Team Roster:
Forwards
18 Steve Bernier 14 Alexandre Burrows 20 Jeff Cowen
38 Pavol Demitra
24 Darcy Hordichuk
10 Ryan Johnson
17 Ryan Kesler
25 Matt Pettinger
9 Taylor Pyatt
21 Mason Raymond
22 Daniel Sedin
33 Henrik Sedin
42 Kyle Wellwood
Defense
44 Nolan Baumgartner
3 Kevin Bieksa
4 Rob Davison
23 Alexander Edler
5 Lukas Krajicek
8 Willie Mitchell
2 Mattias Ohlund
6 Sami Salo
Goalies
1 Roberto Luongo
41 Curtis Sanford
Sources Take
While on paper the Canucks seem to be strong its there injuries on defense that kill them every year. I'm not sure how many man games lost there were for this team but I know it was a lot. The team has been rebuilt this summer with a little more sandpaper and speed with the additions of Bernier and Demitra and gritty forward Hordichuk. Roberto Luongo should have a better season in him this time around as he looks to rebound from last years seemingly human performance.
Rumors
Not much to report on the Vancouver front except the off and on tales of Mats Sundin. GM Mike Gillis has reportedly offered him a 2 year $20,000,000 deal something that most NHL'ers would never pass up. Other rumors continue to circulate about Kevin Bieksa but I wouldn't put to much thinking on that one. He is a great Dman who will continue to be the cornerstone of the Canucks defence.
Prediction
While I can see where Canuck fans are coming from when they say they have a very solid goalie the problem is he can't carry the team on his back like we saw last season. If the Canucks can manage to stay healthy they might squeak into a playoff spot but my prediction is with the china doll that is Ohlund on the back end they may just fall short again.
Sources Prediction
12th place to 7th place
16 comments:
"china doll" ?
Yes meaning that he is fragile
One injury plagued year removed from their best regular season ever and the best they can finish in the west is 7th? This team is faster and grittier than the 06-07 team and playing in a division that has gone from being one of the best in the NHL to one of the worst and they can finish no better than 7th? Get your head out of your ass. This team will finish no lower than 5th in the west and will do the best out of the Canadian teams in both the regular and post season.
Hey source,
What did you mean when you said,"they say they have a very solid goalie the problem is he can't carry the team on his back"?
Did you miss the whole 2006-07 season?
The one where is was nominated for both the hart and the Vezina. He carried a team that only managed to score 217 goals to first place in their division and the 105 point mark.
Maybe you missed those playoffs where he carried his team to the second round even though they couldn't even average 2 goals per game. Ending with a 1.77GAA and .942sv%
As far as Ohlund being a china doll i think you might have confused him with Salo(He is always injured). Ohlund is one tough ombre, just ask Iginla.
I did mistake Ohlund for Salo I apologize to everyone.
This is just my opinion and to say they will be the best out of all the Canadian teams is just absurd the Canadiens are already better without Sundin and so are the Oilers.
The fact that you guys can't even tell the difference between Salo and Ohlund, obviously haven't seen Luongo play more than 2 games (He has carried this team on his back), and think that the OILERS with a Goalie who's had ONE good season, and a backup who's quickly on the decline are going to be better than the Canucks... goes to show how little you know about the Canucks.
I'm not even a Canucks fan. In fact I hate them, but your lack of knowledge of the team is brutal.
Try gaining some hockey knowledge before you start a site claiming to know something about the sport, much less being hockey 'insiders'.
Boy was that a lazy analysis; you don't know what you're talking about. Injuries to the Canucks' defense kills them "every year", which implies before last year...when? I like Bieksa and hope will be a a cornerstone of the team, but to call him 'great' after the season he had last year is just dim. He had one breakout season, which gives us fans hope, but he's not a great defense and saying he will continue to be the cornerstone implies he was the cornerstone before, and no one has placed him in that position. You're very clearly talking out your butt, haven't got a clue what you are saying...and by the way it's "their" not "there" that you mess up repeatedly...stay with the rumors, pretending you have analytical insight and knowledge of the team ain't your game...or the other option is to do your homework....
Boy was that a lazy analysis; you don't know what you're talking about. Injuries to the Canucks' defense kills them "every year", which implies before last year...when? I like Bieksa and hope will be a a cornerstone of the team, but to call him 'great' after the season he had last year is just dim. He had one breakout season, which gives us fans hope, but he's not a great defense and saying he will continue to be the cornerstone implies he was the cornerstone before, and no one has placed him in that position. You're very clearly talking out your butt, haven't got a clue what you are saying...and by the way it's "their" not "there" that you mess up repeatedly...stay with the rumors, pretending you have analytical insight and knowledge of the team ain't your game...or the other option is to do your homework....
Can people that don't know the Canucks stop freaking predicting the season they are going to have... I mean I think this guy said the Leafs are gonna make the playoffs too.
Congrats. You guys now have less credibility than Eklund.
"This is just my opinion and to say they will be the best out of all the Canadian teams is just absurd the Canadiens are already better without Sundin and so are the Oilers."
Why is it absurd to say that? Is it absurd to say they have the best goalie out of the Canadian teams? No I don't think it is. Is it absurd to say that they have the best defense out of all the Canadian teams? When healthy it's not absurd to say they have one of the top 5 defenses in the league.
You really aren't looking at the bigger picture with this team. Luongo had a rough patch last year with his wife being in Florida and complications with her pregnancy. He has moved his family up here and came out and expressed how ready he is. There will be a new captain who will more than likely be Willie Mitchell who is a local boy. He will bring new life to this team that hasn't had a true Captain since Linden was cast away. Add that to the new younger forwards who are much more hungry than people like Naslund, Morrison, Isbister and Ritchie will give this time an edge that I think can propel this team really far.
The Canucks will be lucky to score 200 goals. Demitra will miss 25 games as usual and Bernier couldn't produce with Thornton and Marleau so why in the hell would he produce with the Sedins? The Canucks will not make the playoffs this year.
Thank you Fred!
Demitra has averaged 71 games a season over the last 6 years, so I doubt he's going to miss 25 games this year. He'll likely score as many goals as Naslund did.
Bernier WILL score more goals than Morrison did last year, and we will most definitely get more goals from our defense.
Gillis still has 10 million in cap space to play with, so even if Sundin doesn't sign with us, he (Gillis) will still likely go out and get another Top 6 forward to help with scoring.
Even if Gillis does NOTHING this team will still score more than last years team as we basically still have the same team, but Bernier/Demitra will score more this year than Naslund/Morrison did last year.
Last years team scored 213 goals with an injury plagued season.
Canucks without making any other moves should be able to score 220 this year. Add in another top 6 forward and they could score 230.
*IF* Sundin signs, they'll score 235-245.
The team will also be icing a NHL caliber defense this year, not their AHL affiliates defense, plus a rebound year for Luongo and I expect their goals against to be around 200-205.
This team will make the playoffs.
In fact, just to show how little 'the source' and 'fred poulin' know about hockey. Save this blog and we'll revisit it at the end of the year.
In fact, start a new article with pre-season prediction where we can all post where we think the Canucks will finish, including stats like Goals against/for, etc.... and we'll see who's right and who's wrong.
We'll see what happens if Gillis adds someone else, that could change a lot of things. Don't forget that Bernier can't play defence compared to Morrison, so the Canucks might have a hard time on the PK. We'll see how they fare.
Morrison couldn't play defense last year because he was injured most of it so defensively Bernier isn't hurting us compared to what we had last year filling in for Morrison.
The canucks signed Ryan Johnson who is a PK Specialist, so he fills that role anyways.
A full season with Matt Pettinger is also a slight upgrade at offense over Matt Cooke. Not to mention all the turmoil we lose in the dressing room with Cooke being gone as well.
And the pest factor that we lost in cook we still have in Kesler, Burrows.
This team has made some very decent moves over the last 6 months or so that each have slightly improved the team. This team will be improved over last year and will make the playoffs.
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