Today's the day!
I'm headed to the airport this afternoon to catch my flight to Russia for the World Championships.
Canada kicks off its tournament on Friday in St. Petersburg against Auston Matthews and Team USA. You'll be able to catch the game on TSN.
The Canadian team got off to a good start in a pre-tournament game in Prague on Tuesday, defeating the Czechs 3-0. Here's how coach Bill Peters deployed his troops:
Corey Perry is also with the team but didn't play on Tuesday.
For the moment, we have Chris Tanev playing on the team's top defensive pairing with B.C. boy Morgan Rielly, while Ben Hutton shares third-pair duties with Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild.
Click here for full highlights from the game, which featured goals from Ryan O'Reilly, Matt Duchene and Connor McDavid.
Tanev had the secondary assist on O'Reilly's goal, which came off a Morgan Rielly point shot.
Over in Helsinki, the U.S. team took a 3-2 overtime loss to Finland in pre-tournament action. Jordan Schroeder and J.T. Compher had the goals for the Americans, while Teemu Pulkinen scored twice for the Finns and Leo Komarov picked up the game winner.
Not too much else going on in the world of the Canucks today.
Ben Kuzma of
The Province spoke with Utica Comets head coach Travis Green about his name being associated with the new head coaching vacancy in Calgary.
Taking a page from the Marc Crawford playbook, Green uses his interview as an opportunity to try to sell himself.
“I think I’m ready,” Green told Kuzma. “Every job in the NHL is worth its weight in gold, and I would have 100 per cent interest at options with every team in the league. You hope all your qualities are enticing for one of them."
“I came into this league (AHL) looking to eventually coach in the NHL,” stressed Green. “This is a great development league for coaches and I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here.”
The Green situation will be one to watch as the offseason continues.
Finally—future unrestricted free agent David Backes is making a case for a huge new contract on July 1 with his performance in this year's playoffs so far.
Backes scored his league-leading third game-winning goal of the playoffs to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 series lead over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night—a 6-1 shellacking.
Dallas' goaltending and defense issues are now in the spotlight. Trade-deadline acquisition Kris Russell got undressed on this Troy Brouwer goal—though it should be mentioned that he was covering for his out-of-position partner Jason Demers on the play.
The Lehtonen/Niemi goaltending dilemma remains the biggest issue, so I'm not sure if Dan Hamhuis would be helping the Stars more than Russell right now. More importantly, the Blues have played some great hockey in the last two games and didn't take their foot off the gas when they got the big lead last night.
The farther they go in the playoffs, the harder it'll be for them not to want to re-sign their captain, Backes—especially if he continues his strong play. But the Blues will have some salary-cap issues coming up—
General Fanager shows that the team has $58 million committed to 17 players for next season—but only seven forwards are currently signed. Jaden Schwartz is an RFA who should be in line for a significant raise, and young stars like Colton Parayko, Robby Fabbri and Joel Edmundson will also need new contracts as their entry-level deals expire over the next couple of years.
Backes, now 32, is probably looking for a raise on his current $4.5 million cap hit, so the Blues might not be able to afford to keep him. The Canucks could use the blend of size, toughness, leadership and timely scoring that he's displaying this year's playoffs—although I'm the first to admit that Backes doesn't consistently play this way.
He is getting on in years, and his playing style will probably start to take a toll on his body, but if Vancouver is going to look at landing a high-end UFA, I think he'd be worth considering if the money and term aren't too onerous.
Yes, the Canucks are pretty deep at center, but Backes also spent some time on the wing with the Blues this year. And I think when you finish the season in 28th place in the league like the Canucks did, all positions should be considered to be upgradeable.
One other note—Troy Brouwer is also unrestricted this summer, and is have an excellent playoffs so far. He'll be 31 in August and had a cap hit of $3.67 million on his last contract. Would he be worth pursuing?
I'll leave those for you to chew on. I need to pack!
For the next couple of weeks, my schedule will be more erratic than usual. I'll be posting whenever I can and hope to be able to bring you lots of intel on the Canucks at the World Championships!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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