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Vancouver Canucks
After another disappointing loss to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Canucks were looking to shore up their defence. They certainly did that and more. The Canucks arguably have the strongest defensive core in the game. They added Keith Ballard in a trade with the Florida Panthers (oh how Florida likes to give Vancouver their best players) thinking they would be unable to sign Dan Hamhuis come Hockey Festivus.
Hamhuis’ rights were traded twice and never signed with either team. Because of the acquisition of both Ballard and Hamhuis, it seems the odd man out is Kevin Bieksa due to his large cap hit. He even went on Off the Record on TSN to say he isn’t stupid. The offseason of 2010 saw the naming rights of GM Place (or Canada Hockey Place if you wish) were changed to Rogers Arena. This Canucks fan doesn’t like that until they call it Rogers’ Arena in honour of Roger Nielson.
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General Manager - Mike Gillis
Otherwise known as GMMG.
Head Coach - Alain Vigneault
Team Captain - Roberto Luongo
Only goaltender to be captain in the last 30 years (at least)
Player(s) everyone should love - Henrik Sedin
Can’t argue with a player that won the Art Ross and Hart Trophy last season. Plus he’s got a great sense of humour. (shhhh I’m spelling it with a U. I’m Canadian lol).
Ryan Kesler
He was second in Selke Trophy voting and lost by only one vote to Pavel Datsyuk. Had a career year and is this generation of Canucks fans’ Trevor Linden. Could potentially be captain if Luongo were ever to step down.
Players we don’t love -
Darcy Hordichuk – plays four minutes if he’s lucky to fight. He doesn’t even do that anymore. Not even worthy of a picture.
Andrew Alberts – he may be tall and good looking, but that’s about where the likes end. He took many bad penalties last year during the Kings’ series and I hope GMMG realizes that this experiment needs to be over.
Luongo’s ego – As much as he’s a good goalie, when things don’t go his way he blames everyone else but himself.
Who they got - Keith Ballard, Dan Hamhuis, Manny Malhotra, Jeff Tambellini, Victor Oreskovich and Joel Perrault.
Who they lost - Willie Mitchell (although he may sign still). Potentially Sami Salo if his injury doesn’t heal. Kyle Wellwood, Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner and Andrew Raycroft.
Located At - Rogers Arena (*shudders*), Vancouver, BC.
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Canucks Hotness Level – 7
The Canucks have some really hot players, but they have some that just don’t cut it. Hot ranks ahead of the ones that don’t cut it and those include adorable Swede Alex Edler, Russian Sergei Shirokov, American Keith Ballard and BC’s very own Dan Hamhuis. Not to mention another BC boy, Jeff Tambellini.
I really don’t know how to end this, but in a prediction that I believe that this year’s Canucks team has a better chance at winning the Cup then they have in past years. Hopefully I’m right with this one.
