Vancouver Canucks

[STONE.]

Interesting note from the Canucks practice today,

Keith Ballard was seen practicing in Chris Higgins' spot on the second line for a brief period, and it appears that he may play as third line LW with Hodgson and Hansen in the Canucks' next game. Raymond took Higgins' spot on the second line with Kesler and Booth.

That's one way to deal with his mediocre D play....

[Loch]

That's one way to deal with his mediocre D play....

Now, what to do about Rome and Alberts...?

Rome and his freaking 'I'm gonna gently poke the puck halfway to my goalie' brand of D isn't helping.

Any chance we can trade for Hal Gill... he plays the same game as Alberts and Rome, except he's bigger, stronger, and sucks a lot less.

[Loch]

Another game with 30 shots against through 2 periods? What the hell Vancouver, is this 'Make Luongo earn his paycheck' week or something?

[wendelclark17]

some weird lines at practice today ....

Elliotte Friedman @FriedgeHNIC
Canucks lines this morning RT @BotchonCanucks shakeup: bitz-henrik-Raymond, daniel-kesler-burrows, booth-hodgson-Hansen

[bondon]

Yeah I saw that and immediately went



Gonna be interesting to see if he actually uses those lines. Considering how poorly the team has been playing lately this shakeup (if it goes through) could end up in a bloodbath lol.

[bondon]

Wow, so not only is AV going with those line combos but he's changed the PP units as well

Daniel-Henrik-Cody

Burrows-Kes-Booth.

Interesting..

[bondon]

Last night was one of the best games I've seen the Canucks play in a looooooooooong time. Some points of interest:

Henrik Sedin keeps his iron man streak alive by playing through the pain after it was determined that he couldn't make the injury any worse by playing. He had a solid game scoring the eventual game winning goal and extending his point streak to five games.

Daniel Sedin scored career powerplay goal number 102, putting him 12 behind Markus Naslund for first in franchise history.

Ryan Kesler extends his point streak to seven games and his goal scoring streak to five games.

Kevin Bieksa extends his point streak to four games, and he's my personal MVP of the night for his glove grenade. Bieksa is now on pace for a career high 45 points.

[STONE.]

Chicago's in an absolute tailspin. Looking like a late seed if they don't turn it on (although at this pace, maybe they'll fall out altogether).

If we end up facing them in round I again, I'll effing lose my mind.

[bondon]

Hilarious, I've been lol'ing every frigging time I listen to the jackass sports media try to make it look like it's a real possibility that Nash could somehow wind up in Vancouver. Listening to Team 1040 right now and they've got Botchford on. They've been talking about it for the past little while and I agree with all their points:

1) IT WON'T FIT UNDER THE CAP.
2) Cory Schneider + WON'T FIT UNDER THE CAP
3) Botchford thinks that any package that the Canucks send to Columbus would likely have to include Edler. No effing dice.
4) What kind of message does it send to the Sedins and others on the team that signed for less to give the team more wiggle room if you take on Nash and his gargantuan 7.8. Oh yeah and IT DOESN'T FIT UNDER THE CAP.

/endrant.

[Loch]

Hilarious, I've been lol'ing every frigging time I listen to the jackass sports media try to make it look like it's a real possibility that Nash could somehow wind up in Vancouver. Listening to Team 1040 right now and they've got Botchford on. They've been talking about it for the past little while and I agree with all their points:

1) IT WON'T FIT UNDER THE CAP.
2) Cory Schneider + WON'T FIT UNDER THE CAP
3) Botchford thinks that any package that the Canucks send to Columbus would likely have to include Edler. No effing dice.
4) What kind of message does it send to the Sedins and others on the team that signed for less to give the team more wiggle room if you take on Nash and his gargantuan 7.8. Oh yeah and IT DOESN'T FIT UNDER THE CAP.

/endrant.

So is there some sort of cap issue with trading for Nash?

[Loch]

Dear Kevin Bieksa,

Thank you for reminding us of the type of play we are not missing since Errorhoff moved on.
Never do that again.

[bondon]

Last night was the closest to a full game I was able to catch in like the last week.

Missed the first but thank god for CBCsports.ca.

Kassian and Booth had fantastic games as their stat lines would suggest. He looked pretty good out there with Kesler and Booth. Really loving how Booth is taking the puck hard to the net. He's got a strong body so he's able to fight off the defenders. Every game that I watch it seems like he gets one chance where he blows by the defender and cuts in front of the goalie. Too bad he couldn't bury the chance last night.

Pahlsson almost had a breakaway but was tripped up with no call which really pissed me off...but there was a bit of a make up call for it shortly thereafter.

Schneider was fantastic as usual...making some great timely saves after coming in to relieve Luongo. The goal that he allowed was a tough one, looked like it was going wide and then deflected in off Rome's skate.

The Sedins really need to get it going. A couple of shifts really stood out to me last night where the Sedins would come on and then immediately get pinned in the Vancouver zone for their entire shift and then they would go right back off. They now have one assist between the two of them over the past five games. Needless to say that's not cutting it. The Canucks are lucky to have six out of a possible 10 points over that span.

[bondon]

Practice note:

Kassian on the second line with Booth and Kesler, Raymond alternating on the fourth line with Dale Weise.

Edit: Luongo to start against Bachman for the Stars.

[PatyOFurniture]

http://youtu.be/JDeuCGVgzMI

raymond has been terrible… getting sick of his same skate the puck in, fall down, lose the puck, rinse repeat

[stick boy]

what a no show from the Canucks. Although I did concentrate more on drinking than watching the finner details. Worried about the Sedin's running out of gas.

Or are they just saving what they have left for playoffs?