The Vancouver Canucks will practice at Rogers Arena on Thursday ahead of another tough matchup Friday night against the St. Louis Blues.
Here's one bit of good news. For once, the opposition should be the tired team. The Blues face Calgary at the Saddledome on Thursday night.
Nevertheless, it'll be another tough matchup for the Canucks. The Blues are on a six-game winning streak, 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and are hanging with the leaders in the Western Conference. They're the team that the EA Sports NHL 14 simulation picked to win it all this season, and so far they're living up to that reputation.
Meanwhile, our Canucks are in a five-game funk and dealing with confidence and injury issues as they try to right the ship.
We know Henrik Sedin didn't take any faceoffs on Tuesday against Pittsburgh. Brad Ziemer says it's because his finger is broken and he's playing with a splint:
Ziemer says, as far as he knows, the injury doesn't require surgery. When asked after the game on Tuesday, Tortorella said Henrik wouldn't be playing if he didn't think he'd be effective, but I'm concerned.
Alex Burrows talked to the media after skating with the team on Tuesday and seems to think he's close to returning to action, though he still has his braces on his upper teeth:
We could see Burrows back on Friday. His team could use him.
Benn Ferriero has been returned to Utica, but Darren Archibald's still in Vancouver and could see more action against the Blues.
As for Roberto Luongo, he has been spotted at Rogers Arena on Thursday morning:
Tony Gallagher of
The Province talks today about John Tortorella's candidness when addressing his team's issues this year. Before the Pittsburgh game, he spoke quite openly with John Shorthouse about what he perceives as a problem with mindset, which he believes can be addressed.
I just don’t think we have the proper mindset to know how to change the momentum of games, to know how to compete against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders we’re playing here in the next couple of weeks.
Is it a quick fix? No. But I think it’s fixable. And it’s not a physical aspect, you can’t get anything done physically until you get yourself straightened out mentally.
And if you want the x’s and o’s of it, we need to forecheck. We need to have a little bit of jam, not just a Tommy Sestito or a Ryan Kesler or a (Chris) Higgins throwing a bodycheck. We need other people involved in this so we can play in the other end, because our D are dead.
More Thoughts on the Atmosphere at Rogers Arena:
Amidst our discussion yesterday on the fans and the game presentation at Rogers Arena, BloatedMosquito wrote:
Don't blame the fans. We are putting our money down. We've done our job.
Fair enough. I've been there too. There was no way you were going to get me cheering from my seat down on the glass during those Keenan years in the late '90s.
The trick is to create the right atmosphere—to make the fans want to cheer. It's not easy.
There have been plenty of improvements over the last decade. The current Jumbotron was installed in 2006 and is still one of the best in the league. The audio system was upgraded shortly after, and there have been lots of other additions to lighting and effects that make for a splashier show. Game presentation does a great job with a lot of their video content—the player features and such. The 40th anniversary season in 2010-11 was fantastic, with the Ring of Honour inductions and tons of interviews and features with Canucks' alumni throughout the year.
More recently, they added the in-rink host last season and spent a ton of time and effort on the new intro video and song this year. I'm not so sure either of those additions has gotten us any closer to a high-energy atmosphere.
The horrific traffic in this city makes it tough for people to get into their seats before puck drop. The long lineups for washrooms and concessions leave the building half empty at the start of every second period. And the current ticket distribution system means that, even though the building is sold out, there are plenty of empty seats, especially in the lower bowl.
The Canucks did try inviting the Whitecaps' Southsiders for a couple of games—one or two years ago? It was a disaster. Their chants didn't fit with the gameplay, and they got in trouble for standing up and blocking other fans' views. I think there were even a couple of evictions.
I focus on the music because I know firsthand how much I can change a mood and get people excited with song selection when I DJ. I'm a rock fan, and while it seems like the rock anthems still get plenty of play in other rinks and even other sports, we hear a lot of pop and techno at the Rog. I'm not saying the mix needs to be all shredding guitar, but I'd like to hear more of that. And more variety. And higher-energy tracks when the team is trailing.
But it has to be good. They just made a new clip to play after Eddie Lack makes a great save. It uses AC/DC's "Back in Black" as the base but the vocal has been changed so it says—I'm not sure, exactly—"Back to Lack?" It's hard to understand, and felt kind of irritating by the second time it was played on Tuesday. Yeah, we're hard to please.
What do you think would make a difference? What makes the NFL such a great fan experience? There are no shortage of corporate tickets sold to those games. What aspects of the Whitecaps' game presentation could the Canucks learn from? What have you seen or heard at other NHL arenas that you'd like to see in Vancouver? And what parts of Vancouver's game presentation do you like just the way they are?
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