Canucks Defense Pairings Game 2 SCF

We have to face the music that Hamhuis will likely be out for a few games. It looked like at least a broken rib. So who do you call up? Alberts, Ballard or Tanev?

Alberts is tough as nails and used to play for Boston so he knows the system. But he hasn't played since the Nashville series, would he be ready? Ballard (Balls of Lard)is also very physical. He has more experience playing Boston than most Canucks because he has been playing them 4 times a season in his days with the Florida Panthers. Ballards career stats against Boston:


Chris Tanev is the last option for the Canucks. He's a right handed shooter which is very useful because they are tough to come by.

My Predictions for Lines for Game 2:

Prediction 1
edler-ehrhoff
bieksa-rome
salo-alberts


If canucks lose this game the shakeup will be as follows

edler-ehrhoff
bieksa-salo
tanev-ballard

-Hark

Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators

Dan Hamhuis will have to enjoy the view from the press box for tonights game. The Star Defenceman is sitting out with his second concussion in 48 games. Samuellson and Glass will also be sitting out with Edler and Alberts.

I am most looking forward to getting Andrew Alberts back from injury. He was playing some really intimidating hockey before he went down with his first injury. He didn't get much time to show off after he got back before getting injured again. Alberts plays a unique style of defence that sees him get in the right lanes to prevent shots from going towards the net. He also plays very physical and is able of laying out some of the best hits on the Canucks on opposing players. He has been playing really smart hockey for the Canucks this season and you couldn't ask for a better defenseman to have in your third pairing. Obviously Edler will bring a lot more to the team offensively and defensively, but Alberts contribution could go a long way especially if he can stay healthy while other Canucks D-men continue to drop like flies (knock on wood).

It will be a good game against the Predators tonight. David Legwand is playing really hot right now so the top pairing will have a tough time shutting him down. Mike Fisher is coming off of a 2 goal night and he also scored his first goal as a Predator against the Canucks. Hopefully his wife is in the stands so we can get some good Carrie Underwood shots

The battle between Luongo and Rinne tonight will involve two goalies who in my opinion will definitely be nominated for the Vezina. The third goalie would be Tim thomas who at this point in the season is probably most likely to win because of his GAA and Save percentage.

Also Shea Weber is bound to have a good game against his home province team. We have to be careful not to take too many stupid penalties because the last thing i want to happen is for Burrows or Kesler to have to block a Shea Weber shot from the point. It's too bad we can't put Torres on the 1st line PK to stand in front of those shots.

All in all it will be a very good game. The Canucks definitely need to win this game so they can have confidence facing Nashville in the playoffs. Currently the Preds lead the season series 2-1. The last thing the Canucks want is for O'brien to have more fuel to jokingly criticize the Canucks about

-Hark

Update on Hamhuis

Apparently after Hamhuis's last concussion he said that he would consider retiring.

Also Kevin Bieksa has come out and says he is sorry and feels "partially responsible" for what happend to Hamhuis.

-Hark

Video of HAmhuis Concussion

I would be concussed too if i got hit by a dual collission of Bieksa and Rick NAsh. There's a lot of people suggesting that it's HAmhuis's shoulder. To which I reply, "have you been smoking crack?" Hamhuis has had three concussions in his career and he definitely rushed back after the one he was given by Getzlaf. He was barely gone a month which probably wasn't long enough to get rid of all the symptons.

The good news is that we finally have a use for Chris Tanev again. The bad news is that this could be a lingering problem for Hamhuis. Hopefully he will be ready to return by the first round of the playoffs, because the combination of him and Bieksa really was working great.



-Hark

Tuesday Ramblings

The only real hole that the Canucks have to fill is to their fourth line. They have called up Cody Hodgson to try and fill an apparent void that exists on this line. If he is not able to do anything it will be apparent that canucks need to make a trade for a fourth liner. There is a lot of talk about Zenon Konopka however when it comes to fourth liners there are numerous opportunities.

According to Vigneault the starting lines for defence tonight will be :

Ehrhoff-ballard
salo-hamhuis
rome-tanev

You have to conclude that Vigneault is more worried about Hamhuis's recovery than Ballard. We all know Ehrhoff is a work-horse with his enormous minutes that he has put up all season long. Ballard is going to be tested tonight and hopefully the speedy canucks don't make him look bad. Hamhuis and Salo will also get some respectable minutes, but you would have to think not as much as the top pairing of ehrhoff and ballard.

The last time that the canucks lost to the HAbs at home was in the sedin's rookie season back in 2000. The Habs lost in edmonton 4-1 earlier in the week, and two nights ago they lost 4-0 against the flames. so far on this western swing they have lost 8-1. i feel really bad for all the Habs fans that have made the trip across Western Canada to watch the team. If the Habs lost tonight there will be a lot of angry Francophone's that are going to be flying out of YVC promising not to watch another Habs game all season.

-hark

Best hit of the year so far

hamhuis on murray

What the long rest does for canucks?

Another defenseman got injured for the Canucks. Andrew NHlbert, injured his knee this week. The canucks next game is on monday. If Alberts does sit it out the canucks will not have to call up another defenseman because Hamhuis is supposed to be back in the lineup. If Alberts can play that means Parent might be sent down to the Moose (or it might be better to hold onto him for when the next canucks defenseman goes down momentarily). If Parent did go down to the Moose he would compliment an already amazing defense which has seen Kevin Connaughton and Lee Sweatt leading the Moose so far in goals this season, each scoring more than Schroeder, Hodgson and Shirokov combined.

Burrows is also supposed to be back next week after all this rest. Not on the Monday game however it is more likely that he will be back against the oilers on november 2nd.

with ballard's concussion we have to expect he will be out longer. At least this gives him more time to rest his knee which had surgery in the off season. When Ballard comes back he will be ready to go for a long haul for the rest of the season.

If the canucks didn't suck so much....

So the canucks have had a weeks rest pretty much. They've been struggling at home lately. Its luongo's first game at home in a while. And what happens? The canucks can't play defense. Can you blame a team for poor defense when they are compiled of manitboa moose call ups? Definitely.

The avs were playing their backup goalie and the canucks still couldn't put more than three goals past him in regulation. This should have been the type of game that is a blowout. Instead the canucks trailed the avs until the third when they got a lead. And then blew the lead with three minutes left. Fortunately we got a fluke goal in overtime to prevent luongo from being further humiliated in the shootout.

Its good for the canucks to have to learn to play with all these injuries. They're leading goal scorer from last year (burrows), they're top defenseman (hamhuis), plus their third and fourth defenseman (salo and ballard). When it comes to down the stretch and the playoffs there will be more injuries and the canucks have to learn how to make their depth guys step up. And if there are no injuries you need your third and fourth liners to be able to contribute (like chicago did last year with bolland, ladd, bifugly and versteeg).

For the love of christ canucks you gotta start playing with more dominance. Even with injuries the canucks should be a team that is feared. Unfortunately it does not look that way right now.

-hark

Analysis of the Canucks Defence thus Far into preseason

this is a list of the potential Canucks defence for the coming year ranked by my preference so far in the preseason from what I have seen from each player.

1) Christian Erhoff- Strong on the point on the powerplay. Not the hardest slapshot but very accurate. Is comfortable playing with the Sedin's and dealing with the pressure to perform that that entails. Looks really good alongside Hamhuis.

2) Hammer (Hamhuis)-Solid defensively which will help fill the void left by Willie Mitchell however hammer has way more offensive upside. Is very physical and you dont want to mess with this mahf.

3) Alex edler- five years ago this guy was playing in hockey beer leagues in sweden. Now he's emerging as one of the premier defenseman on the canucks. Great Puck mover, as well as the best slap passer the canucks have. Edler, slap pass to henrik, goal.

4)Sami Salo- Even though he will be injured until november his booming slapshot will not be forgotten. hopefully he will pull a lance armstrong and play better with one testicle.

5) Bieksa- As bad as he was in the playoffs last year against chicago, he still has a lot of potential. he is very bad defensively where he constantly finds himself out of position, but so far this preseason that has not been evident. he has dealed with a lot of injuries over the past three seasons. If he can stay healthy this year and get into the swing of things hopefully he can once again regain his status as one of the canucks premier defenseman.

6) Keith ballard- terrible preseason until yesterday. Him and bieksa were on the ice for the first three goals against against edmonton. It can be explained by the fact that he had hip surgery and was on crutches for two months starting in may. He is a few months behind schedule but expect him to start showing why we traded 2 players that were first round draft picks plus a first round draft pick for this guy. look at this hit from yesterday:



7) SOB (shane o'brien)- a very physical defenceman that is not afraid to fight. he was the only canucks player that could stand up to bifugly last year. unfortunately he hasnt had much preseason time. Expect OB to play in Manitoba a lot this year, however he will be called up to the canucks when we need an enforcer. This guy has a history of taking stupid penalties.

8) andrew Ahlberts- the more i see this guy play the more i ask why we traded a second round pick for him last year. he is so bad. what him in this play from yesterday spend too much time trying to look up the ice to make the right play before joe pavelski makes a pinball of him: