As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Vancouver Canucks have locked up the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s top team in the regular season. We know this because they absolutely took the night off in their first meaningless game against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night! But I digress. They’re the top dogs, which means we know that they will play whichever team ends up in 8th place in the conference. In case you haven’t seen the NHL standings in a while, here they are:

So it’s looking a lot like Chicago, Anaheim or Nashville right now, with an outside chance of Los Angeles or Phoenix. Calgary and Dallas still have a chance to sneak in, but I don’t see that happening. Interesting, isn’t it? If the season ended today, we would see a Blackhawks-Canucks matchup in the playoffs for the third year in a row. Is that something we as Canucks fans want? Would you rather Anaheim or Nashville? Lets investigate…

Nashville Predators

Chances of seeing them in the 1st round: Not great. They’ve only got three games left, all against non-playoff teams. In order for them to slip to 8th place, they would need to stumble and both Chicago and Anaheim would have to roll off a few wins in a row.

Why they should scare you: They’re well coached, excellent defensively and have one of the best goalies in the NHL. That’s usually the recipe for a team ready to pull off a big upset. If there’s a shutdown pairing that could stop the Sedins, it just might be Shea Weber and Ryan Suter. Plus, they’re due for a playoff series victory!

Why they shouldn’t: They can’t score. Their power play is pitiful and unless that changes it’ll be hard to win a playoff series.

Anaheim Ducks

Chances of seeing them in the 1st round: Pretty good. They’re only one point ahead of Chicago at the moment, with one game less to play. They’ve got three games left, none of them easy (they play San Jose and Los Angeles twice).

Why they should scare you: I’ll be honest, they terrify me. They’re playing great at the moment and have one of the best lines in hockey. There might not be another team with a better top four scorers than Perry, Getzlaf, Selanne and Ryan. Their stars are playing great, and they’re all big game players. The Ducks aren’t far removed from their Stanley Cup win in 2007, and are a big/mean nasty piece of business. They’ve done all of this without their starting goalie, who has missed most of the second half of the season with vertigo. If Jonas Hiller returns, they’ll be extra scary.

Why they shouldn’t: Their defense isn’t what it once was, and Jonas Hiller probably won’t be ready to return for the first round, seeing as he’s still feeling symptoms of vertigo. Sure, they can score, but can they stop the Sedins? They don’t have a great shutdown pairing.

Chicago Blackhawks

Chances of seeing them in the 1st round: Very good. They’re currently in 8th place and have to play Detroit twice in their last four games.

Why they should scare you: Well, they’re the freaking Chicago Blackhawks! They’ve knocked the Canucks out of the playoffs two years in a row and they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions! They seemingly have the Canucks number, and surely they’ll know how to turn it up in the playoffs. Even though they’ve lost some key members of last year’s team, they’ve still got the most important members including Toews, Kane, Sharp, Hossa, Keith and Seabrook.

Why they shouldn’t: A few months ago I asked our readers if we were still afraid of the Chicago Blackhawks. At the time, I think we all were. I know I certainly was. But now? I’d be lying if I said they don’t concern me at all, but I think they’re more ripe for the picking now than ever. Both Patrick Sharp and Dave Bolland are injured at the moment, and even if they’re able to return for the playoffs, they’ll be a bit rusty. If they get the Hawks in the second round, they’re likely to be on more of a roll than they are right now. So maybe Chicago in the first round can be a good thing.
No matter who the Canucks play in the first round, it’s not going to be easy. The Western Conference, in particular, is extremely difficult. If they manage to win the cup, they’ll need to be sharp in all four rounds, of course. What does matter is injuries, which is a reason why the Ducks scare me more than anyone at the moment. Even if the Canucks manage to win a seven game series versus Anaheim, they won’t do it unscathed. The Ducks are big and mean, and will almost surely injure a couple of players.

Mike Peca called it a career today. Hardly a surprise given he hasn’t played a game this year, but still notable nonetheless. From a Canucks perspective, I will remember “Captain Crunch” for a couple of different reasons.

At the 1995 draft, then Canucks general manager Pat Quinn pulled off one of the biggest blockbuster trades in Canucks history. The city was in a frenzy as Quinn had just acquired former 76 goal scorer Alexander Mogilny, reuniting him with countryman Pavel Bure. Well, Mike Peca was one of the key prospects that went the other way and remarkably (considering Mogilny was still a pretty good player) it would turn out to be a trade that Canucks fans would like to do over. Mogilny had one big year with the Canucks and then began a downward spiral in his production, matching the Canucks downward spiral in the standings. Meanwhile, Peca quickly developed into a leader and a Selke trophy winner with a scoring touch, just what the Canucks of the late 90s and early 2000s needed.

But most of all, Canucks fans will remember this:

Yesterday we looked at Team Canada’s roster, but there were also a few other countries that announced their rosters for the 2010 Olympics that flew under the radar. Lets take a look:

Team Finland:

This will be the last go-around for the old guard for Team Finland. Saku Koivu, Teemu Selanne, Jere Lehtinen and Kimmo Timonen are likely in their last Olympic Games. The foursome has been a part of every Olympic Games since the NHL began participating in 1998. Finland has shown itself to be a strong international team at the senior level, often surpassing pre-competition expectations. They beat Canada to win bronze in 1998, lost by only a goal to eventual gold medal winners Canada in the quarterfinals in 2002 and won silver in 2006. While the 2010 team is aging a little bit, it will be the first time that Finland can boast all star caliber goaltending in an Olympic Games (Miikka Kiprusoff chose to skip the Olympics in 2006).

Goaltenders:
Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary Flames, NHL), Niklas Bäckström (Minnesota Wild, NHL), Antero Niittymäki (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL)

Defense:
Kimmo Timonen (Philadelphia Flyers, NHL), Sami Salo (Vancouver Canucks, NHL), Joni Pitkänen (Carolina Hurricanes, NHL), Lasse Kukkonen (Avangard Omsk, RUS), Toni Lydman (Buffalo Sabres, NHL), Sami Lepistö (Phoenix Coyotes, NHL), Janne Niskala (Frölunda, SWE)

Forwards:
Mikko Koivu (Minnesota Wild, NHL), Tuomo Ruutu (Carolina Hurricanes, NHL), Valtteri Filppula (Detroit Red Wings, NHL), Teemu Selänne (Anaheim Ducks, NHL), Saku Koivu (Anaheim Ducks, NHL), Jere Lehtinen (Dallas Stars, NHL), Niklas Hagman (Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL), Olli Jokinen (Calgary Flames, NHL), Antti Miettinen (Minnesota Wild, NHL), Jarkko Ruutu (Ottawa Senators, NHL), Niko Kapanen (Ak Bars Kazan, RUS), Ville Peltonen (Dynamo Minsk, BLR), Jarkko Immonen (Ak Bars Kazan, RUS)

Czech Republic:

If the Czech Republic is to win gold (as they did in 2010) it will likely be due to the strong play of their skilled forwards and Tomas Vokoun. This will be the last Olympics for Jaromir Jagr, who will be still counted on heavily, along with the likes of Patrik Elias, Martin Havlat and Tomas Plekanec. The biggest question mark for the Czechs is on defense, where Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Marek Zidlicky and Filip Kuba will have the chore of trying to stop the world’s best snipers.

Goaltenders:
Tomas Vokoun (Florida Panthers/NHL), Ondrej Pavelec (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Jakub Stepanek (Vitkovice/CZE).

Defense:
Miroslav Blatak (Salavat Yulaev Ufa/RUS), Jan Hejda (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Tomas Kaberle (Toronto Maple Leafs/NHL), Filip Kuba (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Pavel Kubina (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Zbynek Michalek (Phoenix Coyotes/NHL), Roman Polak (St Louis Blues/NHL), Marek Zidlicky (Minnesota Wild/NHL).

Forward:
Petr Cajanek (Saint-Pétersbourg/RUS), Roman Cervenka (Slavia Prague/CZE), Patrik Elias (New Jersey Devils/NHL), Martin Erat (Nashville Predators/NHL), Tomas Fleischmann (Washington Capitals/NHL), Martin Havlat (Minnesota Wild/NHL), Jaromir Jagr (Avangard Omsk/NHL), David Krejci (Boston Bruins/NHL), Milan Michalek (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Tomas Plekanec (Canadiens de Montréal/NHL), Tomas Rolinek (Magnitogorsk/RUS), Josef Vasicek (Yaroslavl/RUS)

Germany:

Team Germany isn’t getting a lot of respect, and for good reason. They have never able to provide a serious threat to challenge for a medal and their team is sub-par on paper. Their team, starved for NHL players actually chose NOT to name Christoph Schubert or Jochen Hecht to the team. Not sure of the reasoning behind that, but it sounds foolish to me. While Germany has a few good NHLers on the team with the likes of Christian Ehrhoff and Marco Sturm, they no longer have former Vezina trophy winner Olaf Kolzig to rely on, which should spell trouble.

Switzerland:

Switzerland surprised many in 2006 by beating both Canada and the Czech Republic in the preliminary round behind the great goaltending of Martin Gerber. Jonas Hiller will probably carry the bulk of the load this time around, and is joined by Mark Streit as the only two NHLers on the team.

What do you think Keith Ballard will say the next time he sees Tomas Vokoun? Probably going to be a little awkward I’m thinking. For those of you that missed it, here it is:

I don’t remember hearing much about this at the time, but it was very similar to this game between Slovakia and the Czech Republic with Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak in net:

Seriously, how do you miss the post by that much? Obviously they didn’t play baseball growing up, or maybe they did and took batting lessons from Rich Pilon (good thing Lemieux has Olympic caliber fencing skills):

Or maybe he got pointers from Teemu Selanne:

Now Ron Hextall, that’s who you take pointers from. He never missed his target: