On the eve of the 2011-2012 regular season and in honor of the newest Canuck Marco Sturm and former Canuck Tanner Glass, here are 15 realistic predictions for the upcoming season on the west coast:
2. The Canucks will win the division, again. Funny to think that the Northwest was once one of the premier divisions, and now I’d argue it’s the worst in the league.
3. Cody Hodgson will play 82 games and score 40 points. When Kesler returns from injury, Cody will remain in place somewhere in the top 9 and on the second power play unit.
4. Keith Ballard will score around 30 points and be our healthiest and most consistent defenseman this year.
5. Andrew Alberts will fall out of favor, and will not be a Canuck by the playoffs.
6. Cory Schneider will not be traded until after the playoffs. Given he’s a restricted free agent, the most likely scenario is him being dealt at the draft. He’s too valuable as insurance this coming year in case Luongo pulls another Luongo in the playoffs.
7. Marco Sturm will score 20+ goals again.
8. Mikael Samuelsson will have his best season as a Canuck…funnily enough, it’s a contract year.
9. Despite all the speculation about Craig Mactavish as a backup in case Vigneault gets fired, he will have a successful one year stint with the Chicago Wolves and land an NHL coaching job next summer. Not in Vancouver.
10. As they tend to do, Vancouver will have a mediocre start to the season and will eventually go on a tear, in and around Christmas. It will be a winning streak that will see them have one or two regulation losses in a 15 game span.
11. Roberto Luongo will be a Vezina finalist again. One thing is true, he can get it done in the regular season.
12. Mason Raymond will make a comeback from his back injury, but he won’t be the same. He will play an ineffective 30 games or so, and require more procedures in the off-season. Bottom line, it’s his last year as a Canuck. However, he will resume his career elsewhere once healthy.
13. At some point this season Alex Burrows will take a cheap shot at someone. Shanahan will take notice…
14. Vancouver will once again face Chicago at some point in the playoffs. As for what round and the result… that’s a tough one to predict.
15. By mid-season, Vancouver’s fourth line will consistently be Max Lapierre between Mike Duco and Steve Pinizotto. They will drive opponents crazy. By: Michael Elias http://hockeywithme.com
I definitely agree with point 13 about Burrows.
ReplyDeleteI can see Ballard having a decent offensive output as well.