2010-11 NHL Predictions/Previews: Vancouver Canucks
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Are the Vancouver Canucks poised to replace San Jose as the NHL’s “Is this the year?” team? They’ve steadily assembled talent over the last few seasons, mixing in young blood with star veterans. Arguably, after Chicago got thinner this offseason, there’s no deeper, more heavily armed team in the league than Vancouver as we enter the 2010-11 season.
There’s really just one big question above all that they have to answer: do they have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup?
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Stanley Cup odds: +800
I’ll go ahead and lay it out there: I think Vancouver will in fact win the Stanley Cup this season. The main reason is that (I think) they’ve remedied two problems that plagued their teams throughout the 2000s.
The first was that they were a perpetually a one-line team. It was Naslund-Morrison-Bertuzzi and, later, the Sedin line. If you shut down Vancouver’s top unit, you won the game.
But that’s simply not true anymore. Sure, the Sedins are at their absolute peak, with Henrik fresh off an MVP season, and Alex Burrows meshes with them beautifully on the first line. But they have plenty of help now.
Ryan Kesler is one of the NHL’s most complete players. He’s big, he’s fast, he’s physical, he’s a great defensive center and he’s also a solid secondary scorer who can put up 70-plus points. Mason Raymond may be the league’s fastest skater and still has room to improve on his 25-goal output last year. Mikael Samuelsson, underused in Detroit, became a great power-play guy and notched his first 30-goal campaign last year.
With newbies Manny Malhotra and Raffi Torres, the Canucks have some great checking forwards too.
The other problem Vancouver remedied: goaltending. Sure, some people question Roberto Luongo’s big-game ability, but you can’t tell me with a straight face that he isn’t a massive upgrade over the Dan Cloutier era. Luongo’s had some bad playoff games with the Canucks over the last few seasons but also plenty of good ones. Winning the gold medal with Canada in the 2010 Olympics in overtime was also great for his confidence.
Another X-factor with Luongo: the Canucks’ captaincy. He relinquished it this offseason, explaining that, while he loved the role, he did believe the media attention accompanying it was distracting at times. A more focused Luongo should be a better Luongo, no?
He also has a pretty solid defense corps in front of him.
Sure, the Canucks don’t have a true No. 1 stud. But they arguably have several No. 2 guys.
Alex Edler is deceptively physical, capable of blowing up guys with big hits; Christian Ehrhoff can play in any situation; Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard join the 2010-11 team and give the Canucks two more solid all-round defenders who can play lots of minutes. All that and we haven’t even mentioned big Kevin Bieksa, who looks like he won’t be traded after all.
I don’t think anyone can deny that the Canucks have an unbelievably deep team and a great mix of skill, veteran leadership and defensive responsibility.
To me, picking them to win the Cup comes down to whether or not you believe in Luongo. I do – and I think Vancouver takes Lord Stanley back to Canada this season.
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