New Years Musings

The “Sandman” is providing traction

With all of the snow around Vancouver of late, there has been a lot of sand spread on the roads to stop drivers from slipping and sliding. With the injury to Roberto Luongo, the Canucks have turned to their own “Sandman” to keep them from sliding in the Western conference standings, and so far the traction provided has been pretty good.

A quick look at the stats, and Sanford’s numbers have been pretty good. In 16 games, Sanford has faced 838 shots and has posted 2.43 goals against, and a .913 save percentage, while posting one shutout. Not Luongo-esque numbers by any means, but numbers that should be confidence building for his teammates who know it’s not the end of the world waiting for Luongo to return. The steady play will also make it easier for Luongo to recover completely before returning, and who knows how long that will be.

The kids are alright

One of the things Mike Gillis stated in the off-season was that if he couldn’t make moves to improve the team with trades and free agent signings, he was fine with letting some of the organizations prospects come to camp and compete for jobs. Mason Raymond and Jannick Hansen have taken that opportunity and contributed nicely in key roles. More consistency would be nice, but by no means has either player looked out of place. Raymond’s lack of size is a challenge, and with more experience he looks to be learning to control his movements more and head to the right spots to get scoring chances, while Hansen has made great strides after an injury filled campaign the previous season.

How underrated in Mattias Ohlund?

He doesn’t get a lot of recognition, but just how underrated is Mattias Ohlund? Playing in a contract year, the dependable Swede is in his 11th year with the Canucks, and is still one of the steadiest go-to defensemen on the club. He simply does it all, killing penalties, playing the power play, out in key situations, playing physical, you name it Mattias does it. After overcoming a career threatening eye injury Ohlund has certainly cemented himself among the greatest Canucks defensemen in history. It would be nice to keep him here and have him retire as a Canuck in the future, and if that happens do you consider his number worthy of being raised to the rafters? I think it certainly needs to be discussed.

Oilers still hanging around

The Canucks can’t be faulted for a lot thus far in the season, but one thing that will make their life a little more difficult down the stretch is the two games they let Edmonton take from them recently. Instead of being 10 points up on the pesky team from Alberta, the Oilers have managed to hang around in the Northwest division. It’s something the Oilers seem to do, year after year. It will certainly make life a little tougher for the Canucks, who surely are looking at those two losses as ones they would have loved to avoid. Picked by many to be a force in the division this year, the Oilers still may make some noise yet if they can find consistency in their game and get rolling at home.

Finally, thank you!

It was big year of change for CanuckCorner.com. We have gone to a full blog format, and for the most part I think it’s going well. I haven’t has had as much time as I like to write and get the site together, and the learning curve has been a hurdle at times, but you’ve stuck with us and supported the move all the way. Canucks.com has embraced the fan sites out there, and that will be bringing you more cool features and access in the future to your favourite hockey team. From all of us Tom Benjamin, George Fawcett, Justine Galo, our message board moderating staff and myself, I wish all of you a happy, safe, and healthy New Year!

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