So really, what is the deal with this NHL schedule? In the month of December the Vancouver Canucks played a game on average every other night. This is with a three day holiday break included. At the beginning of the month the team went on a stretch of eight games in twelve nights, seven of which were on the road and one (in the middle) was at home. We all know what the travel is like in the West, so why would there be one oddly-placed home game in the middle of a road-trip (after being in Nashville the night before).

To make things even worse to begin the month of January the Canucks on three days rest last Thursday against the Rangers which is a lot of rest in NHL standards. After being well rested and playing the Rangers at home, the Canucks had yet another break from Thursday until Tuesday before playing the Islanders also at home. The Islanders, unlike the Canucks, are well-versed in playing in 2008. They have played three games to date (0-1-2) and are coming off a 4-0 loss to the lowly Edmonton Oilers.

The Canucks have their own streak going as tonight versus the Islanders they look to make it 14 straight home games with getting at least a point. And they will have a new first line to help in their efforts. Speedster Mason Raymond, who won the Canucks fastest skater competition at the superskills this past weekend, has been promoted to playing wing with the Sedins while Markus Naslund will take his place skating alongside Taylor Pyatt and Jason Jaffray. The Canucks captain has cooled down considerably since his hot streak in November which saw him score 16 points in 15 games which included a span of 6 goals and 8 points in 4 games. Naslund in the last 11 games has only scored 7 points so the change in lines could be seen as much as a promotion for Raymond as a message to Naslund.

After Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, the NHL schedule maker decided to play another joke on the team as they head out to play 6 games in 8 nights, 4 out of the 6 on the road.

In their first game in the new year, the Vancouver Canucks started of with a big goose egg, the good kind! Although the Canucks didn’t necessarily outplay or outwit the Rangers, with stellar late-game goaltending from Roberto Luongo who posted his sixth shutout of the season, the Canucks played the role of survivor and outlasted the Rangers  by defending a one goal lead until late before putting it away.

The game started with great pace, the Canucks being well rested (compared to any time last month) and the Rangers looking to bounce back from a loss to the Flames the night before. As the pace slowed down, both teams began to take penalties but neither could convert each going 0-5 before the Canucks Jason Jaffray scored late in the third period on a deflection of a Willie Micthell point shot.

Neither offenses were spectacular as the Ryan Kesler checking line did what they do best and kept the Jagr scoring line in check while the Canucks were having trouble finding scoring chances. I’ve been parading the fact that this game was quite even, so it should not surprise anyone when I say both defenses were and bad at the same time. The Canucks d-men played average, but two of the six stood out for me. Aaron Miller and Lukas Krajicek looked quite out of place both making terrible mistakes on more than one occasion, and were lucky no to have paid for them in spades. The Canucks other defense, Roberto Luongo, played a vintage ‘Luey’ style game coming  up  big when he needed making big saves of Marcel Hossa and Martin Straka in the third period. The same cannot be said for Steve Valiquette who got the nod in net for the Rangers. Valiquette let in two suspect goals, the second of which (at the hands of Daniel Sedin, his 19th of the year) pretty much sealed the deal for the Canucks.

Another game against another team that the Canucks haven’t seen in Vancouver for who knows how many years goes by with the Canucks ending up on top. Fans who came to see goaltending star Henrik Lundqvist arrived disappointed, but fans who came to see super start Roberto Luongo left satisfied. The Canucks have another welcomed break until next Tuesday when they take on another far removed Eastern Conference team, the New York Islanders at GM Place.

Check out the box score here.

Vancouver Canucks (4-6-0) @ Detroit Red Wings (4-4-0)
Location: Washington, DC
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Time: 4:00pm/PST

Man this Canucks team is on one heck of a streak! Unfortunately for Canucks fans, the streak is not one which they would like to continue. Vancouver is coming off yet another loss against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, a loss in which they yet again did not put up a full sixty minute hard-working effort. Although their effort did seem more consistent throughout the game versus the Red Wings, it wasn’t even close to what it needed to be and many of their streaks of bad habits continued. The Canucks took way to many selfish and bone-headed penalties and once again got outshot by an extensive margin. Here’s a stat, the Red Wings first line outshot the whole Canucks team.

Vancouver rolls into Washington today for the first time in about four years (and who knows, probably the only time in a few more if the schedule doesn’t change) and they have one thing in common with the Caps’: both teams are having a tough time scoring. Washington was one of only three teams to have five 25-goal scorers last year, but this year things haven’t started the same. However with their off-season additions of Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti and another year under the belts of Alexanders Ovechkin and Semin, Washington’s depth is unlike it has been for many years. It’s only time before Washington starts to feel more comfortable and puts up more consistent offensive efforts.

Both teams would sorely like to get above .500 so this game, although still early in the season, is a proverbial must-win for both team. Washington is coming off a big win which saw them have their highest offensive output of the season with a 5-3 victory over Tampa Bay on Wednesday. Vancouver has been having trouble off the ice as well as on the ice as in recent days Markus Naslund has questioned the system the Canucks are playing and has stated that it is not conducive to scoring, while head coach Alain Vigneault has called out his top six forwards on more than one occasion for not producing or working hard.

The Canucks will be sporting some new lines tonight as Mason Raymond lines up where he did to start the season: alongside the Sedins on the first line. Ryan Kesler stays at centre but changes roles as he will centre a second line between Markus Naslund and Taylor Pyatt. The third line sees Brendan Morrison and Matt Cooke reunited and Trevor Linden will be back in the lineup in a scoring (and checking) role. This set of the top nine seems to be the most promising when it comes to having a balanced attack. Let’s not ask for goals from all three lines just yet as shots are hard enough to come by these days. But it’s reassuring enough to know that if one line gets shut down (like in games past) the Canucks won’t have to rely on a line of grinders to provide the team’s offense.

Vancouver Canucks (4-5-0) @ Detroit Red Wings (6-2-1)
Location: Joe Louis Arena - Detroit, Michigan
TV: TSN
Time: 4:30pm/PST

On again off again, that is the story as of late for the Vancouver Cancuks. The Canucks have lost three out of their last four games however the concern is not as much the losing but the way that those losses are coming. Since day one of this year’s NHL season, Vancouver has been severly outplayed at one point or another in all of the games that they have lost. The story from the players after those games: “we had (insert number of minutes) bad minutes and that’s where we lost the game”. So why do they keep on having those lapses that are costing them the game?

Coach Alain Vigneault unlike last year, says that it’s effort and timeliness that is causing his team to come out with the short end of the straw in recent losses. The head coach, who came into Vancouver last year promising that this Canucks team would not be outworked on any given night, is being proven wrong this year and his team, by his own account, has been outworked on more than one occasion. After the Canucks’ loss to Los Angeles last week, Vigneault also pleaded for his players to come up with timely big plays to help the team. Whether they come in the form of a big goal, penalty kill or save, the Canucks have not received many of those in timely fashion as of yet.

The Detroit Red Wings on the other hand are off to yet another great start led by the NHL’s leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg who is tied for the league lead in points with 17 proving that he has been extremely timely with his big plays this season. With the addition of Brian Rafalski on D, the Red Wings have picked up right were they left last regular season. They are yet again very difficult to play in Detroit and the Canucks will be in for quite the test against a team that is firing on all cylinders. Detroit was 29-4-8 on home ice last season and have started off the same way sporting a 3-1 home record. The Canucks were undefeated in Detroit last season (going 2-0, the only team to do so) and are lucky to be 3-1 on the road this year. If they continue to have lapses in effort and continue to make untimely and costly mistakes against the Red Wings tonight, you can rest assured that the Canucks’ recent success at Joe Louis will be gone as quick as you can say octopus.

Vancouver Canucks (1-2-0) @ Edmonton Oilers (2-2-0)
Location: Rexall Place - Edmonton, Alberta
TV: Rogers Sportsnet Pacific/West
Time: 6:00pm/PST

The Canucks in the recent past have not had a tough time defeating the Edmonton Oilers. In fact this Northwest division rivalry has been sort of one-sided over the last year. The Canucks went 6-2 against the Oilers last season, winning their last 5 games against Edmonton. However, if the Canucks head into tonight’s game with that in mind, they may just get blown out of the water again.

One of the biggest issues - along with poor defensive coverage and bad habits - that the Canucks faced during their 8-2 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday was work ethic. The Canucks, for the first time in a year, were outworked. They have every reason not to come in over confident against an Oilers team that will be looking for a big home game after dropping two straight. Edmonton won their first two games of the season against San Jose and Philadelphia before losing their next two. The Oilers’ powerplay is in a rut not scoring in it’s last 16 opportunities this season. But again, the Canucks should not take them lightly. With the likes of Sheldon Souray and Joni Pitkanen at the point, Dustin Penner in front of the net and players like Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner dishing the puck, Edmonton is just as much of a powerplay threat to the Canucks as the Flyers were.

Tonight’s game looks to be fairly evenly matched and should provide for some up-tempo exciting hockey. Look for both teams to come out hard looking for a good start and the first goal of the game. Roberto Luongo will start for Vancouver and Dwayne Roloson for Edmonton. Both Edmonton and Vancouver will be looking to stay out of the penalty box as the Oilers do not want to face the Canucks’ (finally) dangerous powerplay and the Canucks do not want to expose their (apparent) disimproved penalty kill.

Close Watch: Keep an eye out for Canucks grinder Rick Rypien who was re-called to the team and will most likely crack the lineup for the first time in about a year. Rypien will be hyped to make it back to the big team after battling injuries and will be a welcome to a Canucks team which looked like it needed some energy.

Prediction: I think it’s pretty safe to say that this will be a close game. Both teams will be a little nervous coming off losses and needing a win. The game will go in to overtime and end in a 3-3 draw, leading to the shootout. The Canucks will prevail in the shootout, winning the game 4-3.

Ryan Shannon leads the Canucks in goals, power play goals and has played on the top two lines throughout the first three regular season games. So it’s no surprise that on Thursday, Canucks Senior VP and GM Dave Nonis announced that the Canucks had re-assigned Shannon to the team’s minor league affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. Uhh wait, what?

It was expected that head coach Alain Vigneault would send a message the day after an 8-2 loss at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. A bag skate, a long day of watching tape, maybe a line shake-up is what most people would have expected, but I don’t think many (including myself) thought it would come in the form of Ryan Shannon being sent down to the minors. Shannon began the season with big expectations as he - along with Mason Raymond - was labeled as being one of the answers to the Canucks scoring problems. Putting the first game against the Sharks aside, the Canucks haven’t had trouble scoring early on and neither has Shannon. In fact Shannon, who has seven shots this season, has had many chances to score.

Evident yesterday, however, the Canucks have had plenty of trouble defensively and with their effort. And although Shannon was given every opportunity to succeed offensively - and he did to a certain extent - something tells me that he wasn’t pulling his weight defensively, away from the puck in the eyes of coach V. This definitely sends a message, it says that there is no room for error. Bold moves like this one weren’t unfamiliar last season (Trevor Linden: a healthy scratch, first powerplay unit; Jeff Cowan’s increased ice-time) as Vigneault had a happy trigger finger. Luckily for Canucks fans, his aim was dead on.

Source: http://canucks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=339792

Lost and found. That is how I would describe last night’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks. Actually, it really wasn’t much of a game rather than a poor excuse for one. Lost was the team that Canucks’ fans had grown accustumed to seeing over the past season, and if it wasn’t for the ‘Vancouver’ across their chests, you would not have been able to find them. While found was a new Flyers team.

The Flyers came out with something to prove and a record to uphold. Throughout Canucks’ history, Vancouver has never defeated the Flyers in Vancouver. Judging by their performance last night, who knows if they ever will? For the first few minutes of the game both teams were going end to end trading scoring chances. That’s something that the fans love, but Vigneault and the Canucks try to avoid. However they couldn’t avoid the high flying Flyers for very long as the quickly went down 2-0 and 4-1 by the end of the first.

Lost was the defensive prowess that the exhibited through the second two-thirds of last season as the Canucks team as a whole was confused when it came to coverage in their own zone. Many of the Flyers’ goals were direct results of blown coverage in the Vancouver zone. Aaron Miller through a puck straight up the middle in his own zone and found that puck sitting in his own net seconds later. And Kevin Bieksa and Willie Mitchell both went to block a Daniel Briere pass to Simon Gagne on a Philly powerplay, which left the Flyers’ sniper wide open for an empty-net tap in.

Found was the calling and new philosophy of the Philadelphia Flyers. Philly played a high-powered offensive game with a dangerous powerplay and stable defense in their first game of the season versus Calgary. Yesterday with their slaughtering of Vancouver they proved that they can dismantle teams - with their high octane offense - which are regarded to have the best defenses in the league. The Flyers looked dangerous of the rush 5-on-5, they looked extremely dangerous on the powerplay and they even looked dangerous on a 3-on-5 on which Mike Richards scored shorthanded on a breakaway.

Philly, only three games in, may have kickstarted their year in a perfect way to bounce back from a dismal previous season. Vancouver on the other hand seems to have taken steps backwards from where they were last season. Coach Alain Vigneault at the beginning of the previous year said that no team of his will get outworked. I guess there is a first for everything as most comments coming from the Canucks’ dressing room last night were airing on the side of a lack of effort. This morning on the Team 1040 radio, Canucks’ GM Dave Nonis iterated the same sentiments when he said that the Canucks’ effort last night was ‘lazy and stupid’ and that if the players ‘don’t want to work, we’ll find others that will’. Luckily for the Canucks, to give them time to bounce back, and for the Flyers, to keep them grounded, it’s only the third game of the season.

Thumbs Up: The Canucks powerplay looked dangerous yet again scoring two goals. The Sedins set up both goals on set plays to Ryan Shannon and Lukas Krajicek.

Thumbs Down: Jesse Boulerice showed why he’s on the fourth line and is fighting for a spot in the Flyers lineup (also why he was banned from the OHL) when he cross-checked Ryan Kesler in the head late in the third period. Boulerice was given a match penalty and is suspended indefinitely by the NHL.

Philadelphia Flyers (1-1-0) @ Vancouver Canucks (1-1-0)
Location: GM Place, Vancouver
TV: Canucks PPV
Time: 7:30pm/PST

With it being so early into the season, it isn’t surprising that the leading storyline heading into tonights game between the Canucks and Flyers is the fact that these two teams haven’t met in Vancouver in six years. It used to be to a mainstay that the Canucks and Flyers always played around Halloween or New Years, but now one is would be fooling to bet on when they will meet next. Although the schedule is an interesting debate, there is much more to talk about leading in to tonight’s match-up.

Both the Canucks and the Flyers have gone over significant team changes over the last couple of years. The Canucks, last season, when through a large roster change and a change in the team philosophy. The Flyers are trying to do the same this year after a very disappointing and disheartening season last year. The Canucks had success after their acquisition of superstar goalie Roberto Luongo and the Flyers are looking to do the same after they acquired Daniel Briere, Jason Smith, Kimmo Timmonen, Joffrey Lupul, Scott Upshall, Scott Hartnell and Martin Biron over the last year.

By the looks of it the Flyers are dedicating themselves to a strong defensive system while inherently having the offensive skill to produce. The Canucks have an inherent defensive strength with arguably the best defensive core and goaltender in the league, but they are struggling to find two lines that will consistently put up an offensive threat. Both teams in somewhat of the same situation, both with a lot to prove. The Canucks are looking to make it deep into the playoffs, while the Flyers are looking to regain a birth in the post-season. However with such turnover in their roster and the incredible offensive upside, the expectations are already high for a Flyers team that missed the playoffs last year.

Two games into the 2007-2008 regular season the Canucks find themselves in a position similar to where they were at the beginning of last season. A year ago the Canucks were searching for their identity. After a disappointing season in which the team missed the playoffs for the first time in recent memory, Canucks GM and Vice-President Dave Nonis went through a major overhaul and revamped the team in the off-sesaon. Beginning with the acquisition of all-star goaltender Roberto Luongo and the hiring then Manitoba Moose head coach Alain Vigneault, Nonis shaped his team around defense; something that hadn’t been done in Vancouver under the tenure of Marc Crawford. Early in the season the Canucks (specifically those who were used to the old system) struggled and the team got off to a slow start. With 14 new names on the roster, players were playing with linemates they had never played with before and were trying to find chemistry. Throughout the year the chemistry came and the identity was formed; the Canucks were a strong defensive team, tough play with a goalie who was near impossible to beat.

This year, although the situation is very much different with the Canucks coming off a season which many would consider a success and the identity of the team pretty much keeping form with last year’s, the Canucks still do find themselves trying to get used to some new faces. Jan Bulis, Marc Chouirnard, Brian Smolinski, Brent Sopel and Rory Fitzpatrick are all gone from the Canucks lineup and although these names aren’t superstar names like Naslund and the Sedins, each player did have a role and left a roster spot to fill with his departure. Newcomers such as Brad Isbister, Byron Ritchie, Ryan Shannon, Mike Weaver, Aaron Miller and Mason Raymond have all been inserted and are all trying to find a spot in which they, their teammates and their head coach are comfortable.

With a pre-season laden with player injuries, the Canucks’ skaters were still trying to gel as the season began and that was apparent as they took the ice - looking lost and confused - in their season opener at GM Place against the Sharks. But much like last year, coach V didn’t let the team play two bad games in a row as the Canucks bounced back in their second game and defeated the Calgary flames in an exciting overtime win. So we have seen two different Canucks teams so far this season, Wednesday night the Canucks will be put to the test as they face a high-flying rejuvinated Philadelphia team led by Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne. Which Vancouver team will show up?

Man, have I ever been waiting for something like this to come along for me to contribue to. I’m restricted to writing about the Canucks and only the Canucks. I’m advised to follow the team just as a beat reporter would and cover everything that happens regarding the Canucks. I’m also encouraged to provide my opinion and analysis on the goings on of Vancouver’s favorite team (nothing against the Lions, Giants, Whitecaps or Canadians). So I sit here writing my first post for the Canucks Den and I am asking myself, could life be any better?

Canucks Den is here to provide you with all you need to know to stay up to date with the Vancouver Canucks and everything related to them. I will primarily be providing previews for upcoming games and recaps and analysis of previous games. I will also, from time to time, share my opinions as a hockey mind and a Canucks fan regarding different storylines that arise throughout the season (and off-season, because there is no such thing as an off-season in Vancouver). Although following the Canucks and what they’re up to is my life, take everything that I say with a grain of salt (especially my opinions) and if you have something to say, by all means feel free to respond by posting a comment. Tell me I’m an idiot and I’m way off base, or let me know that you appreciate my thoughts. Or do neither and just post your own thoughts, whenever you have them. Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

And last but not least, for this site to grow I ask of all of you who are reading this to pass on the link. If someone wants to know what’s going on with the Canucks in the past few days, then point them to the Canucks Den (www.canucksden.com). Let’s get this show on the road!