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.

The Canucks, even though they didn’t play badly against the Islanders the other night, played a much more complete game last night, shutting out the Ducks.  Roberto Luongo  was in great form, and Cory Schneider did well to contribute to the shutout, even stopping a penalty shot late in the third period.

It was good to see that the scoring came from those who might not be considered the ‘usual’ scorers, either – Steve Bernier, Kevin Bieksa (although it sure looked like his shot from the point was re-directed), and Aaron Rome, who rather impressed Zandberg over at ‘Nucks Misconduct.

I didn’t get a chance to see the first period due to a family event, but what I saw of the last 40 minutes was a vast improvement over the opening game against the Isles.  The passing was better, there weren’t a lot of giveaways, or any of the things that you normally come to expect in a preseason game.  Of course, they did dress a more ‘NHL-ready’ lineup in the second game, but still…there were no Sedins, no Willie Mitchell, etc.

As gets mentioned every year, the Canucks are going to need someone to step up and put the puck in the net throughout the season, not just for the first fifteen or twenty games.  It’ll be interesting to see who tries to make a go of it, though.  My money’s on Sergei Shirokov, if he sticks.  Although I’m of the opinion that he’s no Pavel Bure, it sure would be nice to see that kind of excitement again, no?

The Canucks are still down in California to play the Sharks tonight before they face the Oilers tomorrow night.  Three games in as many nights shouldn’t be a problem this early in the year, but we’ll just have to see.

What can you say about last night’s game other than it was a preseason game, and it was good to see the Canucks back out on the ice.

It wasn’t a stellar effort, but the Canucks did seem to carry the play a little more than did the Islanders.  The passing definitely could have been better (both teams were guilty of poor passing at times), but, as mentioned above, it was only the first game of the preseason.

Sergei Shirokov played pretty well (2 goals will do that), as did both Cory Schneider and Rick Rypien, who chipped in with a couple of fights.  Ronald Petrovicky impressed me a little, too.  The guy just kept digging whenever he was on the ice, which seemed to be all the time.

Nobody was really guilty of any boneheaded plays, the kind that you want the guys to get out of their system before the games start counting.

And Terrace did a great job of hosting the whole thing, with about 10% of the town’s entire population showing up for the game.  Those that weren’t able to get into the game were treated to appearances by Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa at an outdoor event.

All in all it was a good night for the Canucks who have to get ready to head down to Anaheim to face the Ducks on Thursday.  I wouldn’t really expect to see anything resembling the actual regular season lineup until probably game 6 or so.  By that time everything will be flushed out, with the odd players on the bubble being given final chances to either make the team, get sent to Manitoba, or be released.