Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Third Line Center Options for Canucks

The main one being talked about today is Cody Hodgson. He has been playing injury free with the moose for a couple months now and has been playing decent hockey. His numbers do not reflect it but he has been working hard at creating scoring chances, and every once in a while Rosa or Sweatt will put the puck in the net.

One thing is clear for the Canucks, and it's that neither Bolduc or Lapierre should be relied on for third line center. Bolduc looked terrible last night and Lapierre will need to go back to the fourth line to fill in for the Duker.

Raymond played fourth line center earlier in the year and he looked great. When Samuelsson comes back May Ray could be bumped to the third line. It would be tough for him to win faceoffs against some of the good third line centers out there in the league.

Hansen is another option that has been tested recently. Hansen has proven to be reliable at both ends of the ice. His penalty killing prowess has proven he can be thrown on the ice and the canucks don't have to be worried about being scored on the way they were against LA in the playoffs last year.

Malhotra will be missed. Nobody kills penalties and is as reliable defensively as Malhotra. But it is possible we can find a fit for the third line center position that provides more offense than Malhotra did. This would ease up some of the pressure off the Sedin's and Kesler.

-Hark

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