Today is the first installment of a new feature I like to call “Arguments I Hate”. The premise is simple. I will present something that a lot of people say or believe is true, and tell you why it’s nonsense. Today we’ll look at the assertion that Vancouver is a ‘goalie graveyard’.

The term ‘goalie graveyard’ was a term first coined by former Canucks general manager and quote machine, Brian Burke. What Burke was suggesting was that Vancouver was among the toughest cities on goalies. At the time, the Canucks were in the midst of rolling through a whole bunch of goalies and were currently trying out Dan Cloutier. The Canucks were unable to solidify the goaltending position since having Kirk McLean between the pipes in the mid-1990s. Despite the catchy name, the goalie graveyard argument is a myth.

The ‘goalie graveyard’ argument is an argument that I hate because it has been used to suggest that the Canucks have had a lot of good goalies that fans are overly critical of. Since Kirk McLean was traded away in 1998, the Canucks have had the following goaltenders play 10+ games for the team: Arturs Irbe, Sean Burke, Garth Snow, Corey Hirsch, Kevin Weekes, Felix Potvin, Bob Essensa, Dan Cloutier, Petr Skudra, Alex Auld, Johan Hedberg, Dany Sabourin, Curtis Sanford, Jason LaBarbera, Cory Schneider, Andrew Raycroft and Roberto Luongo. Of those goalies, only Sean Burke, Felix Potvin and Roberto Luongo were considered the number one goalie from the team they were acquired from. Of those goalies, I would suggest that only Roberto Luongo has been treated unfairly by the fans, and that has only been the case in the last couple of seasons. Previous to that, Luongo could do no wrong in Vancouver.

Have Canucks fans criticized goaltenders in Vancouver? Absolutely. Was it warranted? You bet. Felix Potvin was basically run out of town in 2001 after being outplayed badly by Bob Essensa. Potvin proved that he had something left in the tank with the Los Angeles Kings afterwards, but his play was not up to par in Vancouver and the fans knew it.

Goalies like Dan Cloutier and Kevin Weekes drew the ire of fans because of their play. But at the same time, goalies like Arturs Irbe, Corey Hirsch, Alex Auld, Andrew Raycroft and Cory Schneider played well in Vancouver and were rarely criticized. Fans in Vancouver are hard on their starting goalie when he struggles mightily for long periods of time, but show me a market that isn’t? The problem in Vancouver was that they didn’t have a good goalie, not that the fans ruined good goalies.

If Vancouver is a goalie graveyard, then certainly Philadelphia is one too by the same logic (look at their list of goaltenders recently, it isn’t impressive). Surely Montreal is a goalie graveyard too. They jeered hall of famer Patrick Roy before he got traded. Jose Theodore fell apart in Montreal despite being a former Hart Trophy winner. Is the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets franchise a goalie graveyard because they trusted Damian Rhodes, Milan Hnilicka, Pasi Nurminen, Johan Hedberg, Kari Lehtonen and Ondrej Pavelec to tend their goal? Surely after the failures of Patrick Lalime, Ray Emery and other legendary Senators goalies makes Ottawa a goalie graveyard.

‘Vancouver is a goalie graveyard’ is an argument I hate. If you bring bad goaltending to this city, you’ll get criticized and eventually traded. Just like every other hockey market.

Ok, maybe there’s not a true goaltending controversy in Canuckland these days, but if it weren’t for Roberto Luongo’s reputation, there would be. Luongo is having his worst season in a Canucks jersey, being pulled more times than ever, while Andrew Raycroft is enjoying the the best season by a Canucks backup since Alex Auld. Statistically speaking, Raycroft has better numbers.

They share essentially the same save percentage (Luongo at .913, Raycroft at .914) and Raycroft has a better goals against average (Luongo at 2.55, Raycroft at 2.31). These stats should be skewed a bit given the fact that Luongo plays fatigued more often and usually plays the tougher teams, but this is still highly unusual for Luongo. Luongo typically has numbers far superior to his backup and is usually at the top of the league in GAA and SV%. This year, he’s middle of the pack, 18th in GAA and 17th in SV%. To put that in perspective, Dan Cloutier was 16th and 18th in GAA and SV% in 2003-04.

All of these numbers are not to suggest that the Canucks should play Raycroft in the playoffs or that Luongo won’t regain his form, but it still has to cause a bit of concern. He’s not at his best right now and hasn’t been for a while. Since the Olympics, Roberto Luongo is a very mediocre 7-5-1, has been pulled three times, and has given up four goals or more five times. That means there have been far too many stinkers for a goalie of his caliber.

Do you think Shane O’Brien will be laying off the club scene for a while now? The Canucks blueliner is enjoying a pretty good season so far on the ice. He has been steady, averaging more minutes per game than he did last year and has a very respectable plus-minus rating of +16. Off the ice, he has been in and out of Alain Vigneault’s doghouse. It’s being suggested that his multi-game stint in the press box in favour of Andrew Alberts a few weeks ago was because he put on a few pounds during the Olympic break. His most recent trip to the doghouse is by far the most serious. Apparently O’Brien had a wild night at the Roxy on Sunday night and was late for practice on Monday morning. The biggest problem with this is the fact that practice was at 11am! I can understand someone hitting the snooze a little too long if practice was at say, 8am, but missing an 11am practice is pretty ridiculous.

O’Brien has been banished from the team, at least for a few games. Hopefully he and Vigneault can patch things up and get him back on the ice. I believe he’s quite a bit better than Andrew Alberts as the team’s number six defenceman, and will be counted on during the playoffs.

Roberto Luongo, yet again, is injured. He’ll be out at least a week with a rib injury. Whether or not it’s only a week remains to be seen, as Canucks management has been known to downplay injuries in the past. This marks the third straight season where Luongo will miss time due to an injury. Does this mean he can’t handle the ridiculously large workload the team gives him every year? Probably not, I tend to think it’s just a matter of being in the net more often gives you more opportunities to get injured.

This means that Andrew Raycroft and possibly Cory Schneider will get an opportunity to play. Raycroft looked great in preseason and his limited game action this season, but he hasn’t played for a while and would surely be rusty. We’ll see how that goes. I think he has the ability to step his game up, but we all know what usually happens to the Canucks when they’re without Luongo, nevermind when they do it with a bunch of injuries.

Here’s the rest of the injury updates:

-Ryan Johnson’s injury apparently isn’t as bad as originally reported

-Sami Salo and Daniel Sedin are ahead of schedule

-Rick Rypien is ready to go

-No news for Jannik Hansen and Pavol Demitra

This year has been the most competitive Canucks camp in recent memory, with so many players with a realistic chance to make the team. Head coach Alain Vigneault has a lot of tough decisions ahead of him, particularly concerning players on the bubble. Numerous young and old guys are fighting for spots at forward, defense and in goal. Here’s where the “bubble boys” stack up so far:

Goaltenders:

Perhaps none of the battles have been as close as Schneider versus Raycroft for the backup job. Both have played well in their games, but conventional wisdom would suggest if it’s close, they’d give the job to Schneider. One would think that the Canucks want desperately to shop Schneider and then trade him as soon as possible while his stock is high. The thinking is that Schneider has already done everything he can do at the AHL level and that his trade value can only go up if he proves something in the NHL. It wouldn’t come without consequence though, Schneider’s cap hit of $1.084 million is more than double the minimum wage $500,000 hit from Raycroft. Raycroft would also have to clear waivers, while Schneider doesn’t. Should be interesting to see how Gillis makes the jigsaw puzzle come together.

Defense:

Shane O’Brien has been impressive so far in the preseason, looking more mobile and making good decisions with the puck. Everyone knows he’s tough, but he’ll need to be reliable defensively to deserve his new $1.7 million deal. Christian Ehrhoff has 4 points in 2 games, and is looking like he is solidifying a spot on the first unit power play. Brad Lukowich is a steady defensive defenceman, which means he won’t dazzle anyone, even when he’s at his best. Look for Lukowich to be their #7 or 8 defenceman, along with O’Brien. Mathieu Schneider hasn’t played a game in the preseason yet, presumably resting the 40 year blueliner for the regular season. It would be hard to imagine them not having him in mind for their top 6 if they are resting him in the preseason. Another impressive player in the preseason has been Aaron Rome. Barring injury/trade, I give Rome very little chance at cracking the Canucks roster. The resumes of the other 8 defencemen in camp are far superior and I don’t think there’s anything Rome can do to change that.

Forwards:

The Canucks currently have 13 proven NHL forwards under contract and I believe that all of them will make the team. Mason Raymond and Rick Rypien in particular have looked very impressive. Of the 13, Jannik Hansen is in the most danger of being thrown on waivers. That list of 13 forwards also includes the injured Pavol Demitra, which means that at least one of the bubble players will get a shot on opening day.

That’s where things get interesting. Cody Hodgson, Michael Grabner and Sergei Shirokov make-up the list of youngsters trying to crack the Canucks roster for the first time while Mark Parrish, Ronald Petrovicky and Dave Scatchard are all veterans on tryout contracts. None of the veterans have shown enough to earn an NHL gig thus far. Michael Grabner appears to be a young sniper who doesn’t score, and that’s a bad combination. Cody Hodgson has looked ok, but I don’t think he looks quite at home in the NHL yet. I think there’s a good chance that Hodgson will be sent back to junior. That leaves Sergei Shirokov. He’s impressed everyone since his first day at rookie camp and, assuming he can recover from his minor injury set-back, is my pick to make the Canucks roster.

And now for a trip back down memory lane… Possibly the greatest preseason goal ever scored:

Will the real Andrew Raycroft please stand-up? Andrew Raycroft, pictured above with the Calder Trophy, was named rookie of the year with the Bruins in 2003-04. Since then, he has had one sub-par year with the Bruins, two with the Leafs, and backed-up the immortal Petr Budaj last year in Colorado. I don’t think anyone thinks the Canucks are getting the Raycroft of 2003-04, but I think he can be an effective back-up for a good team. He signed a one year deal for $500,000, so the risk is minimal.

With a body like that, how could you NOT have him back!? O’Brien signed a 1 year, $1.6 million deal with the Canucks on Monday. This likely cements himself as the team’s #5 defenceman, and I think they may have paid a little much for him. Maybe that’s just the going rate for young defencemen. I guess when you compare his contract to the player he was acquired for, Lukas Krajicek (1 year at $1.475 million), maybe it’s a fair deal after all.

Kyle Wellwood will be going to salary arbitration if he can’t reach a deal with the Canucks soon. He’s an interesting case, as he was so up and down all season. He ended up with 18 goals, but only 27 points in total. He also put up 6 points in 10 playoff games. If I had to guess, I think an arbitrator would award him $1.5 million, which would be reasonable for the Canucks to take.