Tag Archives: Bieksa

Hockey

Through Four Games

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The Canucks have not had a good start to the 2010/11 season. They’re 1-2-1, which isn’t nearly as bad as it could be, but their actual play has been discouraging at times. In their first three games, the Canucks could say that they were getting their chances but not getting the bounces they needed, and their defensive play was pretty decent, other than a couple of mishaps that the other team was able to take advantage of.

But the “We’re playing well, just not getting lucky” excuse can’t extend too much further, especially after last night’s 4-1 loss to the Kings. The Canucks looked out of sync, they made poor passes, they had trouble clearing the defensive zone and entering the offensive zone… Combine that with an average night from Luongo, rather than a star performance like he had in the first two games, and you have the recipe for an ugly loss.

I’m not sure what they need to do to work their way out of this. Kesler needs to start hitting the net with his shots (and, to be fair, so does everyone else). Henrik needs to start looking to shoot a little more, but we’ve known that for his entire career. Besides, Daniel is on a goal-per-game pace, with Henrik helping to set up most of those, so criticizing the Sedins isn’t really fair. We can’t expect them to be in on multiple goals every game, really. Raymond is shooting, but not scoring. Samuelsson is… I’m not sure what he’s doing. Not a whole lot. Hamhuis has been solid, but Bieksa has been making dumb mistakes. Alberts hasn’t been too noticeable, which is good for him, but last night he made a couple of mistakes, too. Torres has been playing hard but taking too many penalties. In fact, the whole team has been in the penalty box too much.

It’s lots of little details like this that have to start going the Canucks’ way. Score more, take fewer penalties… They’ll put it together somehow. They’re too good of a team to be playing this badly. Maybe the first couple of games just made us think our team wasn’t going to have another one of their traditional slow starts. We got our hopes up, and now we’re getting unnecessarily disappointed.

Hopefully things will be better a month from now.

Hockey

Canucks Make Moves

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So far today, on the first day of free agency, the Vancouver Canucks have signed Dan Hamhuis, Manny Malhotra, Jeff Tambellini, and Joel Perrault.

Hamhuis is the big one. He gets 6 years at $4.5 million per year. He’ll be replacing Willie Mitchell, basically. The hope is for him to play a top-two role. He’s more defensive than offensive, but he has some offensive ability and he can skate and move the puck.

With Hamhuis, the Canucks’ current defensive line-up is Hamhuis, Ballard, Edler, Ehrhoff, Salo, Bieksa, Rome, O’Brien (pending a new contract), and then various prospects. That’s 8 proven NHL-ready defensemen, 6 of whom are earning $3 million or more. It’s likely one guy will be traded – the most likely is Bieksa – to save some cap space and make room for signing Mason Raymond, Tanner Glass, and Shane O’Brien. Look for Mike Gillis to pursue another third-line checking forward and a second- or third-round draft pick with that trade.

Manny Malhotra will likely be our new third-line center. He’s great at faceoffs and responsible defensively, which is exactly what’s needed for this team. That means Cody Hodgson, if he makes the team, will probably be playing the wing.

Tambellini and Perrault are depth signings to encourage competition for third- and fourth-line spots. The more players there are fighting for those spots, the better they’ll all have to play to stay there. Also, this gives the Canucks more insurance in case of injury.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the moves the Canucks have made. With a bit more cap management and continued development from our young players, we’re going to have a real shot at winning it all over the next few years, and our long-term future looks pretty bright, too.