be

 

F&

an

PORTS,

Depleted defence

  
   
    

considering there were rumours that the
Canucks wanted to get rid of him to free
up salary cap space at the beginning of the
season, and has six goals and 13 assists
for 19 points.

Now when you look at the back
end there is Christian Ehrhoff, Sami
Salo, and Aaron Rome (who was fitted
as the seventh defensemen at the start
of the season), Christopher Tanev, Evan
Oberg, and Yann Sauve to round out the
current top six. Not the exactly the most
promising bunch but hey, at least we
started the season off with so much depth
on the blue line otherwise our whole
defence corps would consist of all minor
leaguers instead of just half of them.

With just 23 games remaining in the
season it’s a bit of a concern to how the
Canucks will do with or without their
injured players. The trade deadline is
coming up on February 28 and it will be
interesting to see if GM Mike Gillis will
grab any players to fill in the void or add
anything up front on the offensive side.
It seems like they’re still looking for that
fourth line centerman to fit the part with
players coming and going through that
position like a tag team. Other than that
they’re good to go. They’ve been playing
the best hockey this franchise has ever
experienced in previous seasons so why
change a thing? It just depends on how
fast the injured guys will recover and

Josh Martin
$

ports Editor

ell the Canucks have still

managed to stay ahead of the

herd in the standings despite
being almost completely depleted on the
blue line. In last week’s 4-1 win against
the Minnesota Wild, Kevin Bieksa
blocked a slap shot with his foot and
quickly went off to the bench but shortly
returned to finish the game. However,
after the game was finished it was
revealed that his foot was fractured and
he is expected to be out of the line-up for
three weeks.

This latest injury adds to just what the
Canucks need, more injured defensemen...
great. Bieksa will be joining Alexander
Edler (indefinitely out— underwent back
surgery), Dan Hamhuis (concussion—
day-to-day), Keith Ballard (out three
weeks—knee injury) Andrew Alberts
(indefinite— broken wrist), and minor
leaguer Lee Sweatt (foot injury — week-
to-week).

Quite a hefty list of D-men that just
seems to keep growing and growing...and
to top it off Bieksa has been easily one
of the top defensemen’s on the Canucks
this season. He is second in the league
with a plus/minus of 26, which is unreal

 

come back to play in time for the playoffs.

16

~) ~

 

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

he famous “Peter the Great’ had
Tin the comeback with the

Colorado Avalanche last week,
playing in a total of two games. It was
his big hyped up return to the NHL after
not playing since the 2007-08 season
when he initially retired from the game
of hockey. The former superstar Swede
called it a quits mainly because of his
nagging foot problem that has been
bothering him for years and because
of the fact that he just doesn’t want to
experience the pain anymore. Forsberg

Possibly the worst comeback ever

has undergone 25 surgeries in his career
and has had enough, promising his wife
that he would not put his health at risk
anymore.

In those two back-to-back games
against the Columbus Blue Jackets and
the Nashville Predators, Forsberg had
three shots on goal, four penalty minutes,
and was a minus -4. He had a total of 249
goals and 885 points in 708 NHL games.

This comeback could be classified
as not just the worst comeback in NHL
history but even the worst comeback in
professional sports history. Like...ever.

 

Jays Lock-Up HR Champ

By David Hollinshead

s Toronto Blue Jays GM Alex

Anthopoulos said, “The easy

thing to do would be to do
nothing.”

Letting an arbitrator decide the
contract for Jose Bautista and keeping
him until next fall to make a decision on
his future was the speculated move for
the player who had one amazing season
in a meandering career. Anthopoulos
though, believes that to succeed in the
American League East, the Jays need to
take chances. Bautista was rewarded for
his Home-run champion career with a
five year, $64 million contract to the third
baseman/outfielder.

The size of the Bautista contract
is the fourth largest that the Jays have

ever given out, next to Vernon Wells
($126 million, seven years), Alex Rios
($69.8 million) and Carlos Delgado

($68 million, four years). It is leaps and
bounds over Anthopoulos’ other moves
in his tenure, when he signed ace lefty
Ricky Romero to a $30.1 million, five
year deal and first baseman Adam Lind to
an $18 million, four year pact that could
double through club options.

Bautista hit a club record 54 home
runs last year, more than tripling his
previous career best with 16 in the 2006
season while exceeding far beyond
his .260 batting average, .378 on base
percentage, 124 RBIs, 109 runs and 100
walk level, and the Blue Jays believe he’s
going to continue being a huge force on
their ball club.