The NHL's All-Star Weekend continues in Nashville with the Skills Competition, which will run at 4 p.m. today on Sportsnet.
Click here for the complete rundown of events and participants, from NHL.com.
As far as I know, the only local media personality in Music City this weekend is The Moj from TSN1040.
Ben Kuzma from
The Province caught up with Vancouver's All-Star rep Daniel Sedin before he and his family left town earlier in the week.
Opening with a down-to-earth tale of a chance run-in with Vancouver's all-time leading scorer at a Kitsilano dry cleaning establishment, Kuzma goes on to laud Daniel for his willingness to take part in the festivities in Nashville:
But he’s in Nashville with his family because his third All-Star Game appearance means as much as the first, even though he doesn’t quite know what to make of where the league is heading with the all-star format or even the game’s future. But he does know of a sense of duty. And giving his wife Marinette and daughters Ronja and Anna a mini-vacation experience in Nashville is the silver lining.
Daniel sounds a bit skeptical about how 3-on-3 will play out. And he'd like to see an All-Star Game composed of true stars:
My thing is you have to bring the best players. I don’t care if one (NHL) team gets 10 players sent and some teams get zero. Then, it would be a bigger thing. Now, with each team having one player sent, a lot of good players aren’t going to be there.
Saturday marks the halfway point of the Canucks' eight-day All-Star layoff, so we still have plenty of time to kill before the teams gets back on the ice to show us whether or not their favourable February schedule will help them to challenge for a playoff spot.
Eight of the 13 other teams in the Western Conference are currently six points or less away from the Canucks' 51 points in the standings. Mathematically,
Sports Club Stats ranks Vancouver's playoff chances at 24.7 percent, but that doesn't take into account the human part of the game—injuries, streaks, or other personnel decisions that can create momentum shifts.
Eight of the Canucks' 11 games in February will be played against those eight Western Conference teams that are close in the standings. Also, nine of the team's 11 games in the month will have been played by February 21. At that point, Benning and company should have a pretty good idea whether or not this team can realistically challenge for a postseason berth and how to best deal with their trade-deadline options.
Defenceman Travis Hamonic of the New York Islanders remains the No. 1 player on my wish list. He has waited patiently for the trade he requested months ago and might be closer to seeing some action now that his fellow blueliner Johnny Boychuk is expected to return from injury shortly after the All-Star Break.
The loudest noise surrounding Hamonic is coming out of Edmonton, which makes some sense. The Oilers certainly need a top-pairing defenceman on the right side and they have some skilled forwards they can deal—but that won't align with Garth Snow's stated preference of receiving a player who can play Hamonic's role.
There's buzz that the Ducks are willing to move Sami Vatanen, but Hamonic wants to land in Western Canada. Maybe the Oilers swing a three-way deal where they send scoring help to Anaheim in the form of Jordan Eberle or Nail Yakupov, then flip Vatanen to the Islanders?
That seems like it might be in the ballpark for all parties—but I hope I'm wrong. I'm still clinging to the belief that the closest one-for-one fit would be Hamonic for Chris Tanev. I think Jim Benning is very loyal to Tanev, but I'll keep dreaming.
Click here to take a look back at how the trade-deadline buildup unfolded last season. The action really got started on Feb. 11 with the Evander Kane deal, but that was triggered by a specific incident—the timeline probably would have been different if Kane hadn't chosen to wear his track suit to Rogers Arena on the day of the Winnipeg Jets' game in Vancouver on Feb. 3.
The lay of the land is a bit different this season, with so many teams still in the playoff hunt. I think it'll be at least a couple more weeks before many general managers, including Jim Benning, really determine whether their clubs are buyers or sellers—though the Montreal Canadiens may need to take action in a hurry if their club keeps losing after the break.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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