One day before the Canucks veterans report for their medical testing and prepare to head up to Whistler for training camp, today is the annual Jake Milford charity golf tournament.
As you can see, TSN1040 is live on location. They usually do a good job of finding opportunities to speak with most of the players over the course of the day.
I won't take it as a bad sign that our endless summer appears to have come to an end just as the players get ready to hit the links!
Preparations for camp are well underway. Canucks.com posted an "all-access" video of coach Willie Desjardins running through his plans with the rest of his staff.
I've said this before: after last year, I'm excited to see that there actually seems to be some planning taking place before the players hit the ice.
If you're headed up to Whistler this weekend, practises will run in the mornings at Meadow Park Sports Centre on Friday, Saturday and Monday. The team will be scrimmaging on Sunday morning at 10:30.
Less than a week till the first preseason game, when we'll finally get a chance to see if Willie can deliver on his promise of bringing an exciting, uptempo style to the ice at Rogers Arena!
Kids in Tough
As I think we all know by now, players like Bo Horvat and Nick Jensen are going to need to step up their games from the prospects tournament if they hope to earn a spot on the Canucks roster for opening night.
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN runs down his lineup projections
here.
He figures that Radim Vrbata, Zack Kassian, Jannik Hansen and Derek Dorsett rank above Jensen on right wing, while Horvat's behind Henrik, Nick Bonino, Brad Richardson and Linden Vey at centre—and that leaves out Shawn Matthias.
"But," cautions LeBrun, "one never knows, that’s why there’s a camp and preseason, right?
Pierre also gives props to Kevin Bieksa for his honesty when he was asked if playing in the tough new Pacific Division can help raise a team's standard of play:
"I think I would prefer to be in an easier division and cruise to the playoffs, I’m not going to lie," said Bieksa, whose Canucks used to rule the old Northwest Division for years. "They’re tough games. Yeah they’re great to use as a measuring stick when you’re playing those teams and seeing where you stand. But they’re tough games. They take a toll on you. If you’re asking me if I love my division, the answer would be probably be no."
Will Bieksa Fight Kesler?
Sticking with Bieksa, he made an appearance on the Jeff O'Neill show on CFOX yesterday morning.
If makes me a bit crazy how the morning crew can't stop laughing at their own jokes, but Juice is his usual entertaining self. He says he has no intention of wrestling the "C" off Henrik Sedin's jersey (though I think we'll continue to see him in a higher-profile role this season) and says he spent a lot of time over the summer doing yoga and meditation.
When asked how he'll treat Ryan Kesler when the Canucks meet the Anaheim Ducks for the first time on November 9, Bieksa says when you face old friends on the ice, it's all business. He also mentions that he and Kesler had a few scuffles when they were teammates and says he'll give Kesler "an extra shot, for you guys," when they line up against each other.
Bieksa and Kesler share the same agent, Kurt Overhardt, who's been in the news this week due to the contract impasse between his client, Ryan Johansen, and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Jackets team president John Davidson and general manager Jarmo Kekalainen have both dropped the standard contract-negotiation rhetoric and moved towards personal attacks of Overhardt, whose hardball tactics also handcuffed the Canucks during the Ryan Kesler trade negotiations last spring.
The always-insightful Elliotte Friedman, now writing on the Sportsnet.ca site, has written
a terrific piece on Overhardt and some of his other tough negotiations from the past.
As Friedman notes, the end result is still ultimately up to the client. He cites Bieksa as an example of a player who instructed Overhardt to accept less money so that he could stay with his desired team—the Canucks.
Overhardt is saying that Johansen wants to stay in Columbus. As Friedman points out:
Both Davidson and Kekalainen took pains to point more blame at the agent than the player, but there’s no doubt they want Johansen to hear everything. At 22, this is new for him, and they know one of the fastest ways to end this is by having the centre say, "That’s enough."
It'll be interesting to see if the two sides can reach an agreement before irreparable damage is done to the relationship and a trade is needed.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»