As was kind of expected, the Canucks sent both Michael Grabner and Cory Schneider down to the Manitoba Moose today, keeping both Sergei Shirokov and Cody Hodgson with the big club for now.  Lawrence Nycholat and Brad Lukowich were both placed on waivers.

It’s not that big of a surprise that Grabner’s going to be starting the season in Winnipeg.  No one was given more of a chance to shine than he was, with appearances in seven of the nine pre-season games.  The problem is, he only picked up one assist.  That ain’t going to keep you here.

Cody Hodgson is another matter.  While no one would claim that he had a stellar pre-season, he may have extended his NHL life for this year by another nine games before being sent back to Brampton.  Unless he sets the world on fire, don’t expect to see him here in November. 

Ed Willes wrote in this morning’s Province that this edition of the Canucks may be the best ever.  Even better than the 2003-04 team, which had extremely high expectations put on it before flaming out.  While that team may have had Todd Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund, and the Sedins, this one has Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler, and the Sedins – just five years older.  And that much better.  And, oh, yeah.  This guy named Roberto Luongo. 

Is it unfair to place lofty expectations on the Canucks?  Possibly.  The two years that they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals they were hardly expected to do anything in the playoffs.  It almost seems like the more promise they show, the harder they crash.  And the more unlikely they seem to have success, the better they perform.  Who knows why.

Sergei Shirokov played his way on to this team as well.  Is he going to be another Pavel Bure?  Hell, no.  But is he going to help Canucks forget about some of the other Russians that have played here, like Artem Chubarov or Vladamir Krutov?  Hell, yeah.  He’s going to be an exciting player, no doubt.  Not a 50 goal guy, but still exciting, nonetheless.

It’s going to be a fun year, and it all starts in Calgary on Thursday night.  Predictions?

Update: Okay, so what do I know?  According to Canucks.com, Cody Hodgson has been assigned to the Brampton Batillion of the OHL.  This came down about 15 minutes ago.  So, when I posted, he technically was still here.  It just hadn’t been made public yet.  Probably better for Cody in the long run.

And to think that the game against the Islanders was supposed to be the “easy” game on this road trip.  But then, those seem to be the games that the Canucks have more of a tendency to choke on.

When Pavol Demitra scored, it looked like it was going be a good night for the visitors, as their record when they get the first goal is much better than if they have to play catch-up.  They went to the dressing room at the end of the first and all looked well.

But then the Islanders woke up and completely out-classed the Canucks in the second period, and it was only because of Roberto Luongo that they weren’t down about 4 -1, instead of tied at the second intermission.

I have to admit, though, that the overtime period was some of the most exciting, wide-open hockey I’ve seen the Canucks play, with lots of end to end rushes going both ways.

But then it all came down to the shootout, and the Canucks were done after the first Islanders shooter put the puck behind Luongo.  And that was all they needed as the Canucks couldn’t put it past Joey McDonald.

It doesn’t get any easier, either, as they move on to Manhatten, to play Nazzy and the Rangers.  That’s going to feel a little weird for some of the players.  Markus, in particular, I’ll bet.

If they’re going to come home from this trip with a 3 – 1 record, like I predicted, they’re going to have to run the table against the Rangers, Wild, and Penguins.  A tall order.

Bobby will have thoughts on the Ranger game for you on Wednesday night, and I’ll bet Mike at the Yankee Canuck is getting cranked up about this one all ready.  Should be fun.

While there was no shortage of speculation that Markus Naslund may have played his last game as a Canuck when they got drubbed 7-1 by the Flames at the end of the last season, it was still a bit of a surprise to hear that he’s going to the New York Rangers.  I would have figured Detroit, Dallas, or Colorado. 

Regardless, though, it was time for Naslund to move on.  The high-scoring years of the early 2000s are over, and he just didn’t seem to have an excitement for playing the game over the last couple of years.  This was evidenced most by the way he celebrated goals that he scored (ie, he didn’t celebrate at all).  Maybe Bertuzzi’s leaving had more of an impact than anyone, even Naslund himself, could have realized.

But now that it’s done, it’s time to move on and see who the Canucks will pick to be their next captain.  My money’s on Willie Mitchell, but maybe they’ll somehow pull of a miracle and sign a free agent during the summer that can carry the ‘C’.

And I’ve only got two words for Mike Gillis regarding the whole Mats Sundin thing: Mark Messier.

The Canucks cemented Todd Bertuzzi’s “homecoming” as the non-event that it was with a great 4-0 win over the Ducks.  Roberto Luongo picked up his second consecutive shutout.  Markus Naslund, Matt Cooke, and Ryan Kesler (with two) scored for the Canucks, who are now unbeaten in regulation in 11 games.

Bertuzzi probably said it best after the game when he commented that, “Now everyone can move on.”  Which it’s time to do.  Yeah, the Steve Moore incident is going to be around for quite awhile, but Bertuzzi’s gone.  He’s on his third team since leaving the Canucks.  Focus on what the team’s doing now, rather than worrying about something that happened three years ago.

Besides, when Naslund scored, Bertuzzi was the one who was supposed to be checking him.  And with one hand on the stick, and a little half-hearted attempted at tapping Naslund with his stick, Bertuzzi shows that nothing has changed with him.  When he’s interested, he’s a force on the ice.  When he’s not, though, he’s nothing but a floater.  Exactly the way he was for his last two seasons here.

Given a choice, I’d rather the Canucks have Luongo, thanks.

Was it really only about three weeks ago that people were wondering if Alain Vigneault had already “lost” the room?  The Canucks were a long way back and trade speculation was on the rise.  Who would be the first to go?

Quite the difference three weeks makes, eh?

This morning the Canucks woke up to find themselves tied for first place in the Northwest Division, and only one point behind the Sharks for second place in the Western Conference.  Considering the fact that they did the same thing last year (although waiting till Christmas to turn it around), it shouldn’t really be that much of a surprise to anyone who follows the team.  They have a tendency to start slow, and then after getting kicked around for awhile, decide to do something about it.

And last night they definitely “did something about it”.  They walked into Minnesota and played a great game, capped off by three goals from Markus Naslund, and another by Ryan Kesler.  Considering that the Canucks didn’t get into Minneapolis until about 4:30am after flying in from Edmonton, it wouldn’t have been too hard to believe that they were just going to float for this game.  They did anything but.

They showed that Derek Boogaard could shoot off his mouth all he wanted about going after Naslund and the Sedins.  They shut him up pretty quickly, scoring twice in the span of about 30 seconds to silence the crowd.  Boogaard had a total of about three minutes of ice time.  Ah well.

Curtis Sanford played well also, picking up his second win of the season in as many starts.  Next up, St. Louis.

From the bench:

• J.J. at the Canucks Hockey Blog
• The Yankee Canuck liveblogged the game.  Always entertaining.  Always.

And the pressbox:

• Naslund, Canucks catch up with Wild (TSN)

It turns out that if I don’t do a lot of posting about the Canucks, they tend to win games. Or maybe it’s just the fact that they weren’t playing at GM Place. Who knows. Being that this was a PPV game, in addition to being on at a weird time of day, I didn’t get a chance to see any part of it (not even the highlights – it was a long night and I overslept by two hours this morning, so…)

Goals from Ryan Kesler (with a pair), Markus Naslund and Kevin Bieksa and the Canucks pick up a much needed win. But according to Canucks and Beyond, it sounds like the Canucks played great in the first and third periods, and like a bunch of clowns in the second. I can’t offer much in the way of contradiction to this, as, like I mentioned, I didn’t see the game.

Hopefully they’ll be able to repeat this result against the Hurricanes tonight. A nice early start, too.

Now that was a lot better. The Canucks rebounded from a lousy performance on Wednesday night with a much better one last night in a 5-2 win over the Oilers to get them back to .500 on the season.

Henrik Sedin, Alex Burrows, Rick Rypien, Markus Naslund, and Brendan Morrison all chipped in goals for the Canucks while Roberto Luongo stopped 28 shots.

It was hardly a game to write home about, though, as games between the Canucks and the Oilers always seem to turn into slow-paced, boring games. Not at all like the Calgary game was last Saturday night.

The other thing that the Canucks are going to have to avoid is their typical poor showing at GM Place after a win on the road in previous nights. Never mind the fact that they’re 0-2 at home and 2-0 on the road. It’s time to get some wins on home ice, and there’s not better time than tonight.

I called the winner correctly last night but not the score. So tonight I’m still going with the Canucks and again with a score of 3-2.