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.

Alex Ovechkin stirred up a little controversy when he claimed that, contract be damned, that he was going to go participate in the 2014 Olympics, being held in Russia.  And who can really blame the guy?  They’re being held in his home country, after all.  If NHL players weren’t participating in the Vancouver games, wouldn’t you expect them to be more than a little pissed off?

Listening to the TEAM 1040 this morning, I thought I heard talk that Roberto Luongo had said essentially the same thing.  “I’ll carry my own insurance, and go represent my country.”  Or something to that extent.  Is this something that Canucks fans would want to hear?  I’d sure hope so.

But then, there were a lot of Canucks fans who felt that Luongo shouldn’t have left the team to be in Florida for the birth of his first daughter a couple of years ago.  I’ll tell you something right now.  Had it been me, I would have done exactly the same thing.  Family comes before your job, and when it all comes down to it, playing hockey is a job.  The money’s far different than any regular blue-collar job, obviously, but it’s still a job.  You don’t get to go back and see the birth of your first child over again.  And that child is going to be a part of your life far longer than you’re going to be playing hockey.

If you got ticked with Luongo when he left the team, did you also think Taylor Pyatt should have stayed when his fiance died last year?  If you don’t you’re being hypocritical.  Two very different events, one happy, and one tragic, but BOTH were more important than hockey.  Was it an inconvenient time for Luongo to have to take some time off?  Yup.  But people have to deal with it.  As Todd Bertuzzi was fond of saying, “It is what it is.”  Your kids being born are more important than hockey.  If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem.

But I don’t feel that players are obligated to go, either.  If someone doesn’t want to play for his country, that’s fine, too.  There’s lots of others who’d love to do so.  I understood completely when Mario Lemieux didn’t want to play for Canada at first.  The guy was having serious back problems and wanted to take the time off to rest his back.  Because he wanted to be able to walk without a cane when he was 50.  He was looking towards life after hockey.  Millions of dollars don’t mean as much if you can’t walk, y’know?

I think that Olympic hockey is better when the NHL players are there, and hopefully that will be what happens in the future.  It’s not what the owners necessarily want, but sometimes you have to do what’s best for the game.

It’s official as of about half an hour ago.  This post on Canucks.com confirms that Roberto Luongo has signed a 12 year contract extension with the Canucks that’ll keep him here until the 2021-22 season.  Think about that.  If you have kids starting Grade 1 in a few days, they’ll be graduating from high school when this deal runs through.  As I mentioned the other day, he most likely won’t play all twelve of those years, but it’s still pretty impressive.

I remember when Luongo first came here in the Todd Bertuzzi trade, and everyone was worried about whether or not Dave Nonis would be able to sign him to a longer term contract, as it was said that that was not what Luongo wanted to get himself in to.

Times sure have changed, huh?

One good thing that the Canucks gain from all of this is the confidence of other players in the NHL.  Which means to say that players might look more favourably on coming to Vancouver knowing that there is a good core that has the potential to win.  And with skaters like Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, and eventually Cody Hodgson, things have the potential to get very interesting indeed.

Well, it was a better effort than last night’s game against the Blues, but the result was still the same, with the Canucks failing to pick up any points on the idle Calgary Flames.

If there was anything positive about it, it was good to see Mats Sundin get his first goal as a Canuck, on a powerplay rebound.  But, for the second night in a row, it was Sundin that killed the Canucks, by taking another penalty at a very inopportune time, giving the Sharks the powerplay that they scored the game winning goal on.

As Zanstrom of Waiting for Stanley said during the live blog, "Sundin’s not a Lady Byng player.  He’s going to take penalties."  That’s fine, but he’s got to avoid imitating Todd Bertuzzi and taking stupid penalties at the wrong time.  At least neither of the Sedins took one late in the game.

The Canucks had the chance to pick up four points on the Flames this weekend.  They got nothing.  And while the goaltending hasn’t been bad, per se, it’s safe to say that it hasn’t been all that great, either.  There’s rumbling that Roberto Luongo might get back into the lineup for Thursday’s game.  Can’t happen soon enough, if you ask me.

It’ll be really interesting to see how the Canucks do against a Devils team without Martin Brodeur on Tuesday.  This is another game that they should probably win, but I said that against the Islanders, Thrashers, and Blues, too. 

So I guess all we can do is wait and see.  And hope.

This is the first time that I’ve posted a prediction this season, and I don’t usually do them for the pre-season, but there’s not really a good reason for that – I just haven’t done them. I think I’m going to start keeping track of how well I do on these as well. (And, no, I’m not going to pick the Canucks to win all 82 games.)

But I will tonight. 3 – 2 for the Canucks in regulation time. And Todd Bertuzzi gets one for the Flames.

Anyone else with other predictions is encouraged to post a comment with their thoughts.

According to the Yankee Canuck, Todd Bertuzzi has signed a one year deal with the Calgary Flames.  TSN also has the story.  Based on Bertuzzi’s history since leaving the Canucks (Florida, Detroit, Anaheim), it kind of makes you wonder if he’s going to last the whole season in Calgary.

What eclipses the fact that he’s now going to be back in Vancouver for a number of games next year, he’s also going to be a regular appearance in Denver, where he’s definitely not appreciated much.  Unless, of course, he’s injured for those games.

Welcome back, Bert.

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.