My mind boggles at the idea that three days is now enough time to get a group of 58 players organized enough to play their first preseason game.
But this is the case. The Canucks are wrapping up training camp in Prince George today. The full group will fly back to Vancouver tonight, then the players who will be participating in Kraft Hockeyville in Victoria will get back on the plane for the quick jaunt to the Island tomorrow.
Sunday kicked off with power-play practice, starting with these forward combinations:
These five-man units probably approximate pretty closely what we'll see one the season starts:
The second power-play unit was a bit of a disaster last year, so it's no surprise to see the Canucks' two new prize forward acquisitions stepping in.
The Hamhuis/Tanev pairing doesn't exactly make my heart race with excitement, but the team doesn't have a better option from the back end at this point.
When I was putting together
this list of my top projected defensive pairings in the NHL for Bleacher Report yesterday, I was pretty amazed to realize that two pairings hit triple-digit scoring last year: P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov posted 110 points between them, while Shea Weber and Roman Josi hit 100.
Mark Giordano and Dennis Wideman tallied 104 points as Calgary's top two offensive defensemen, but they didn't play together.
By contrast, all nine players who made up the Canucks blue line last season managed just 135 points in total, led by 31 points from Alex Edler.
Yannick Weber scored nine of his 21 points after March 1 when he started to get first-unit power-play time, so hopefully that'll be the turbo boost that Vancouver needs to consistently get more offense from the defense this season.
Sounds like Bo Horvat might get some penalty-killing added to his duties this year:
Vancouver was excellent shorthanded last season, finishing second in the NHL with an 85.7 percent kill rate. Nick Bonino, Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson all logged significant time on the P.K. last year, so Bo's a good choice to lend a hand to Alex Burrows and Chris Higgins.
Jim Benning has also mentioned numerous times that he sees Brandon Sutter as a strong penalty-killer—he was Pittsburgh's top forward in that department last season.
Click here to check out the teams for today's Blue and White scrimmage.
The rookies will be aided by a few older players:
Team White includes Derek Dorsett, Ronalds Kenins, Linden Vey and Jacob Markstrom lining up with Jake Virtanen, Cole Cassels, Jared McCann and Jordan Subban, among others.
Team Blue features Matt Bartkowski, Jannik Hansen, Luca Sbisa and Ryan Miller supporting a youth group that includes Brendan Gaunce, Alex Grenier, Nicklas Jensen, Andrey Pedan and Mackenze Stewart.
TSN1040 is on location in Prince George and should have some updates as the scrimmage progresses.
To wrap up today, a couple of items from the Kraft Hockeyville event, already in full swing on Vancouver Island.
It's a good year for Victoria to enjoy the minor-hockey spotlight, given that the community birthed the reigning NHL scoring champion, Jamie Benn. Benn was drafted out of the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL in 2007 before moving up to the Kelowna Rockets for his final two years of junior—an inspiring success story for late bloomers everywhere.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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