Roberto Luongo Steps Down As Canucks Captain

The Vancouver Canucks announced on Monday that Roberto Luongo has relinquished his captaincy, and the team will be looking for his replacement for the upcoming season. There was much speculation about this issue, and the announcement comes as little surprise to anyone in Vancouver as the rumours have been flying for a couple of months already.

Early speculation has Henrik Sedin, the NHL's leading scorer and MVP last season, as the most likely replacement, but Mike Gillis has stated that the team will not rush into any decisions. Ryan Kesler is another option, but many people feel he is not quite ready to accept a responsibility of that magnitude. Heading into the season without a captain is also a possibility for the Canucks, but Gillis did mention that he expects to make a final decision before the start of the regular season.

“Roberto has been an excellent captain for our team the past two seasons,” Gillis said in a statement. “We respect and support his decision to relinquish the captaincy and are confident that he will continue to help lead our team through his tremendous character and work ethic both on and off of the ice.”

The Canucks goalie was an anomaly, as a captain being a goaltender hasn't been done in the modern era.

Rumour has it that the responsibility of dealing with the media pre and post game was a bit too much to handle for Luongo, and a goalie being the spokesman for the team often made it sound like he was throwing his teammates under the bus.

According to Gillis and Luongo, it was the former captain's decision to step down, as opposed to management asking him to, which has been rumoured around town.

"I am honoured to have served as captain of the Vancouver Canucks for the past two seasons," Luongo said. "Being captain in a Canadian city for a team with such passionate fans is a privilege and an experience I will always take pride in. I will continue to be a leader on this team and support my teammates the same way I always have while focusing on our ultimate goal."

Expect Luongo to bounce back from a poor season (by his standards) with the pressure of being captain off his shoulders. Luongo was well-known for his game day preperation and often quirky superstitions which, before being named captain, included not talking to the media on game days.

Canucks sign Raffi Torres

General Manager Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks have reportedly bolstered their bottom six forward unit late Tuesday night by signing gritty forward Raffi Torres to a one year deal worth one million dollars.

Torres, known to many Canuck fans because of his lengthy stint with the Edmonton Oilers a couple years ago (a stint which saw him light up the Canucks repeatedly), split time with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres last year, scoring 19 goals and adding 17 assists for 36 points.

He is known as a gritty winger who plays a physical game, something the Canucks have been looking to add since getting ousted by a more mature, physical Chicago team in last year's 2nd round of the playoffs.

Source

Meet Victor Oreskovich

Known to most as the "throw-in" player in the deal with Florida that also brought Keith Ballard to Vancouver (for Grabner, Bernier and a 1st rounder), Victor Oreskovich isn't a household name just yet. But once Canuck fans see him play, I'd expect they will recognize him quickly. A hulking winger (6'3, 220 lbs), Oreskovich hits everything in sight. His forecheck quickly became his forte, and was the main reason why he made the Panthers as a free agent camp attendee after taking almost two years away from the game.

Drafted in the 2nd round of the 2004 NHL entry draft by the Colorado Avalanche after a successful two year junior career in Kitchener, the Whitby, Ontario native quit the game after a couple of poor seasons and a number of injuries resulted in him losing passion for the game. He switched his attention to school and his Finance Degree at Notre Dame.

Then one day, it hit him.

"One day I was looking at some number equations and hockey popped into my mind," Oreskovich said. "It's funny, but I was supposed to be looking at my future in finance and all I could think of was hockey. I started to miss the game. It started to eat away at me. I never gave the pros a chance. I didn't want to look back and regret it the rest of my life. That fire started burning again."

One phone call to his former Junior coach, and now Head Coach in Florida - Pete DeBoer - and he had his second chance. He made the most of it by earning a spot on the Panthers, playing 50 games and earning 6 points on the team`s 4th line.

He plans on making the most of his new opportunity in Vancouver where there`s a number of bottom 6 positions up for grabs.

Here`s a look at what the Canucks can expect from the gritty, hard-working 24 year old.

Sami Salo out indefinitely with torn achilles tendon

This should come as no surprise to anybody, but Sami Salo is injured yet again. According to the Vancouver Sun, Salo suffered a tear to his Achilles tendon while playing floor hockey in his native Finland. Early reports suggest the hard-luck 35 year old defenseman could miss at least 3 months and will start the season on the IR.

Luckily the Canucks have an abundance of d-men under contract, so they will be able to replace Salo with a proven rear guard.

If anybody benefits from Salo's injury, it's Kevin Bieksa, who has reportedly been on the block. He may now stick around as Salo's replacement to start the season.

Stay tuned for the latest on Salo's injury and much, much more.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis was a busy man this off-season.

Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis has been one of the busiest GM's in the NHL this Summer, making several key moves in order to shore up some of the team's weaknesses that were so very evident in last season's playoffs.

In arguably the team's biggest acquisition, Gillis signed free agent defenseman Dan Hamhuis to a 6 year deal worth 4.5 million a season. Hamhuis, a 27 year old Smithers, B.C native, played his first 6 seasons with the Nashville Predators after the Preds made hm the 12th overall pick in 2001. The soft-spoken, hard-hitting d-man is known for his solid overall game - he doesn't excel at anything in particular, but is good at every aspect of the game. Canuck fans can expect a gritty, hard-nosed style mixed with some offensive ability. Most importantly however, Hamhuis has only missed only a handful of games in his NHL career (9 to be exact), something most Canuck defensemen can't attest to. Hopefully the Canuck Curse doesn't fall upon the usually reliable blueliner.

Another move meant to bolster the Vancouver backend saw Gillis trade for d-man Keith Ballard from the Florida Panthers for Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier and the Canucks 1st round pick in this year's draft. Ballard is another reliable blueliner who has only missed 13 NHL games in his career (all in 2006'2007). He has played in every game for 4 of his 5 NHL seasons.

Ballard is known as one of the top shot-blocking defenseman in the game, and is also known as one of the biggest hitters in the game despite his small stature (5'11, 200 lbs). The American rearguard is especially known for his hip-checks (view highlights here ), an art-form almost extinct since Darius Kasparaitis left the game.

Gillis also solidified his 3rd line with the signing of Manny Malhotra to a 3 year-7.5 million dollar deal. The Indo-Canadian forward spent last season with the San Jose Sharks, and was widely considered the team's MVP in last year's playoffs. Malhotra is a useful penalty-killer and faceoff man who should replace the services of the departed Kyle Wellwood and Ryan Johnson (both UFA's who remain unsigned). He is also a physical player who can play both Center and Left Wing, and can chip in here and there offensively.

In a less publicized signing (and for good reason), Gillis inked former 1st rounder Jeff Tambellini, the son of former Vancouver Asst. GM Steve Tambellini. The left-winger had 14 points in 36 games for the New York Islanders last season, and should compete for a third line spot on the Canucks.

With the acquisitions of Hamhuis and Ballard, Vancouver now has 9 defensemen on one-way contracts on their roster, including Sami Salo, Christian Ehrhoff, Alex Edler, Kevin Bieksa, Aaron Rome, Shane O'Brien and Andrew Alberts.

With the log-jam of rearguards and with the team being slightly over the salary cap, Gillis undoubtedly needs to move a d-man or two. Kevin Bieksa, whose play has been widely criticized over the last few years (especially by me), is rumoured to be on the block. Bieksa makes 3.75 million a year and is under contract for another couple years.

Hell in Hollywood; Canucks lose 5-3 to Kings

Despite having the offensive upside of a six-year old school girl, Ryan Johnson brings certain things to the Vancouver Canucks that no other player can. He blocks shots (3rd in NHL for forwards) and wins faceoffs, and thrives at both while shorthanded. The Canucks could have used Johnson Monday night as they went 0-3 on the penalty kill in a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles, and have now successfully killed off under half of their penalties so far in the playoffs. As a comparison, the Toronto Maple Leafs had the worst penalty kill percentage during the regular season (enough said, right?), at 74.6%. The Canucks PK so far this post season is 41.7%. This obviously has to be remedied soon for Vancouver to stand a chance at coming back and winning the series.

I guess we should give the Kings' powerplay their due credit. Even though the Canucks have allowed L.A's two all-star defensemen all the time in the world, and they cannot block a shot to save their lives (well, playoff lives) – L.A have moved the puck around well and capitalized on Roberto Luongo's large rebounds.

Michael Handzus scored twice for the Kings, who also got singles from Brad Richardson, Ryan Smyth and Drew Doughty (also had 3 assists), while Mason Raymond (1st), Daniel Sedin (2nd), and Mikael Samuelsson (4th) scored for the Canucks. Samuelsson continued his strong play and has proven himself as a playoff performer with 4 goals and an assist in the first 3 games. The Kings coaching staff said themselves that Samuelsson is the guy who scares them, not the Sedins. This brings me to the twins - they need to be better. All night they were outplayed by L.A's 3rd line. Daniel and Henrik need to be the best players on the ice in order for Vancouver to be successful, and I expect they will turn it around on Wednesday.



All in all, Vancouver is not playing very good hockey right now. They need to get better in all assets of the game, including goaltending, in order to win this series. Here are a few more comments and observations:

– Daniel Sedin's disallowed goal in the 3rd period was shockingly incorrect. The rule is a player cannot use a distinct kicking motion to kick the puck into the net. Because the goal was deemed legal on the play, the replay had to "conclusively" prove that Daniel used a kicking motion to redirect the puck into the net. Judge for yourself HERE.

– Apparently league commissioner Gary Bettman wants LA to be a big hockey market. I wonder who was on the phone with the ref to call off that Vancouver goal? Conspiracy perhaps? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

This was the NHL's explanation for calling the goal off. Doesn't sound too "conclusive" to me.

– Roberto Luongo has to start playing like a top notch goalie. His juicy rebounds and his susceptibility to the weak goal are hurting this team.

– Andrew Alberts can thank Vancouver's poor penalty killing for keeping him out of the spotlight.

– The penalty kill is way too passive. They need to pressure LA's defensemen and negate the shooting lanes.

With all of that said, keep in mind that the series is still young, and a win on Wednesday and Canuck fans worldwide will be optimistic once again.

Bigger and better things on the way!!!!

So here's the deal people. We figure if you want a game update there are a few places that people will check before our blog, so we are changing it up a bit. Starting in the near future, we will be creating a weekly half hour show dedicated strictly to the Canucks. This will be a podcast style of strictly audio, and will be a show done in a unique style with some nice flavour. If you are expecting your standard, meant and potato radio show - our show might not be for you.

The real fans perspective on issues that your favorite radio station won't even dare to touch. We aren't afraid to say the things other stations are afraid to air. Stay tuned, and thank you for all your patience!