For all the talk the last few days about what the Canucks were going to do on the day of the trading deadline, they did pretty much nothing to add any scoring punch to their game.  Their only transaction was perennial fan favourite Matt Cooke going to the Washington Capitals for winger Matt Pettinger.  Cooke has seven goals in 61 games, where Pettinger has just 2 goals in 56 games this season.

So much for Brad Richards.

To be fair, though, Pettinger scored 16 goals last year, and 20 the year before that.  The only time Cooke came close to that was in 2002-03, when he scored 15.  But in spite of his lacking at putting the puck in the net, Cooke was a hell of an agitator for the Canucks.  Sure, he could have dropped the gloves a little more often than he did, but that wasn’t really his role.  And the majority of the fans loved the guy.  It’ll be tough to see him go.

Now it’s Pettinger’s chance to show what he can bring to the club, and hopefully the change of scenery will spark some productivity out of him for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs.

The confusing thing about this whole trading deadline is that I don’t even recall hearing about any suspected deals that the Canucks had been involved in.  About the only thing I’d heard was that Tampa’s asking price for Brad Richards was too high.  Something along the lines of Edler, Bourdon and Kesler.  Thankfully Dave Nonis didn’t bite at that one.

So, it’s now up to those who are left to get the team into the playoffs first of all, and then concentrate on the first round opponent, whoever that might be.  If they can turn it on like they did last year, it’ll be a fun spring in Vancouver.  If not….

Anyway, good luck, Cooker.  It’s been great.

Reactions from around the Canuck Nation:

• Alanah at Canucks & Beyond
• J.J. at the Canucks Hockey Blog summarizes the whole day.  Including his thoughts on Brad Richards in Dallas.
• Zanstorm at Waiting for Stanley won’t be missing Cooke a whole lot.

And, finally, thanks to John of the Crazy Canucks podcast for posting updates on the trading situation on Twitter this morning.  Very much appreciated.

Just as a thought to whomever is in charge of deciding which games are PPV, and which are not – could we maybe not have games against teams that are only in Vancouver every three or four years be PPV games, please?  Games against LA, or Phoenix?  Go nuts.  Make ‘em all PPV for all I care.  But games like the Rangers, Flyers, etc, why not let the unwashed view them?

Anyway, enough rant.

The Rangers come to town with a record of 20-16-4 after falling 4 -3 to the Flames last night, so it’ll be interesting to see how this goes.  Matt Cooke and Sean Avery could hardly be considered best friends as well, so this has the potential to be a very interesting game indeed.  The Canucks are also unbeaten at GM Place since November 1st, at least in regulation time (damn shootouts).

The Rangers haven’t been here in over 5 years, and it’s been a full decade since they last won in Vancouver.  They’re also below .500 on the road this year, so I wouldn’t have a problem calling this one a win for the Canucks.  Let’s go with….4-2 for the locals.

Zanstrom calls this one at 3-2 for the Canucks, and Mike the Yankee Canuck is planning a full on drunkblog (and includes a truly frightening picture with his post).  Come to think of it, the photo accompanying Zanstrom’s post is pretty sickening as well.

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.