The Vancouver Canucks Off-Season Analysis

Shhh...everything is so quiet nowadays on the hockey front that it feels like a Florida Panther pre-season game.

Zing! Not even 12 hours old, a topical reference!

It almost seems a shame to rock me out of my summer siesta and start thinking about my hockey pools again. It almost shames me to think that while I was doing normal every day summer things (like becoming a new dad again) some young kids (and a lot of old ones) were busting their asses at the gym (aka dryland training) keeping in shape for the training camp microscope that has begun in a somewhat small chance of living their dream of playing in the NHL. I had that dream too, kids and look at me now!

So let's take start my season of Dad-related hockey thoughts and look at what the Canucks/Mike Gillis has done during the off-season, starting with Draft Day's biggest surprise;

Seth Green's new rush mock-up of Cory Schneider
figurine for a Robot Chicken sketch

Cory Schneider is dealt, Luongo wins/loses.

Cory Schneider is traded to New Jersey; so the year-long plague that was the goaltending controversy is over in Vancouver. Unless for some reason Luongo goes public a la Patrick Roy and demands out. I don't see that happening.
I think Gillis did well on this one; Luongo always was the Canucks #1 starter and will continue to be. Schneider was great in a back up role, average in the playoffs and he was playing with a stellar team in front of him. He will not be the next coming of Marty Brodeur in New Jersey, but he will be capable.

Team owner Francis Aquavelva-something went down to Florida to meet with Luongo personally, followed by Mike Gillis. He then came back and filed for divorce in which he wants his financial assets sealed as 'protection for his children'.

Bo knew everything, at one time.

Canucks First Round Draft Pick; Bo who?

The Canucks used their 1st round pick on Bo something. If his last name ain't Jackson, it isn't worth remembering. Sorry, i'm not a guy to get all excited about some kid that just signed for more money than i will ever make in 10 years and in a best case scenario, may play in the NHL 5 years from now. Talk to me when he's scored a few goals, like our next guy;

Pavel Bure's Number 10 retired.

You know you are getting old when your team starts retiring numbers of players you have actually watched. For me that's Stan Smyl, Trevor Linden, Markus Naslund and now, the Russian Rocket.

With hockey; Bure at 25, looking 15.

Without hockey; Bure, at 40, looking 50

Not necessarily a Gillis thing, but a smart promotional move to counter the horrors of their goaltender drama.  It was gracious of Pavel to accept the honor of having his number and saying he was grateful to have it hanging beside Stan Smyl's which makes Bure pretty freaking awesome on this blog. I won't get into Bure's leaving the Canucks as it's pretty well-known how the Canuck organization pushed him to come back from his knee injuries which most likely knocked 10 years off his all-star career so nice to see there's no hard feelings anymore.

Used their buy-out on Keith Ballard. 

sure, why not. Slow news day when this hit TSN.


Traded Alain Vigneault for John Tortorella.  

I like both these guys, really I do. But i think 'culture-shock' is the first thing that comes to mind. AV was the winningest coach in Canuck history. Tortorella speaks his mind, bluntly. Tortorella's team are built on toughness, AV's built on speed. Nobody wanted to use the word Keenan but everyone did.

Look for the Sedins to learn to play a bit more defense, look for Bieksa having to fight a few people in his weight class, watch a few of the third-liners getting more physical as they discover hits=playing time.

I don't expect the Canucks to do as well as in years past, mainly due to the change of coaching style. I don't think the Canucks boat needed a changing of the Admiral; just look at Mike Babcock's record to realize that good coaches don't make the Stanley Cup finals every year, but they do make the playoffs. AV's firing was another huge mistake that screams of a personality clash with Gillis as opposed to anything related to on-ice performance.

Rick Nash in his natural habitat come playoffs

I think the big winner will be the Rangers new Sedin twins; Rick Nash and Brad Richards.  Look for them to produce more this year.

Big winner #2

"and then i said, we still need to put your salaries in an escrow account!"

Remember when the media all freaked out and said the NHL was going to die a slow death and that fans would punish the owners by refusing to attend games? Neither does the media, who clearly failed to realize how starved for distractions we really are.

Oh yeah, can't forget the finally officially announced retirement of this future Hall of Famer; 

Kipper beating it the hell out of my fantasy hockey team.