Doomsday Countdown

It doesn’t really matter how the Lions or the White Caps do, Vancouver is a one sport city. Even during the off-season, Vancouverites were overwhelmed with hockey news. Now after months of hockey depravity, after all the news of shifty acquisitions, saddened departures, indecisions, and retirements, the Canucks are back.

The team shed away its final pieces of the ‘West Coast Express’ with Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison both signing with the Rangers and Ducks respectively. And with Linden’s retirement last season, the Canucks have lost two captains in a span of a few months. With Nazzy gone, so is the whipping boy who fans and the media blamed in the failures of the team. Now when the season opener on October 9th comes around the entire team will be even under more scrutiny, as everyone will not only be looking for a leader but also a scape goat.

Is this team good enough? Did rookie GM Mike Gillis do enough to ensure this team is competitive? Are fans in for another season of disappointments?

The 2008/09 team is BETTER then the previous year. You are reading correctly, this year’s Canucks are better. How so? I will show you.

We’ve replaced Naslund (55 points in 82 games) with Pavol Demitra (54 points in 68 games). Demitra is more injury prone but he is capable of putting up numbers that rival our once famed captain. We still have the sis…Sedins who were ranked 24th and 27th in the ENTIRE NHL last year in terms of points. Our top six defensemen, as a whole, can compete against Detroit’s defensive core. We picked up gritty players like Rob Davison and Darcy Hordichuk, so we’re no longer a ’soft’ team. We picked up Bernier, Krog, and Wellwood to help in scoring (keep in mind we didn’t have to trade anyone away). We still have around $10 million in cap space to pick up more players if the opportunity comes up. And less we forget that we have the best goalie in the entire league defending our goal.

How do we stack against our division? We stole Demitra from Minnesota’s top line and they didnt’ pick anyone up to replace him or Brian Rolston. Colorado’s only bright spot was that Sakic is back for one more year. Edmonton and Calgary are the only scary one’s. Edmonton is full of youngsters like Gagne and (former Giants) Brule, who are itching to prove themselves. Calgary is wildly inconsistent but when they’re on they can beat just about everyone.

But think about it for a minute. How many teams in the NHL can get 2 goals past our healthy defensive core AND a rejuvenated Luongo? Not many, all we have to do is score 3 goals per game…