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				<title>"It was a messed up year..."</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[There are questions to be answered, but Mike Gillis isn’t prepared for that just yet.

The general manager of the Vancouver Canucks met with the media Thursday, less than 48 hours after his team was swept out of the Western Conference Quarterfinal by the San Jose Sharks; the Norm Jewison Media Room at Rogers Arena was packed to the brim with reporters wanting answers.

The biggest topic of the day was the fate of Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault, who for the time being, remains the bench boss in Vancouver.

Gillis had not spoken with Vigneault since the 4-3 overtime loss in San Jose Tuesday night and he won’t be making any knee-jerk reactions to the Canucks being swept for the fourth time in team history.

Acting on emotions isn’t Gillis’ style.

“We just finished this, most of you know I don’t make decisions based on immediate emotion or pressure,” said Gillis, as part of his 45 minute press conference. “Alain is a very good hockey coach, we’ve had a very good record here the last five years and like everybody else in the organization, he’ll be evaluated like I’ll be evaluated.

“We’re going to do a thorough review of every element of the organization over the next period of time and AV, like everyone else, will be evaluated for this season and seasons past, especially in the playoffs.”

Gillis did not comment further on the future of Vigneault, the winningest coach in team history, instead he shouldered his share of the blame for a second consecutive first-round exit by the Canucks, following a run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2011.

Five years ago Gillis became GM of the Canucks and he began doing things differently in Vancouver. He said he “re-set” the organization then, and believes “it’s time to do it again.”

That process, he explained, begins with him fulfilling his responsibilities as general manager.

“It’s my job to give the coach the best players that we can possibly give him and regardless of what happened, and regardless of what happened in the shortened season, that’s my responsibility and that’s my job.”

How that will occur moving forward remains a mystery, but Gillis said his team needs to get younger. He believes the core of the team is young and either in the primes of their careers or nearly there, and that the base is there for a strong, competitive hockey team moving forward.

It’s the style of hockey being played that may need to change.

“When I took this job we decided on a style of play that resulted in great success and clearly the landscape has changed and we have to address those changes moving forward, we don’t have a choice,” admitted Gillis. “It’s not something that I necessarily principally agree in, but that’s what we face and that’s what we have to do. We have to make the changes and adjustments necessary to compete for a Stanley Cup. It’s my intention to do it and recognize what’s going on and make sure that we have a team that is better equipped.

Gillis continued: “It’s quite clear the league is going in a certain direction that we need to adapt to and it doesn’t just happen in one playoff series, but from that series in Boston there has been a significant change in how the game is played and viewed. We have to recognize it and evolve with it and make sure that we have the personnel top to bottom that’s capable of dealing with it.”

“There are a couple of significant changes we have to make and we’re going to start this week formulating that plan.”

Gillis covered as many topics as reporters were present and the other only truly significant issue to arise was regarding Roberto Luongo.

When asked if he thought there was any chance Luongo would be with the Canucks come fall, Gillis replied, “I think it’s unlikely.”

He also admitted not being sure if starting Cory Schneider in Games 3 and 4 was the correct call to make, but that it was up to the coaching staff and he backs their decisions 100 per cent.

All in all, Gillis said moments before stepping down from the podium, this simply wasn’t Vancouver’s year for more reasons than he could count.

“If you look at this season from my perspective and from the organization, it’s been a terrible season for us. I think the uncertainly of the lockout, the way it ended, having players injured throughout the entire timeframe, it just seemed to be pilling on and pilling on throughout the entire season.

“It was a messed up year from top to bottom. In dealing with a messed up season with the kind of injuries that we had, we tried to evaluate where we were in accomplishing things as we moved throughout the entire season, but I think you can all recognize that nothing happened until the trade deadline and even on the deadline very little happened.

“Our ability to do things in this messed up season was really limited and hindered by a lot of factors. So we tried, we tried to get things done, but for various reasons it wasn’t to our satisfaction and we need to do better.”

Take Gillis word, the best is yet to come.]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 17:22:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Canucks Report: Done too early</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[A week ago, nearly everyone was expecting the Vancouver Canucks to return to Rogers Arena.

Well they were there on Thursday, but not to play Game 5 of their playoff series with the San Jose Sharks, instead they were discussing where it all went wrong following their tremendously disappointing four-game sweep.

“This year we had high hopes, really high hopes,” Daniel Sedin told a crush of reporters. “We made a few too many mistakes, there’s no doubt about that.”

Having to watch to his team’s season end from the penalty-box in overtime made the loss especially difficult for Daniel.

“It hurts. I thought we played extremely well. We battled back and probably should have lost that game, but in the end penalties cost us. That’s the frustrating part. I thought we did a lot of things to ourselves that hurt our team and looking back we probably could have done a few things differently.”

Daniel was penalized on a questionable boarding call that referee Kelly Sutherland made from over 100 feet away, 13 minutes into overtime.

“The other referee was standing two feet from me and doesn’t make the call and Kelly makes it from the red-line, so that’s really the only thing you could maybe ask him.”

Despite the controversial call and the fact the Canucks were penalized at a much higher rate than San Jose, Daniel refused to question the referee's integrity.

“I believe that the referee’s are professional. When they come into games they should look at both teams the same way and I really believe that.”

“I’m just disappointed,” Cory Schneider said. “It’s strange to be watching hockey and to not be a part of it. I think as a group it just feels like too soon to be packing up and saying good-bye. Disappointment is the only word I can think of.”

Goaltending Saga

The goaltender saga was a story throughout the year for the Canucks and it only escalated in the playoffs with Roberto Luongo starting Games 1 and 2, before Cory Schneider returned from his mystery injury, which he was able to clarify Thursday.

“I tweaked a groin in the Chicago game and I was hoping to get it better in time, but sometimes things don’t respond the way you want them to,” Schneider said.

The 27-year-old netminder wanted to make clear that he was 100% confident in his abilities before returning and doesn’t want the groin injury to be viewed as an excuse.

“It wasn’t an issue, the groin was fine.”

As for Roberto Luongo, he admitted the back and forth starts with Schneider early in the season were an issue but mostly, he just wants a starting position.

“My main goal is to be a starter, I want to play, at the end of the day that's what I want,” said Luongo.

“What's happened over the last two years suggests that maybe it's not my time to be the starter here anymore.”

The two goalies maintained a positive relationship throughout the season.

“The game is full of things you don't expect. Roberto was tremendous through the whole process,” Schneider said.

Changes

Following back-to-back first round eliminations in which the team only won a single game, it’s likely a vastly different team will be back for the beginning of next season but the players remain strong in the belief that this team can win a championship.

“I’m a firm believer in what’s going on here,” Kevin Bieksa said. “With the players we have and the staff we have in this organization I don’ t think that the window is closing unlike some of the talk I’ve heard.”

Jason Garrison, who completed just his first season with the club, agreed with Bieksa’s assessment.

“I think the players in this room can do it for sure. I don’t think a change is needed, but that’s not my decision to be made, that’s up to management.”

“I expect a team that’s going to be ready to play and ready to start the grind all over again,” Ryan Kesler said. “I think our core here is strong and I think we can still be better and we need to prove that next year.”

World Championships

Many Canucks will be jumping on cross-Atlantic flights in the next couple of days to represent their countries at the 2013 World Hockey Championships, including the Sedins and Alex Edler, who will suit up for host Sweden.

“It’s special because it’s on home-ice. That makes it something special for us to come back there and play for them, but I think for every player that’s over here the World Championships are second-nature,” Henrik Sedin admitted.

“You want to win over here.”

Nicklas Jensen, who played in just two games as a Canuck this season, will suit up for his native Denmark.

Former Team Canada members Dan Hamhuis and Alex Burrows say a decision on if they will be donning the Maple Leaf will be made in the next couple of days.

Jannik Hansen will not be playing for Denmark because of a shoulder injury suffered late in Game 4 against San Jose.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 16:44:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Business as usual</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Business as usual

Despite their 3-0 series lead over the Vancouver Canucks, the San Jose Sharks are maintaining their business-as-usual approach to Game 4 tonight at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

“We just play,” Joe Thornton simply stated to reporters following the Sharks morning skate. “We’ve been in a lot of series down 3-0. You just have to take it one game at a time.”

The Sharks had a 3-0 against the Detroit Red Wings, before letting it slip away with Detroit taking the next three forcing a pivotal Game Seven which the Sharks won narrowly. Thornton and the Sharks have also experienced a 3-0 deficit, when they were swept by the eventual 2010 Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I wouldn’t say we are comfortable. This series is a long way from being over. We know how desperate they are going to play. Their season’s on the line,” said Logan Couture, who leads the NHL in playoff scoring with three goals and three assists.

Veteran leadership

That experience is invaluable when it comes to keeping the group’s cool as they face a Canucks team with their backs against the wall.

“Having Stuart, Burish and Gomez adds an element on the ice and in the room that’s calming and obviously with the experience they have it’s backed up,” said Patrick Marleau of the three Sharks players with Stanley Cup rings on their resumes.

“Everybody has put their bodies on the line for the post-season. Scotty Hannan has been through a lot of wars and so has Brad so it’s nice having those guys around,” said Thornton. “Their veteran leadership goes a long way in the room and hopefully we will get the best out of them tonight.”

Moving on up

Brent Burns' move from defence to right-wing on the first line with Joe Thornton and TJ Galiardi has wowed many observers in this series. The 6’5” Ajax, Ontario, native not only set-up Raffi Torres’ Game Two overtime winner but is third on the Sharks in shots. However, it maybe his lighthearted, easy-going attitude that has had the biggest impact.

“We have so much fun together, we’re always laughing and talking on the bench” said Thornton of his linemate. “He’s a big force. I’ve been playing with him for a couple of months now, sometimes I still don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s wild out there but it makes it fun and real enjoyable to play with.”

Burns’ development into a formidable power forward may be catching the NHL by surprise, but don’t include his coach, Todd McLellan in that group. McLellan coached Burns in the AHL with the Houston Aeros where Burns often lined up as a forward.

“I felt good about him having the ability to do it, having done it in the past. The risk was whether he would accept that. He’s a team guy. He’s accepted it and it’s worked out for us,” McLellan said.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 18:02:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks @ Sharks Game 4</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Daniel Fung

THE SET-UP

The Vancouver Canucks (trail series 0-3) will look to avoid being swept for the fourth time in franchise history when they face the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 at the HP Pavilion at San Jose.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

-  The Canucks got one step closer towards packing it up for the season on Sunday dropping a 5-2 decision in Game 3 to put them on the brink of elimination. A win tonight would mean the Canucks have a chance to host at least one more game in front of their fans on Thursday at Rogers Arena. A loss would send the Canucks into their summer vacation.

-  Vancouver has lost four straight playoff games dating back to last year and now have just one playoff win in their last 10 outings dating back to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. They also have just one playoff win on the road in their last six outings.

-  The Canucks have been swept three times in team history in best-of-seven playoff series. The last time they failed to win even a single game in a best-of-seven series was back in their 2011 Western Conference quarterfinal series against the eventual Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

-  This is the fourth time in Sharks franchise history that they have built up a 3-0 series lead but they have never managed complete a series sweep. The last time they had a 3-0 series lead was in their 2011 Conference semi-final series against Detroit. They nearly squandered that lead, however, as the Red Wings won three in a row to force a deciding Game 7 before the Sharks finally managed to secure the series victory with a 3-2 win in seventh game.

-  The Canucks held a sparsely attended optional practice yesterday with little in the way of lineup news emerging from the session, including which goaltender - Cory Schneider or Roberto Luongo - would be tapped to get the start in perhaps the final game of the year.

-  The Sharks chose not to skate yesterday but it's hard to imagine they make any significant lineup changes given how successful they've been in the first three games of this series. Injured F Martin Havlat will be a game-time decision.

-  Sunday's game marked the third time this season that Canucks G Cory Schneider has surrendered five goals in a game. The other two times he did so, he responded by posting victories in his next two consecutive outings.

-  Sharks F Patrick Marleau continued his playoff hot streak against the Canucks in Game 3 by netting his third goal in three straight games on Sunday. He now has seven goal and 10 points in eight career playoff games versus Vancouver while scoring in at least six of those eight games.

-  The two goals scored nine seconds apart by the Sharks (Couture and Marleau) in the third period of Game 3 were the fastest by a Canucks' opponent in playoff history. It shattered the previous record of 17 seconds set by Colorado's Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic back on April 18, 2011. As far as the Sharks' history books go, it was one second shy of equaling the club mark of eight seconds for fastest two playoff goals. That record was set on April 30, 1998 against Dallas by John Maclean and Ron Sutter.

-  The five goals the Canucks gave up on Sunday were the most in a single playoff game since the Bruins beat them for that same total in Game 6 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

-  Only four teams in North American major pro sports have ever managed to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to win. Three of those – the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1975 New York Islanders and the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers – are from the NHL. The other – the 2004 Boston Red Sox – is from Major League Baseball.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Caption This: Streeeetching Schneider</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Derek Jory

Reach for the sky.

Goaltenders are very unique individuals. It takes a special kind of person to strap on heavy, bulky equipment and willingly stand in the line of fire. Not every shot they face is a Zdeno Chara 175.1 km/h slapshot, but their job is to get in the way of flying rubber. Think about that. Crazy.

How you prepare for this is anyone's guess. Cory Schneider has apparently taken to creative stretching to help get ready for action.

This photo was taken Monday by Canucks photographer Jeff Vinnick; Schneider is getting in a good stretch with Vancouver's strength and conditioning coach Rpger Takahashi.

I put this photo in the latest Behind the Lens gallery with the caption "Posers". It's not my best work, but it did the job. You smirked, at the very least - amIright?

Your turn to show me what you've got. Caption away, Canucks fans.

One rule - Keep it clean.]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 19:38:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Fourth win is toughest</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Fourth is Hardest

The San Jose Sharks are in a familiar place up 3-0 in their series with the Vancouver Canucks following their 5-2 Game Three win. The Sharks had a similar strangle-hold on the Detroit Red Wings in the 2011 Western Conference Semi-Finals, only to see the Wings fight back forcing a Game 7.

“We’ve been there as well. You win one and you start to believe and then it gets rolling,” Todd McLellan said. “You’ll hear a lot from their team about winning just one and that put’s the pressure on. Our group has to come to play and be prepared to play hard.”

Brad Stuart was a member of that Red Wings club in 2011 and knows earning the all important fourth game when given the opportunity is essential.

“It was a lesson for sure. Each game in the series, each victory is harder to get. The third victory is harder than the second and the fourth is always the hardest so we have to remember that. It’s going to be the hardest game to win.”

Swimming with Depth

For the third straight game a Sharks centreman found his name all over the score sheet as Joe Pavelski scored twice, added an assist and had six shots on goal. After being held scoreless in the Sharks short playoff run last year getting some points on the board early is relief.

“It’s always nice, it’s such an awesome time to score goals,” admitted Pavelski who has 22 goals in 66 career playoff games. “Growing up watching playoff hockey on TV and you just saw the intensity and you just bring that. Thewith the fans here it’s just an awesome time of year.”

With Pavelski’s goal scoring, in addition to Logan Couture’s emergence as a valuable offensive contributor, allowes for long-time leaders Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau to focus on just playing their high skill game according to McLellan.

“In the past it was Jumbo (Thornton) and Patty (Marleau) have to score. They do have to contribute and they do have to score, but there’s others around them and I think it’s relieved a little bit of pressure from those two top guys.”

The Sharks have a chance to eliminate the Canucks Tuesday night in San Jose at 7pm.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 19:06:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>X's and O's - WCQF Game 3</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Jeff Angus

Game 3 played out much like Games 1 and 2 through the first 40 minutes.

The two teams played a very even game without much in the way of odd-man rushes of prime scoring chances on either Cory Schneider or Antti Niemi.

Alex Burrows cut the San Jose lead in half with a second period tally. At the time, the goal was huge for the Canucks, who were hoping to get back into the game (and the series). However, they couldn’t generate any more offense from it. Vancouver surrendered three consecutive third period goals (including two in the span of nine seconds), and they now face a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 series deficit.

Back to the Burrows goal. He and the Sedins haven’t been on the score sheet as much as expected through the first three games, but they have been the one consistent Vancouver line in terms of sustaining pressure in the offensive zone and creating chances. San Jose’s defense (coached by Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson) has done a phenomenal job stifling any and all Vancouver attacks.

Let’s look at what went on to create the first Vancouver tally from Game 3 at the Shark Tank.

The goal:

A great pass and an even better shot.

Daniel wins a puck battle along the far boards, and as per usual he knows exactly where Henrik is on the ice. Daniel fires a perfect cross-ice pass to his brother.

Henrik stays onside (barely) to receive the pass, and Burrows goes about as wide as he can to draw the Shark defender over to him. If you watch the Sedins and Burrows rush the puck up the ice, this is generally what they do. Henrik (and usually Daniel) will stick close together in an attempt to isolate an opposing player in a 2-on-1 situation, while Burrows goes as wide as he can to draw the other opposing defender away from the Sedins.

Henrik rushes the puck into the zone against Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Everyone knows he is going to pass the puck, but he does a good job of pushing the defense deep into the zone nonetheless. Vlasic plays this pretty well – he has a tight gap on Henrik, and he almost manages to deflect the puck away when Henrik pulls the puck back to his forehand.

Henrik makes a fantastic play by quickly changing directions and bringing the puck to his forehand, narrowly escaping Vlasic’s outstretched stick.

Henrik zips over a perfect pass right onto the tape of Burrows’ stick. Burrows is still pretty wide here for a one-timer, and he has to take the pass across his body, too (it isn’t a true one-timer in the sense that he can really step into it, as he is on the left side of the ice and is a left-handed shot).

Three Sharks stick to Daniel, as they know that he is usually the recipient of Henrik’s passes. Not this time, though.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the play. As soon as Burrows sees that Daniel has control of the puck, he takes off. Daniel uses his feet to shield the puck and gain control of it – it is quite obvious that soccer has influenced the Sedins, as they use their feet/legs quite a bit when protecting the puck. Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk is another player who obviously has a background playing soccer, as he does many of the same things as well.

This gives you an idea of how wide Burrows has skated at the San Jose blue line – he isn’t even in the frame right now. You can go back and watch almost any Sedin/Burrows goal that has been generated off of the rush, and you will find him in this exact spot (or you won’t, as he so rarely appears in the camera).

Vlasic really couldn’t have played this any better. Henrik has about a foot of ice to work with, and he quickly gets the puck over to Burrows. There are only a handful of players in the world who can make this type of move and pass together.

You can’t really see the puck here, but it is just above Niemi’s outstretched blocker. Burrows gets a lot on this shot considering its incredible difficulty level. Not only is it a one-timer, but as mentioned above, he takes the pass across his body, and he has Sharks all around him.

This was an all-world goal by the Canucks, and unfortunate for them that it couldn’t turn the tide in this game or series. It took two great passes from Daniel and Henrik and an even better shot from Burrows to pull off. San Jose has played near-perfect defensively through the first three games of this series, and Vancouver’s top line was better than near-perfect on this goal.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 13:58:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks @ Sharks Game 3</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[THE SET-UP

The Vancouver Canucks (trail series 0-2) will look for a crucial Game 3 win tonight against the San Jose Sharks as the series shifts to the HP Pavilion.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- The Canucks are coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss in Game 2 and now face a tremendous uphill climb if they hope to get back into this series and win it. The Canucks squandered a late 2-1 third period lead when Patrick Marleau evened the game with 56 seconds remaining in regulation before ex-Canuck Raffi Torres put the final dagger into their hearts with the OT winner 5:31 into the first extra session.

- Vancouver has lost three straight playoff games dating back to last year and has just one playoff win in their last nine post-season outings dating back to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. They've also lost six straight playoff home games dating back to 2011.

- Canucks F Jordan Schroeder, along with injured D Chris Tanev and G Cory Schneider, were among those that traveled with the team to San Jose. Tanev is still in a walking boot so he's highly doubtful to play. However, there are some who feel that both Schroeder and Schneider could factor into the lineup as early as tonight although that won't be known at least until this morning at the earliest.

- The Sharks are hoping to welcome F Scott Gomez back into the lineup tonight. Gomez has not played since April 23 missing four games in total. The Sharks are still missing D Jason Demers while F Martin Havlat, who was injured in Game 1, is questionable.

- This is the fourth time in Canucks playoff history that they have begun a best-of-seven series with two straight losses. History is clearly not on Vancouver's side as they lost all four of those series and only once managed to avoid a sweep.

- This is the seventh time in Sharks playoff history that they have begun a best-of-seven with two straight wins and only the second time they've managed that feat when the series has started on the road. Out of the previous six times they have jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, they have only squandered that lead to lose a series once – that was back in their 2006 Western Conference Semi-Final series against the Cup-bound Oilers.

- During their run to the Stanley Cup in 2011, the Canucks won four of six games that needed overtime to settle. Since then, Vancouver has lost back-to-back playoff overtime games including Friday's Game 2.

- With Torres' overtime game-winner on Friday, the Sharks have now won seven of their last eight playoff overtime contests. Their lone loss in that run came in Game 5 of the 2011 Western Conference Final series against the Canucks when Kevin Bieksa scored in double overtime at Rogers Arena to propel the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final.

- One of the few bright spots for the Canucks in Game 2 was F Ryan Kesler's two-goal performance which nearly carried Vancouver to victory. For Kesler, the goals snapped a 13-game playoff goal drought he had dating back all the way to Game 5 of the 2011 Western Conference Final against the Sharks.

- Sharks F Patrick Marleau has six goals and nine points in seven career playoff meetings against the Canucks and has scored at least one goal in five of those seven career post-season games against Vancouver.

- Speaking of Marleau, he has scored goals in consecutive games to begin the playoffs for the first time in his NHL career.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sun, 05 May 2013 11:28:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>The Numbers Game - 5.4.13</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Thomas Drance

Before Vancouver met San Jose in the first round of the 2013 postseason, I’d looked over the data and concluded what pretty much everyone else had as well, that the series would be extraordinarily tight.

Despite the 2-0 hole the Canucks find themselves going into Sunday’s Game 3 in San Jose, I think it’s safe to say that this series has been every bit as closely contested as we’d expected. A bounce or two the other way and Vancouver is headed to San Jose up 2-0 in the series.

Obviously that’s not how this series has played out so far. The Canucks will head into Game 3 looking to become just the nineteenth team in NHL history to come back in a series in which they lost their first two contests at home. While the Canucks face long odds, there are a few reasons to think they have a shot at pulling this off annnnnd there are a few reasons to be concerned. With that in mind, let’s delve into some key numbers from the first two games of the series.

61.9% - In the first two games of the series, the Canucks controlled 61.9% of all shot attempts at even-strength. That’s a thoroughly dominant number, especially when you consider that the club has also managed to translate their possession of the puck into an edge in even-strength shots (they’ve outshot the Sharks 51 to 41 through two games).

Dominating puck possession will be insufficient solace to Canucks fans if the team drops another two games in this series, I’m sure. But the point worth making here is that the Canucks have been the better five-on-five team and if that carries over to games three and four in San Jose, the Sharks are going to have a very difficult time getting that fourth win in this series.

49.7% - On the road in one goal games this season the San Jose Sharks took 49.7% of all unblocked shots. A quick note on “game stats,” I like to use the events in a one goal game (or a score close situation) as a way of measuring real team quality because it eliminates some of the noise from, say, a team giving their fourth-liners a whole whack of minutes while playing in a defensive shell up three goals in the third period.

54.8% - That’s the percentage of unblocked shots the Sharks took in close games at home this season. In other words, it’s not a slam-dunk that the Canucks will carry their dominant five-on-five play with them to the Shark Tank this week.

14 - The Sharks power-play has looked obscenely dangerous throughout this series, and they’ve managed to generate fourteen shots on goal against the Canucks when they’ve enjoyed the man-advantage. In total the Sharks have spent 14 minutes and 30 seconds at five-on-four in this series, so they’re generating shots for at a rate of nearly a shot per minute. The Sharks power-play generates shots for at the most efficient clip of any team in the league this past year, and so far in this series they’ve demonstrated that against Vancouver’s very good power-play.

4 – In over eight minutes of power-play ice-time during Friday night’s game, the Sharks only managed four shots against Roberto Luongo. Consider that on Wednesday the Sharks managed ten power-play shots on six and a half minutes of ice-time to give you an idea of how much stingier Vancouver’s penalty-kill was in Game 2.

Whatever adjustments Newell Brown and the Vancouver coaching staff made to Vancouver’s penalty-kill, they paid off in a big way in Game 2. That Vancouver’s penalty-killers continue to make Roberto Luongo’s life as easy as possible when the team finds themselves down a man is going to be critical if the Canucks hope to claw their way back into this series.

47.5% - Through two games the Canucks have struggled somewhat in the faceoff circle, winning only 47.5% of the draws they’ve taken. The San Jose Sharks were the best team by face-off percentage in the league during the 48 game 2013 hockey season, so this might be a number the Canucks struggle to improve on over the balance of the season.

Faceoff wins are critical in a game of control and limited space like hockey is. They’re especially critical for a team that is done in the series and finds themselves without much of any margin for error.

57.4% – Through two games, Ryan Kesler has not been among the Vancouver centreman struggling in the face-off circle. Look for him to take a mammoth number of draws in all three zones over the balance of this series.

41.3% - The faceoff percentage of every Canucks centreman not named Ryan Kesler in the first two games of the postseason. This is an area the Canucks desperately need to improve if they hope to advance to Round 2 of the playoffs.

17:15 – Dan Hamhuis’ average even-strength ice-time through two games this postseason. That’s down fifty-one seconds from his average even-strength ice-time during the regular season. Usually once the postseason rolls around, a team tends to lean more heavily on their best defensive defenceman. So far the Canucks have gone in the opposite direction.

With the series transitioning from home-ice to the unfriendly confines of the Shark Tank this week, expect Dan Hamhuis’ ice-time increase precipitously.

.866 – Antti Niemi’s save percentage on “difficult shots” so far this period. A difficult shot is a stat that I record by hand using the same criteria we use for scoring chance data collection over at CanucksArmy.com. Basically a “difficult shot” is a scoring chance that is also a shot on goal. The usual baseline for an “elite” difficult shot save percentage is .850 and so far in this series Niemi has surpassed that. The Canucks outshot and outplayed the Sharks for vast stretches of games one and two at home, but they lost both contest in part because of Niemi’s superlative performance in the first two games of the series.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 20:15:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tommernes a "smart, puck moving defenseman"</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Tyson Giuriato

Canucks underteckna stötande svenska back (Canucks sign offensive Swedish defenseman).

The Vancouver Canucks announced on Thursday they have come to terms with defensive prospect Henrik Tommernes on an entry-level contract. Tommernes, 22, spent the 2012-13 season with Frolunda in the Elitserien (Swedish Elite League) where he amassed 16 points (5-11-16) in 54 games-played, while also picking up five points (1-4-5) in six post-season games.

Tommernes, the Canucks seventh-round pick (210th overall) in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda developing his two-way game. The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder is a very good skater with good offensive instincts, receives lots of praise for his passing ability, especially his outlet passes, and has a knack of getting his point shots through traffic and on net.

”Henrik is a smart, puck moving defenseman,” said Dave Gagner, the Canucks director of player development. “He led Frolunda in ice-time this past season, playing in all situations. He will likely be used more in an offensive type role here in North America; all depends on how quickly he is able to adjust to the increased intensity level of our pro game.”

Tommernes, a left-handed shooter, spent the two previous seasons playing the högerback (right-side) mainly with veteran Christian Backman, a former first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 1998. This past season, Tommernes was moved to his more natural vänsterback (left-side) where he was able to make great strides in his development.

The native of Karlstad, Sweden, led Frolunda in ice-time with an average of 20:18 per-game (up from 16:41 per-game in the 11-12 season), which ranked 12th among all skaters in the SEL. In fact, none of the players ahead of him in average time-on-ice were younger, the majority mainly veterans and only one player was not at least three years older than him.

With the signing of Tommernes, the list of prospects who need to sign with the Canucks before the end of May is down to three. Jeremy Price (Colgate, NCAA), David Honzik (Cape Breton, QMJHL) and Pathrik Westerholm (Bofors, Allsvenskan) all need to sign before June 1st or else they become unrestricted free agents.
Ty-Bits (More Tommernes!)

- He attended the Canucks Summer Development Camp in 2011.

- He shared the blue-line in Frolunda during the 2010-11 season with fellow Canucks prospect Peter Andersson.

- Made his SEL debut on October 30, 2008 with Frolunda in a 3-1 win over Lulea.

- Registered his first SEL point on October 27, 2009 in a 1-1 tie with Farjestad.

- Scored his first SEL goal on September 17, 2010 in a 6-2 loss to Timra.

- Was drafted on June 25, 2011 at the NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul, Minnesota.

- He shares a birthplace (Karlstad, Sweden) with former Canucks forward Magnus Arvedson.

- He has spent the majority of his career with the Frolunda Indians, which are located in Gothenburg, Sweden, the second largest city in Sweden with a metropolitan area population of 945,713.

- He wore #7 for Frolunda.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 19:30:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>X's and O's - WCQF Game 2</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Jeff Angus

The beast feasts.

When Ryan Kesler didn’t take the ice on Wednesday morning for an optional practice, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault joked that “the beast will be ready tonight.”

He was, of course, referring to Kesler’s “beast mode” series from the 2011 postseason against the Nashville Predators. Ryan Kesler had a quiet Game 1 on Wednesday by his postseason standards, and you knew that he would find a way to elevate his play for Game 2.

Kesler is the heart and soul (and the engine, and the motor…) of the Canucks, and Friday night served as a reminder as to why. He was back to his old self, as he played perhaps his best game as a Canuck since the aforementioned series against the Predators.

Kesler was all speed and tenacity last night. He drew a penalty, and he was chirping at any Shark that came near him, particularly Joe Thornton and Logan Couture. He threw a few massive hits, in particular a late second period smash on Sharks defenseman Justin Braun.

But, most importantly, he was scoring goals again. And for a team that has struggled to light the lamp in the postseason as of late, that was a welcomed sight. The Canucks ended up falling short in a closely fought contest, but it was Kesler who made sure they were in the game from start to finish.

Let’s take a closer look at some of his handiwork from Friday night.

Kesler’s first goal:

Kesler was the primary shooter on the top power play unit last night, and it was a strategy that eventually paid off for the Canucks (as you can see here).

Henrik and Daniel play catch for a bit along the half wall. San Jose’s penalty killers are forced to switch off of one Sedin and pick up another, creating a bit of confusion here. The Sedins have made a lot of money and scored a lot of goals by confusing the opposition. They also run a successful set play from this position, and that leads to Kesler being wide open up top.

Alex Edler is pinching down towards the goal, which draws Joe Pavelski (the nearest Shark to him) away from Kesler. Patrick Marleau aggressively pursues Daniel.

This is the set play I was talking about. Daniel passes to Henrik, who curls up and skates towards the point. As he does this, Daniel sneaks into the slot with his stick on the ice. The Sedins have a few options here. One of them is the vaunted slap-pass, which they introduced to hockey vernacular a few years ago. However, three Sharks pick up on this. Daniel serves as a very nice decoy here.

Henrik feeds Kesler with a perfect pass, and he absolutely hammers the puck home right into the top corner. Antti Niemi has no chance on this one, as Alex Burrows (and about three Sharks) is obstructing his view.

It looks like the beast is still hungry, though.

This is the exact moment where Marleau realizes that he shouldn’t be pursuing Daniel so aggressively. A great example of why movement (both puck and player) is crucial to the success of a power play. Whenever the Canucks power play is struggling, a lack of movement is usually to blame. But here, four moving parts created a lot of confusion for the Sharks, and open ice for Kesler.

A great view of what Niemi could see – a blue and green number 14 jersey.

And Kesler’s second goal:

This goal was the result of hard work, good positioning, and some luck.

Chris Higgins gets in on the forecheck, but the Sharks still have control of the puck here. Victoria, BC native Matt Irwin reverses the puck to Dan Boyle, who has some time to make an outlet pass and get the puck moving in San Jose’s direction again. However, Kesler has other ideas.

Boyle sends a hard pass to Joe Pavelski, who is swooping back low in the defensive zone to help with the breakout. Pavelski is a great hockey player, but he simply misses in the pass here. It wasn’t a perfect pass (a bit too hard, and not right on the tape), but it is a play that Pavelski (or any NHL player) simply has to make. The puck bounces off of his stick right to….

Ryan Kesler. Kesler, for the second time in less than 10 minutes, absolutely hammers a slap shot past Niemi. This time there is no screen or traffic in front of the Sharks goaltender, but that doesn’t matter.

You can see why Irwin had to reverse the puck. Higgins is the deep man on the forecheck, while Kesler goes to the boards to cut off Irwin’s ability to make a play on his forehand. A textbook forecheck and it worked out in Vancouver’s favour.

Kesler did get a bit lucky with Pavelski’s blunder, but he still had to be in the right position to capitalize on the turnover. He found a way to get from the boards to the slot very quickly, and I think that may have surprised both Boyle and Pavelski a bit.

And boom goes the dynamite.

The Canucks face a 2-0 series deficit as the series shifts back to San Jose. They haven’t played bad (not at all, in fact, as they controlled the game for extended periods on Friday evening), but the results simply show how thin the margin for error is in the postseason, especially when two very evenly matched teams face off. If Kesler can carry his incredible level of play over from Game 2 into Games 3 and 4, the Canucks will find a way to get back into this series.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 19:07:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Down-one Mentality</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Down One Mentality

The San Jose Sharks have a chance to head home with a 2-0 stranglehold with a win tonight at Rogers Arena, but that isn’t the mentality they are heading into tonight’s game with.

“We have to have the mindset that we lost Game One,” said Raffi Torres.

“If we can match what we did last game, maybe go a bit harder, be a little bit more solid in our own zone and focus in on the good things that we did, that’s huge.”

The down-in-the-series mentality the Sharks are using is something Sharks Coach Todd McLellan is urging his players to use, as he expects a stronger, hungrier Canucks effort.

“I think they’ll be better and we have to match that. So rather than us feeling good about ourselves, I would rather us be on edge, on our toes and being prepared.”

Despite the fact the Sharks can do no worse than a road-split, Joe Thornton is looking for his club to remain hungry.

“We’re greedy, we want to come in and win tonight. You want to come in and win every game and this is no different.”

Reinforcements Coming

The Sharks will be without winger Martin Havlat for Game Two, McLellan confirmed after the team’s morning skate. Havlat played just over three minutes in Game One before leaving the game, and did not skate this morning.

Havlat’s absence means Raffi Torres bumps up to the second line.

“It’s not hard to play with guys like that, they move up the ice pretty quick. Logan’s such a solid two-way player so that’s huge, especially for a guy like me who might be a little less solid in our own zone,” said Torres of his new linemates, Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau.

“He’s a heck of a hockey player,” McLellan said of the veteran winger who was brought in at the Trade Deadline from Phoenix. “He’s high energy, goes to the net, he’s dangerous to score a lot of the time, very strong on loose pucks. So for him to move up there we were comfortable in doing that immediately.”

McLellan would not confirm who would be drawing into the line-up, but Tim Kennedy and Bracken Kearns, the son of former Canuck Dennis Kearns, both skated between James Sheppard and Adam Burish in line rush drills during practice.

Another injured Shark is Scott Gomez. The two-time Stanley Cup winner was on the ice with his teammates today but will not dress tonight and will be re-evaluated prior to Game Three in San Jose.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 15:54:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Canucks Report: Time to get dirty</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[BY Derek Jory

We know who will be in goal for Vancouver, who will be scoring the goals for the Canucks remains to be seen.

The Canucks did not hold morning skate Friday; four scratched players and all three goaltenders (Luongo, Schneider and Cannata) were the only ones to hit the ice.

Luongo will start in net for the Canucks Friday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinal and there’s still no word on status of Cory Schneider, although him skating is definitely a positive.

Coach Alain Vigneault said Schneider remains day-to-day and he’s not sure if the netminder will travel with the team to San Jose Saturday or not.

Vancouver hopes to be traveling to San Jose with this series even at 1-1 and producing offensively is the key to turning this series around.

“You put yourself in a big hole if you lose two in a row and I don’t like using must-win, but it’s a very important game for us, I can’t stress that enough,” said Kevin Bieksa, one of five players who addressed the media Friday morning.

Although the Canucks generated 30 shots in Wednesday night’s 3-1 loss to the Sharks, Bieksa reiterated what many players have said since, that 100 shots wouldn’t have been enough in Game 1 because of the types of shots Vancouver produced.

It’s time to forget style points and get dirty.

“I don’t think we generated enough Grade-A good chances, we had some shots on net, but I’m talking about the shots with traffic in front and rebounds, we didn’t do quit enough of that,” he said.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more of us going to the net a little bit harder; when you have a guy standing in front of the net, it allows you to shoot from anywhere on the ice and it be a dangerous shot. That’s one of the secrets to playoff hockey is traffic.”

It’s been well documented the Canucks have dropped five consecutive games at Rogers Arena dating back to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and over that stretch Vancouver has only scored six goals.

A stat more in the Canucks favour is as follows: the team that has won Game 2 of a best-of-seven NHL playoff series, regardless of the result of Game 1, has gone on to win the series 424 out of 592 times (.716) in league history.

Win Game 2 and the Canucks are back on track.

No updates on the Canucks lines, check Canucks.com at game time for an update line-up.]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 14:34:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Caption This: Sneezing Sedin?</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Derek Jory

Your guess is as good as mine.

Do Daniel and Henrik Sedin make faces at each other during practice? Did Daniel have an itch he chose to scratch in the most interesting way possible? Maybe only Daniel could smell that smell? Could a sneeze have been coming on?

Jeff Vinnick captured this photo Thursday during Vancouver Canucks practice and not even he has a clue what was going on. Either way, it's a great photo that freezes Daniel in a pose he wouldn't normally make.

The captions are endless. I've thought of three writing this blurb. But my mind works in mysterious ways, I'd compare my intelligence to that of SpongeBob SquarePants, so I'm throwing it out to you. Caption away - leave your best work in a comment below.

One rule - Keep it clean.]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 12:18:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks vs. Sharks Game 2</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[THE SET-UP
 
The Vancouver Canucks (trail series 0-1) will look to avoid going down two-games-to-none in their best-of-seven Western Conference Quarterfinal series when they host the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 at Rogers Arena.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
 
- For the second year in a row - and just the second time in head coach Alain Vigneault's tenure as Canucks bench boss - Vancouver dropped their playoff opener on Wednesday falling 3-1 to the Sharks.

- Vancouver has won just one of their last eight playoff games dating back to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. They've also lost their last five straight home playoff games dating back to Game 7 of that Cup Final series.

- The Canucks have won just three of 12 all-time best-of-seven playoff series when losing the opening game. The last time they managed to feat was in their first round series against the Blues in 2003 when they dropped the series opener and then built a 3-1 series deficit before bouncing back and winning in seven games.

- For the second straight year – and the fourth time in their last five playoff series – the Sharks have jumped out to a 1-0 series lead. That advantage didn't do them much good last year however as, after winning their series opener against the Blues a year ago, they dropped the next four games in a row to lose that series.

- The Sharks have won nine of 14 all-time series where in which they've won the opening game.

- The Canucks shuffled their forward lines at practice yesterday but as far as actual changes to the lineup goes all is expected to remain status quo both up front, on the back end, and between the pipes. G Cory Schneider did not practice yesterday so he will likely be scratched again meaning G Roberto Luongo will get the start and G Joe Cannata will serve as the back up.

- The Sharks did not shed much light on the statuses of injured forwards Martin Havlat and Scott Gomez following their practice yesterday. Gomez was a somewhat surprise scratch for Game 1 with an undisclosed injury while Havlat left Game 1 after playing just 3:16 with a lower body injury. The Sharks are already without D Jason Demers.

- Dating back to the regular season, in their last seven outings, the Canucks have been out-scored by a combined 15-1 in third periods.

- The Canucks come into tonight's contest having surrendered power play goals in three straight games dating back to the regular season. This is tied for their longest streak of consecutive games with a power play goal surrendered. They began the regular season giving up a power play goal in each of their first three games.

- Canucks D Kevin Bieksa's goal in Game 1 was his 10th career playoff goal – a goal that moved him into sole possession of first place on the franchise's all-time goals list among defenseman. He had come into these playoffs in a six-way tie with Jyrki Lumme, Mattias Ohlund, Dave Babych, Sami Salo and Ed Jovanovski on the franchise all-time list.

- Speaking of Bieksa, his goal on Thursday was also his 25th career playoff point which put him just one point shy of tying Sami Salo for fifth place among all-time Canucks defenseman.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 11:39:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Logan's run</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Logan’s Run

On a veteran team made up of Stanley Cup champions, an Art Ross winner and Olympic Gold Medalists, it was San Jose’s youngest forward that was the difference maker in the Sharks Game 1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday night.

Logan Couture, 24, scored on a power-play to get the Sharks on the board after falling behind 1-0, and then assisted on Patrick Marleau’s goal to seal the win. Despite his age, the Guelph, Ontario, native's success isn’t surprising anyone on his club, including head coach Todd McLellan.

“I just think he’s come so far in couple of years, a full 200 foot game, both sides of the puck, power-play, penalty-kill, face-offs. His competitiveness is rubbing off on some of our older players and when that starts happening you’ve really made your mark.”

One of those veteran players who has really noticed the Couture’s superb play has been his captain Joe Thornton.

“I’ve been a fan of Logan’s since day one. Ever since he’s been in the league he competes at both ends of the rink. He just keeps getting better and better,” Thornton said of Couture.

“He really does everything for this team.”

Face-off Control

The Sharks, who ranked second in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage (53.4%), dominated the face-off dot again in Game 1 taking 57% of the draws. The Sharks strength on the dot has been a point of pride for the franchise.

“It’s a battle. They are doing all the same things we are. We know it’s going to be competitive and it’s a focal point,” said Joe Pavelski, who won 58% of his draws.

“It’s a competitive battle, you hope to win them. Usually it’s a good indicator with our team and you go from there.”

Injury Update

Todd McLellan was tight-lipped regarding the health situation of two of his top forwards, Martin Havlat and Scott Gomez, prior to the team’s skate on Thursday.

“Both are getting treatments like all the other players in the playoffs. Bumps and bruises and we will know more tomorrow.” The Sharks coach then added, "It's playoffs guys, you know we are going to give you anything."

Havlat played only 3:16 before leaving the game with an undisclosed injury. The 32 year-old Czech winger also sat out the Sharks final regular season game.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 17:15:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Top Ten Moments: Game 1</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[1. Roberto Robs Marty Havlat

Roberto Luongo was tested with seven shots on a huge penalty kill just minutes into the game, but none were bigger than the Bobby Lu’s larceny on Martin Havlat. Sure is nice to have that guy as your ‘back-up’!

2. No Soup for You Green Men

Andrew Desjardins was given the customary Green Men welcome to the sin bin after he was called for boarding Jannik Hansen. While Andrew did a solid job of ignoring their jabs, Sharks play-by-play guys, Drew Remenda and Randy Hahn, brought out the their rain-globe disses. Get it, because it rains a lot in Vancouver? (crickets).

3. Edler Returns the Favour

Adam Burish may have thought he caught notorious napper Alex Edler sleeping when he locked-in and closed in for the kill on the Canucks D-man. Unfortunately for Burish, Edler was wide awake and sent the Sharks winger flying and looking for his lid. 20 seconds later it was 1-0 Good Guys.

4. Raffi Torres Helping out on both ends

Big #13 was a menace all over the ice last night, contributing at both ends of the ice and for both teams as he opened the scoring for the Canucks when he accidently poked the puck by Antti Niemi.

5. Raffi doesn’t even realize he scored

6. X’s & O’s – Breaking down the opening goal

It took everyone a while to figure out just who scored the first goal of the series (it was Kevin Bieksa, officially), but Jeff Angus has all the answers as to how it happened. Read

7. Gleefully cheering on the Canucks

Cory Monteith and Lea Michele from Glee fame took a break from musical numbers to cheer on their Vancouver Canucks.

8. Todd McLellan’s Sneeze Suspense

You know that feeling you get when you can feel a sneeze coming down the track and the suspense just kills you. Well that happened to Sharks Coach Todd McLellan during his post-game press conference.

9. Zack Kassian’s new look

Kass is sporting a new ‘business’ appropriate hair-cut. Canucks host, Dan Murphy, is liking the new look evidently. Hopefully Al Iafrate's 105 MPH slap-shot will be the next thing Zack copies.

10. Partying on the Plaza

Wednesday night isn’t everyone’s normal party night, but quite the shin-dig was going down outside Rogers Arena before Game One. Crazy, costumed Canuck fans, marching bands and even these guys made it all the way from Sparta.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 14:25:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>X's and O's - WCQF Game 1</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Gritty goal by a gritty guy.

After each Canucks postseason game in 2013, an important play will be broken down and analyzed. More likely than not these plays will be of the “goal for” variety, but they could also include a highlight reel save, a nice hit, or an understated play that led to a scoring chance.

Today’s X’s and O’s will look at Kevin Bieksa’s gritty goal from Game 1 Wednesday evening.

The Canucks had a tough time generating sustained offensive pressure against an underrated San Jose defensive group in Game 1. However, this is a best-of-seven and not a best-of-one, so it is time to get back to the drawing board. Bieksa broke the 0-0 deadlock with a goal in the second period. It wasn’t one he will tell his grandkids about, but they all count the same on the scoreboard.

Let’s take a closer look.

Jannik Hansen started the play off by skating into the zone with speed and dropping the puck to a trailing Kevin Bieksa. Bieksa was by far the most effective defenseman at creating offense on Wednesday evening. Hansen’s speed forced the San Jose defense to back up, which created a ton of open ice for Bieksa. The Canucks have the speed edge against the Sharks (and most teams in the NHL) and they need to use it as much as they can in Game 2.

Bieksa fires a hard and accurate shot that forces Niemi to make a save (and subsequently give up a rebound, too). The Sharks are in pretty good position here, asides from the fact that no one picked up Bieksa. There are three San Jose Skaters to one Mason Raymond – not typically a Canuck-friendly ratio to finding a loose puck. However…

Bieksa charges the net like, well…. Bieksa. His aggressiveness was a welcomed sight on Wednesday evening, and this goal is a perfect example of it. Raymond is in the process of getting knocked down, but the puck is still loose. Derek Roy has tied up his man as he approaches the net, too. No sign of the goal scorer, yet. You hear the mantra over and over again – pucks and bodies to the net in the postseason.

Hansen comes in from the side relatively unchecked. The Sharks now have two goaltenders – behind Niemi is Logan Couture, who is doing his best “look big in the crease” impression. Also from this frame – a great job by the referee to stay in position and keep an eye on the back of the net the entire time. The puck bounces around before finding its way behind both Niemi and Couture.

Not a sight you see every day. Unfortunately for the Canucks, Couture would get his revenge a few minutes later with a much prettier goal than this one. Off to the side Bieksa has engaged in a big of a skirmish with defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Quite an involved 20 seconds for Bieksa to say the least.

The Sharks defenseman has a tight gap on Hansen, but look how far into the zone he has been pushed. Two players pick up Roy streaking (figuratively, of course) through the middle. As mentioned above, this is exactly what the Canucks need to do more in Game 2 – use their team speed to push back the San Jose defenseman, and bring a second wave of attackers behind them.

You can see the puck in between a pile of legs. Raffi Torres actually knocked this into his own net trying to clear it out of the crease (or perhaps he wanted to do his old teammates a favour – I’d probably go with the first explanation).

The post-goal celebrations begin. Notice where Bieksa is now, and he manages to get himself into a fight within the next five seconds. So he ends up crashing the crease twice on this play.

The effort is appreciated from Couture, but his five-hole leads a lot to be desired. Thankfully he’s pretty good at the whole playing forward thing.

The Canucks had a particularly strong second period. They weren’t able to generate a lot of offense, but they were hitting hard and creating turnovers with consistency. They got away from that game a bit in the first and third periods. San Jose is a very good team, and their defense doesn’t give up many chances (not surprising considering they are coached by Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson).

The Canucks need more efforts like the one that resulted in this goal in Game 2.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 12:18:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Facing a familiar foe</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Facing a familiar foe

The San Jose Sharks may not have expected it, but they are facing the same goaltender in Roberto Luongo that eliminated them from the 2011 Playoffs. Luongo has yet to face the Sharks this season as Cory Schneider started all three matchups, but the Canucks winningest goaltender in franchise history has been stellar against the Sharks at home during his Vancouver career with a 6-0-2 record.

he last minute change in the Canucks net won’t be changing the Sharks’ game-plan however says Coach Todd McLellan.

“They’ve been together for a number of years here in the organization, both played big games. I can tell you that the fact there has been a lot of debate over which goaltender is going to start here in Vancouver, it’s a much bigger story here than it is in the Sharks locker room,” explained McLellan.

“We are going to have to beat a very good goaltender either way.”

One Shark with a long history against Luongo, Joe Thornton, agrees with his coach that no matter who is in net at the other end of the rink it’s a matter of making life difficult for Luongo.

“Luo’s a world-class goalie and so is Cory. Either one we go against is going to be a challenge. We are going to need a lot of shots, a lot of traffic and hope one squeaks by,” said Thornton after the team’s morning skate.

Judging from the morning skate, it looks like Thornton will be centering the Sharks top line with T.J. Galiardi on the left wing and defenseman-turned-winger, Brent Burns on the other side.

Logan Couture, the Sharks leading goal scorer will centre the second unit with Martin Havlat and Patrick Marleau.

The third line features former Canuck Raffi Torres, Joe Pavelski and Tommy Wingels. Scott Gomez will not dress on the fourth unit, replacing the two-time Stanley Cup winner will be James Sheppard. He will skate with Andrew Desjardins and longtime thorn in the Canucks side, Adam Burish.

Looking for redemption?

The Sharks and Canucks have only matched-up once previously in the playoffs, a five game series win by Vancouver in the 2011 Western Conference Finals. The Sharks return with 10 players from that series, including Patrick Marleau, who scored four goals in the series to lead the Sharks.

“As far as redemption, some things carry over. There are some of the same players but there are a lot of different players as well. We don’t like losing that’s for sure.”

Thornton also said that what happened in 2011 is well behind his club.

“It’s a new series. Game One you’d like to grab and get off to a good start. This is two good teams that have been familiar with each other in the past, so I assume this is going to be a good series.”

Coming home defenseman

Matt Irwin, the 25 year-old Brentwood Bay, B.C., native, will be making his NHL Playoff debut against the team he grew up watching and knows he has family and friends who may be changing their allegiances.

“I’m familiar with this organization and I’m excited to play against them. Friends and family back home are all Canucks fans but I think my close friends and family are all rooting for me now,” said the rookie blueliner.

Irwin has had a strong rookie campaign, something his coach attributes to his maturity he’s gained while rising up the ranks from college to the NHL.

“He is a mature rookie, if you will. He’s not a 19 year-old, he’s not had a lot of experience,” said McLellan. “He’s had college experience, good minor pro experience and now he’s been able to step in and be a steady influence for us on the blueline.”

Irwin forms the top defensive unit for the Sharks alongside veteran Dan Boyle. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun for the second pairing with Brad Stuart, who leads all players in the series with 124 career playoffs games will skate with either rookie Matt Tennyson or veteran Scott Hannan.

McLellan said the decision on who will be Stuart’s partner will be determined following warm-up tonight.

Antti Niemi, who has started 25 of the Sharks previous 26 games will protect the crease for the Sharks.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 16:06:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks vs. Sharks Game 1</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[THE SET-UP
 
The road to the Stanley Cup begins in earnest tonight for the Vancouver Canucks (series tied 0-0) when they host the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference Quarterfinal series.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
 
- The Canucks didn't exactly end their regular season on a high note dropping a 7-2 decision in Edmonton on Saturday night. They closed out their regular season losing back-to-back games. They have not lost more than two in a row since a four-game winless skid from March 3 to 10.

- The Sharks, like the Canucks, also dropped their last two games to end the regular season. Their 3-2 loss to the Kings in their season finale is what got them this series against the Canucks. Had they won, they would have earned themselves a date with the St. Louis Blues instead.

- The Sharks dominated the Canucks in the season series winning all three head-to-head meetings. The closest the Canucks came to knocking off the Sharks was a 3-2 shootout loss on home ice back on March 5.

- In 185 minutes of hockey played between the Canucks and Sharks this season, the Sharks played with a lead for 123:29. The Canucks did not have a single lead at any point in their three-game season series.

- The Canucks had never lost their opening game of the playoffs under head coach Alain Vigneault until last year when they fell 4-2 to the Kings last year in their playoff opener.

- Based on how the Canucks skated at practice the last two days, it appears the healthy scratches for Game 1 – in addition to all the recent AHL call-ups – will be F Steven Pinizzotto, F Tom Sestito, D Cam Barker, D Derek Joslin and D Keith Ballard.

- The Canucks are hoping that G Cory Schneider will be good to go for tonight's contest after sitting out the last two regular season games with an undisclosed injury. Schneider declared himself ready following yesterday's practice but head coach Alain Vigneault indicated the final decision would not be made until the morning of game day.

- Sharks workhorse G Antti Niemi, who started 43 of his team's 48 games this season, will be the starter tonight for San Jose and for the entirety of the series barring unforeseen circumstances. This will be the third time in four years that he will have met the Canucks in the post-season.

- It remains to be seen whether G Roberto Luongo will factor into this series but, if he does, he could be on his way towards setting yet another franchise playoff record. He enters this series sitting just two wins shy of tying first place on the franchise's all-time playoff wins list. Kirk McLean holds that record with 34 playoff wins in a Canucks uniform.

- This entire first round series will be broadcasted on TSN which is a good sign for the Canucks. Vancouver went 5-0-1 when appearing on TSN during the regular season.

- Canucks D Derek Joslin, who is not expected to play tonight, will have friends and recent teammates on both sides. Joslin spent parts of five seasons playing with the Sharks' organization from 2006.07 to 2010.11 and, earlier this year, was dealt in an AHL trade from the Chicago Wolves to the Worcester Sharks (San Jose's farm team) where he appeared in 13 games with them to close out his AHL season.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 11:56:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>First time for everything</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[By Derek Jory

Frankie Corrado had one of his most challenging days as an NHLer Monday.

Never before has he lived on his own, so never before was he forced to tackle doing laundry.

Detergents? Fabric softeners? Warm wash? Tumble dry? Delicates?

“I called my mom for a step-by-step procedure,” laughed the 20-year-old, following Canucks practice Tuesday.

“She was trying to tell me what to do and I was thinking that when the time came, I’d figure it out, so I didn’t really listen. Then there I was calling her back, sending her a picture of the thing to know where the detergent goes and stuff.”

Corrado didn’t burn down his apartment, thankfully, he successfully did a load of darks and load of lights and even had the poise to hang his stretchy athletic wear to dry.

“Everything is fresh and everything fits,” he smiled, with pride.

Corrado is on his own these days because his fresh style of play fits in with the Canucks perfectly.

For the second consecutive day Corrado practiced alongside Andrew Alberts and unless something changes before puck drop Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinal between the Canucks and San Jose Sharks, he’ll be patrolling the blueline in his first career playoff game – in just his fourth NHL game.

Did I mention eight days ago Corrado was with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and two weeks ago he was a member of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers?

Laundry is just one of many new things he’s been exposed to in a very short time span.

“It’s been crazy,” said Corrado, taking a deep breath. “Two weeks ago I was living with billets playing junior hockey in the playoffs for a team that was trying to make some noise. It’s been wild; I went from a playoff run to trying to make the playoffs in Chicago, to another playoff run here. The intensity has been at full meter and I wouldn’t really have it any other way.”

Corrado has taken a ‘speak when spoken to’ approach to merging into the Canucks dressing room and he said the preparation from the players has been mind-blowing to witness. The balance the players have between being serious and having fun, especially at the rink, also caught the Toronto, Ontario, product off guard; he didn’t think it was all work, all the time, but it’s a loose, light atmosphere, one that has made him feel like one of the guys.

“It’s very accepting and very welcoming. It helps that I’ve been to a few camps, but I couldn’t have asked for a better dressing room to walk into.”

Corrado’s attitude, work ethic, determination and on-ice play have been a welcomed addition, said defenceman Kevin Bieksa.

“He’s had a couple good games for us, he shows a lot of poise for a young guy, he makes the high percentage, safe play and hopefully he can continue that,” said Bieksa, adding that he hopes Corrado’s first playoff game goes smoother than his own.

“I played something like 57 minutes of ice time in quadruple overtime in my first game, so mine was a unique experience. I don’t think he wants that.”

Speaking on behalf of Corrado, I can confirm he does not want that, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help the Canucks win.

Bieksa said one of the biggest things he’s noticed about Corrado is how well he’s adjusted to the limelight over the past week; Corrado is 2013’s Chris Tanev, except he’s a touch more physical.

That’s about as high a compliment as Corrado could get this early into his NHL career.

Hopefully the young gun continues to impress, but if he’s in need of guidance along the way, Bieksa has his back.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders right now so there’s not a lot that I have to say. I’m just keeping an eye on him here, he’s on the right track so sometimes you don’t want to talk to a guy and get him nervous if he’s already in a good mindset.

“I’m keeping an eye on him from a distance and if I feel there’s something that needs to be said to help him, I will.”

Come to think of it, he may need some help if he shows up for Wednesday’s game and his suit is as wrinkled as a raisin.

“Laundry is done, ironing is up next,” laughed Corrado. “I’m sure I’ll have to call for a breakdown.”]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:47:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>The right mix</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[As we saw back in 2011 with the Vancouver Canucks, a lot of factors need to be present for a team to advance deep into the NHL postseason.

There must be the right mix of skill and grit on the roster. Goaltending must be very good, and the powerplay must be firing on all cylinders. Health and luck are both important factors, as well.

And if any chili connoisseurs are reading this, then you know that there must be several factors present for a chili to really stand out from the pack, as well. The right choice of meat and spices are keys. The chili needs to be cooked to perfection, and left to sit so all the ingredients can mix together. And you may not want to hear this, but fresh vegetables are an important part of any chili, too.

Where am I going with this comparison? Well, as someone who loves making chili and writes about hockey, I’m going to do my best to combine the two. Let’s look at Vancouver’s chances against San Jose through the medium of making a perfect pot of chili.

Tomato juice/paste/tomatoes – goaltending (the foundation of any good chili/hockey team)

Any good chili needs to have a base of tomatoes/tomato juice. It adds the liquid for all of the spices and meats to mix into and soak up. It adds colour and texture as well. And any hockey team with Stanley Cup aspirations needs great goaltending. Vancouver has two great goaltenders, but they will be leaning heavily on Cory Schneider this spring.

Schneider was fantastic last season in relief of Roberto Luongo against the Los Angeles Kings, but the team in front of him couldn’t provide any sort of goal support. Without a tomato base, chili isn’t chili. It is just a mix of meat and vegetables. And without great goaltending, a playoff team won’t be a playoff team for very long. Both are requirements.

The right choice of meat – scoring (essential to the success of any good chili/hockey team)

Meat isn’t essential for a chili (if you are a vegetarian – talking to you Jory), but the proper meat choices/additions can make all of the difference. I recommend blending together pork and beef – lots of healthy fats to absorb all of the flavors, and each meat offers a different flavour profile and texture. Chicken is also an option, but it lacks the flavour of the other two choices.

Scoring goals is an important part of winning hockey games (duh). Vancouver beat Chicago and San Jose back in 2011 largely with a potent offense. They struggled to score against the Bruins in the Final, and against the Kings last season as well. The team has more scoring depth and balance than it did a few months ago, and they will need production from at least two or three lines. You can’t rely on just one line (or just one type of meat) to carry a chili all the way to glory.

Fresh vegetables – the roster mix (important to have an array of different types of vegetables/players)

Again, having different kinds of vegetables in a chili isn’t essential, but it sure makes the difference. You need tomatoes of course, but onions, carrots, peppers (bell and spicier ones, too) and garlic are all great for different reasons. Some add flavour, others add colour and texture.

And any good hockey team needs the right mix of players. You can’t have 12 skilled forwards. You need some grit, some size, and some toughness. And on the back end, you need to have the right mix of size, strength, mobility, and offense.

The spices – depth players (not always visible, but without them the final product falls flat)

Everyone has their own blend of spices they use for their favourite chili. Most of these blends contain cumin, oregano, chili powder, and paprika. A few others I like to use – cinnamon, curry, and cocoa powder. When you are eating a great bowl of chili, you can’t see the spices. But you can taste them in every bite.

The same goes for great depth forwards. You don’t always notice them blocking shots, killing penalties, or winning key faceoffs, but if the team is successful, you know they are there doing those things. This applies to playoff performers like Max Lapierre, Jannik Hansen, and Chris Higgins. Without them, the Canucks top players aren’t able to shine. And without the right mix of spices, your chili ingredients aren’t able to shine, either.

Black beans/kidney beans – the minute-eating defensemen (they provide substance, structure, and soak up the flavours/tough minutes)
Black beans and kidney beans are healthy, nutritionally dense, and not overly flavourful.

They soak up the flavours of the meats and spices in the chili, and they absorb a lot of the juices, too. Without them, your chili would be very runny and probably look more like soup.

And without minute-eating defensemen like Dan Hamhuis and Jason Garrison, the rest of the team would be caught running (pun intended) around the defensive zone all too often. The pace of play is ratcheted up a few levels in the postseason. Players don’t have much time to make decisions or plays with the puck. Having defensemen who are cool under pressure and are able to make smart outlet plays is an essential ingredient in winning games.

Bits of bacon – the deadline pickup (added at the end for that extra kick)

Bacon is amazing. For people that don’t eat bacon for lifestyle/other reasons, I am sorry you are missing out. It adds flavour (oh, so much flavour), and more importantly, it is actually somewhat healthy, too (in moderation). Cooking up a few strips of bacon to get them crispy, and then adding them to your chili after it has cooked is a recipe for success. Your chili doesn’t need it, but after you have tried bacon-infused chili, you will wonder how you were living life before.

Derek Roy is the bacon to the Vancouver chili. The Canucks didn’t know what we were missing until they saw him play. From his first shift, Roy has been a difference-maker. What he lacks in size he makes up for in smarts, skill, and poise. He is always in great position, and more importantly, he is the best playmaker on the team not named Sedin. He puts the puck in great spots for his linemates to score.

The secret ingredient – luck (not a requirement, but it sure helps)

Everyone has their secret chili ingredient. Some people will never admit what it is. Some like to put chocolate in their chili. Others prefer coffee or beer. The secret ingredient is tough to pick out, but it does add a distinct and unique flavour to a good chili recipe. You won’t get NHL teams to admit that they need luck to win in the postseason, but it is true. Health and luck are often intertwined, and one commonality among all Stanley Cup winning teams is health. All else (relatively) equal, the healthier team will emerge victorious. And luck extends beyond health. Kevin Bieksa’s Game 5 winner against the Sharks in 2011 was made possible thanks to an amazing pass from the stanchion.

There you have it. You are now armed with the knowledge necessary to make an awesome chili. Following chili recipes is great for the beginner, but after a while, let your intuition and experience guide you. The Canucks are the same. The current core of players has won together. They have lost together. And most importantly, they have grown stronger from the ups and downs. The Sharks are a very good team and anyone telling you that there is a favourite in this series is out to lunch (preferably having chili for it).

Oh, and my secret ingredient is balsamic vinegar. Add a few teaspoons of it to your chili near the end of cooking. And thank me after you have eaten all of it in one sitting. Here is a great how-to guide for making your own chili from Esquire magazine.

The Canucks have built a good team on paper. The ingredients for success are there. Now it’s time to get cooking.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:30:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Make hockey happen</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Your back aches, your hands are numb from the freezing cold and it feels like a thousand white-hot needles are trying to escape from deep within your thighs. Then you look up to see nothing but frozen nothingness into the distance.

No, you’re not climbing Mount Everest - it’s something more rewarding than that – you’re clearing your hockey rink on a frozen pond out in the middle of nowhere during a Canadian winter.

For the last eight years that is exactly the feeling a group of Vancouver Canucks fans have experienced in the Interior of British Columbia as they went from clearing a modest 20’ x 20’ bumpy, rut-filled square to an NHL-sized rink with pristine ice, boards and even a diesel-powered lighting system. This is how you make hockey happen.

Vancouver does not have your typical Canadian winter. On those two or three days a year that snow does fall it lasts for all of a day before turning to a muddy brown sludge in the gutter. Those minus-30 degree days that rest of Canada suffers through simply don’t happen out on the West Coast. While many out here are thankful for that, there is one drawback – we miss out on the Canadian tradition of skating outside. So when the Finn brothers, Devon and Sean, first visited a friend’s cabin on Green Lake, a six hour drive north of Vancouver, they saw the frozen lake and an overwhelming desire to make a rink took hold.

“Not one guy from the group had experience building a hockey rink on lake. We just rolled up our sleeves and got out the shovels,” admitted Devon, a 27-year-old self described ‘hockey nut’ and film-maker from North Vancouver. “There was about a foot and a half of snow with a hard crust to dig through. It was a painful process and after a full day of plowing we had enough room to shoot a puck at some empty beer cans.”

The following year, with a just a taste of pond hockey fresh in their mouths, the group returned. An ATV with a snowplow fixed to the front made clearing the majority of the snow much easier, allowing for a much larger rink and more importantly, more precious hockey time.

As the years passed the group grew from six to eight to 16 and their rink building knowledge expanded along with the group’s numbers.

“One of the first things we realized was the need to flood the ice,” explained Sean Finn, the group's videographer and rink-builder. “The ice on a pond is different than what you get at your typical indoor ice rink. It’s softer and chips more easily, so flooding it at night will fill in the cracks and ruts you get from a day of skating.

“Our first flooding attempts failed pretty miserably. We hacked a hole in the ice with an axe and dipped buckets into the lake before spreading the water where we needed it. It didn’t really work but we were moving in the right direction.”

Learning from their mistakes, the group invested in a fire-hose and pumped the lake water across the ice after each day of hockey.

And once you have a smooth sheet of ice, there’s the matter of keeping the puck on it, which meant boards would be needed.

“It might seem strange, but trying to find a black puck in the white snow is actually almost impossible. If you miss the net with your shot it’s a real pain to find,” said Sean. “And having boards helps with keeping you on the ice during the occasional bodycheck.”

The group which consisted of tradesmen of all kinds put their skills to use. The carpenters got to work assembling backstops behind the nets for the rare occasion a puck was shot off target.

Now, as you can imagine this rink-building business doesn’t all happen in a couple of hours, it takes about 10 hours from the time the group arrives at the cabin to the time the first puck hits the ice.

“To maximize the time we could play we realized we needed lights. You can probably tell this trip is just too much fun to only play during the day,” said Devon. The equipment required now included a diesel powered generator, a 20’ light tower, half a dozen flood lights, a truck bed full of lumber, 16 bags of hockey gear, 16 hockey sticks and 16 shovels.

After six seasons of ice-clearing and hockey playing, traditions were becoming ingrained in the group. Settling down after a long day of pond hockey required some rest and relaxation in front of the TV with the Canucks on.

“One of the best Canucks games I ever saw was up there. The Canucks were facing the Maple Leafs during that monster Olympic road-trip in 2010,” remembered Brian Ceci, the group’s photographer. “The Canucks were down 3-0 early and came back to win in the third. We were so fired up that we immediately went back out on the ice and played right into the night. It was awesome.”

“We are all huge Canucks fans. Some of the jerseys we’ve got out there are pretty old-school. Brian’s usually got his old Cory Hirsch jersey on. Other guys are pretending they’re Tiger Williams on his stick,” said Sean. “I’d say more of us look like Murray Baron lumbering around,” chirped his brother Devon.

In the last year the group began documenting the trip, filming from the back-breaking shoveling and plowing, to the much more enjoyable scrimmages and well earned post-game beverages. Their first video, Make Hockey Happen, was posted to YouTube garnering attention from as far off as Russia and New Zealand with hockey fans eager to build a rink like the boys at Green Lake.

Most people’s idea of a vacation doesn’t involve buying hundreds of dollars worth of equipment, driving six hours into the Canadian north to shovel snow for hours on end but for this group of Vancouver hockey nuts it’s a labour of love.

“It’s really tough to describe the feeling of pride and accomplishment when the rinks are finally finished and ready to play on. Well, actually, it’s not that tough. It’s the best feeling in the world” said Devon. “We could do without the shoveling, so next year we are looking at getting a Zamboni.”

Make Hockey Happen was created, filmed and produced by Sean Finn and Brian Ceci at Finnesse Media.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Round 1 series preview</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[STORYLINES

SERIES SET-UP

The Vancouver Canucks (26-15-7; 3rd place Western Conference) will battle a familiar post-season rival in the opening round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs when they face the San Jose Sharks (25-16-7; 6th place Western Conference) in a best-of-seven Western Conference Quarterfinal series.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- The Canucks and Sharks are set to meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs for just the second time in the teams' respective histories. Their first meeting came in the 2011 Western Conference Final – a series the Canucks won four games to one.

- While the core players on both the Canucks and Sharks remain largely intact from their respective 2011 teams, both teams are missing a few key names that they had two years ago. Gone from Vancouver are the likes of D Christian Ehrhoff, D Sami Salo, F Tanner Glass and F Raffi Torres, the latter who is now a member of the Sharks. Gone from San Jose are the likes of F Devin Setoguchi, F Dany Heatley, F Ryan Clowe, F Kyle Wellwood and D Douglas Murray.

- This is the eighth straight time the Canucks have qualified for the playoffs where they've had home-ice advantage in the first round. Vancouver hasn't started the first round on the road since 2002. Home-ice advantage has, for the most part, proven to be beneficial for the Canucks as they've made it out of the first round in five of their last eight trips to the playoffs.

- San Jose has only made it out of the first round in five out of nine times where they did not have home-ice advantage in the first round. However, they haven't managed that feat since 2007 when, as the fifth seed, they knocked off the fourth-seeded Nashville Predators.

- This series features two teams that were both knocked out in the opening round of last year's playoffs. The Canucks, who were the top seed in the Western Conference, were upset 4-1 by the eighth-seeded and eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks, who qualified as the seventh seed, were upended 4-1 by the second-seeded St. Louis Blues.

- Despite finishing as the sixth seed in the Western Conference this season, the Sharks had the third-fewest regulation/overtime wins out of all teams in the Western Conference with just 17.

- For the Canucks, this is the 26th time overall in franchise history that they have qualified for the playoffs and the fifth year in a row they've made the post-season.

- For the Sharks, this is the 16th time overall in franchise history that they have qualified for the playoffs and the eighth season in a row they've made the post-season.

- As far as grizzled playoff veterans go, Sharks F Scott Gomez leads all players on both teams in all-time playoff games played (140) and all-time playoff points (99). Gomez was a part of two Stanley Cup-winning teams in New Jersey in 2000 and 2003.

- Canucks F Henrik Sedin leads all Vancouver players in playoff experience with 95 games played as well as playoff points with 71.

FOLLOW THE SERIES

All games in this series can be seen on TSN as well as heard on The Team 1040 Sports Radio and online at teamradio.ca. Fans in the United States can find the select games on the NBC Sports Network or CNBC. Check the Canucks.com homepage for game times.

Those away from a TV or radio can follow @CanucksGame on Twitter for live in-game play-by-play.

KEYS TO THE SERIES

CANUCKS SCOUTING REPORT

OFFENCE: The Canucks finished as the 19th ranked team offensively in the league averaging 2.45 goals per game, just marginally ahead of the Sharks at 2.42 goals-per-game. Although Vancouver was out-scored 9-5 in the season series by San Jose, the wildcards in this series will be Ryan Kesler and Derek Roy. Neither of those two appeared in any of the three games during the season series but will clearly be a major part of Vancouver's attack as they are expected to form the second line alongside Chris Higgins.

The Canucks will need to see more out of the Sedin twins in this playoff series than they did during the regular season series. Daniel and Henrik combined for just one goal and two points in three head-to-head meetings against the Sharks this year. Back in their 2011 Western Conference Final series versus San Jose, the twins combined for an astounding 18 points (3-15-18) in just five games – 12 (1-11-12) of those points coming off the stick of team captain Henrik.

DEFENCE: Among all Western Conference playoff teams, only Minnesota gave up more goals than the 115 allowed by Vancouver this season. Clearly, the Canucks aren't the same defensive stalwarts they were compared to the last two seasons when they entered into the playoffs as one of the league's best teams in terms of fewest goals surrendered.

That being said, this defensive group – which underwent several significant off-season changes – has had the opportunity to fine tune their game over the course of the shortened season and, if you throw out their regular season finale, has been playing some of their best hockey of late. Their biggest concern on the back end right now is their third pairing especially with Christopher Tanev still on the shelf. Vancouver's top-four will, no doubt, carry the load as far as ice-time goes but they'll still need some solid minutes from the likes of Ballard, Alberts, Corrado and/or Barker without having to worry about them each time they're out on the ice.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Special teams are another area the Canucks enter these playoffs with significantly less fanfare compared to years past but, even though the numbers aren't pretty overall, they seem to be trending in the right direction lately. Their power play, which ranked 22nd overall in the league operating at 15.8 percent, scored in nine of the last 12 games going 10-for-40 during that stretch. The penalty kill, which finished a respectable eighth overall at an 84 percent success rate, enjoyed a stretch where they only allowed one goal in 10 games from April 4 to 22 before giving up power play goals in back-to-back non-meaningful games to close out the season.

Special teams performance, or lack thereof, was a big reason Vancouver went winless in the regular season series against San Jose. The Canucks were 0-for-12 on the power play (they didn't draw a power play chance in the final head-to-head meeting) while they gave up three power play goals on 14 times shorthanded. Those numbers need to turn around if the Canucks are to emerge victorious in this series.

SHARKS SCOUTING REPORT

OFFENCE: The Sharks didn't exactly have a banner year at the offensive end of the ice as their 116 total goals scored were the fewest among Western Conference playoff-bound teams. That being said, the Sharks still have some big-name star forwards that can hurt you on the scoresheet including their big-four in Thornton, Marleau, Couture and Pavelski. Knowing the Canucks will be keyed into containing those guys, the Sharks will need secondary such as Martin Havlat, Scott Gomez and the recently-acquired Raffi Torres to chip here and there. Defenseman-turned-forward Brent Burns is also among the list of those who will need to make an impact.

The lack of secondary scoring was a big factor in the Sharks' downfall against the Canucks in the playoffs a couple of seasons ago. Besides Marleau and Thornton, who had seven and six points respectively against Vancouver in that playoff series that lasted five games, no other Sharks forward had more than three points.

DEFENCE: San Jose's offence might not be as potent compared to other teams around the league but their defence has been among the stingiest. The Sharks allowed the sixth fewest goals in the league giving up just 112 (third fewest among Western Conference playoff teams behind Chicago and Detroit).

The Sharks lost one of their top shut down forwards on trade deadline day when they dealt away Michal Handzus as well as one of their top stay-at-home defensemen in Douglas Murray but they filled those holes with the additions of Raffi Torres and Scott Hannen. One area the Canucks might try and exploit is the Sharks' young, relatively playoff untested blue-liners including the likes of Braun, Irwin and Tennyson – the latter two who could be making their respective playoff debuts in this series.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Special teams were solid for the Sharks in the regular as both the power play and the penalty kill finished in the top-10 of the league. They were also dominant over the Canucks during their three-game regular season series.

San Jose's PK success this season is especially worth noting because it had been an area that struggled for them the last couple of seasons and ultimately proved to be their downfall in the playoffs. In their first round series against the Blues last year, they surrendered six power play goals on 18 times shorthanded and lost the series four games to one. In their Western Conference Final series against the Canucks two years ago, they gave up a whopping nine power play goals on 24 times shorthanded and similarly lost four games to one. Needless to say, if their PK can maintain the solid form they've demonstrated in the regular season in this series, the Sharks have a much better chance at coming out on top.

GOALTENDER MATCH-UP

For the Canucks – Cory Schneider/Roberto Luongo

The 2013 season was supposed to mark the changing of the guard for the Canucks between the pipes but, at least at the start of this series, what's old may be new. With Cory Schneider nursing an undisclosed injury to close out the regular season, Roberto Luongo could be the starter when the series opens on Wednesday and possibly longer.

Luongo is certainly the most experienced netminder in terms of games played out of all goaltenders in this series. He comes into this post-season with 61 career playoff games and has led the Canucks past the opening round in four of five playoff runs. He struggled in his short playoff stint last season, however, allowing seven goals on 64 shots over two games before being replaced permanently in that series.

If, and when, Schneider gets back to full health, his first game in this series would be just his fourth career NHL playoff start and his ninth playoff appearance overall. Schneider had a baptism-by-fire during last season's playoffs when he was asked to take over from Luongo with the Canucks down 0-2 in their series against the Kings but played better than anyone could have asked for. Despite only managing to post a 1-2 record in his brief playoff run, Schneider allowed just four goals on 101 shots over the three games for a 1.31 GAA and a .960 save percentage.

For the Sharks – Antti Niemi

Barring some sort of catastrophic injury that forces him out of the series, the Sharks will be live and die by the goaltending of Antti Niemi. San Jose has every reason to be confident in their netminder heading into this series.

The 31-year-old Finn has put up Vezina Trophy-worthy numbers this season recording a league-leading 24 victories (tied with the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist and the Wild's Niklas Backstrom) to go with a 2.16 GAA, and a .924 save percentage to go with four shutouts. His numbers against the Canucks this season are also spectacular. He's a perfect 3-0 versus Vancouver with a 1.63 GAA and .943 save percentage.

As far as playoff seasoning goes, he also has an edge compared to the Canucks' netminders particularly if Vancouver runs with Cory Schneider in this series. As a starter, Niemi has been to two Conference Finals and won a Stanley Cup in 2010. In 45 career playoff appearances, Niemi has a 25-19 record with a 2.84 GAA and a .905 save percentage with two shutouts.

KEY INJURIES

For the Canucks…

G Cory Schneider (undisclosed) and D Chris Tanev (ankle) are questionable to start the series. F David Booth (left ankle) is not expected to available in the series.

For the Sharks…

F Martin Havlat (undisclosed) and D Jason Demers (sprained left ankle) are questionable to start the series.

NUMBERS

2nd – Time the Canucks and Sharks will meet in the playoffs.

5 – Canucks who could potentially make their respective NHL playoff debuts in this series: F Steven Pinizzotto, F Tom Sestito, D Frank Corrado, D Derek Joslin and G Joe Cannata.

5 – Sharks who could potentially make their respective NHL playoff debuts in this series: F Bracken Kearns, F Matt Pelech, D Matt Irwin, D Matt Tennyson and G Alex Stalock.

29th – All-time playoff series in Sharks franchise history. San Jose has 13 series wins and 15 series losses all-time.

42nd – All-time playoff series in Canucks franchise history. Vancouver has 16 series wins and 25 series losses all-time.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:25:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Sharks Report: Hungry for revenge</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[For the ninth consecutive season the San Jose Sharks have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they'll face the Vancouver Canucks. The two perennial Cup contenders have not met in the playoffs often, in fact just once previously in the 2011 Western Conference Final, a series that remains fresh in the Sharks memories.
Eager for redemption

No one needs to remind the Sharks of their five game defeat at the hands of the Canucks in 2011 Western Conference Final. Many Sharks players still have a rotten taste in their mouths, especially given the way they were defeated, when the puck took a crazy bounce off the stanchion directly to Kevin Bieksa for the game winning goal in double overtime.

"We lost two years ago and remembering those games, they were a little lucky, they got a few lucky goals. Hopefully we’ll get a few bounces this time," said Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, who lead the NHL in wins with 24.

Niemi struggled through the 2011 series, surrendering three or more goals in all five games, but was stellar against the Northwest Division champions this season, positing a 3-0-0 record allowing 5 goals with 1.62 GAA a .943 save percentage.

The Finnish goaltender is one of several Sharks with a Stanley Cup ring and has been the team's best player most nights, said captain Joe Thornton.

"He's been great. He's the reason we are in the postseason, when you get a great goaltender like that you can ride him a long time I think."
New look line-up

The San Jose lineup will be quite different than the group that swept the Canucks (3-0-0) in their season series as Sharks General Manager, Doug Wilson, made several moves at the NHL's Trade Deadline. Aiming to improve his club's speed, he traded defenseman Douglas Murray, centre Michael Handzus and bruising winger Ryane Clowe, while bringing former Canucks forward Raffi Torres in.

The Sharks practiced Monday in San Jose with TJ Galiardi on the top line, alongside Joe Thornton and defenseman-turned-winger Brent Burns. The unit combined for 26 points in the last month of the season.

By moving Burns and Galiardi to the first line, coach Todd McLellan has moved Patrick Marleau to the second line with the team's leading goal-scorer Logan Couture, and Martin Havlat. Joe Pavelski will centre the third line with Raffi Torres and Tommy Wingels, while a fourth line featured Andrew Desjardins and Adam Burish, centered by Scott Gomez skated together at practice.

On the backend, the Sharks defensive pairings have remained mostly unchanged with mainstay, Dan Boyle, expected to log heavy minutes. Boyle has been paired with British Columbia native, Matt Irwin for much of the season so expect that unit to remain together.

Veteran blueliners Brad Stuart and Marc-Eduard Vlasic take the reins on the other two pairings. Vlasic was skating with Justin Braun on Monday, while Stuart's partner could be either veteran Scott Hannan or rookie Matt Tennyson, McLellan told reporters Monday.

“We have Tennyson, who we think is a puck-mover and we have Scotty Hannan who has a lot of experience and he’s a heavy, physical D-man. We have options there for Game one and maybe by Game two we have two puck-movers and one heavier guy if JD is ready to go. We’ll make some decisions over the next day or two and go from there.”

Jason Demers will not be available for Wednesday's Game 1, as the defenseman continues recovering from a lower-body injury.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:57:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tomlinson's Trends: How to beat the Sharks</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[It took all 99 days of the lock-out shortened schedule, and it wasn’t until the third period of the last Western Conference game on Saturday April 27th for the Canucks to find out who their First Round opponent would be.

The answer of course is the San Jose Sharks. The bigger question now becomes; what can the Canucks do to win the series?

What follows is my perspective on the four things the Canucks need to accomplish to secure a spot in the Western Conference Semi-Final. Knowing that the Sharks were the only team the Canucks did not get a regulation win against in its season series, with San Jose winning two in 60 minutes and one in the shootout, what I outline below are the key factors for Vancouver to execute to beat the Sharks.

Stay Disciplined

The biggest challenge for the Canucks will be to turn the other cheek and to initiate and not retaliate. Stupid penalties are even more costly in the playoffs. Opening at home fosters a “protect our turf” attitude, but staying out of the penalty box will be paramount to keeping the Sharks in check. San Jose’s seventh ranked power play tied for the fourth highest amount of power play goals in the league, and tied most in the Western Conference with 34. Discipline also means keeping shift length short, as the playoffs are a marathon, not a sprint, and tired legs early in a game or series could spell disaster as the battles continue to escalate towards Lord Stanley’s Cup. Thinking back to how Vancouver eliminated the Sharks in five games in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, the power-play was instrumental for the Canucks, scoring nine power play goals. Lost in the five game series victory was the fact San Jose’s power play scored seven.

Get Shots Through to the Net

The San Jose Sharks blocked 800 shots this season, most in the Western Conference, and 234 more than the Canucks. In the season series versus Vancouver they blocked 68 of the Canucks shots in the three games played. For Vancouver to pepper and keep Antti Niemi busy, they must not only adjust in getting shots through, but get to rebounds as well. Niemi has a very active blocker side which produces juicy rebounds, and the Canucks must track those pucks in the offensive zone to sustain in-zone pressure. The Sharks break down defensively when things get frantic, and to create that result, Vancouver must not only get pucks to Niemi, they need to find the rebounds first.

Start With the Puck

Every faceoff is a puck battle. The more help a centerman gets from his wingers, the better likelihood to start with the puck and control the flow of play and implement the team’s system. The Sharks had the second highest faceoff winning percentage in the NHL, with Vancouver coming in 25th. If the Canucks are forced to chase for a higher percentage of pucks after every draw, the energy used could be draining. With the return of Ryan Kesler to the line-up, the Canucks have trended upwards in the faceoff circle, and that must continue in the playoffs.

Own the Middle of the Ice

Systematically, when the Sharks attack through the neutral zone they prefer to enter with the puck right down the middle of the ice over the blueline. This pushes the defencemen back and the next thing you know they are finding the second-wave trailing attacker in the high slot with a grade “A” scoring chance because of traffic at the net. Conversely, when defending in the neutral zone, San Jose pushes everything towards the boards by stacking the middle of the ice and wedging players to one side or the other, and then they swarm and out-man. If Vancouver can own the middle strip of the playing surface, especially in San Jose’s end, they will force the Sharks to play a game they are uncomfortable with. When that happens, the Sharks top players improvise, and their team play suffers.

The Canucks have shown in the past they can play more physical than the Sharks, and dictate the speed and crispness of the game by using quick passing and a smart cycle game. When Vancouver can get the puck off the boards in the offensive zone and take it to the net, they will force the San Jose to chase and run around in their own end.

In following my suggestions to a letter, I predict a Canucks opening round victory in six games.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:05:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Top Ten: Canucks Playoff Moments</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Time to dust off that tattered, old Canucks hat or the Jyrki Lumme jersey your grandma bought you for good luck. You know the one that you HAVE to wear during every playoff game? We are going to need all hands on deck because the 2013 NHL Playoffs are coming around the corner.

To get you into the mood, here are the top ten Vancouver Canuck playoff moments.

10. Nazzy Picking Corners

Again the Canucks were fighting back from a 3-1 deficit in the opening round of the 2003 Western Conference Quarterfinals against St. Louis. Up 2-1 in the second period and on the power-play the Canucks captain dangled back and forth on the side-boards before letting his patented wristshot loose, wiring the puck into the top left corner. The Canucks completed their comeback for their first playoff series win in seven years.

9. A Series of Fortunate Events

One of the strangest goals in Canucks history (and that's saying a lot). The Canucks trailing 2-1 with 30 seconds left with the goalie pulled and all sorts of craziness occurs. Jarome Iginla starts it all by missing an empty netter and follows it up by tripping on his own stick allowing Markus Naslund a path to the net, where Matt Cooke bangs home a rebound sending the game to overtime.

8. Luongo's 72 save playoff premier

In the first NHL playoff game of his career Roberto Luongo had perhaps the greatest debuts in league history, standing of his head to make 72 saves in a quadruple overtime 5-4 win against the Dallas Stars. His 72 save performance was just one save short of tying Kelly Hrudey's NHL playoff record.

7. Linden Shatters the Glass

Trevor Linden channeled his inner Hulk, pulverizing St. Louis' Jeff Norton right throug the Pacific Coliseum glass. The Canucks followed their captain's lead, eliminating the Blues out in seven games.

6. Back-to-back-to-back OT Winners

Facing elimination in the 1994 opening round against Calgary, Geoff Courtnall breathed life back into the Canucks with an overtime winner in Game 5. The next game, Trevor Linden saved the season with another winner in overtime. Then in Game 7, after Kirk McLean made 'The Save', Pave Bure capped off the comeback with 'The Goal'.

5. Bieksa bounces the Sharks

Of the 18,000+ inside Rogers Arena for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, Kevin Bieksa may have been the only one who followed the puck when it ricocheted off the boards directly at him on the Sharks blueline. When he one-timed the bouncing biscuit past Antti Niemi, no one on the ice, in the crowd or even those watching at home, had any idea what was going on.

4. Towel Power is born

After some questionable calls in the second game of the 1982 Campbell Conference Finals in Chicago, Canucks bench boss, Roger Neilsen waved a white towel off one of his players stick, signalling his surrender to the stripes. Neilsen was tossed out of the game, but when the Canucks returned home they were welcomed by thousands of towel-waving fans at the Pacific Coliseum, creating the Towel Power tradition.

3. GREG ADAMS, GREG ADAMS

We go back to 1994 and the Western Conference Finals with the Canucks a single win away from their second Stanley Cup final appearance it was time for a BC boy to play hero. Just 14 seconds after the puck dropped in the second overtime, Greg Adams found himself alone in front of Leafs 'tender Felix Potvin and backhanded the the puck in, punching the Canucks ticket to the Finals.

2. The Save

Captain Kirk with the greatest save in the history of the Canucks franchise. It was 1994, Western Conference Quarterfinals, Game 7 on the line, the Flames' Robert Reichel was staring at an open net when, BOOOM, Kirk McLean boots the puck off the goal line saving the game and the series.

1. Burrows Slays the Dragon

The Canucks faced the Blackhawks for the third straight season, jumping out to a commanding 3-0 lead in the series before Chicago stormed back to force Game 7. Five minutes into overtime Alex Burrows gloved a puck off the glass, faked a slap-shot and let it rip into the top corner. The city erupted, the Canucks conquered their rivals and were on the road to the Stanley Cup Finals.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Jeff Paterson: Big bad Burr</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Best behaviour? Never.

Not even the Vancouver Canucks want Alex Burrows to be on his very best behaviour. Part of what makes him the effective player he’s become and such a vital part of the Canucks offensive engine is his ability to play the game with an edge that sometimes attracts the attention of National Hockey League officials.

But better behaviour in the playoffs? Yeah, based on the fact that Burrows shared the league-lead in minor penalties this season, there is certainly some room for the 32-year-old to tidy things up now that the chase for the Stanley Cup has begun. With 27 separate trips to the penalty box this season, Burrows shared the minor penalty crown with Ottawa perennial bad boy Chris Neil. By comparison, Burrows took 35 minor penalties in 80 games the previous year. As anyone who’s watched him throughout his career knows, he’s no stranger to the penalty box. However, he nearly matched his penalty total from the prior year in just 47 games this time around.

Burrows knows his value to the Vancouver Canucks and he’s also well aware that he has to cut down on the penalties he takes. Not only do penalties put opponents on the power play which can be costly at this time of year, they also take Burrows – the Canucks leading goal-scorer this season– off the ice. But the impact of Burrows’ penchant for penalties runs much deeper than that. It also disrupts the flow of the team’s top line and any time Burrows spends in the penalty box is time that he and his linemates Daniel and Henrik Sedin aren’t together creating offense for the hockey club.

“Someone brought it to my attention the other day,” Burrows said of his league-leading status. “I wasn’t really surprised. I know I’ve taken a lot of penalties this year. Obviously I’d like to cut down on them and stay out of the box. But at the same time, sometimes when I feel like the twins are getting abused I like to get in there and I’ve got a few double minors on things like that. But it’s part of the game and I just have to make sure I’m smart about it and not spend so much time in there.”

As Burrows points out, there are times when he’ll take penalties sticking up for teammates. And the Canucks can live with those transgressions. Again, Burrows has made a living playing hard and not shying away from rough stuff. And that’s what has helped him develop into a dynamic player.

But as the playoffs begin, he also has to realize every time he steps on the ice that other teams know the Pincourt, Quebec native isn’t afraid of going to the penalty box. And opponents would be delighted to get Burrows off the ice as much as possible.

“I have to make sure I’m smarter – especially in the playoffs,” Burrows said. “Teams are going to try to get me off my game and I just have to be smart and let them go to the box.”

Burrows’ 27 penalties breakdown as follows: 10 roughing calls, four for slashing, three hooking minors, two each for high-sticking, tripping, holding and unsportsmanlike conduct along with single penalties for interference and cross-checking.

Again, the Canucks can live with the aggressive penalties especially when Burrows is able to take an opponent with him to the box. But with the playoffs about to start, Burrows has to be mindful of the avoidable stick fouls and must do everything in his power to stay on the right side of the officials.

While some might wonder if the league-leading minor penalty total is an indication that Alex Burrows is a marked-man in the eyes of NHL referees, Burrows doesn’t believe that to be the case.

“Not really,” he said. “I think it’s a tough job for the refs to make calls. Some calls are going to go your way. Some are going to go against you. But I believe the calls will even out at the end of the day.”

History has shown Alex Burrows to be an effective playoff performer so he’s excited about the opportunity to step on to the NHL’s biggest stage once again. But he has also learned over the years that there is only one way to slay a dragon – and it can’t be done in the penalty box.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:16:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>First impressions</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[At the time of this writing we don’t Vancouver’s postseason schedule, and won’t until the conclusion of the final regular season game later tonight.

But the Canucks matchup is set and next week Vancouver will open the postseason with a first round series against the San Jose Sharks, who the Canucks memorably defeated in the Western Conference Final back in 2011.

Over the course of the week, and before the puck is dropped in Game 1 (presumably on either Tuesday or Wednesday), this series will be analyzed to death. The Sharks and Canucks generally play exciting games, and so I’d expect a very intriguing fast-paced series. I’m not really ready to make a prediction (and picking against the Canucks on the team site would seem to be bad form, but I reserve the right to do so later in the week!), but I am ready to dive into the matchup and the underlying data, and give you my first impressions.

A Lucky Break

Over the past two seasons, two seasons in which the Canucks won the Presidents’ Trophy, Vancouver had been pretty unlucky in drawing first round matchups. In 2010-11, for example, the Chicago Blackhawks were the eighth seed, but by the predictive metrics (these types of “puck possession metrics” have proven to be more predictive of future performance than a club’s place in the standings, or even their goal differential) they were the third best even-strength team in the league. They took the Canucks to overtime of Game 7.

In 2011-12, the Los Angeles Kings were again the eighth seed, but by the predictive metrics they were the third best club at even-strength, and by far the best team in the league after acquiring sniper Jeff Carter at the trade deadline. The Kings defeated the Canucks in five and rolled to a Stanley Cup victory without ever having to play in a seventh game.

So the Canucks were due for a break in terms of their first round matchup, and in avoiding the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings, and drawing the San Jose Sharks in Round 1 instead, they probably got one this season. This isn’t to say that the Sharks aren’t still a bit of a juggernaut – they most assuredly are – but they’re a better matchup for the Canucks than the Blues and Kings would have been for one simple reason: home ice-advantage.

A lockout-shortened season, to some extent, acts as a bit of a pollutant for the underlying data. In particular, every club in the league only played twenty-four home games and twenty-four road games (in general I prefer a sample size of thirty games when evaluating teams). As such we have less certainty about the quality of each team’s “true talent” at home and on the road than we would over the course of an 82 game season.

Still, the sample is sufficient for us to conclude, with a reasonable degree albeit not complete certainty, that having home ice advantage in a playoff series against the Sharks gives the Canucks a bigger edge than they would otherwise possess in a first round series against the Blues or the Kings.

To illustrate this point we’ll use Fenwick Close – a metric that counts up all goals, shots on goal, and missed shots both for and against in a one goal game state, and expresses the differential as a percentage. Fenwick is basically unblocked shot differential and it does well to tell us how well each club controlled play at five-on-five, with the result of any particular game in doubt.

By this metric, which again is more predictive than wins or goal differential, the Canucks were a pretty dominant team within the friendly confines of Rogers Arena. That bodes well for the team and is doubly impressive considering how banged up the Canucks were all season long. Judged against the rest of the league the Canucks were the third best home-team among all NHL clubs that made the playoffs this season (behind only the Presidents’ Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks and the defending champion Los Angeles Kings).

Even still, the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings were far and away the two best road teams in the entire league in terms of unblocked shot differential. Against those two clubs home-ice advantage wouldn’t have mattered very much, but against the Sharks the Canucks should have a clear advantage at home. You need four wins to advance to the quarterfinal round of the NHL postseason, and the Canucks will play four games at home against the Sharks in their first round series. Homeice advantage could be key.

Goaltending

On the one hand, in drawing the Sharks in the first round the Canucks are primed to capitalize on home-ice advantage (in theory anyway). On the other, the Sharks might be the only Western Conference playoff team this season against which the Canucks won’t enjoy a decided advantage in goal.

Generally speaking the Canucks have had a good deal of success shooting on Antti Niemi in the past, but Niemi has had a Vezina worthy season in San Jose this year. Overall the Canucks and Sharks were tied for seventh in the league in team even-strength save percentage this season (both clubs posted a .928 through 47 games). But we can safely throw “team even-strength save percentage” out of the window now that it’s the postseason, since Niemi will, barring an unfortunate injury, start every game for the Sharks.

Niemi has been just absurdly good for a Sharks team that, for some reason, struggled to manufacture goals this season. His personal even-strength save-percentage over 43 starts this season sits at .930, good for ninth in the NHL among regular starting goaltenders. In terms of “Goals Versus Threshold” (GVT) a stat tracked over at PuckProspectus.com and is similar in theory to “Wins over Replacement” in baseball, Niemi was the league’s single most valuable player with a week left to play in the season. Niemi was worth .692 goals per game to the Sharks this season, a stratospheric number that shouldn’t be ignored.

Vancouver’s situation in goal is sort of in flux at the moment, since Cory Schneider’s injury status remains unknown. Schneider was actually slightly better than Niemi in terms of even-strength save-percentage this season (.931, good for eight among regular starting NHL goaltenders), but not quite as good by GVT, though he was close. Schneider was worth .627 goals per game through 29 games played, and there’s no doubt that he was spectacular this year.

Based on Niemi and Schneider’s respective performances this season, if Schneider is in Vancouver’s line-up for Game 1 of the postseason, then the goaltending matchup is a pure wash. If, however, Roberto Luongo starts the postseason between the pipes for the Canucks, that edge arguably tilts modestly towards Niemi (at least based on this season’s performance).

All of that said, in terms of “demonstrating a consistent ability to post an elite even-strength save percentage over a large sample of games,” Roberto Luongo is the second best goaltender in the NHL at the moment, behind only Henrik Lundqvist. Even if Luogno struggled somewhat this season relative to his usual godly-standard of puck-stopping, with a .920 even-strength save percentage, I’ll take his track record in roughly seven-thousand even-strength minutes over the past six season as more indicative of his “true talent” than his play in eighteen starts this season.

Ultimately it’s not like Vancouver is in a tight spot in goal if Roberto Luongo starts the series in net for the Canucks. But the point remains: this is the only Western Conference matchup the Canucks could’ve drawn where they won’t enjoy a decisive advantage in goal.

Head-to-Head

If you’re an avid reader of Canucks content, you should probably prepare yourself to hear a good dose of handwringing over the coming week about the teams’ 0-2-1 record against San Jose this season. Take my advice and disregard it.

It’s not just that the playoffs are an entirely new season, and regular season accomplishments don’t really play into it, it’s also that any club’s performance over a three game sample tells us next to nothing. Moreover, though the Canucks failed to gain two points in any of their previous games against the Sharks this season, they pretty handily outshot the Sharks at even-strength, and the two teams tied in terms of even-strength goals in the series (each club scored five a piece at five-on-five).

Again, we’re talking about just a three game sample and three game samples don’t tell us much. But it’s also worth noting that the Sharks haven’t faced a Canucks team this season that included a couple of pretty good forwards named Derek Roy or Ryan Kesler. There are, admittedly, some good reasons to think the Sharks could defeat the Canucks in a seven game series this spring, but their 3-0-0 regular season record against Vancouver this year isn’t one of them.

Can we drop the puck yet?

Stats in this piece sourced from timeonice.com, NHL.com, puckprospectus.com, and behindthenet.ca.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:41:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks @ Oilers (4.27.13)</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[THE SET-UP

The Vancouver Canucks (26-14-7) will close out their regular season tonight when they face the Edmonton Oilers (18-22-7) at Rexall Place in a nationally televised game on Hockey Night in Canada.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 

- The Canucks will close out their regular season schedule tonight and will be looking to avoid losing back-to-back games to finish the season. They dropped a 3-1 decision on Thursday night to the Ducks in their home finale – a loss that snapped their overall two-game win streak and their eight-game home win streak.

- The Oilers, who are also playing their season finale tonight, snapped a three-game losing streak last night with their 6-1 win over the Wild. Edmonton, however, has lost six in a row at Rexall Place dating back to April 10. Their last win in front of their home fans came on April 1 in a 4-1 victory over the Flames.

- The Canucks have won their last four regular season finales in a row and have an all-time record of 22-13-6 in regular season finales.

- Tonight marks the fifth and final meeting between the Canucks and Oilers this season. The season series is tied at two wins each with the Canucks coming out on top in the most recent meeting winning 4-0 back on April 4 at Rogers Arena.

- The Canucks may opt to rest several of their veterans tonight in advance of the playoffs starting next week but the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler won't be among those getting the night off. Blue-liner Kevin Bieksa, who has missed the last five games with a lower body injury, is also expected to play tonight.

- With Canucks G Cory Schneider still sidelined with an undisclosed injury, G Roberto Luongo is expected to get his second consecutive start tonight. He has not started consecutive games since March 12 to 18 when he started four in a row.

- Oilers G Devan Dubnyk will get the start tonight in the season finale for Edmonton. Dubnyk has started all three games in the season series in which Edmonton has earned at least a point posting a 2-0-1 record with a 1.58 GAA and a .946 save percentage. He also recorded a shutout back on March 30 in the Canucks' last visit to Rexall Place.

- Speaking of that March 30 game at Rexall Place, the Canucks will want to avoid a start like they had that night. Edmonton scored three times in the first 2:43 of that game to set a new franchise record for fastest three goals to begin a game eclipsing the previous mark of 3:25.

- Canucks F Henrik Sedin (1-3-4) and Oilers F Taylor Hall (3-1-4) share the season series lead in points with four each.

- By the end of tonight, the Canucks will know who their first-round playoff opponent will be. There are only three potential teams that could be Vancouver's opening round playoff foe: Los Angeles, San Jose and St. Louis.

- This game will be the last ever involving teams in the Northwest Division. Next season this division – at least as far as how it is currently configured – will cease to exist.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2013 11:24:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>OTOW - Volume VI</title>
				
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				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:32:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>And the award goes to...</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[The end of the 2013 regular season is growing close.

The Canucks locked up their fifth consecutive Northwest Division title earlier in the week, and that wasn’t by accident. The team played strong defensive hockey this season, and along the way some stellar individual performances lead to many impressive victories. It’s time to reward and recognize some of those performers.

The Ed Jovanovski Award

Given each year to the best former Florida Panthers defenseman on the Canucks

Previous winners include Keith Ballard, Ed Jovanovski, and Lukas Krajicek

2013 recipient: Jason Garrison

The Canucks and Panthers have become trading buddies in recent years. It all started back in 1999 with the Pavel Bure-for-Ed Jovanovski (and others) trade, and the positive relationship between the two teams has continued on. With Roberto Luongo came the smooth-skating Lukas Krajicek back in 2006. The Canucks picked up Keith Ballard at the 2010 NHL Draft. Jovanovski was one of the most prolific defenseman in Canucks history (he didn’t have the longevity of other blue liners who have donned the Vancouver sweater, but at his peak he was a dominant force).

After a bit of an adjustment period to 2013 (learning both a new system and how to play on his off side), Garrison has emerged as a rock-solid top pairing defenseman equally capable of shutting down opposing stars with his smarts and strength, and dropping opposing shot blockers with his booming point shot. The White Rock, BC native has been exactly as advertised.

The Corey Hirsch Award

Given each year to the best redheaded goaltender on the Canucks

Previous winners include Corey Hirsch, Gary Smith, and Glen Hanlon

2013 recipient: Cory Schneider

Schneider is one of the best goaltenders in the NHL – he is big, quick, and technically proficient (along with Carey Price, there aren’t many goaltenders as sound and efficient as Schneider is). Arguably Vancouver’s three best/most important players are of the redheaded variety – an anomaly that we may never see again. According to National Geographic, redheads are headed towards extinction.

The Martin Gelinas Award

Given each year to the best waiver wire pickup made by the Canucks

Previous winners include Kyle Wellwood, Ron Delorme, Tim Hunter, Jeff Cowan, and Dale Weise

2013 recipient: Tom Sestito

Sestito wins this award by default, as he has been the only waiver pickup of the season. Waiver moves can help a team considerably (Gelinas was an integral part of Vancouver’s 1994 run, playing a very Chris Higgins-like two-way game), or they can be largely forgettable (Kris Beech, anyone?). Sestito has done what the team has asked of him – he hits, he fights, and he is relatively reliable in his own zone. The Canucks have done a good job using the waiver wire over the years. Dale Weise has emerged as a regular NHL forward since coming to Vancouver, and who can forget the exploits of Jeff “the bra-barian” Cowan?
The Markus Naslund Award

Given each year to the best trade deadline pickup

Previous winners include Jyrki Lumme, Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning, Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican, Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison, Martin Rucinsky, Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, Chris Higgins, Max Lapierre, Brian Smolinski, Zack Kassian, and the immortal Roman Otsiuka

2013 recipient: Derek Roy

The Canucks made a great (and necessary) move bringing Roy in back in early April, and his impact has been immediate. Vancouver has essentially been a one line team for much of 2013 from an offensive standpoint, as injuries to Ryan Kesler and David booth have prevented the team from consistently icing a formidable second scoring unit. With the Roy acquisition, the Canucks can now put together three lines capable of scoring on any given shift.

What Roy lacks in size he makes up for in skill and smarts. He is very crafty with and without the puck, and he is strong enough defensively to go up against top opposing players. He is going to be one of the best players available this summer as a free agent (assuming the Canucks can’t convince him to take a massive discount to remain in Vancouver), and that added motivation is a great thing for both Roy and for the Canucks.

Deadline pickups have been key cogs in Vancouver’s two most recent Cup Final runs. In 1994, the team brought in Brown (“Jeff Brown, a long pass to Pavel Bure…) and Bret Hedican, two defensemen who played big minutes in the postseason. And in 2011, Higgins and Max Lapierre were brought to Vancouver in separate deals. Higgins was fantastic all postseason long, and Lapierre stepped up in the absence of Manny Malhotra.

The Sergio Momesso Award

Given each year to the best Italian-sounding name on the Canucks

Previous winners include Sergio Momesso, Enrico Ciccone, Roberto Luongo, Todd Bertuzzi, Garth Rizzuto, Dave Capuano, and Aaron Volpatti

2013 recipient: Steve Pinizzotto

Pinizzotto didn’t have a ton of competition this year, (and Sestito winning two awards would be unfair to the rest of the team) but even if he did, he’d win the majority of the “best last name” contests he enters. Pinizzotto carved out a reputation as an exciting and annoying (depending on if he was your teammate or opponent) player during a prolific AHL career with the Hershey Bears, but his debut in Vancouver was delayed multiple times to do bad luck with injuries. He is now healthy, and is a serviceable energy forward on the fourth line.

The Real Awards

Team MVP: Henrik Sedin

Sedin has been the most consistent and valuable Canuck in 2013, with honourable mentions to Schneider and Dan Hamhuis. The Sedin twins are going to be solid top line players for a while. They take great care of their bodies, and the style of hockey they play is conducive to the aging process (neither Daniel nor Henrik rely on physical attributes like strength, size, or speed, as much as they do on intelligence, positioning, and skill).

Best Defenseman: Dan Hamhuis

Is Hamhuis a robot? Can anybody remember the last mistake he made on the ice? He’s physical when necessary, but he excels defensively because of his mobility and smarts. He can score and create offense, but the team leans on ‘Hammer’ to lock down the top opposition forwards.

He deserves some serious consideration for Canada’s 2014 Olympic team, too. Here are a few reasons why:

-On the big ice, having mobile defensemen is very important

-He is a left-side defenseman. Team Canada is the polar opposite of the Canucks in this regard. Kris Letang, PK Subban, Brent Seabrook, Drew Doughty, Dan Boyle, Shea Weber, and Alex Pietrangelo are all right-shooting, right-side defensemen.

Most Exciting Player: Jannik Hansen

During his first few years in the league, Hansen was a really fast player without much else to his game. To his credit, he has developed into a well-rounded two-way forward, and he is much bigger and stronger than he used to be. The defensive part of his game has always been there, but he has really improved on his puck skill and passing over the past few years. And he also took slap shot lessons from Fulton Reed last summer (unconfirmed) – he has been torching opposing goaltenders/posts/end boards with his slappers all season long.

Unsung Hero: Jason Garrison

Garrison received media attention last season for his 16 goals, but he was a sought-after free agent more for his defensive ability. He and Hamhuis have been terrific together, and he is looking a lot more comfortable with rushing the puck, passing, and shooting now. And that spells bad news for the lower limbs of opposing shot blockers. His shot is hard and accurate, but it is how quickly he gets it off that makes it such a weapon.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:29:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Canucks Report: Luongo's last stand?</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[The Canucks wind up their regular season at home with the same Anaheim Ducks team they hosted to begin the campaign. The NHL standings may say it's a meaningless affair, but Vancouver will need to keep its foot on the gas to keep its momentum heading into the post-season.

Last time for Luo?

Roberto Luongo could be making his last regular season home start tonight as the Vancouver Canucks host the Anaheim Ducks, but don't expect the Canucks winningest goaltender to spend his time reflecting on his tenure guarding the Canucks net.

"For myself, and the team, the focus is really on these last two games and preparing for next week. That's all that really matters at this point. Reminiscing is for when you retire." said Luongo, who is looking for his 10th win of the season.

While Luongo shyed away from reflecting on his Canuck career, his coach throughout his time in Vancouver, Alain Vigneault, heaped praise on his stand-out netminder.

"Since he came in he's given us a chance to win every night. He was a great role model for any player coming in here whether they were young or old. I think it's been a real priviledge for everybody to have him here with us."

During Luongo's seven year tenure with the team he has rewritten the Canucks record books. The Montreal native has set the standard for excellence setting records for the most career wins (224) and shutouts (33) as a Canuck, recording the most wins in a season (47), the most shutouts in a season (9), and winning the William M. Jennings trophy in 2011, in addition to being selected to the NHL All-star Game on three occasions.

Rolling Along

After a dominating performance against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, Alain Vigneault is electing to keep his top three forward lines together, bringing some consistency to a forward group which has been mixed and matched for much of the season.

Vigneault felt his second line of Ryan Kesler, Derek Roy and Chris Higgins were especially good against the NHL's top club despite being kept off the score sheet.

"Our second line's best game of the 46 games we've played was the last one. They were part of eight or nine scoring chances. We have not had that at one other time this year so I'm hoping that they will be able to do that again tonight."

Despite playing on the wing and not his normal centre position, Kesler says the transition isn't as difficult as many may believe.

"It really doesn't change too much. It's still hockey out there," said Kesler, who will still take a majority of the lines faceoffs. "I think it gives us different looks whatever he [Vigneault] decides. I thought last game was one of our best offensive games. We can go with three lines or we can go with two stacked lines."

More Canuck Debuts

Two more call-ups will be making their Vancouver Canuck debuts tonight with Derek Joslin drawing in for Cam Barker on the backend and rookie goaltender Joe Cannata filling in as the back-up to Roberto Luongo with Cory Schneider nursing an injury.

Keith Ballard and Kevin Bieksa both joined their Canuck teammates on the ice for the team's pre-game skate.

Bieksa will not dress tonight but remains confident that he will be ready to go come the playoffs just a week away. As for Keith Ballard, there is a possibility he will skate as a forward on the 4th line, a position he played three games earlier this season.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:27:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Tale of the Tape: Canucks vs. Ducks (4.25.13)</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[THE SET-UP
 
The Vancouver Canucks (26-13-7), minus number one netminder Cory Schneider, close out their regular season home schedule tonight when they play host to the Anaheim Ducks (29-11-6) at Rogers Arena.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
 
- The Canucks close out their three-game home stand tonight and are playing their final regular season home game as well. They are 2-0-0 on their current home stand, including knocking off the Blackhawks 3-1 on Monday, and have won eight in a row at Rogers Arena dating back to March 19.

- The Ducks wrap up their four-game road trip tonight and are playing their final road game of the regular season. They've won back-to-back games coming into tonight's contest – both against the Oilers - after beginning the trip with a loss in Calgary.

- Tonight marks the third and final meeting between the Canucks and Ducks this season barring a playoff match-up. The season series is tied at one win each with both teams having earned a blowout victory over the other so far.

- The Canucks received some surprising injury news yesterday when it was announced that G Cory Schneider is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. G Roberto Luongo will start tonight while G Joe Cannata has been summoned from Chicago (AHL) to serve as the back-up.

- Canucks D Kevin Bieksa and D Keith Ballard joined the team for practice yesterday but neither is expected to be back in the lineup for tonight. D Derek Joslin will likely make his Canucks' debut tonight taking D Cam Barker's spot.

- Should Ducks G Viktor Fasth, who is coming off a 3-0 shutout of the Oilers on Monday, get the start tonight, it would mark his first career start versus the Canucks. The 30-year-old Swede is playing in his first NHL season but is ineligible for the Calder Trophy due to his age.

- Tonight's game is meaningless for both teams in the sense the game's result will not affect either team's position in the Western Conference standings before the start of the playoffs. The Canucks have clinched the Northwest Division championship and third place in the Conference while the Ducks have clinched the Pacific Division championship and second place in the Conference.

- This game could serve as a potential playoff preview for the two teams involved albeit the earliest the teams could meet in the post-season is the second round.

- The Ducks are expected to rest veterans F Teemu Selanne and F Saku Koivu tonight. Also not expected to play up front is F Bobby Ryan (illness).

- Canucks F Daniel Sedin and Ducks F Teemu Selanne share the points lead in the season series with four each. Both players have two goals and two assists through two games played.

- Ducks F Radek Dvorak is expected to appear in his 1,200th career NHL game tonight.

- Canucks F Mason Raymond needs three assists to reach 100 career assists. D Dan Hamhuis needs one helper to reach 200 career assists.

- The seven goals the Ducks scored in their last visit to Rogers Arena back on January 19 – opening night for both teams this season – tied their most in a single game against the Canucks. They had accomplished that feat twice before.

- The Canucks have an all-time record of 22-14-5 in regular season home finales.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:42:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Our Team Our Way: Canucks in the Classroom</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[The CanucksTV team arrived at Rockridge Secondary School in West Vancouver armed with cameras, lights, fog machines and even life-size cutouts of Daniel Sedin, Dan Hamhuis and Roberto Luongo looking to film a class of big-time Canuck fans. We had heard rumours that Grade 8 Social Studies teacher, Greg Elliott, had been incorporating the Canucks into his teaching curriculum because, you know what, the Canucks ’94 Stanley Cup run qualifies as history too!

Turns out we could have left most of our props behind. The classroom was wallpapered with Canucks flags, towels, clocks and posters. There was even a red goal light perched on Mr. Elliott’s desk. As it turns out the he has been a die-hard Canucks fan going back to the glory days of Bure, Linden and McLean. In fact, the North Vancouver native protects the crease as a goalie in his spare time while also coaching Rockridge’s hockey team.

We wanted to put a Canuck inspired spin on Mr. Elliott’s class and it didn’t take much to get the students into it. Most were already decked out in the Vancouver Canucks gear so they looked the part.

Kicking things off was the classic intro tune - U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”. And as Canuck fans know well, no introduction is complete without a fog-machine and light show. The kids put on their game faces and prepared for intellectual battle.

It had been a while since any of our crew had been in high-school and evidently out there are a few new rules in high school classrooms.

Get caught texting your friend while Mr. Elliott is discussing the nuances of Canadian parliament? That’s going to cost you two-minutes in the penalty box. And yes, you will feel shame, courtesy the class’ very own version of the Green Men.

An enlightening presentation made in front of the class is rewarded with not only a goal horn, high-fives, waving towels and chest-bumps but also a post-presentation interview from the teacher.

“Well you know, I tried to keep it simple and just focused on giving 110% and I think it just worked out for me,” Francesca told Mr. Elliott, channeling her inner Kevin Bieksa after her talk. “I feel like I deserve at least 100%”

And just like in any hockey game, no class is complete without the rush of the final buzzer going off. But in this class, watch out because when the buzzer sounds, the class is packing up and getting out the door faster than Jannik Hansen on a breakaway.

Over the rush of the crowd, Elliott reminds the class that they will need to finish chapters 4-7 while adding, “don’t forget, it’s game night. Canucks vs. Blackhawks 7PM!”]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:52:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Dear Photograph</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The concept is simple: take a picture of a picture, from the past, in the present. That's the idea behind one of my favourite websites around, Dear Photograph.

Using that premise, I dug up some old Behind the Lens photos that Vancouver Canucks team photographer Jeff Vinnick had taken throughout the years and printed off ones that caught my eye from trips to Colorado, Nashville, St. Louis and Dallas. Then Vinnick and I went to work.

During this past five-game road trip, we attempted to hold up the old photos against the original setting to blend past and present into something new. What we discovered is the more things change, the more they stay the same. While elements of the background changed over the years in a few photos, overall the settings of NHL arenas remain fairly consistent.

As you'll see below, our experiment worked masterfully on some shots, others not so much (we aimed to line at least one element up between photos). I'd give us an E for Effort though and hopefully you would too.

Now, if you're up for it, we'd like to see some effort from you! Dig through those old shoe boxes or go back to a photo from last week - either way, find a Canucks themed shot from the past and shoot it in the present, then tweet it or post it on Instagram using the hashtag #DearCanucks

We'll compile a gallery of the entries and feature them on Canucks.com.

****UPDATE****

Dear Photograph founder Taylor Jones and his publishing company Harper Collins Canada Ltd have given us three hardcover copies of the Dear Photography book to give out as prizes for those who enter the #DearCanucks contest.

More details on Fort Nucks]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:06:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Boys 2 men</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[At 32 years of age, Vancouver’s twin first liners Daniel and Henrik Sedin have probably put in the most impressive two-way season of hockey in their respective careers.

Sure, at the end of the year neither twin will win the Art Ross trophy. Also, their overall offensive production appears to have regressed to a less godly point per game pace versus where it was in 2009-10 and 2010-11. But one shouldn’t overreact to point totals in this case, because the counting stats miss what the underlying data captures. Basically the twins have been counted on to do more with less this season, and they’ve managed it across the board.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind before we proceed. The first is that hockey is a game of ratios, not one of raw numbers. Scoring five goals in a single game is great, for example, but not if your team has also allowed six.

We can, and should, apply that principle to our analysis of individual performance: scoring 100 points in a season looks wicked on the back of a hockey card, but if you were a defensive liability as well, it’s not necessarily all that valuable to your team. Personally, I’d rather employ an 80-point guy who plays suffocating defence.

The other thing is how unique what the twins have done this season is in the annals of hockey history. As elite offensive players age, typically, their two-way ability is the first skill to atrophy. This makes sense when you consider that so much of defensive play in professional hockey is based on speed, size, athleticism and strength – after all, you need to consistently win fifty-fifty puck battles against the best players in the world to be a defensive force in the NHL.

At the age of 32, most elite two-way players are guys who can still pick the top corner on the world’s best goaltenders, but can’t really carry a team and drive play against the toughest competition at even-strength anymore. The Sedins, somehow, are continuing to defy father time, and at 32 are having their stingiest year of defensive hockey. It’s actually kind of mind boggling, and certainly deserves our attention.

To illustrate my point, I’m going to build a series of tables and include some statistics that can help us measure the quality of an individual player’s defensive play. I know it sounds dry and advanced, but bear with me and I’ll do my best to make the data accessible.

Let’s start with something simple: goals for, goals against and goal differential. This is a concept kind of like plus/minus, except we’re isolating the five-on-five game state (no marks against for a short-handed goal against, for example). This table basically includes the number of goals the Canucks have scored with Henrik Sedin on the ice at even-strength rated per sixty minutes (GF/60), the number of goals Canucks opponents have scored with Henrik Sedin on the ice rated per sixty minutes (GA/60), and the overall goal differential per sixty minutes of ice-time (GD/60) for Henrik, and then Daniel Sedin.

"What should jump out to you right off the bat in the two above tables, is that the Canucks are allowing goals against at an extremely low rate this season with the twins on the ice. The Sedin twins have never been defensive liabilities or anything, but this season they’re bonafide stoppers."

Henrik’s numbers are particularly striking – the Canucks are scoring less often with Henrik on the ice, and their captain is no longer scoring at an Art Ross pace anymore. But he’s actually been better at even-strength this season than in any other year besides the season in which he won the Hart Trophy (and lots of that offense was percentage driven). Henrik’s defensive improvement means he’s actually probably been more valuable to the Canucks this season than in any previous season, and that’s despite his manufacturing goals for at a slightly lower rate.

These trends emerge again if we look at the shot data. We’re going to just go with Henrik Sedin now (they mostly play together anyway, but Henrik has been more durable over the past six years) but this next table is based on the shot record. So we’re looking at the number of shots for that the Canucks generate with Henrik Sedin on the ice at even-strength rated per sixty minutes (SF/60), the number of shots against that the Canucks surrender with Henrik Sedin on the ice at even-strength rated per, you guessed it, sixty minutes (SA/60), and the team’s shot differential rated per sixty minutes, with Henrik on the ice (SD/60):

So once again, we see that with Henrik Sedin on the ice, the Canucks are surrendering the lowest number of shots against in five seasons this year. Remember what I said earlier about hockey being a game of ratios rather than raw numbers? The Sedins are basically scoring slightly less than they did at their offensive peak a few years back, but they’ve more than made up for it by becoming absurdly stingy defensive players.

Finally let’s look at the usage metrics, and the attempted shot differential. Usage metrics include “Corsi Rel QoC” or “quality of competition,” and also offensive-zone start percentage.

Quality of competition is calculated based on the relative attempted shot differential of a player’s opponents (weighted by even strength ice-time). It’s a pretty solid indicator of which players are seeing the most difficult matchups on a game-by-game basis.

Offensive zone start percentage is calculated by dividing a player’s offensive zone starts (basically shifts that they start in the offensive end of the rink) by the sum total of their offensive and defensive zone starts. So offensive zone start percentage measures the number of times a player is deployed in an offensive capacity, versus the number of times that player is relied on to win a faceoff and clear the puck.

Attempted shot differential takes into account all goals, shots on goal, shots wide and blocked shots both ways. It’s basically a “flow of play” stat, and we’ll express it as a percentage here because we’re mostly just interested in using it as a proxy for “zone time”.

Again, the trend here is undeniable. For the first time in their respective careers, the Sedin twins are battling the toughest matchups game in and game out. They’re also starting a lower percentage of their shifts in the offensive end of the rink than they have in three seasons.

All of that context aside, the twins are consistently turning play in the right direction. When the twins are on the ice, they’re in the offensive end with the puck. In fact they’re spending more time in their opponent’s end of the rink than they ever have previously. Basically the Sedin twins play defense in the offensive end, by being relentless on the puck, and pinning their opponents two-hundred feet away from Vancouver’s goal. As the old adage goes, “the best defense is a good offense,” and the Sedin twins have put that principle into practice this season.

In doing so the twins have defied father time, which like defying gravity, only Wiley E Coyote can do (and even he eventually falls, leaving just his eyes and a sign saying “woops” behind). I tend to think the Sedin twins have a cerebral style of generating puck possession and offense that is less reliant on athleticism, and potentially less youth-dependent than most other NHL players. Still at some point, inevitably, the Sedin twins will begin to show their age. The good news for Canucks fans is that it certainly doesn’t look like we’ve reached that point yet.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:55:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>OTOW - Volume V</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[]]></description>

				<author>derek.jory@canucks.com</author>
				<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:12:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Canucks Report: Trial by fire</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[The Vancouver Canucks may have their playoff passports already stamped, but don't look for them to sit back and put their feet up just yet with long-standing rivals Chicago Blackhawks visiting Rogers Arena.
Trial by fire

Frank Corrado, the Canucks 5th round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, will make his NHL debut tonight, in a trial by fire facing one of the NHL's most prolific offenses, but the 20 year old defenceman from Toronto says he isn't intimated.

"You don't get too many opportunities to make a first impression in the NHL. A lot of guys dream of this so you can't be picky. There's no better way than to be thrown into the fire," Corrado said following his first skate with the Canucks.

"I know they are good team and they are going to come hard. You're going to have nerves the first game no matter who you play."

The right-handed shooting Corrado will be paired with Alex Edler, a pairing Alain Vigneault says is similar to the one that Edler started his career with six seasons ago.

"It's a little bit like when Alex first came in the league, he was playing with Sami Salo and Sami was his big brother and tonight Alex will be the big brother and hopefully he can help him along."

Corrado has seen plenty of action this season, playing nearly 100 games with the Sudbury Wolves, Kitchener Rangers and most recently the Chicago Wolves where he picked up a couple of assists in three games.

Keith Ballard will not dress due to injury Alain Vigneault called "day-to-day". The Dan Hamhuis and Jason Garrison unit will remain intact, while the other pairing skating together was Andrew Alberts and Cam Barker.
Higgins Returns

Chris Higgins returns to the Canucks lineup after missing the last six games with a lower body injury and says it's easier to get back into the swing of things facing a rival like the Blackhawks.

"This is Chicago - Vancouver, it's my personal favourite team to play in the league. Just from their skill level, you look at some of the guys they have on their team, they are unbelievable players so it always makes for a good atmosphere."

Higgins, who has 10 goals on the year, will play on the wing with Ryan Kesler and Derek Roy. The other forward units skating in practice had the Sedin's and Alex Burrows together, Maxim Lapierre joined by Jannik Hansen and Mason Raymond with the fourth group made up of Tom Sestito, Andrew Ebbett and Zack Kassian.
Driving for Five

The Canucks need just a single point to claim their fifth consecutive Northwest division title, an achievement Alain Vigneault is especially proud of given the team's injury woes this year.

"This year. depth-wise, has been a little more challenging. The fact that Ryan Kesler has missed about 75% of the year, David Booth hasn't been there, Manny's situation and a shortened year, our depth has been really tested," Vigneault said.

"It's really amazing, in my opinion anyway, that we were able to, in such a strong conference, accomplish what we have done."

Cory Schneider will get the start for Vancouver, coming off his 33 save win against the Red Wings on Saturday night.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:07:00 EDT</pubDate>
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				<title>Wolves This Week: Apr. 22 - 27</title>
				
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                <description><![CDATA[Season over.

The 2012/13 season has come to an end for the Chicago Wolves after the club failed to qualify for the American Hockey League playoffs. With the effects of the NHL lockout, which led to a lot of roster movement throughout the season, it was certainly a strange season for all AHL teams.

Let’s take a look back at the season that was for the Wolves, by the numbers style:

83 -- Points the Wolves finished with this season.

37 -- Games won.

30 -- Games lost.

9 -- Games lost in either overtime or a shootout.

47 -- Different players that suited up for the Wolves this season.

7 -- Canucks prospects made their AHL debuts this season.

31 -- Different Wolves that scored a goal this season, a team record.

24 -- Goals by Brett Sterling, tops on the team.

57 -- Points by Darren Haydar which led the Wolves this season. Haydar also led the team in assists (37).

118 -- Penalty-minutes by Guillaume Desbiens, the most on the team.

1 -- Giant shift by rookie Alexandre Mallet

8 -- Players that have suited up for both the Wolves and Canucks so far this season.

4 -- Wins in a row was the longest winning-streak for the Wolves this season. They did that on three occasions.

4 -- Losses in a row was the longest losing-streak for the Wolves this season.

42 -- One-goal games the Wolves were involved in, finishing with a record of 21-13-8 in those games.

174 -- Combined penalty minutes between the Wolves and Rockford IceHogs on Sunday, March 17th.

10 -- Straight games Andrew Ebbett picked up at least a point, the longest point-streak of the season that spanned from December 30, 2012 to March 9, 2013.

1 -- Zack Kassian goal caught in slow-motion by Canucks TV.]]></description>

				
				<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:54:00 EDT</pubDate>
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