Sports

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Finally The NHL Season is Upon Us

 

september 25, 2002

 

Neill Jeffrey
fissistant Sports Editor

Having been a hockey fan my entire
life, I must admit that when
September rolls“around I begin to get
excited as NHL training camps open.
I actually find the off-season interest-
ing as players are drafted, signed or
traded throughout the league (except
in the case of Vancouver, where the
team seems to remain unchanged year
after year). But there is nothing quite
as exciting as when the teams actually
step out onto the ice and a new season
commences. I’m sure that a number of
Douglas students share this feeling
and for those people I would like to
offer my opinion about the upcoming
season for the Vancouver Canucks.
One of the exciting things about
NHL training camps is that there is
usually someone for every team who
steps up and gets noticed by the
coaches and the media, earning him-
self a spot with the big club. The
Canucks are no exception. A few years
ago it was Steve Kariya. This year it
might be Fedor Fedorov (Sergei’s
younger brother) or Nolan
Baumgartner. Both players seem to
have impressed the coaching staff. For
Baumgartner, the impression might
have been good enough to earn him-
self a spot with the Canucks. Fedorov,
because he has less experience, might
begin the season with the Manitoba
Moose, the Canucks farm club.
Unfortunately for the Canucks,
most of the changes that have been
made since last year have been sub-
tractions rather that additions. The
loss of Andrew Cassels and Scott
Lachance will be difficult to overcome.
Cassels departure places more pressure
on Brendan Morrison to be the top
line center. It still remains to be seen
whether he can put up the kind of
numbers he had last year over an
entire season. Most of his points came
in the second half of the season after

he was put on the top line with
Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi.

The loss of Lachance may be even
more of a problem for the Canucks,
who need at least one more top-four
defenseman to make themselves con-
tenders. Lachance was, in my opinion,
one of the more underrated Canucks
last year. His exceptional defensive
play allowed Ed Jovanovski to have a
breakout year and set career highs in
points. They don’t seem to have any-
one that’s ready to step in and fill in
the hole left by Lachance. Bryan Allen,
a top prospect, who has spent some
time in the minors is expected to get
one of the six or seven defensive spots
on the Canucks roster, but he cannot
be expected to replace Lachance’s
strong work ethic and excellent defen-
sive play in his first full season with
Vancouver.

The position that has, in recent
years, been considered Vancouver's
weakness is now its strength. If Dan
Cloutier can put the bad goal he
allowed versus Detroit behind him, he
should have another dependable, if
not outstanding season. For the first
time since they let Bob Essensa walk,
they also seem to have a solid backup
coming out of training camp in Peter
Skudra. When Cloutier was hurt in
the middle of last season, Skudra
stepped in and played admirably, mak-
ing it difficult for Mark Crawford to
make the decision to put Cloutier
back in goal.

It seems that one of the biggest ques-
tions surrounding the Canucks these
days is what they are going to do with
Peter Schaefer after the disgruntled
forward turned down the most recent
Canucks offer. At this point, it seems
that Schaefer is likely heading back to
Europe unless the Canucks trade his
rights, something Burke has been
unwilling to do for unsigned players in

the past.

I haven't even mentioned the Sedin
twins who are heading into their third
NHL season. Is it time for the Sedins
to start making a name for themselves
as top-flight NHL players? Probably. I
don’t expect them to ever reach super-
star status, but think that they will
emerge, possibly this season or next, as
talented and dependable NHL play-
ers. The talent seems to be there, as
seen on occasion over the past two
years, but they still seem to be adjust-
ing to the North American game and,
perhaps, to their status as professional
athletes. We can’t forget that they are
just in their early 20’s and are still
maturing, both physically and mental-
ly.

I’m not sure how the Canucks are
going to do this year, with the holes
that need to be filled and with the lack
of changes to the roster from last year,
but if, as Brian Burke says, they
improve from within, they should find
themselves in the thick of the playoff
race come March.

 

 

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