Follow me on Twitter for random hockey talk, question and answer sessions, and the odd witty tweet
FHFF Calgary
Congrats to Calgary on setting a new record for donations at a Five Hole For Food event. Calgary stop on the tour raised nearly 27,000 pounds of food yesterday for the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank. The balls in your court now Edmonton, Victoria, and Vancouver, you don't want to let Calgary beat you do you? Keep it going and help the Five Hole For Food crew reach their goal of raising 100,000 pounds in total for the tour.
I'd like to thank Richard, Vic, Jon, Dixon, and Tierney for bringing the tour to Calgary once again. It was great to finally meet all of you. The hard work you guys put into planning and traveling for the tour is truly amazing. After Saturday I hope you are all planning to use the rest of your summer to relax a bit.
I'd also like to thank Mitchell Moroz, Hunter Shinkaruk, Tony Stiles, Justin Kripps, Farley the Fox, the Calgary Flames Ice Crew, The Calgary Stampeders Outriders, Camilla Di Giuseppe, Torie Peterson, Julie, Yelp Calgary, The Calgary Metro, Ash Jarnicki, Matt, everyone at London Drugs and the many Calgarians who joined in on the five plus hours of fun. It was great to meet all of you. I hope you had a good time and hopefully we'll do it again next year.
And last, but certainly not least, I'd also like to thank Donna, John, Taven, Kelsey, Ross, and Des for all the hard work you have done over the past month in organizing the event. It has been a pleasure working with all of you and I look forward to doing it again next year.
Edmonton, you're up today, from 3-7 at Beaver Hill Park. Bring a donation to the Food Bank and play a bit of Hockey.
Matchup- Oilers
Top Players
The Canucks and the Oilers are at different points in their franchises history right now. The Oilers are trending upward, while the Canucks are already near the top, with only a Stanley Cup left to win. As far as top players go for the Oilers, RNH, Hall, and Eberle are potentially as good as any line in hockey. Add in Gagner, Hemsky, the vet Ryan Smyth, and the unknown in Yakupov and you have a pretty decent group of forwards.
The D is a bit of a different story. After Whitney and Smid there isn't anything to hang your hat on. The Oilers have a lot of young talent though and while they may not be ready to break through just yet, they will have a good D in a few years.
Vancouver also has a very good group of top players up front. The Sedins are still two of the most exciting players in the game to watch and are still scoring at a high level. Kesler and Burrows are two of the most complete players in the game and give Vancouver a pair of players who can shut the other teams top players down and score. If David Booth is on, he can be a force. He might be the best athlete on the Canucks and if he puts it all together this year and stays healthy, he could get 30+ goals again. Chris Higgins is the constant Pro that can move up or down your line up.
On D is where Vancouver has a significant advantage. Hamhuis, Bieksa, Edler and Garrison make up one of the best top 4's in all of hockey. They can all move the puck well, and when the opportunity is there they will jump into they play and score a bit. While I would like to see a bit more of a physical presense in the top 4, Vancouver's D is pretty darn good.
Overall, I would say the Oilers top forwards are pretty well on par with Vancouver's, I may even lean a bit their way if they could become a bit better in their own end. For arguments sake we'll call it a tie. On D, Vancouver is the much better of the two teams.
Vancouver> Edmonton
Foot Soldiers
Edmonton has a good solid group of foot soldier players as well. Their other 4 D are decent, they play hard, but are more of the 5/6 pairing variety. Justin Schultz is the one guy that I have in this group who may step up to the top player group, but until he plays a game, I'm not putting him in that group. Jones, Patrell, and Horcoff are players that I like on the Oilers. Horcoff, may shock some people, but it's his contract that I don't like, not him as a player.
Vancouver has a good solid group of foot soldiers as well. Hansen, Kassian, Lapierre, Tanev, Ebbett, and Raymond bring a variety of different skills, and play their roles well. Up front, I love how versatile Ebbet is. I like the speed that Hansen and Raymond bring. I like the peskiness and hard work that Lappy brings. I like the edge that Joslin brings to the D and the composure that Tanev plays with. Vancouver has a bit of an "X" factor in Zack Kassian. Kassian could be a top 6 and get 50ish points, or he could be playing in Chicago this year. It isn’t a make or break year for him, but he does need to show that he is moving in the right direction or he may get stuck as a 4th line player.
Overall, I'll call this one a tie
Vancouver = Edmonton
Goalies
The Oilers have Dubnyk, Vancouver will have just Schneider by the time the season rolls around. I like Dubnyk's size and athletic ability, but this year will be a bit of a make or break year for him. He played well in 47 games last year despite being left out to dry a lot. If the Oilers D can improve, Dubnyk could round into a solid starter.
Schneider on the other hand is more than just solid. I consider him to be top 5 in the NHL and I think we will see that this year. His numbers were as good as any last year and if he had of been given more starts, he likely would have been mentioned at the awards as a Vezina candidate.
Overall, I'll say Schneider is the better of the two.
Vancouver >> Edmonton
Overall, I would give the Canucks the advantage still based on better goaltending and a better top 4.
That’s a wrap.
Ian
Five Hole For Food
Five Hole For Food is coming to a town near you this summer. For those of you that don't know, the concept was brought forward by some friends in Vancouver, who decided they would travel the country setting up street hockey games. The price to play in the game is a can of food or donation to the local food bank.
To date Five Hole for Food has raised over 70,000 pounds of food for food banks and is continuing the fight against hunger all over North America!
2012 Tour Dates
St. John’s – July 3rd
Halifax – July 5th
Charlottetown – July 6th
Saint John – July 7th
Montreal – July 9th
Ottawa – July 10th
Toronto – July 12th
Winnipeg – July 14th
Regina – July 15th
Calgary – July 17th
Edmonton – July 18th
Victoria – July 20th
Vancouver – July 21st
So get out and support this great cause this summer. For more information on Five Hole For Food
CLICK HERE
KINDLE USERS: Sign up for Canucks Buzz; a one-stop feed for all things Canucks-related on HockeyBuzz. Content is delivered instantly to your Kindle reader whenever a new Canucks-related blog is published. For more information
click here.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»