Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings - Saturday April 5 - 7:00 p.m. - CBC, PrimeTicket
Vancouver Canucks: 34-32-11, 79 points, 11th in Western Conference
Los Angeles Kings: 45-27-6, 96 points, sixth in Western Conference
It's game day! The Vancouver Canucks will get back on the ice tonight at Rogers Arena against the Los Angeles Kings.
This will be the first meeting between the Canucks and Kings since the 1-0 "moral victory" on January 13. To me, the mayhem surrounding that game was a major catalyst for the troubles that followed.
The Kings know how to get under the Canucks' skin. They have for years. It'll be interesting to see if they bring that feisty game tonight, or if they try to save their energy for fights that are now more important to them.
I'm also curious to see the mood of the fans. Will we get more of that "Have fun, who cares about the outcome?" energy of recent games, or will the fans be a bit more rebellious?
Henrik Sedin skated with the Canucks on Friday and will be back in the lineup. I would expect the four days between games should also help some of the other Canucks feel less banged-up than they have in awhile. But—Frank Corrado is back, recalled on Saturday:
Sounds like Weber was injured at Friday's practice:
The Canucks are still not *quite* mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Phoenix lost to Edmonton in a shootout on Friday so they're seven points ahead in eighth place; Vancouver has five games to go so they have up to 10 points available. But—Nashville walloped Anaheim 5-2 on Friday (go figure). They've now matched the Canucks' 79 points but moved into 10th place because they have more regulation/overtime wins. Both teams have played the same number of games.
The Canucks are also now tied with Carolina and just one point ahead of Winnipeg and Ottawa. Good news for #TankNation. Plenty of opportunity to move down the standings if they can keep on losing!
Vancouver's record against Los Angeles is 0-3-1 this season. In addition to the "moral victory," they lost 5-1 in Los Angeles on November 9, blew a 2-1 lead late to fall 3-2 in overtime at home on November 25 and lost 3-1 on January 4, the game when Roberto Luongo was injured. It's worth noting that those first two losses happened early in the season—the Canucks were getting smacked down by all the California teams well before the wheels fell off the wagon in January.
The Kings have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL since the Olympic break, with a record of 14-5-0. They are coming off a 2-1 loss on Thursday against the Sharks.
David Booth is scheduled to join Scott Oake on After Hours tonight after the game. His bear-kissing incident from earlier in the week should help make for some compelling TV.
The Fall-Out:
We still see angry, dramatic Torts on the bench during games when things don't go his way, which makes his ability to keep up these calm press briefings even more amazing. Here he is from Friday's practice, if you haven't watched:
After saying he's not going to talk about it, he hangs in for 14 minutes. Says he's committed to sticking with his playing style, waited too long to shake the team back to playing aggressively, and that a lack of depth was to blame for the big minutes he handed out to the team's top players. So, he's not backing down.
Yesterday's poll results fell well in favour of getting rid of both Gillis and Tortorella at the end of the season—with quite a few write-in votes for the Aquilinis as well.
I like the suggestion of Kevin Dineen as a possible replacement for Torts. He did an incredible job with the Olympic women's team in the face of some serious adversity and, in my opinion, brought us the highlight of the entire Games with that come-from-behind gold medal win.
Interesting idea about Bob Nicholson's possible availability now that he's leaving Hockey Canada. Though he is a Penticton native, at age 60, I'm not sure he'd want to step into a frying pan like ours. He is hanging on to his position as vice president of the IIHF.
I was interested to see some of you leap to the defense of Mats Sundin yesterday after I tossed off his name as an example of one of Mike Gillis' bad moves over the years. The Ballard trade, the Luongo contract, the Booth deal—those have all been dissected to death, but Sundin doesn't get discussed that much.
It didn't turn out *awful* for the Canucks in the end—he only played 41 games, scored 28 points, and picked up 8 points in 8 games as the team was eliminated by Chicago in the second round.
I won't even talk about how the Canucks had a 2-1 lead in that series before they crashed and burned. But I will say that my biggest memory of Sundin as a Canuck was how slow he was on the ice. He always looked to me like he was skating in sand, which is why he was such a defensive disaster—a minus-5 in a year where Daniel was a plus-24 and Henrik a plus-22.
Helping out with leadership? To me, that's what gets said to justify spending $5.6 million on a guy who's only with a team for half a season.
But the biggest sin, in my eyes, is that fact that Gillis
originally offered 37-year-old Sundin a two-year, $20 million deal on July 1, 2008—his first big move after taking the job in April of that year. I can understand him wanting to make a bold statement, but what if Sundin had said yes??
That offer, to me, is a perfect symbol of the worst tendencies of Mike Gillis. Though it didn't come to pass, I absolutely think he should be held accountable.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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