Finally, it's time to drop the puck for real. After another long off-season and a pre-season of overanalysis the 40th season in franchise history begins... Is this the year?
Opening Night Lineup
After all the salary cap maneuvers here's what the roster looks like for tonight's game:
- Sedin Sedin Samuelsson
- Raymond Kesler Torres
- Schaefer Malhotra Hansen
- Glass* Bolduc Desbiens
Jeff Tambellini may take Glass' spot (strep throat) and Rick Rypien is starting the season on the IR
- Hamhuis Bieksa
- Ehrhoff Edler
- Alberts Ballard
- Rome
Ryan Parent is still with the team as the 8th defenseman. The Canucks have 10 games (or 30 days) to evaluate Parent before they must make a decision on him. Parent has cleared waivers, but if the Canucks sent him to Manitoba he would be subject to re-call waivers if they called him back up. So the Canucks are going to take a look at what they have, before sending him down. It would be difficult to get him back up once they do, someone would likely take a chance on him at half the salary/cap hit.
- Luongo
- Schneider
Henrik Sedin to be Named Captain?
The Canucks have waited until the last minute to name their new captain and most expect it to be Henrik Sedin. Ryan Kesler is the second choice, but Henrik will get it for one simple reason. He's much better at dealing with the media.
Since the media aspect was the reason they removed the captaincy from Luongo, it makes sense that this aspect should be the overriding factor in choosing a new one. On the ice and in the locker room, either player would be a fine choice, but in dealing with the media Kesler isn't in the same league as Henrik. He just doesn't have the attitude or patience to be the guy who has to answer all the questions every night. That's not even considering stuff like calling Andrew Ladd a "coward".
Tom Larscheid's Final Game
Love him or hate him, it's an end of an era for the Vancouver Canucks. Tonight will be Larscheid's final broadcast as the radio colour guy.
He may not have been a great analyst and he certainly was a homer, but the best thing I can say about Larscheid is that when I tuned into a game on the radio I could always get a feel for how the Canucks were really playing. Good or bad (and there were a lot of bad years). For that one aspect, he was a great radio colour guy because he could convey what I couldn't see.
Good luck Tommy.
Great read: An End of An Era
