NorthWest Sports Blog brings you daily features on Oregon, Washington State, and BC amateur and pro sports teams.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks’ blogger Richard Hodges is back to give you his love ‘em and hate ‘em from Vancouver’s loss to the Dallas Stars. Richard points Derek Roy is good. He says he’s not being used exactly right, but so far he’s above Bryan Smolinski on the trade deadline bell curve. He also asks an interesting question. Is it hyperbole to say when Kevin Bieksa comes back the Canucks will never lose? (Probably.)
NWSB Canucks writer Josh Hall says the panic button remains in a distant land…kind of like how the Vancouver Canucks remain atop the Northwest Division and 3rd place in the Western Conference. Cory Schneider didn’t have his best game but there were signs that the needed meshing is taking place at this vital time of the season. What do the next 14 days hold? This team can do better and has proven that so there should be no doubt a deep playoff run remains a possibility.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger Josh Hall tells us today the Nucks made a series of move to help with the playoff stretch. Derek Roy is a Vancouver Canuck and should provide some flexibility down the middle but I don’t buy the whole Ryan Kesler on the wing idea. Josh says if you’re asking and he’s betting, Roberto Luongo will be a Vancouver Canuck after Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline. Plus Chris Higgins has a new contract.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger Bryan McFarlane weighs in with his Nucks three stars post. Here are the few noteworthy performers from March March 25th to April 1st during the Canucks 2013 campaign. Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Alexandre Burrows make the list this week. Bryan points out things will certainly not be any easier in the final stretch of games this season, so here’s hoping they sharpen up those skates and get down to business.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger Bryan McFarlane weighs in with his Nucks three stars post. Here are the few noteworthy performers from March 21st to March 206th during the Canucks 2013 campaign. Jordan Schroeder, Jannik Hansen, and Mason Raymond make the list this week. Bryan says there are few players in the league who can keep up with Raymond when he’s really skating, and when he keeps solid control of the puck coming in fast.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger Josh Hall tells us today the Nucks now have four wins in a row after going 3-4-2 to start the month of March and oh look, Alain Vigneault is tied with the legen-wait for it-dary Jack Adams in the all-time wins category. Good times are ahead he says as soon enough because eventually Ryan Kesler, Zack Kassian, Steven Pinozzotto and oh yeah, Alex Edler will be back in the lineup.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks writer Josh Hall is back at it again gracing the pages of NWSB. Tonight he weighs in post-game style on the Wild vs. Canucks matchup from Monday night. He’s not impressed and points out with 20 games remaining in the shortened 2013 season Cory Schneider has inferior numbers that he can almost guarantee would be higher had Roberto Luongo been traded before the season commenced.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger Bryan McFarlane weighs in with his Nucks three stars post. Here are the few noteworthy performers from March 13th to March 20th during the Canucks 2013 campaign. Alex Edler, Jannik Hansen, and Henrik Sedin make the list this week. Bryan says one of these years Hansen is going to break out with 40 goals and finally get the rest of the league’s attention.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks writer Josh Hall is back writing for NWSB again. Tonight he weighs in post-game style on the Red Wings vs. Canucks matchup from Saturday night. One positive he can find was Alex Burrows on the new franchise record of fastest goal in Canucks history. Six seconds for the puck to bulge twine off a beauty feed from Daniel Sedin. The bad, the crowd at Rogers Arena was as dead as ever on a night meant to be special for something.
NWSB Canucks Insider Bryan McFarlane talks about the current state of the Vancouver hockeyt team and where they stand in relation to the NHL Playoffs. He points out that Alain Vigneault needs to stick to one guy in goal, and he votes Roberto Luongo, but regardless, someone needs to be traded sooner rather than later. Could it be Cory Schneider on the block? This issue seems to keep getting brushed up under the rug, but it’s been the elephant in the room for months.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger C-Mac weighs in on the Canucks finally winning a game thanks to an iffy goal by Mason Raymond. He also ponders what to do with Coach Alain Vigneault. He says Vancouver in particular appears more anxious behind the bench. Watch Coach Vigneault these days as he spends more time frantically berating the officials over perceived injustices than concentrating on creative game planning.
NWSB Insider and Vancouver Canucks blogger C-Mac weighs in on the overachievers and underachievers in Van City. Keith Ballard looked like he had it all sorted out at last, skating well and moving the puck crisply, then Chris Tanev moved up in the defence pairings and the familiar error prone Ballard was once again back in the Coach V doghouse. Kevin Bieksa is the one defenseman who has been steady on both ends of the ice.
