saying the canucks are an offensive juggernaught right now. They do have more skill/speed/grit then people are giving them credit for.

Beyond that, people just need to look at the NW division. Many often claim that this is the best division in hockey, but in reality it is one of the worste, it just so happens that all the teams are roughly the same in skill. For this reason, no team can truely be written off, most certainly not the canucks, who according to many are a non-playoff team, due to one of the most bizarre seasons ever in vancouver.

Before i get thrown under the bus about my comment about the NW being one of the worste divisions, let me elaborate. The NW division USED to be home to the dreaded Avalanche (of the old NHL) and the West Coast Express (Again, old NHL). These are the last truely elite teams that have come out of this division. Some will argue \"well what about Edm and Calg, two Cup finalists\". Yes, it is true that these teams made it to the cup finals, but both were \"underdogs\" in every series they had, and both teams grossly overachieved in the postseason. Now, we are stuck with 5 teams in this division, none of them poor enough to be written out of the playoff picture, none of them strong enough to be considered anything more then a \"playoff contender\". While this division may be fun to watch and closely bunched in the standings, it will offer no legitimate cup threat this year, which is something that is specific to this division alone.
The Pacific: Anaheim/Dallas/Sj all are cup threats, with dallas and SJ being considered top teams in the entire league.
The Central: Hmmm, i cant think of anyone here ... LOL, i guess maybe detroit haha
The NorthEast: Montreal and Ottawa are both cup threats in the east
The Atlantic: Pitty and Philly are the front runners, i wouldnt go so far as to say NJ and NYR are cup threats.
The SouthEast: The closest any division comes to taking \"worste division\" away from the NW, but if Theodore plays like he did last year, Washington will challenge for the cup out of the east.

[doulos]

Wow, that\'s like the exact same thing I said pretty much. Get out of my head!!!

[Reprimand]

Maybe Dobber figures the chemistry is solid...

Seriously though, although I am surprised to see the Canucks first in the NW and no way will this happen imho, they may be a better team in the long run. If anything the D will be better (provided they stay healthy) as they only have one true Bandaid boy back there (Salo) and last year\'s injury fiasco was a terrible fluke.

The mandate this year from Gillis is to push for more offense. The training camps have been all about the back line making the quick pass and pushing with the attack. If they can maintain their defensive role while keeping pressure on the opponent they could produce more. If you look at last season, the Canucks weren\'t great on the GF, but they made it up with their GA. A few more goals and a healthy D to bring the GA down even further would look pretty good.

Our biggest losses were Bourdon, Naslund and Morrison. The D is thinner now but not necessarily worse as Luc was just learning his craft and wasn\'t a major producer yet. As well, in a general body count; (not specifically posisions so lines will be mixed) Naslund has been replaced with Demitra - another middle aged sniper who is in the 60 pt range and Morrison was replaced with Bernier who might be a perfect fit with the Sedins.

That said, hope Gillis isn\'t done yet. THere will be guys like Schneider on the market, as other teams will be looking to dump salary, and situated in the LONGSHOT column, there is always Sundin (laugh)

[Fongmeister]

Being a optimistic realist, I feel the Canucks will CHALLENGE for the NW Division crown, but ultimately come up short.

Like Doulos said earlier, the injuries the Canucks suffered to defense were insane.

172 man-games lost to injury. Unless Vancouver has angered the hockey gods, I seriously doubt that happens again.

And Luongo will definitley improve.

Off-ice distractions like the baby and wife+child in Florida have both been solved, with Gina Luongo+child moving to Vancouver.

Considering goaltending is one of the most mentally draining positions in hockey, I feel this will definitley improve Lou\'s performace.

Having Bernier+Demitra over Naslund+Morrison is pretty sketchy. But Morrison did lose half the season to injury.

HOWEVER: The Canucks will still fall short.

Minny is going to be solid as always. If M.Koivu and PM Bouchard step up the WAY Minny needs them to step up, they\'ll take the NW division crown again. And never discount the dreaded Lemaire trap.

Colorado is going to be solid on offense, but their goaltending situation is pretty rocky. I can\'t see a division winning team lead by Raycroft/Budaj in 08/09.

Calgary is going to be an enigma. IF Bertuzzi comes back the way they\'re hyping him to come back, and Kipper bounces back, watch for Calgary to finally shove off their underachiever label.

Edmonton has improved quite a bit, and will get Horcoff and Souray back. Incredibly young roster. But methinks they don\'t win the division crown THIS year.

[Katharsis]

From my view, the only real change that the Canucks needed was a personnel move, that being having Luongo\'s family live with him and getting his kid settled into life in B.C.

Think about it: two years ago Luongo put the team on his back and they went on a huge streak for the second half of the season and into the playoffs.

Last year, Luongo was heavily distracted by his wife, the pregnancy, and not to mention several injuries, some of the freak variety, to his blueline.

This year, his family is with him in Vancouver. His kid is happy and healthy. His blueline can\'t possibly be injured as much this year as it was last. Why not believe he can carry the Canucks once again?

[ultrawhiteness]

ahh, good sense reigns again!

i think that vancouver will be better than popular opinion has them ranked, and edmonton will do worse (some of the things you hear from oil fans, no offense doulos, are pretty damned optimistic. huge props to you for recognizing the potential problems with goaltending and personal changes).

minnesota is the only team i can say has regressed, but with all the changes it\'s really hard to predict. biggest issue with them is whether they can get gabby signed and not have that turn into a hossa-esque distraction for the entire team.

colorado\'s goalie situation is shady, but the rest of their team is really solid. hannan-foote-leopold-liles is quite a solid top 4.

flames i think have improved far more than is readily apparent. even though it seems like they\'ve lost talent, i think the intangibles brought in by the new players will make a huge difference. consistent effort from the top 3 lines will be a big change.

in the end, i see another year of each of these teams beating the piss out of each other... and anybody who thinks that they know the outcome right now is a fool.

[angus]

Impossible to pick a NW champ right now. I think all teams have a shot besides the Avs (goaltending).

The Canucks have been written off by a lot of prognosticators who don\'t really have a good feel on the team and what changes they made. Good thing hockey is not played on paper!

[Dutch]

I don\'t know who is gonna win the NW, but I couldn\'t resist commenting on the Luongo played bad because of his wife\'s pregnancy comment

what a load of SHIT that is. THis guy makes millions of dollars, if he wants a baby so bad and it affects his game, PLAN the kid a couple months later, I mean we all know pregnancies take 9 months. With the salary he earns you can\'t tell me he can\'t afford to fly his wife over to be with him. LAME LAME LAME excuse

but other than that, not sure who wins the NW

Calgary ! cause I live there lol

[doulos]

Have you had a kid before? I sure wish my wife and I could have planned to have our children whenever we wanted. Would have made life a lot easier.

[Dutch]

when you are a pro atlethe, there are certain requirements that come with that job. So if it\'s your choice to get a baby then you can\'t complain about it. As I said, if you make that much money, fly her over to vancouver so she can be around you... If not, use a damn condom so you don\'t have this problem hmy:

If I were the GM of the canucks I wouldn\'t have let him see his wife at most crucial time of the year when canucks were still in play off race! Tough shit, but that\'s why you get paid millions of dollars...

[angus]

Luongo never used it as an excuse, and the only reason it became an issue was there were a few complications with it.

Some things are a bit more important than hockey.

[Dutch]

He never officially used it as an excuse, you are right about that. But like i mentioned before, he could have flewn her over easily, so she can be with him, while he gets the canucks int he play offs.

Because of Luongo they missed out imo

[doulos]

I wish I lived in your world where these sorts of minor technicalities like babies and family were easy enough to deal with.

Then again I\'m glad I don\'t live in your world where you would demand someone not see their wife during the most crucial time of pregnancy simply because they play the \'game\' of hockey.

Anyways, no matter what happened last year I am still banking on a great year from him.