Chairman Maouth

Two great teams played tonight. The Wings look nothing like the team that struggled so much last year, and the Canucks are deeper, more dangerous and hit more than last year. And they are beasts in the face-off circle. Wings handle the puck in the offensive zone and play the boards so well. They rival the Sedins in that area. Canucks are dangerous always, including on the penalty kill. Wings simply ran out of gas in the third period. Also, I thought the refs called a great game. Great game all around (from my point of view).

It's still unclear who's starting in goal for the Canucks. Canucks website has Schneider listed above Luo but it could be a mistake. Schneider's stats are ludicrous. Fairly small sample size though. http://www.nhl.com/ice/app?component=completeSavePercentageLeaderList&page=statshome&service=direct

I just noticed the same chatter. Gonna check into it. I still doubt it though, unless Luo is sick or something.

Yeah I'm not entirely convinced yet either. A lot of the teams that had a quick start to the season have fallen by the wayside and the good teams that struggled early are coming on strong - including the Canucks. Water is finding its own level. I do think the Kings could buck that trend though. They should be in the mix all season.

Sammy's been struggling this year. A game against his old team may be just what the doctor ordered.

Yes they were. And it was because of Draper and Lemieux that half the fans in the NHL were drawn into that rivalry and sided overwhelmingly with Detroit -- me included. That was the Messier era in Vancouver and those were the darkest days of the Canucks franchise. I had to have a winner to cheer for somewhere and the Wings had been one of my favourite teams my whole life so it wasn't a big stretch. Besides, the Avs had a cup winning team delivered directly to their doorstep from Quebec City and it was hard to cheer for them. I still think it's a little early to write any team off though. Also, you may be selling the Kings a little short at this point too. A lot can change between now and April. By Christmas we'll have a better idea how things are going to shape up in the West. Re: tonights game. I always look forward to seeing Bert back in Vancouver, even if it's so we can hopefully shut him down. Guess he's doing pretty good this year. Good to see. He was seriously damaged goods for a long time.

Yeah it's Rogers Arena now. Rogers is a major cable provider in Canada and has had a contract with the Canucks for years to broadcast games so it's kind of a natural fit. Regarding the fight thing -- the Wings aren't exactly seen around the league as a team that drops the gloves a lot. And I doubt we'll even dress Rypien tomorrow. The teams will be playing to win, not to goon it up. Also, while I think both teams already get up for playing each other, it will take at least a playoff series or two to establish a true hateful rivalry.

Canucks with a 5 game win streak and a 5-0-1 home record. Wings with a 4-1-0 away record and Howard on a role. Something's gonna give tomorrow. Burrows has just returned from injury (shoulder surgery) and is looking good and Dan Hamhuis may be back for tomorrow but is doubtful. 'Nucks have the best powerplay in the league, the top three Canucks lines are all rolling well, Kesler's been a beast lately and the third line of Malhotra, Torres, and Hansen has surpassed all expectations beyond belief. Torres got his first NHL hat-trick 2 games ago and added another last game and Malhotra is second in the NHL in face-offs won. The Sedins have been the Sedins; typically outstanding, but really -- the way the rest of the team is playing who needs them?

I'm not sure what kind of an idiot would be in a rush to announce tragic news like that anyways. It's not Fletcher's job and it seems pretty scummy to me. Leave that to the family. It also doesn't say a lot about guys like Damien Cox who did no fact checking whatsoever; all he did was start twittering the f*** out of it.

After the failed experiment that made Luongo captain, I have a feeling the Canucks are going to go with a traditional single captain.

Yes he will fight, but most Canucks fans hope he doesn't. He's not that good at it and he's too valuable to risk anyways. Let Rypien do Kesler's fighting for him. Other than that, I agree with everything you said, but when it comes to "I don't see the same captain like fire from Henrik that I do from Kesler", you could say the same thing about Lidstrom. Some leaders are quiet and some are more vocal. Both can be either good or bad in my opinion.

I don't think there will be a lack of leadership at all. Most of the long-term Canucks are good leaders and that's not even counting Luongo. The problem is deciding who to give the C to. The new guys will fall in line exactly where they're told.

In his last 3 or so years with the Canucks Naslund would pout on the bench and he looked absolutely miserable. You could tell he had lost his confidence and he obviously struggled. He looked like anything but a leader. It was so bad that Coach Vig took him out of the shootout rotation for awhile, gave him another chance and he totally whiffed on the puck. It was embarrassing. Someone even started an online petition or something like that to encourage Coach Vig not to use him there. It's a leader's job to inspire confidence in a team, and as far as that goes, I can't really comment, but he certainly didn't inspire any confidence in the fans his last couple of years in Vancouver. I always got the impression he was probably a decent leader when all was going great, but sucked at it when a leader is really tested; when the chips were down.

It's going to be Henrik I think. There'll be no issues with his brother. There wasn't when Henrik was made an assistant. I originally thought it should be Kesler but that may be because I was bigoted towards Swedes being captains. I still think that second only to Mark Messier, that Naslund was the worst captain in Canucks history. But then I look at Lidstrom and I see a lot of similarities in character between him and Henrik. I'm all for it now.

A quote from the media to back you up.... ----------------------- But, at the same time, Luongo expressed frustration at the end of the year with "the other stuff." The distractions. He already vowed he will no longer talk to the media the morning of games. He wants to cut back on questions when there seems to be an expectation the captain is should answer every last one. As Luongo said in May: "You want to be focused on the game and stopping the puck." Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Luongo+time+team+captain+might+done/3441760/story.html#ixzz0zRQrzwJH

Thought you guys might be interested in this. I think I saw a thread here awhile back that asked if the Canucks were the team to beat in the West. Looks like at least one Vancouver writer thinks that honour falls upon the Wings, at least from a Canucks perspective.

No need to risk a fine by littering. You can kill two birds with one stone just by showing up.

That's part of the reason I posted the article. As a long-time member here but also as a Canucks fan, I've seen plenty of threads and comments where people say that the Canadian media never gives American teams a break. I also happen to agree with the article. The Wings may indeed be the team to beat in the West but the Canucks are no slouches either. They've addressed the weaknesses they showed in the last couple of playoffs very well. As for the age thing, yes that argument is an easy one to make -- much like a lame fart joke, but at the same time a couple of posters here have suggested that the prospect pool is not as deep as it's been in the past and that the age factor could actually play a part in the not-too-distant future for the Wings. However, the article was still a pretty good endorsement of the Wings. I'm a little surprised that anyone would find fault with it when you consider that it comes from a journalist who covers a team that is expected to rival the Wings this season.

Devils in the details: Ilya Kovalchuk deal OK'd, Roberto Luongo pact approved as NHL, players’ union change contract rules Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Devils+details+Ilya+Kovalchuk+deal+Roberto+Luongo+pact+approved+players+union+change/3479436/story.html#ixzz0yWDPoB8L

I prefer Vigneault cracking up at a reporter's suggestion that the always subdued Kyle Wellwood played like a "man possessed". Vigneault also lost it last playoffs when discussing Semi Solo's nut injury but I can't find the video. It was hilarious.

The only way they would have been able to increase ticket sales would have been to increase the actual price of tickets and I don't believe they did with any relation to Sundin. The Canucks have a sellout streak going back to 2002. http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/canucks-home-sellout-streak-makes-its.html

My understanding is that LA had the money to spend so they spent it. There's also really no other defencemen of Mitchell's calibre available. Couple years ago the Canucks had money to spend and they brought in Sundin. Sure it was an overpayment but they had an owner who would rather spend the money than keep it in the bank and get nothing. Both teams identified a need and had the money to address it. LA obviously felt the need more than anyone else. However, I also just heard on local radio that Mike Gillis only offered Mitchell a one year deal - amount unknown. Speculation has been that he feels there are too many question marks surrounding Mitchell's concussion issue which certainly makes sense in light of what we know now. LA has rolled the dice and they haven't stopped bouncing yet.

Mitchell signed with LA today - 2 years - 7 mil

You said it not me. No parties planned in my house. However, I am optimistic. Mike Gillis has made Vancouver a place where players want to stay or want to come to play. He's changed the culture of the Canucks from the top down and I honestly don't think we'd be looking at the new season with as high hopes as we are if he had not come to the team two years ago. It's true that it's the players who win the games, but Gillis has followed through on his promises and created a pretty good team. Now it's up to Coach Vig and the players to do the rest.