Page 15 | Rob The Hockey Guy | A Vancouver Canucks Hockey Blog

Is this the year? Canucks Opener Tonight!

October 9, 2010 Rob 0 Comments Game Preview, Special Feature

Never before has the NHL’s marketing campaign “is this the year?” ever spoke to me like it does now. Isn’t that really the question on every fan of the Vancouver Canucks mind today? Is this the year they can finally bring the cup home to Vancouver? Well, as a fan of the Canucks for all of my life, I can safely say that their chance to win the cup has never been this good to begin a season. Now, let me qualify that statement with the fact that this in no way makes them a sure thing, and if you’ve followed the Canucks long enough, you know that high expectations are usually something to be worried about in these parts. But alas, the Canucks are entering the 2010-11 season as one of the Stanley Cup favourites, and given the alternative, that’s something to get excited about. So get excited Canucks fans, but know that the competition will be stiff.

We're going to miss you Shane-O

October 6, 2010 Rob 2 Comments Trades

Ok, so Shane O’Brien wasn’t the best player or the smartest player, but he was one of the most entertaining. Even in the way out, he had some interesting comments about coach Alain Vigneault:

I wish I got a little fairer shake in camp. I only played three exhibition games, all on the road, and we flew the day of the game on two of them. And – no disrespect to the players we had in those games – but the three games I played we were nowhere near an NHL-calibre roster. It was the icing on the cake for my career here in Vancouver.

A lot of people are taking shots at O’Brien right now but he has a point. Vigneault has stated that O’Brien didn’t make the team because Alberts outplayed him and he makes less money. I buy the less money point, but what chance did O’Brien have to outplay Alberts? Take a look at the games O’Brien played vs the games that Alberts played. O’Brien played all of his games on the road. Alberts played all of his at home. It’s no secret that teams dress far better lineups at home during the preseason, so O’Brien didn’t have a fair fight.

We’re going to miss you Shane-O:

October 2010 Tom Larscheid Wallpaper!!

October 6, 2010 Romeo Bui 1 Comment Wallpaper

Tom Larscheid Wallpaper

We wanted to start the new season off by paying tribute to a local legend, Tom Larscheid! Tom, you will be missed by all of us Canucks fans! Have a happy happy retirement!

PS: I’m the new guy to the Canuckz.com team and will be creating the monthly calendars from now on. Please comment below and send me ideas as to what to do (and whom to feature) for the following months!

Download here:

Trades, Waivers and Cap Consideration Oh My! O'Brien Dealt to Nashville

October 5, 2010 Rob 0 Comments Rumours, Signing, Trades

With the regular season mere days away, the NHL is conducting it’s annual fourth line/seventh defenceman/AHLer shuffle. The Canucks, who are tight against the cap are doing about as much shuffling as anyone at the moment, trying to finalize their roster. The Canucks traded Shane O’Brien and his $1.6 million cap hit along with prospect Dan Gendur (he’s more suspect than prospect) to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Parent ($925,000 cap hit) and Jonas Andersson. The Canucks immediately placed Parent on waivers with the intent to put him in the minors.

O'Brien and Hordichuk put on Waivers

October 2, 2010 Rob 0 Comments Rumours

The Vancouver Canucks placed Shane O’Brien and Darcy Hordichuk on waivers today. I found the news surprising but I guess when you think about it, the writing was on the wall for both of them. Both players were healthy scratches a number of times last season and both players have big contracts given their place on the team.

Numbers game: do Hodgson, Morrison, Tambellini make this team?

September 28, 2010 Rob 2 Comments Rumours

Believe it or not, the Canucks are now 75% complete their preseason schedule. That means some tough decisions need to be made by Alain Vigneault and the Canucks coaching staff, and they need to be made soon. There are only two games left before a long list of players on the bubble will find out where they will start the 2010-11 season. That list includes most notably Cody Hodgson, Brendan Morrison and Jeff Tambellini.

The 40 Greatest Canucks of All-Time, 1-10

September 20, 2010 Rob 8 Comments Special Feature

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the top ten of our top 40 Canucks of all-time countdown! I think most Canucks fans would have these players in their top ten, but the order in which they appear is sure to stir up debate. Henrik won the Hart, Naslund won the Pearson, Linden has the most points and Bure was the most electrifying. Among goalies, McLean won the big game but Luongo has the best numbers. Who is the best? Only Canuckz.com knows for sure:

Brendan Morrison to Tryout for Canucks

September 17, 2010 Rob 0 Comments Rumours, Signing

The Canucks announced yesterday that former Canuck Brendan Morrison will be trying out for the team in training camp (related: Peter Schaefer is also on a tryout). This is interesting on a number of fronts. To start, Morrison will play in the preseason in a Canucks jersey and could make the team, be cut or sign with any other team before the start of the regular season. So quite clearly, nothing is guaranteed.

The 40 Greatest Canucks of All-Time, 11-20

September 16, 2010 Rob 0 Comments Special Feature

We are into the top 20 on our 40 greatest Canucks of all-time countdown and things are really getting controversial. While 31-40 and 21-30 were tricky, that’s nothing compared to this. Where do you rank Morrison vs Ronning? What about Bertuzzi vs Mogilny? Or even Ohlund vs Jovanovski? Find out below!

20. Brendan Morrison

The ‘other guy’ on the West Coast Express, Morrison played in all situations for Marc Crawford’s Canucks. He was clutch too, ranking first in all-time overtime goals in club history. The biggest goal he scored is undoubtedly his OT goal in triple overtime (the second longest game in Canucks history) of game 6 against Calgary in 2004.

19. Cliff Ronning

An excellent player during the team’s best years in the 1990s, Ronning was an integral part of the team’s resurgence. Amazingly given his size he was a prolific playoff performer, ranking fourth in all-time playoffs points.

18. Andre Boudrias

One of the most underrated players in club history, Boudrias held the club record for assists in a season until Henrik Sedin came along. He recorded five straight years of 60 points or more.

17. Don Lever

Ranking tenth in all-time scoring, he was their most consistent player in the 1970s. Breaking into the league as a 19 year old, Lever scored 20+ goals in six of eight seasons with the team.

16. Dennis Kearns

Their best defenceman from the 1970s, was a consistent player on some bad teams. Holds the record for most assists in a season by a defenceman.

15. Alexander Mogilny

AlMo produced one of the best seasons in club history in 1995-96, when he scored 55 goals. Too bad it was mostly downhill from there. Still, his production was decent (especially considering it was during the start of the dead puck era) and he is undoubtedly one of the best talents to put on a Canucks jersey.

14. Ed Jovanovski

Jovo Cop loses some points for not playing as many games as Ohlund or Lumme, but was an offensive force during the Marc Crawford era. He was offensively gifted, gritty and an emotional leader. Oh, and an awesome fighter too.

13. Todd Bertuzzi

Big Bert put together two of the best seasons in club history in 2001-02 and 2002-03. In those two seasons he was the best power forward in the game. Aside from those two seasons, his career with the team was very inconsistent despite a lot of talent. Still, he put up big numbers, notching six straight 50+ point seasons and five seasons of 25+ goals. He was also the inspiration for this gem by Heavy Eric.

12. Jyrki Lumme

Arguably the team’s best offensive defenceman of all-time, Lumme ran the Canucks power play for years. He put up four 40+ point seasons and seven 30+ point seasons.

11. Mattias Ohlund

Matt-O is the team’s all-time leading scoring d-man, mostly because he played a lot of games for the team. He was more of a defensive standout, and was consistent over a number of years. Still, he was able to come up with a lot of big goals, ranking third in career overtime goals.

Canuckz.com Featured on FOXSports.com!

September 15, 2010 Binh Ho 0 Comments Website News

You may or may not have noticed but this past week, we updated our site as part of our preparation for this upcoming season. Even more importantly, we applied, got accepted and joined the Yardbarker Network last week.

Why’d I choose to do this? Mainly because I wanted to give Robert (and our other writers) a larger audience for our sophomore season and for us to connect with a network of like-minded enthusiastic sports bloggers.

Well, guess what? Jeff, from the YBN team, just emailed me this bit of AWESOME news today.. Our Luongo article was selected and given billboard treatment on the FOXSports.com NHL page!