Canucks at the Olympics

In case you haven't been watching, a number of Vancouver Canucks have been starring for their national teams at the Olympics. In Canada's opener against Norway, Roberto Luongo was solid in a 15-save shutout win. Today, the Sedins chipped in with a combined three points to help Sweden overcome Belarus 4-2. And, last night, Pavol Demitra scored the shootout winner for Slovakia in their upset win over Russia:



Ryan Kesler (USA), Christian Ehrhoff (Germany) and Sami Salo (Finland) are also starring in the tournament, which has thus far seen some amazing hockey action. Canada vs. USA on Sunday should be a doozy.

Keep it up boys, you're doing your countries and the Canucks organization proud!

Some thoughts on free agency so far

Well the "Free Agent Frenzy" (as TSN markets it) has been on for over 24 hours, and there have been some notable happenings.

For Canucks fans the big news is that Daniel and Henrik Sedin are returning to the fold, at $6.1 million per year for five years. That is considerably lower than what they could have demanded on the open market, and represents a solid commitment to the twins, along with Roberto Luongo (expected to sign a long-term extension soon), as the team's core moving forward. I have already expressed my desire to keep the Sedins in Vancouver, and consequently I am very happy that this deal got done.

The other significant news is the departure of long-serving stalwart Mattias Ohlund to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he will serve as a mentor to the young Victor Hedman. Ohlund was a rock on the Canucks blueline for 11 seasons, and departs as the franchise's leading scorer amongst defensemen. It was clear for most of the season that the Canucks were not going to retain Ohlund's services, and while it is sad to see him go there is, happily, no ill will on either side. Expect Ohlund to get a rousing ovation from the GM Place faithful next time Tampa comes through town.

In other minor news the club bids farewell to Jason LaBarbera, who filled in solidly during Luongo's injury last season but who deserves a chance to try to win a starting job. Hopefully he gets that chance with the Phoenix Coyotes. The Canucks also signed three depth defensemen in Nolan Baumgartner (who played for their AHL team last year), Lawrence Nycholat (who was lost on the waiver last season) and Matt Pope. None of these six are likely to be in the starting lineup come the Fall, but do provide some useful insurance in case of injury.

Other notable names on the move have included Marian Hossa (Chicago Blackhawks), Marion Gaborik (New York Rangers), Jay Bouwmeester (Calgary Flames), Mike Cammalleri (Montreal Canadiens), Nikolai Khabibulin (Edmonton Oilers), Martin Havlat (Minnesota Wild) and Mike Komisarek (Toronto Maple Leafs).

I'm a little scared by the number of Western Conference teams that look to be much better next year, seeing that as of right now the Canucks have not gotten any better (though, thankfully, not gotten much worse thanks to keeping the Sedins). It remains to be seen if Mike Gillis can acquire defensive depth to replace Ohlund and scoring to complement the Sedins (a Mats Sundin return is not out of the question), or if the latter of these needs can be met internally by Cody Hodgson, Michael Grabner or, unlikely this coming season, Jordan Schroeder.

Meanwhile, in our division Calgary has added Bouwmeester to a defence corps that also includes Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr, although they did lose valuable scoring in Cammalleri. They may again be hamstrung by cap issues and lack of depth, as they have a lot of money invested in a small core of players. Edmonton arguably gets an upgrade in goal, adding Khabibulin to replace the outgoing Dwayne Roloson. Minnesota essentially swaps one incredibly-skilled-but-incredibly-fragile forward for another, losing Gaborik and adding Havlat. Colorado has upgraded somewhat by drafting Matt Duchesne and acquiring Craig Anderson to address their woeful goaltending.

But other teams in the West are looking like they will be much stronger next year. The Detroit Red Wings are consistently a strong team, and that is unlikely to change. The San Jose Sharks are looking to bounce back from a disappointing postseason, and should once again be a dominant team. The Anaheim Ducks will remain a dangerous opponent. The St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets and L.A. Kings all have good, young cores and look to move up the standings this year. And Chicago just got that much more deadly with the addition of Hossa.

So, while the regular season is still three months away, it appears as if the West will be a tough conference once again. Here's hoping the Canucks find a few more pieces before then.

Sign the Sedins!

Will the Sedins return to the Canucks? This is undoubtedly the biggest question facing the Canucks' GM Mike Gillis right now, and one that will shape all his other off-season decisions. The Twins want to stay in Vancouver, but Gillis is rightly concerned that meeting their salary demands (believed to be about $6.5 million per season) will hobble the team's ability to maneuver under a salary cap that is likely to drop in the next season or two.

I have a feeling that the Sedins will end up settling on a contract with the Canucks. Is it worth it for both of them to leave a city they and their families like and a team that is better than most of the teams rumoured as potential destinations (Toronto, Montreal, LA) for an extra $500,000 a season? Obviously that's a lot of money, but they'll still likely get something in the range of $6 million so it's not a huge loss of income. From the Canucks perspective, and extra $1 million of cap space can go a long way.

The Sedins are excellent players, and I think they are in the $6 million range. A lot of people underestimate them, but consider how they stack up statistically against other stars:

With 82 points each, the Sedins tied with Mike Cammalleri of the Flames for 13th in NHL scoring. That means that they finished higher in scoring than players such as Rick Nash, Eric Staal, Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Zetterberg, Dany Heatley, Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews and Vincent Lecavalier. This is not to say that the Sedins are necessarily better than these players, but that statistically they stack up favourably against some very impressive competition.

Goal scoring is not exactly the Canucks' forte, but that's no fault of Daniel. He had a respectable 31 goals, good enough to tie with a host of other players for 26th in league scoring. Yes, he could and should be higher - but who will pick up that slack if the Canucks let him and his brother walk? Plus, do you really think Alex Burrows will come anywhere close to replicating his 28-goal season playing without the Sedins? Just ask Anson Carter how difficult it is to replicate a career year sans les freres Sedin.

We all know Henrik is an assist machine. With 60 helpers, he finished 8th in the league behind players such as Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Pavel Datsyuk and Joe Thornton. The previous season he finished 4th with 61 assists. But did you know that Daniel was hot on his brother's tail with 51 assists, placing him 14th in the league? These guys make players around them better. Period.

In the playoffs the Sedins continued their clutch play, each scoring 10 points in 10 games. Yes, they could have done more. But so could have Sundin, Luongo, Kesler, Burrows, etc. I thought the Sedins were among the team's best players in the playoffs, and stepped up their physical game in order to get on the scoresheet.

Losing the Sedins would leave a huge hole in the Canucks forward corps. Who would step up to the top line? 19-year old rookie Cody Hodgson? Ryan Kesler? Pavol Demitra? There aren't a lot of good internal options when it comes to filling two of the top three first-line sports. Unless Gillis has a couple aces up his sleeve in trade or free-agent form (Lecavalier? Heatley? Gaborik?), losing the Sedins would be crippling.

What are your thoughts about the Sedins? Should the Canucks keep them? Let them walk? If they stay, what are they worth?

More playoff beard fun

Hope you enjoyed the first installment of "Pete's Playoff Beard" a few days ago. Hopefully the Canucks pull their socks up (let's just not talk about last night, okay?) so his beard has a chance to reach Grizzly Adams-esque proportions soon.

Speaking of playoff beards, here are a couple more fun stories that I recently came across. First off there is this entertaining read from The Hockey News, featuring some wicked photos of Chris Mason and Scott Neidermayer, as well as some advice on how to tell playoff-Daniel from playoff-Henrik.

Secondly, there is this commercial which was posted on Puck Daddy two weeks ago. It is YouTube gold:



Too bad the boys in the ad couldn't help Sidney Crosby out. The dude is trying but, as you can see from this picture, not succeeding very well in his playoff beard efforts.

Daniel officially the better Sedin twin

After last night's game against the Dallas Stars, the Canucks' 41st of the season, Vancouver is at the midway point of its 08-09 NHL season.

This season happens to be the eighth of their career for Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who have been wowing Canucks fans with 2-minute cycles in the offensive zone, slap passes and poor playoff performances for the better part of a decade. As such, it is now time to determine the question that has been on every Vancouver fan's mind since Daniel and Henrik were taken second and third, respectively, in the first round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft: who is the better hockey player?

Clearly the twins are offensive players, so they will be judged solely on their offensive output. And, as of today, Daniel is clearly the superior Sedin with 421 points to Henrik's relatively paltry 415. Not only has Danny scored six more career points than Hank, he has done it in four fewer games!

Yes, Henrik has played in 605 regular season games while Daniel has suited up for a mere 601 matches. That means that Daniel's point-per-game average is 0.700, dwarfing his brother's 0.686 average. It doesn't take Einstein to tell you which player is better!

So, now that Daniel superiority has been clearly established I think it is time to ditch this whole "identical twins, identical contracts" nonsense that has been the basis of every Sedin contract thus far in their career. When it is time to re-up the twins at the end of this season, I suggest that Mike Gillis give Daniel the farm and lowball Henrik.

Hey, it's only fair based on their respective statistical histories. You never heard anyone complaining that Brent Gretzky got paid less money during his (13 game) NHL career than did his brother Wayne, right? So why should the Sedins be any different?