*Official* Canucks Thread!!

Corkys is HORRIBLE! But thanks anyways. (I'll take characters (Where they have huge comfy couches infront of huge TV's) or Major League! (Where ya get free booze and shit when the Nucks score)

DP

Canucks sign Matt Pettinger. Rought times for sure.

Quote :

“I’ll take anything — anything with two legs and can handle a stick right now.”

That was Manitoba Moose coach Scott Arniel, talking to the Winnipeg Free Press on Monday morning, after learning that the injury-ravaged Vancouver Canucks had pulled rank and signed one of his few warm bodies, forward Matt Pettinger, leaving the farm club with barely enough players to put on an AHL lineup card. The old expression, cleaned up a bit for family consumption, is that excrement runs downhill.

So do injuries.

Michael Grabner tore ankle ligaments playing soccer in the hall — warming up the way many NHL teams do — prior to Sunday’s Canucks game against Colorado, and by midnight the fallout had landed in the lap of the Moose.

Maybe, if administered truth serum, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault would say that Pettinger, the 29-year-old from Victoria who was here two years ago as the return on the Matt Cooke trade, isn’t so far from Arniel’s colourful description. Two legs. Knows to tape the blade and wrap the knob. Will do untl the first string is healthy.

But that’s not in Vigneault’s nature. He may not be Mary Poppins, exactly, but the Canucks coach does tend to see the silver lining in just about everything, so even with the number of first-teamers (whoever they would be) out of the lineup having reached seven, Vigneault refuses to call Pettinger — who was unemployed until the Moose offered him a 25-game pro tryout last month — a desperation, stop-gap measure.

“I said, ‘Matt, we’ve got a lot of injuries right now, you’re going to get an opportunity to play — make the best of it’,” said Vigneault, who put the call out to Moose GM Craig Heisinger to ask for Pettinger after much post-game discussion Sunday night, and laid it out to him when he got here.

“I said last year some guys outplayed you for a position; this year if you come in and outplay those guys, you’re going to stay. It was just like that, the way it’s always been.”

The only real alternative would have been recalling Sergei Shirokov again, but Vigneault said “we really belive that Sergei needs some time to understand the North American game, and get his hockey situation a little more stable.”

Pettinger, an unsigned unrestricted free agent on July 1 after spending most of last season in Tampa Bay, figures to play on the fourth line with Darcy Hordichuk and Mario Bliznak when the Canucks take on the New York Rangers tonight at GM Place.

“I got the call from my agent [J.P. Barry] at 1 in the morning, I was up at 5:30 Winnipeg time, flew straight here, went straight to the hotel quickly and straight to practice,” Pettinger said after Monday’s noon workout. “I’ll probably be shuttin’ her down this afternoon.”

He wasn’t complaining. It was a rough summer, hard on the nerves, hard on the pride, waiting by a phone that never rang, except for an offer of a tryout with the New Jersey Devils.

“I was trying to stay patient, stay positive. There were a few options overseas, but I’m 28-29 years old, didn’t feel like I wanted to give up the opportunity over here,” said Pettinger. “I kept running things by my agent [after July 1] and he said, ‘it’s going to happen in August, it’s going to happen in August.’ All of a sudden it’s September, and I got the invite to [New Jersey] camp, and I said no — and now the NHL season is started and I’m sitting in Victoria skating with the Salmon Kings in the ECHL there, thinking, ‘OK, where is this going to go?’ “I was very fortunate that Craig Heisinger called my agent. He said I know Matt’s looking for an NHL job — he can come here and help us and I’ll help him get a job. So I wasn’t going there thinking it was going to be the Vancouver Canucks. I was thinking, PTO [professional tryout], 25 games. There’s 30 teams in the National Hockey League, hopefully one of them comes calling.”

Landing back with the Canucks — on a two-way contract for the NHL minimum, $500,000, and a quarter of that if he plays in the AHL — should at least make the transition a little easier.

“I know the coaching staff, a lot of the guys, I played 20 games here a couple of years ago,” he said. “I’ll have to do what I’ve always done: skate, shoot the puck, be physical. It’s just when you’re here on kind of a trial basis, you gotta do them better.”

All parties are going into the relationship with their eyes open. Pettinger had two goals and two assists in seven games with the Moose, and he can play at a little higher level of maturity than some of the kids who’ve been pressed into action as the bodies have started to pile up in the Canucks’ infirmary. Grabner is out long-term, so Pettinger figures to get a decent look. He is more than grateful to be back, under whatever circumstances.

“Hockey’s a business, No. 1,” he said. “You hear about multi-million dollar contracts, but when you’re down in the American League for three weeks, you realize what a grind it is down there. And for the amount of money some of those guys make — and there’s leagues below them, too — you just realize this is the top of the top, and it’s privilege to play in the best league in the world.” Or, as Vigneault says, in shorthand: “He seems to be highly motivated.”

ccole@vancouversun.com


Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

cehnehdeh wrote:

Corkys is HORRIBLE! But thanks anyways. (I'll take characters (Where they have huge comfy couches infront of huge TV's) or Major League! (Where ya get free booze and shit when the Nucks score)

Funny!!!I almost went with Character's cuz I didn't like Corky's sign. Looks like Corky's is in a stip mall. I hate those kinds of joints. Gotta love the google.

Cheers buddy!

any place that offers free booze when a goal is scored is A-OK with me

Well truthfully it's only one. (After the first Canuck goal)

Getting shutout sucks.

Canucks continue a decade long winning streak against the Rags in Vancouver. (10 straight wins or some shit like that)

Nice win...Did Gabby play? I'm on the road and away from Center Ice tonight.

Gabby played and was help to one shot. He was also the centre of 5 players getting 10 minute misconducts.

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault made a LOT of people scratch their heads tonight by going with Cory Schneider between the pipes in lieu of red hot Andrew Raycroft. Schneider made 47 saves and captured first star but it was all for naught as the very tired Vancouver Canucks fell to the Dallas Stars by a score of 2 to 1. Schneider made several HUGE saves and the Canucks could've/should've been in at least a 3 goal deficit after the first period of play.

Bieksa: Still playing on the the Canucks' top line...ugh...(Although he did set up the lone Canuck goal scored by speedster Mason Raymond)

The Canucks could start getting some bodies back this week. Janik Hansen and Roberto Luongo should be ready to go on either Tuesday or Thursday and forward Steve Bernier should be recovered from the flu soon as well.

Oh yea.....YEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

cehnehdeh wrote:

Oh yea.....YEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK OOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!

Well hell, Ricky doesnt post here so someone has to take over his Canuck schtick!

But it's not the same....

OldTimeHockey wrote:

But it's not the same....

Alright fine, I'll send him a PM and he can copy/paste his shit in here if he's of a mind to.

NO!!!! Sarcasm!!! Just sarcasm!!

[quote="cehnehdeh"]Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault made a LOT of people scratch their heads tonight by going with Cory Schneider between the pipes in lieu of red hot Andrew Raycroft. quote]Don't you sometimes scratch your head and wonder why they do the things they do when things are working out just fine. What do they know that we don't. Sometimes I think I follow the Wild more than Wild management and coaches do. Seriously scratch Pouliot when he's hot and start the two goons Scott and Boogaard. We lose and then then a repeat next game. WTF?

Yea I'll admit I was pissed off when I heard he was starting tonight. That said, in hindsight it's like AV had a crystal ball as Schneider, even though he got the loss, played marvelously which should help his head out a bit. Schneider has disappointed in pretty much every other Canuck start he's made.

Another headscratcher is Bieksa on the gawddamned first line! Seriously, call up Shirokov or something! You guys know what happens when you fuck with a defenceman and play him as a forward right?

Change I can believe in!

Quote :

The Vancouver Canucks may be getting an offensive boost on its road trip this week as Daniel Sedin is inching closer to returning from injury.


Sedin, who has been recovering from a broken foot, skated on his own the last few days and is on his way to Dallas to join the team for practice on Sunday. His status for Tuesday's game in St. Louis is uncertain.


The 29-year-old Swedish winger suffered the injury when he was hit by a puck during Vancouver's 7-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 7.


In four games this year, Sedin has four assists. He was the Canucks' leading scorer last season with 31 goals to go with his 51 assists.


The Canucks are two games into a five-game road trip. They split the first pair of games with a 5-2 victory in Minnesota on Thursday before falling 2-1 to Dallas on Friday night.

6-1! Eat on that suckas!

Kwright315 wrote:

6-1! Eat on that suckas!

A small amount of redemption from the last time we played? Or the time before, or... well you get the point.

Yup, I'll take the last 4 outta 5.

That said, historically, St Louis has completely PWNED us. Glad to see we could help some of your youngsters get out of their slumps...

cehnehdeh wrote:

Yup, I'll take the last 4 outta 5.

That said, historically, St Louis has completely PWNED us. Glad to see we could help some of your youngsters get out of their slumps...

Regular season? Maybe, however in the playoffs we're 3 for 3.

Yea, I'm going with regular season. This goes back to the McInnis/Pronger days.

cehnehdeh wrote:

Yea, I'm going with regular season. This goes back to the McInnis/Pronger days.

Or a few years ago when we went 0-4 against one of the worst teams in the league.

However, i'll take the wins when they really count.

I am glad to see our lineup is starting to look decent.