The Canucks will welcome Rypien’s feistiness. The Ducks haven’t won a game this season – they’ve lost their first 3 games on the road – but lead the NHL in penalty minutes by a large margin. They’ve taken 40 penalties totaling 141 penalty minutes, including a line brawl against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night. (In comparison, the Blues have the second-most PIMs with 88, and the Canucks only have 16 PIMs.)
[As we approach the start of the NHL regular season, members of the Canucks blogosphere give their two cents about your Vancouver Canucks and address the issues, questions and expectations of the team in their 40th year anniversary.]
Shortly after the Vancouver Canucks were eliminated from the second round of last year’s playoffs, Mike Gillis said:
“Experience is a major factor,” he said. “We have very few guys that have gone far into the playoffs.
“You need experienced players who have been there, who don’t deviate from the game plan when the pressure is on, and who continue to be patient and play.”
This summer, Gillis retooled the Canucks’ roster. He upgraded the bottom-six and rebuilt the defense. But did he add the leadership and experience he wanted to?
J.J.: Of the four key additions to the Canucks’ roster, only two have gone deep into the playoffs: Manny Malhotra went to the Conference Finals with the San Jose Sharks last season, and Raffi Torres went to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers in 2006. The two key additions on defense, Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard don’t have significant playoff experience; Hamhuis has never played past the first round, while Ballard has yet to suit up in the postseason.
That said, most of the core has been together for a few years now and they’ve made the second round of the playoffs three of the last four seasons. Lack of leadership and playoff experience should no longer be an issue with this team. As a group, they’ve played enough playoff games now; I just hope that they’ve been able to learn from their losses.
Chris: Has MG brought in veteran leadership? Not sure. Ballard is a decent addition on the blueline, but that’s tempered by the loss of Mitchell. Hamhuis is definitely no rookie, but even in his five seasons in the NHL he still lacks the experience the wily vets usually have (let alone the playoff experience). You can add Malhotra and Torres to the conversation, but I’m not sold that Torres has figured out his own game well enough to provide leadership. All in all, we haven’t really seen much of a net increase.
Katie: With Malhotra I think he did a good job in terms of adding veteran leadership and playoff experience. In fact, I wouldn’t complain if Manny was given an ‘A’ to start the season. Torres also has some playoff experience with the Oilers.
Richard: Mike Gillis didn’t bring in a lot of playoff experience, but I think the team and its core already have enough collective experience. Samuelsson is the only one that has won a Stanley Cup, and I thought he did a good job of providing leadership in last year’s playoffs. Manny Malhotra is a great addition – he’ll mentor the prospects and assist the veterans.
Cam from Canucks Army: Uh, not exactly. There are a grand total of TWO Stanley Cup rings in the dressing room so that speaks for itself. However, the addition of Malhotra does add more veteran leadership. That said, I think both of those things are a bit overrated. Kesler, Henrik, Daniel, Luongo and Hamhuis have plenty of leadership so adding shouldnt have been a huge priority. As for playoff experience, the group in the room already knows what it takes to win in the playoffs. They have to battle their own demons of previous playoff failures and overcome them. To me that would be as strong a motivator as you could possibly have.
Mike from Nucks Misconduct: He did add a couple pieces, but I don’t think it is truly going to matter. Samuelsson is still the standard bearer in terms of playoff experience; the new guys don’t eclipse his 81 playoff appearances and 50 playoff points. Malhotra has two goals in 24 games, Hamhuis has nine points in 28 games, Torres has 15 points in 30 games and Ballard (thanks to being trapped in Florida) has none.
But I do think these guys bring qualities to the team that weren’t there before. Malhotra has been lauded for his strong work ethic from Columbus and San Jose, so hopefully that catches on with others and the same can be said of Torres (in Columbus not to mention his Cup run with Edmonton in 2006). Nashville runs a tight ship and hopefully Hamhuis will infuse part of that system into the backend.
[As we approach the start of the NHL regular season, members of the Canucks blogosphere give their two cents about your Vancouver Canucks and address the issues, questions and expectations of the team in their 40th year anniversary.]
Some players thrive on playing for their hometown teams. You’ll remember that prior to his professional tryout with the Canucks, Brendan Morrison, who hails from Pitt Meadows, played center on a line with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi and helped form one of the highest scoring lines in hockey. Cliff Ronning (Burnaby) and Greg Adams (Nelson) were prominent members of the 1994 Cup Run. More recently, Willie Mitchell, the pride of Port McNeill, anchored the Canucks defense before signing as a free agent this summer with the Los Angeles Kings.
Others aren’t that successful. For whatever reason, Cam Neely (Maple Ridge) never reached his potential until after he was traded to the Boston Bruins. Playing for the Calgary Flames, Byron Ritchie (Burnaby) was a decent grit and sandpaper kinda guy; after he signed with the Canucks in 2007, he was mostly ineffective. A former seventh overall draft pick, Kris Beech (Sicamous), couldn’t get his career going on a then offense-starved Canucks team in 2008. (Though to be fair, he couldn’t get his career going with any team.)
Looking to rebuild the Canucks defense, GM Mike Gillis signed highly-sought Smithers native, Dan Hamhuis, to a 6-year/$27 million contract on July 1st. Immediately, Hamhuis became the Canucks highest-paid defenseman, and along with the contract, came the high expectations. Especially with Mitchell gone and Salo injured, many Canucks fans expect him to be the team’s new leader on the back end. And with a $4.5 million cap hit, they expect more than 24 points per season.
In the last couple of years, he was overshadowed by Team Canada star, Shea Weber, and Team USA up-and-comer, Ryan Suter. Playing in Nashville, he normally played in front of crowds numbering in the 14,000′s. Playing in Barry Trotz’s system, he wasn’t asked to join the rush much. Can he adjust and play in the Canucks’ higher-tempo game? Can he do it in front of more than 18,000 fans at Rogers Arena (and millions more on TV) every night? In his home province?
J.J.: Until I watched him in Penticton at training camp, I didn’t realize just how fast Hamhuis was. He’s always been solid defensively, but freed from the shadows of Weber and Suter (and Trotz’s defense-first system), he looks like he’s got another gear – and more game – than I thought. At least in the preseason, he looked comfortable playing in a new system and with new defensive partners. It also sounds like he’s started to gain the respect of his teammates, and more notably, the rest of the blue line. If playing for his hometown has given him the jitters, he hasn’t shown it yet. But then again, the true test of that won’t come in the preseason; we’ll know more after the Canucks’ first extended losing streak.
Chris: Based on what I have seen from him during his preseason play, I think Hamhuis will perform quite well within the Canucks defensive system and I see no reason why any added pressure from playing for his “hometown” will prevent him from doing so. He looks like he can easily play big shutdown minutes, a role previously held by Mattias Ohlund and Willie Mitchell. At the same time, he will likely see a subtle bump in his point production mainly due to the offense-first mentality of the team in front of him. I don’t expect him to hit the scoresheet on a regular basis, but he’ll eat up enough defensive minutes to allow the likes of Edler and Ehrhoff to shine.
We got off to a rough start in July, you and me. I think you’re overpaid and then you decided to wear number 2 like it was no big deal which used to belong to long term Canuck Mattias Ohlund my most favourite player in all the galaxies. So yeah, I got a little angry. But hey then I calmed down and said to myself, Alix, what do you most like in a hockey player? And do you know what the answer was, Mr. Hamhuis? It’s a stay at home defenceman and a player that does a lot of charity work. Honey, you got that in spades!
You hip checked Dustin Byfuglien which would endear you to any red blooded Canucks fan.
And then when you wanted a break from that you went to Haiti with Georges Laraque and played ball hockey with kids.
I also read in the Predator’s media guide that you and your wife worked with Ronald Mcdonald House and St Luke’s Community House in Nashville.
So I’m ready to let the number thing go and enjoy your play this upcoming season. I look forward to you bringing the hammer down on anyone that gets near our goal and more of your delicious hip checks. You may want to check out Canucks Place to scratch your wonderful charitable itch. Welcome to the Canucks!
Hip checks and sticks
Alix
P.S Chances are high I won’t be able to resist a silly nick name and call you Pork Chop. I hope that’s cool.
As it stands, the Vancouver Canucks are a team with four very good defensemen, but also a team without a top-level blueliner.
For the first time in years, the team is virtually set up front. With a Hart and Art Ross trophy winner in Henrik Sedin leading the way, he has a strong supporting cast in Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler, both of whom are among the top forwards in the NHL. Behind them is swashbuckling scoring pest Alex Burrows, who led the team in goals last season, and 25-goal men Mikael Samuelsson and Mason Raymond. And with Cody Hodgson and Jordan Schroeder knocking on the door for opportunity, scoring goals is no longer a problem on the West Coast.
For those very reasons, the club’s decision to part ways with young Michael Grabner and the inconsistent Steve Bernier in addition to their 2010 first-round selection wasn’t exactly shocking, but made sense given the team’s desire to win a Stanley Cup right now. Ultimately it appears, at least on paper, that they’ve found a fit with Keith Ballard, who came back the other way in the team’s deal with Florida.
Ballard offers a few intangibles that the current group of Canucks defensemen don’t yet possess. His uncanny ability to hip check opponents while being a force on the powerplay and penalty kill is something the team hoped they had in Kevin Bieksa but haven’t quite yet received.
Assuming the team has not made any ground-breaking acquisitions over last weekend, today’s flock of blueliners are as follows: Alex Edler, Christian Ehrhoff, Keith Ballard, Dan Hamhuis, Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo, Andrew Alberts, and Shane O’Brien. That group by itself has a nice combination of speed, skill, special teams ability, defensive awareness, and physical presence, but not one of those six defensemen truly stand out above the rest.
No, what the Vancouver Canucks lack to this day is a true number one defenseman. They have no elite-level defenseman, just a bunch of good ones.
If mimicking the Stanley Cup finalists is the hot trend in the NHL (and it always is), the Canucks and its management would be wise to look at what it was that the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers had that the Canucks did not. All three teams had impressive forward depth and at the least, adequate goaltending. But what separated the Cup competitors from Vancouver was their blueline.
Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Sopel, Brian Campbell, and Nick Boynton suited up for the Hawks in their Cup-winning clash with the Flyers. On the other side of the ice were Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Matt Carle, Lukas Krajicek, and Oskars Bartulis.
Aside from noting that the bottom pairing for both teams were not overwhelming difference makers in the final, do you notice a trend between the two teams?
Duncan Keith and Chris Pronger are true and legitimate number one defensemen, the kind who coaches put out with one minute left in a game, whether they need to score a goal or prevent one, and the kind that scoff at playing just 30 minutes a game.
For the Cup finalists last season in Pittsburgh and Detroit, the two teams’ bluelines were led by Sergei Gonchar and Nick Lidstrom respectively, both top-flight defensemen who can change the momentum of a game within moments.
Perhaps it’s no secret that in order to win a Stanley Cup, a team requires a number one defenseman. But the fact of the matter is that at this point in time, the Vancouver Canucks do not yet possess a true top blueliner.
With slim pickings remaining on the free agent market, it appears the club will not fill that void via free agency, and chances are slim the team will be willing to part with any more assets and go through the trade route to land one, either.
The team’s best hope of getting an elite defender lies solely within their own system, and those hopes may rest squarely on the shoulders of young Swedish defenceman Alexander Edler, who is still teeming with potential.
The 24-year-old has made steady improvements in points production in the four years he has been with the team (3 to 20 to 37 to 42) but for some unknown reason has yet to take his game to the highest level.
In the playoffs, Edler showed flashes of the brilliance that he can do on the ice. His big-time hit on Drew Doughty in Game 1 against the Los Angeles Kings was a physical statement for the 6’3’’ specimen, and he got close to 29 minutes a game on some nights versus the Blackhawks. But whether it be a lack of killer instinct or grit, Edler hasn’t quite yet reached elite status.
Right now, Christian Ehrhoff is the team’s best defenseman at both ends of the ice. His offensive presence is ahead of Edler’s and his +36 rating during the regular season show that he can play in his own end, too. But at 28 years old how much better does Ehrhoff’s game get?
Lost in all the hype surrounding Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis is the fact the club still does not have a top-level defenseman. Of course, the hope is at least one of the current blueliners can step out above the rest. And maybe, just maybe, the Canucks will finally have their elite defenseman and help them get past the playoff hump that is the second round.
