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Vancouver Canucks: NHL Gears Back Up Wed, What the Boys Have Been Up To |
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With a day off from hockey in Sochi and only the Canucks' Swiss players suiting up on Tuesday, let's turn away from the Olympics and get back to business here at home.
Okay, maybe just one Olympic nugget, re. Team Switzerland. David Booth may have gotten engaged to a beauty queen, but Yannick Weber's girlfriend knows our game inside-out:
We're a week away from the end of the Olympic trade freeze: the embargo lifts on Sunday at midnight ET, the day of the gold medal game. From there, NHL general managers will have 10 days to try to make their best deals of the year before the final freeze on Wednesday, March 5. Not much time!
Deals this season will remain hard to make thanks to the restrictions of the decreased salary cap, but teams will only be responsible for two or three paycheques for any acquisitions they make so there could be some deals to be made.
It gets interesting when you consider how many teams are on the playoff bubble in both conferences. In the East, just six points separate sixth place from 13th. A bit of a streak in either direction could change a team's playoff chances in a hurry. Only the Islanders, Florida and Buffalo are truly out of the running.
The West is a little more spread out, with nine points separating sixth from 12th. Calgary and Edmonton are the only teams that definitely aren't coming to the dance.
For all the talk of Western supremacy earlier in the season, the eighth place team in both conferences currently has 64 points. Those numbers have evened out after all.
I'd hate to see the Canucks miss the playoffs and our local season wrap in early April, but I'd hate it even more if they gave up valuable assets to try to make a push, then get eliminated in the first round.
With Mike Santorelli and Andrew Alberts on the injured list, the Canucks' only impeding free agent is Raphael Diaz, so it's not like we can collect assets by selling off rental players.
Eklund is suggesting that Vancouver has interest in Jaromir Jagr, but I don't see that happening. After his stint in Dallas last season, Jagr said he only wants to play in the Eastern Conference, so it's a non-starter in my mind.
Back to Work:
The non-Olympians are expected to report back to their teams this Wednesday, February 19th. That means it shouldn't be long till we get some media availability from Torts and more chatter about how the organization hopes to get this mess of a team back into a winning frame of mind as it pushes for the finish line.
Hopefully we'll get some positive news on the injury front as well. At the very least, I seem to recall we were told before the break that Chris Tanev should be ready to return and that Alex Burrows will finally get that infernal mask off his face.
Question: how do the female hockey players manage with those full cages they're forced to wear? They look like they're just as obstructive as Burrows' jaw-protector.
With no formal news or interviews available, let's hop over to Twitter and see what the guys who aren't in Sochi are sharing about their Olympic vacation:
Eddie Lack—still missing @strombone1
Kevin Bieksa—stepping up again for mental health; no clue on his injury status
Zack Kassian—surfing the net
Ryan Stanton—living the hockey player's dream, golfing in Palm Springs
Zac Dalpe—chatting with Ma Dalpe
Tom Sestito—hangin' with his sassy little sister...and with the GF in Cabo
Tomorrow, I'll take a look at the results of the qualification games and tee up the Olympic quarterfinals. Four teams go home on Tuesday...
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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