The Canucks are fresh off their break, having not been together as a group since last Sunday's overtime victory in Minnesota. The mandatory five-day break gave the guys Monday to Thursday completely off; we flew to Edmonton Friday and practiced when we landed.

Mid-flight, players gabbed about their breaks and there was a lot to discuss.

Troy Stecher went to Disneyland, Michael Del Zotto was in Scottsdale, Sven Baertschi and Anders Nilsson relaxed in Whistler, Alex Biega was home in Boston, Jake Virtanen hit Las Vegas, Thomas Vanek and Brock Boeser stayed in Minnesota, Ben Hutton was in Cancun, Brendan Gaunce was in Palm Springs, Daniel and Henrik Sedin had staycations in Vancouver, while Sam Gagner, Erik Gudbranson, Alex Edler, Jacob Markstrom and Loui Eriksson soaked up the sun in Punta Mita, Mexico.

:rofl:

^that expansion team totally different rebuild then what the canucks and other NHL teams are doing...they pretty much got to pick and take advantage of other teams and picks

Tavares will stay with the Islanders. How often do actual top players in their primes leave via UFA? Last two were Suter and Parise 6 years ago. I can't even remember the last time it happened prior to that (Gaborik 2009, but he and the Wild had a well-documented terrible relationship; Hossa in 2008, but that was because Melnyk is a cheap SOB).

Of course hahaha

No one commented during the game? I missed it for Hometown Hockey events in town this weekend (game wasn't shown at the pub where they had Tara Sloan performing, which seemed ... odd).

was not a good game to watch let alone comment on :/

NICE!!!

Never really heard the anthem sung that high. Nice voice and she sang the anthem as it was meant to be sung, with no embellishment.

TRUE NORTH !!!!!!!

Wow, ref nearly go an assist, lol.

I have a good feeling about this game.

Boeser gonna score. :troll:

Looks like Hellebuyck's gonna get his 4th shutout of the season.

Fuck me, Loui Eriksson is trash

Only 4 more years after this year...

:okay:

Don't forget he has a NTC the whole way through as well... modified in the last 2 years, but still a NTC.

:okay::okay::okay:

And it's basically all signing bonus, so buying him out would basically get us no cap relief.

correct me if im wrong, but he was playing on the 4th line at various times? if that's the case....fknn helll

Can you send him down to the farm? That will give us the cap relief

One way contract AFAIK so if I remember the process correctly, he has to go through waivers

You only get up to $925k in cap relief from sending a player to the AHL and he has an NMC for another 2 years, so not really.

just bench him....let his ego get hurt and maybe he'll start performing.

this is his second year..do u think hes gonna start now:okay:

a lot of guys on 1040 and 650 like ericssons defensive game they praise him about it but give me a fucking break u don't sign him at 6mill for his defensive game u sign him for goals/points.

Also I don't know about you guys but I am sick and tired of this bullshit notion of canucks players have to be "200 ft players" "defence first" "defence gurus" "defence, defence, defence" you guys get the point.

All I am saying is they want these players to have a defence first mentality and make no mistakes in their own end. Give me a break this team cant score, cant stop the puck, the D corp is a shambles. They pretty much want to handcuff the guys who are suppose to be offensive to think about their own end and pretty much say fuck it to offense.

end rant!

i don't see what that has to do with anything...if he's thinks his spot is secure, sit his ass and give him a wake up call

if it's the coaches telling him to play a certain way, then you can't fully blame the guy but come on there's got to be some pride in wanting to not play like a bum

what happened to this guy, wasnt he solid on dallas?

I don't think anyone would have as big of a problem with Eriksson if he at least looked like he gave a fuck out there... fans aren't blind, you can see the body language and facial expressions of the players... you see Vanek out there his face is red and he's practically throwing up after every shift and he slams the gate and talks to himself and gets feisty with the other team... the guy is giving it everything out there.

Then there's Eriksson, lumbering around at half speed everywhere, smartly placing pucks into the corner and then gliding off to the bench and maybe if he does get a chance and misses it he will kind of look up and rolls his eyes like woe is me maybe next time... it's disgusting to watch. They can say whatever they want about his defensive game or how he is in the room or whatever, but he's a lazy fuck who is doing the absolute minimum.

Ok in Dallas, bit better than ok in Boston. But he was surrounded by a strong supporting cast. Over time, he's gone downhill. Coupled with a bit of a lacking Canucks system/cast, you can see him for what he is now.

I was randomly watching old all star skills competitions on youtube and guess what I saw? fucking ericsson in the breakaway challenge. Can remember the year but it was probably his last year with dallas before he got traded. He seemed to have decent hands and didn't look like shit at all...