Vancouver Canucks: So who becomes the Sedins Line Mate?

Nucks IceMan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:53:46 -0500

As I donned my coach’s hat last night and started to think of the return of Daniel Sedin to the lineup on Sunday, I began to contemplate, "who is best suited to play on that line?" There are certainly no shortage of players that have earned that right, like Mikael Samuelsson and Mason Raymond.

Samuelsson is second in goals on the Canucks with nine (18 pts) and Raymond is third with eight (14 pts). Both have been playing at the top of their game and each provides a different aspect to it.

Raymond’s going to add a bit more speed than Samuelsson, and Mikael is better at digging the puck out the corner, stronger in front of the net with his size, and you know when he gets in position he’s going to be shooting.

Now this brings up some more food for thought, such as who and what do the other duals look like?

It has been mentioned many times by Coach Alain Vigneault that he feels lines are made up of a strong dual, which he likes to keep together. The third player, he feels, is interchangeable.

Ryan Kesler, as you have seen, is versatile enough to play centre or wing, but for now he looks like the second line centre. Either Raymond or Samuelsson on one wing and Alex Burrows or Steve Bernier on the other. What a luxury to finally be able to make that decision.

Burrows has not been having the same type of year as last season, but is it realistic to think that he would? Even with his play of late, he still would be my choice with Kesler.

Remember how well they played together last season before Burrows went up to play with the Sedins? If they could get back to that magic, what a second line that would be, with say Raymond!

Kyle Wellwood, although he earned an assist last night—his second point of the season—is walking on thin ice, no pun intended. With Ryan Johnson playing so well, do you move him up to third line centre and Wellwod down to the fourth?

Another player that has caught my eye is Jannik Hansen, who has scored three points in the three games he has played since returning from the hand injury. Doesn’t he deserve a shot on the third line?

This is the best that I’ve seen him play since that early spurt last season.

He’s skating really well, making good decisions with the puck, and as witnessed last night, is playing with confidence and battling hard for the puck. Hansen really looks like he should replace Bernier, thus knocking him down to the fourth line.

The fourth line has been a force lately with the insertion of Tanner Glass, playing alongside Rick Rypien and Johnson. With this line, the also-versatile Rypien can play centre or wing in case Johnson is moved up to replace Wellwood if the coach decides he should sit. Such a move, my friends, is a distinct possibility.

With Rypien, Bernier and Glass, you would still have a formidable fourth line to contend with. Tanner Glass has played so well that he has moved Darcy Hordichuk out of the lineup for now.

For any of the new readers, I mentioned Glass back in a preseason article (Three Best Pre Season Surprises) as someone that I thought might bump Hordichuk out of that fourth line role.

Although Glass is not a heavyweight, he has proven he can take care of himself. In addition, he appears to be faster than Hordichuk, thus able to finish his checks, get into the corners to dig out the puck, and create chaos in front of the net. Tanner also seems to have struck up some chemistry with Johnson.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Now you fans can get a picture on Sunday—against a tough Chicago team—of what this Nucks team might have looked like, and why I was all jacked up about them in the preseason.

To the commentator that mentioned about the Canucks lack of scoring and talent, let’s see how they do in the next five to six games with a lineup that is just about completely healthy.

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Reunited and It Feels So Good: Forsberg and Naslund Rediscover Hockey

Patrick Cwiklinski — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:12:43 -0500

He was only gone for just over six months, but Markus Naslund is back.

The 36-year-old Swede has come out of retirement and is set to join his childhood friend Peter Forsberg, playing for their hometown team of MoDo of the Swedish Elite League (SEL).

Naslund, who walked away from the final year of his contract with the New York Rangers in May and left behind $4 million US, will play the remainder of the season for free and not take up any cap space for MoDo.

"I'm really looking forward to playing with MoDo again and the fact that Peter and I will do it together is, of course, something really special," Naslund said in a statement. "I will do anything to get in shape and hope I can add something on the ice."

Naslund's retirement from the NHL was largely seen as a premature but was likely the result of a huge decline in production during his later years with the Vancouver Canucks and his short and rather unmemorable stint as a Ranger last season.

Forsberg, who is also not playing under a salary for MoDo, was the center of a yet another media frenzy after it was reported that he could be making a return to the NHL this season, a rumor that was buried after it was announced that he would be playing in Sweden this year.

There is also speculation that both Forsberg and Naslund may be playing for MoDo in order to get in shape for Team Sweden at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but for the time being it seems as though both players are just trying to rediscover their love for hockey.

And who can blame them?

Forsberg's name has become notorious as a highly talented but extremely injury-prone player, while Naslund's success rate dropped drastically when his line-mate and go-to guy Todd Bertuzzi was traded to the Florida Panthers in 2006.

Forsberg and Naslund will have to dig deep and find those two kids from Örnsköldsvik who didn't use worry about playing for a contract or endorsements and just played the game because it was something that brought them joy.

More money, more problems, as they say.

What these two players have now have is a rare opportunity to show the world they are still capable of competing at an elite level and perhaps even clean up their now tarnished names.

An opportunity that no matter what anyone says, cannot be taken away from them.

And even if they decide to never return to the NHL again, they will always remember the season they learned that it wasn't always about money, but it was always about heart.

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Bleacher Report - Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver Canucks: So who becomes the Sedins Line Mate?

Reunited and It Feels So Good: Forsberg and Naslund Rediscover Hockey