[Nutterbug]

So how 'bout dem Nucks?

[mr.x]

5-0 loss? those jerseys don't work.

[Nutterbug]

Isn't it customary for the visiting team to throw the game (or play at less than full strength) during the preseason?

Though a 5-0 margin is pretty bad any way you put it.

[Canadian Mind]

i like the jersey colours, but change the orca back to old colours... please!!!

if you have to make the blue area lighter, at least make it an aqua colour... not white!!!

[mr.x]

what happened to Luongo's skyline helmet???
http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/092207_SAN_VAN_Luongo.jpg

[Canadian Mind]

Thats the kicker!

Send the guy a letter.

[excel]

That was his vintage jersey helmet, dont think his old helmet matches the new colors, he may not use it anymore.

[LeftCoaster]

Well can I have it then?!

[MistyMountainHop]

Luongo's new mask will be revealed this weekend, and it won't have a panther tail on it.

[Cypherus]

Expect the Canucks to have a gong show year. Looks like management are relying on their goalie more than the skills of their forward lineup (looking at you Morrison and Sedins).

[MistyMountainHop]

I wouldn't be surprised if both Daniel and Henrik get around 90 points each this season (with around 40 goals from Daniel).

[excel]

Was at the game tonight, we lost in the shootout but it had to go to the seventh shooter. As usual solid goal tending from Luongo and poor attempts to score in the shootout for the offense.

[Cypherus]

I wouldn't be surprised if both Daniel and Henrik get around 90 points each this season (with around 40 goals from Daniel).

Yes, but in the playoffs, the Sedins were shut-down. Can't just rely on a few select fowards....

[MistyMountainHop]

I wouldn't be surprised if both Daniel and Henrik get around 90 points each this season (with around 40 goals from Daniel).

Yes, but in the playoffs, the Sedins were shut-down. Can't just rely on a few select fowards....

I heard that the Sedins had stomach flu during most of the playoffs.

Naslund and Morrison will need to help out, though (maybe witha rookie linemate?). Naslund did score four goals in the five games against Anaheim. The Canucks were actually only two goals away from forcing a game seven in that series.

[MistyMountainHop]

And they said we had trouble scoring ...

Vancouver 5 - Edmonton 4 (Canucks preseason record: 4-2-2)

[MistyMountainHop]

Well that sucked.
















That REALLY sucked.

[SpongeG]

LOL

i hate hockey so its all pretty funny

[Nutterbug]

Give them a couple more weeks to get their act together. Then start making the big trades.

[MistyMountainHop]

He did have 2 goals in 3 games ... but was a -7.


Canucks Re-Assign Ryan Shannon
Oct 11, 2007, 2:42 PM EDT

Vancouver, B.C. - Vancouver Canucks Senior Vice President and General Manager Dave Nonis announced today that forward Ryan Shannon has been re-assigned to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.

Shannon, 24, played three games for Vancouver this season scoring two goals with four penalty minutes. In 2006-07 Shannon split the season between the Anaheim Ducks and Portland Pirates of the AHL. Shannon recorded 11 points (2-9-11) in 53 NHL games and nine points (2-7-9) in 14 games with Portland.

Shannon was acquired by trade with Anaheim in exchange for Jason King on June 23, 2007.

[MistyMountainHop]

Figure It Out
Jeff Paterson
Oct 25, 2007, 5:51 PM EDT

http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/10/oct2107_sanford_tt.jpg

4-7-4-6-8-6-6-0.

As much as those digits may look like a phone number Alain Vigneault might want to call looking for answers to the things that ail his hockey club through the first 10 games of the National Hockey League season, those numbers represent one of the main issues with the Vancouver Canucks right now.

In order, those numbers represent the number of shots on goal in each of the last eight periods the Canucks have played. Do the math. That’s a grand total of 41 shots over eight periods going back to the end of the first 20 minutes in Columbus last Sunday.

You take those 41 shots and divide them by the eight periods the team has played since then and you’re left with an average of 5.1 shots per period. It’s just not enough. It’s not enough from the forwards and it’s not enough from the defensemen who registered just two of the team 15 shots Wednesday night in Motown. The six Canuck defenders had two shots on goal while the Red Wings Niklas Lidstrom hit the net five times by himself.


2/16

It would be great if all that number meant was February 16th. The Canucks are home to the Oilers on that night. Games with the Oilers are usually good for the Canucks. And last year, the Canucks were 2-1 winners in a shootout in Chicago on February 16th.

Unfortunately, 2/16 represents the struggle of Canucks centremen in the defensive zone against the Wings on Wednesday. The Canucks won exactly two of the 16 face-offs they took in front of Roberto Luongo (http://canucks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=PlayerDetail&playerId=8466141). As Glenn Healy noted on the TSN broadcast: “You may as well just get the linemen to throw the puck to the Red Wing defensemen.”

Face-off prowess has obviously been a concern for the Canucks all season, but when you break it down to key areas of the ice it just reinforces the seriousness of the issue. Winning 12.5% of all draws in your own end is asking for trouble – and too often getting it.

http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/10/10242007_detroit07_tt.jpg (http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/10/10242007_detroit07_b.jpg)

To make matters worse, one of the two face-offs the Canucks did win in their own end was by Ryan Kesler (http://canucks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=PlayerDetail&playerId=8470616) while killing a second period penalty. However, the team failed to clear the puck off the draw and, moments later, Tomas Holmstrom gave the Wings a 2-0 lead.

45 of 72

With four wins in their first 10 games, the Canucks haven’t exactly picked up where they left off down the stretch last season.

Now, there’s plenty of time left in the season to find their game.

But to show you how well the Canucks played after Christmas last year and to give you an idea of just how tough it is to maintain that pace, if the Canucks are going to match the franchise-record 49 wins they recorded last season, they now have to win 45 of their remaining 72 games. That means picking up the pace and playing .625 hockey the rest of the season.

7

It’s too early in the season to be worrying about things like the Northwest Division title – the Canucks have to take of the little things first and then tackle the bigger challenges.

http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/07/jul2607_morrison13_tt.jpg (http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/07/jul2607_morrison13_b.jpg)

But, as crazy as this sounds, the Canucks should thank the Calgary Flames today. The Flames comeback 5-3 win over Minnesota on Wednesday prevented the Wild from picking up a point which keeps Minnesota seven in front of Vancouver in the early-season standings.

The significance of that is that at no time last year did the Canucks ever trail the Wild by more than seven points. On November 17th last year, the Canucks were seven back of the Wild before they started to make up the ground they needed to win the division by a single point.

Making up deficits is not easy at any point of the season, so the Canucks have to be careful to keep a team like the Wild within striking distance and not lose sight of them even though it’s only three weeks into the new season.

[MistyMountainHop]

Western Conference
Rank GP W L OT Pts GF GA Home Away L10
1 Detroit Red Wings* 16 13 2 1 27 56 34 7-1-0 6-1-1 9-1-0
2 Colorado Avalanche* 16 10 5 1 21 51 43 8-1-0 2-4-1 6-3-1
3 Anaheim Ducks* 18 7 8 3 17 42 51 6-3-2 1-5-1 4-4-2
4 Minnesota Wild 15 9 4 2 20 41 34 6-2-0 3-2-2 4-4-2
5 Columbus Blue Jackets 15 8 5 2 18 39 32 5-1-1 3-4-1 6-3-1
6 Chicago Blackhawks 16 9 7 0 18 48 47 5-5-0 4-2-0 6-4-0
7 Vancouver Canucks 16 8 8 0 16 41 46 2-6-0 6-2-0 5-5-0
8 Dallas Stars 16 7 7 2 16 44 44 3-3-1 4-4-1 5-5-0
9 San Jose Sharks 16 7 7 2 16 37 41 1-4-0 6-3-2 4-5-1
10 Nashville Predators 15 7 7 1 15 40 44 4-2-0 3-5-1 5-4-1
11 Calgary Flames 16 6 7 3 15 47 52 4-4-2 2-3-1 4-5-1
12 Phoenix Coyotes 14 7 7 0 14 40 41 2-6-0 5-1-0 5-5-0
13 St Louis Blues 14 7 7 0 14 35 34 4-3-0 3-4-0 4-6-0
14 Los Angeles Kings 15 7 8 0 14 46 47 5-5-0 2-3-0 6-4-0
15 Edmonton Oilers 16 5 10 1 11 36 55 3-4-0 2-6-1 3-6-1

[excel]

^10 teams are pretty much within one game, pretty close.

[MistyMountainHop]

^10 teams are pretty much within one game, pretty close.

Yeah, now we're back in 11th (but some of the teams ahead of us have played more games). :( I think they should get rid of the OT/SO loss point. Wither you get 2 points for a win, or 0 for a loss. That would make more sense.

[MistyMountainHop]

Minnesota isn't looking so Wild anymore ... :cheers:

[MistyMountainHop]

Looks like this could get ugly ...


Canucks Recall Mike Brown and Re-assign Jannik Hansen
Nov 19, 2007, 4:04 PM EST

Vancouver, B.C. - Vancouver Canucks Senior Vice-President and General Manager Dave Nonis announced today that the Canucks have recalled right wing Mike Brown from the Manitoba Moose of the AHL and reassigned right wing Jannik Hansen to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.

Brown, 22, has played in 17 regular season games with the Manitoba Moose this season, he has registered three points (2-1-3) and 69 penalty minutes. Brown finished with three points (3-0-3) and a team-high 194 PIM in 62 regular season games with the Moose in 2006-07.

The 6’0”, 210 lbs. native of Northbrook, IL was selected by Vancouver 159th overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

Hansen, 21, has played in five games for the Vancouver Canucks in 2007-08, collecting two penalty minutes. He has appeared in one game for the Moose this season, registering two penalty minutes and plus one.

The 6’0”, 194 lbs. right wing was Vancouver’s 7th choice, 287th overall, in the 2004 Entry Draft. The native of Herlev, Denmark, played 10 playoff games with the Canucks in 2006-07, registering one point (0-1-1) and 14 PIM.

[MistyMountainHop]

Nazzy gets a hat trick! And we're on top in the Northwest ...



ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Markus Naslund scored three goals and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 Wednesday night.

Ryan Kesler also scored for the Canucks, 6-0-2 in their last eight games. Vancouver has gone 9-0-2 against Northwest Division opponents this season and moved into a first-place tie with Minnesota.

Marian Gaborik scored twice for the Wild, who lost for the first time in four home games.

“We felt like we didn't give them much out there tonight,” said Mitchell. “Obviously they had the power play goal there on the five on three, sometimes its tough to keep guys off the scoresheet that way and then it was a broken play on the other one.”

With the game tied at 2 early in the third period, Naslund charged in from the right side to tip a wrist shot from Daniel Sedin past Josh Harding. It was his sixth goal in four games, after scoring four in his first 17 contests.

Naslund and Henrik Sedin perfectly executed a 2-on-1 with 3:33 to play to give Naslund his 11th career three-goal game.

Vancouver, 7-2-1 on the road, scored twice in 22 seconds to take a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Naslund scored on the power play, when at the left post he redirected a ricochet off the end boards past Harding at 6:27. Kesler completed a rush by scoring on a wraparound at 6:49.

The Canucks round out the last of eight consecutive games against divisional rivals and improve their record to 9-0-2 against Northwest teams.

The win Wednesday night moved the Canucks tied for first in the division with the Wild but tie breaking procedures puts the Canucks just ahead of Minnesota based on head-to-head match-ups, both won by Vancouver.

“Any divisional game is so important,” said Naslund. “You've got to be disciplined and try to take advantage of the chances you get against a team like Minnesota. They’re usually playing a pretty defensive game so it was good for us to get a couple of goals.”

“Obviously its a good thing,” said Canucks defenseman, Willie Mitchell. “We feel pretty confident playing against teams in our division. Right now we feel we can beat them and we want to keep this roll going.”

Gaborik beat Curtis Sanford with a one-timer less than a minute later and scored a power-play goal at 10:30 by sending a wrist shot past by Sanford to tie it.

The Wild had a goal disallowed immediately by the refs, although it did get reviewed.

“Most of the chances they generated was stuff we gave to them,” said Mitchell. “Were playing much harder - both the forwards and defensively. Just a little tighter system because if it.”

Like most games between the clubs, this one was physical but called tightly by referees Greg Kimmerly and Mick McGeough. Vancouver's Mike Brown, who had three points and 69 penalty minutes in 17 AHL games this season before being recalled Monday, fought Aaron Voros in the first period for the game's lone bout.

Vancouver recalled Mike Brown from the Manitoba Moose to add some grit to the lineup after the heated game in Vancouver Friday night.

In his NHL debut, Brown fit right into his role and there really wasn’t time for nerves. Brown got involved in a tussle with the Wild’s Aaron Voros just 7:22 into the game.

“You pretty much have to play through anything,” he said. “It doesn't really matter to me what the situation is or what game you're playing, I'm still going to come out every single game and give it everything I have whether it's a playoff game or a preseason game.”

“I just know [Voros] was running around last game and it's part of my game, so it just happened there. It felt like the right time and he just wanted to go.”

Each team entered the night with considerable anger directed at the other since last Friday's game in Vancouver.

In that one, Vancouver's Mattias Ohlund earned a four-game suspension for his two-handed slash against Mikko Koivu after the Koivu elbowed him in the head. Koivu has missed the past two games with a cracked bone in his left leg but might return next week. The Canucks were also upset about Gaborik elbowing Kesler in the head, and they said Stephane Veilleux shot the puck at Mike Weaver in the waning seconds of the Canucks' 6-2 win. Veilleux has denied the charge.

With all the hype surrounding the now infamous Pinky and the Brain reference, all eyes were watching the ensuing drama that didn’t happen.

“I don't think there were scores to be settled, said Mitchell. “What was on the line was first place in the division, and that was our mind set. We didn't want to get stuck in the penalty box and let them get opportunities.”

“It was a pretty tight game, you're not going to see people doing stupid things out there.”

“Like I said, we're here to play hockey,” said Naslund. “It's unfortunate when things like that happen like last game, that being said, our focus coming in here was to win the game and play a strong game. We played last night and we wanted to show up and play a strong game in this building.”

Notes: The game concluded a stretch of eight straight games against divisional foes for both teams. ... Wild D Sean Hill played for the first time this season. While with the New York Islanders, Hill was suspended on April 19 for 20 games after testing positive for steroids. He has said he doesn't know how the banned substance got into his system. ... Sanford started in goal for Vancouver for the first time in 12 games. It was his second start of the season. ... Wild LW Pavol Demitra took part in the team's morning skate, but missed his seventh straight game due to a strained groin.



Associated Press

[excel]

Great game, top line is on fire.

[MistyMountainHop]

BINGO BANGO BONGO! The Canucks shutout streak leader is ROBERTO LUONGO!

http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/11/luongo_112907.jpg

Luongo gets the first 3-game shutout streak in his career and in Canucks history. Go Louie!

[excel]

Luongo is a machine.

[MistyMountainHop]

Aw, shit.

[Kwik-E-Mart]

At least the Nucks can get their chances on Stamkos... haha(?) *sighs*

Since AV was not able to get his troops fired up during the crucial stretches (losing six of the last seven during this time is utterly unacceptable), he should be the one to get the pink slip.

Secondly, make offseason trades to find replacements for Naslund and Morrison should he not resign for less than 4 million per season (Cory Schneider is doing well and finally becoming a bona-fide starter, so he should be a good trade bait). Adding offense to bail out Lui and the defense should they falter becomes priority. The Ducks under Burke is a good example with a balanced squad of young scorers, good defense, and very good goaltending.

I applaud Nonis for keeping Kesler and Edler with the organization, although he is guilty for emphasizing too much on defense.