Henrik Sedin is Leading the League and Nobody is Talking About it

There are a few interesting things going on with the Canucks these days. This team, seemingly poised to go on to win the Northwest Division (barring a late season collapse), has been up and down of late. The team followed up a great road trip with two big wins in back to back nights and looked great doing it. They followed that up by losing to the Islanders and then rebounding to beat the Sharks. They narrowly got beat by the Red Wings after that and then Roberto Luongo collapsed against the basement dwelling Edmonton Oilers.

Ryan Kesler Re-Signs

Great news for Canucks fans. The Canucks announced this morning that Ryan Kesler has signed a six year contract extension with the team. Kesler has proven that he can not only be a checker, but a scorer as well. He’s one of the best second line centres in the league, and could win the Selke Trophy this season. As early as the start of last season, nobody thought he had the potential to be the offensive producer that he is today. Again, it’s great news, depending on the price of course. If I were to guess I would say it’s worth between $4.5 and $5 million.

Samuelsson Hurt, Grabner Re-called, and Everyone Hates Cooke

After calling the Canucks “Cup pretenders” last Friday, I must admit that I was starting to believe they were contenders with one of the most impressive outings of the season against the Senators on Saturday followed up by a 1st period knockout of the Calgary Flames the next day. But then came the Islanders game on Tuesday night. Now I’m not suggesting that Canucks fans should begin panicking about this team because of it, but it certainly didn’t help. Another thing that didn’t help was losing first star of the week, Mikael Samuelsson. He’ll be gone 2-3 weeks with a shoulder injury or so we’re told (and we’ve been lied to before, see Dan Cloutier). With that said, here are a few random thoughts going through my head as the playoffs loom:

Contender or Pretender?

With 15 games left in the regular season and the nightmare record road trip behind them, one thing is still not clear. Are the Canucks contenders or pretenders? It’s a question that doesn’t elicit a unanimous response. I think that we as Canucks fans underrate this edition of the Canucks (just as we overrated the Naslund-Bertuzzi era Canucks).

Trade Deadline Aftermath

Am I the only one that had a little bit of trouble adjusting to life after Olympic hockey? What an amazing tournament with such speed, skill and intensity. Then two days later, we have to watch the Canucks take on the Blue Jackets? Tough transition, but I think I’m getting back into the swing of things. The Canucks are on a nice little post-Olympic roll, beating the Blue Jackets in a comeback and laying a surprising beat down on the Red Wings.

Canada’s Rough Road Ahead

After a long absence (bloggers get caught up in the Olympic hoopla too you know), Canuckz.com is back with a look at the Olympic hockey tournament. Most notably, what’s wrong with Team Canada, and what is head coach Mike Babock going to do about to fix things?

Brodeur vs Luongo

The pundits have spoken, and they are in almost total agreement: Luongo should start the next game.

Alex Burrows February 2010 Calendar Wallpaper!!!

It’s late but it’s here! Alexandre Burrows.. easily one of the best contracts in the NHL! If this reverses the mini-slump, you’ll know who to thank!

Trades… and Moustaches!

It looked pretty weird seeing Dion Phaneuf and J.S. Giguere in Leafs practice gear today. Once the faces of the Flames and Ducks respectively, both were traded to Toronto on Sunday. A day later, Calgary sent Olli Jokinen to the Rangers. For those of you that haven’t heard yet, here’s how the trades shook down:

David Backes Rumoured to be on his way to the West Coast

Who likes rumours? Everyone! Matthew Sekeres is reporting that the Canucks and Blues may be working on a deal that would see the Canucks acquiring David Backes with Cory Schneider heading the other way. Apparently Mike Gillis decided last minute to skip the Top Prospects Game in Windsor in favour of the Habs-Blues game in Montreal, presumably to watch Backes.

Mike Peca Retires

Mike Peca called it a career today. Hardly a surprise given he hasn’t played a game this year, but still notable nonetheless. From a Canucks perspective, I will remember Peca for a couple of different reasons.
At the 1995 draft, then Canucks general manager Pat Quinn pulled off one of the biggest blockbuster trades in Canucks history.