Sedin Twins Power Sweden to World Championship Gold
Thomas Drance
May 19 2013 03:54PM
Henrik Sedin gives a post game interview after scoring two goals in a championship victory.
Image courtesy RadioSporten.
The Sedins were widely criticized for "no showing" in the NHL playoffs earlier this month, as the Vancouver Canucks were eliminated in short order at the hands of the San Jose Sharks. The criticism was a bit much, considering the failure of Vancouver's penalty-kill and the fact that the twins had a couple of really good games (games two and three) despite limited support from the rest of the Canucks lineup...
Following the inglorious playoff ouster, the Sedins joined team Sweden at the World Hockey Championships which were hosted in both Sweden and Finland this year (and last year too for that matter). In four games in the tournament the twins and linemate Loui Eriksson carried team Sweden offensively, giving the Tre Kronor a vicious, explosive power-play that powered the Swedes past Canada, Finland and Switzerland in the elimination rounds, and all the way to a gold medal victory on home soil. I suppose it's a nice way to cap off a disappointing - albeit quietly impressive season - on a winning note.
Read past the jump for more.
Report: Alex Edler's Suspension for Staal Hit Could Extend into Sochi Games
Thomas Drance
May 18 2013 06:51PM
Alex Edler was functionally kicked out of the World Championship tournament for a brutal knee-on-knee hit on Canadian centre Eric Staal in the quarterfinal match between the Canadian team and the Tre Kronor on Thursday. Sweden won the game three-to-two in a shootout, and then defeated Finland's mens team on Saturday to advance to the finals.
On Saturday Eric Staal got some good medical news in that he won't require surgery, and is expected to be ready for the start of next season. Alex Edler, however, and perhaps deservedly, got some tough news on Saturday. The latest reports surfacing from Swedish media outlet Aftonbladet on Saturday afternoon suggest that Alex Edler's suspension may extend into the 2014 Olympic tournament in Sochi. National team manager Tommy Boutsedt even described Edler's punishment (via Google Translate) as "basically a lifetime ban."
Read past the jump.
Chris Tanev's Next Contract
Thomas Drance
May 16 2013 12:08PM
Tanev must've forgot his cigarettes.
Photo by John Russell NHLI/Getty
With the salary cap declining for the first time ever the Vancouver Canucks are facing a pretty crunchy salary cap situation heading into this summer. A lot of Vancouver's flexibility here will be determined by a Roberto Luongo trade, and whether or not the Canucks can clear his deal off the books without retaining salary. For what it's worth, I think they probably can and worst case scenario they can place him on waivers where he'd probably be claimed.
Assuming Luongo's salary is cleared and Keith Ballard is bought out, and I thought that was a foregone conclusion even before he didn't dress for a single game this postseason, the Canucks will have roughly 10.5 million left over to sign eight players (including one top-9 forward)*. That's not a lot of spare change.
(*) These figures are per capgeek and assume that Eddie Lack and Frank Corrado are on Vancouver's roster next season.
One situation that will be particularly fascinating to watch is the team's negotiations with restricted free-agent, fancy-stats darling and third-pairing defenceman Chris Tanev. Tanev isn't the type of player one typically associates with an exorbitant contract, but he may well have more leverage this summer than your typical restricted free-agent. We'll get into it after the jump.
Henrik Sedin on Mike Smith "He's extremely big, and good at playing the puck. He also dives a lot."
Thomas Drance
May 15 2013 08:26AM
Henrik Sedin (top left) is probably thinking "don't you dare so much as breathe on Mike Smith, Zack."
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
On Thursday morning (Pacific Time) team Sweden, who are being led by the Sedin twins, will face team Canada in the quarter final of the consolation prize tournament known as the World Championships. Team Canada is led by Steven Stamkos and Claude GIroux, but their team also features Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis as well as former Mike Gillis client and jerkpuck all-star team starting goaltender Mike Smith. The Canucks and Mike Smith, of course, had their moments (several moments actually) this past hockey season.
Henrik and Daniel debuted for the Tre Kronor on Tuesday against Denmark. After the game, in giving a rather colourful scouting report of team Canada to the Swedish press, Henrik Sedin really went out of his way to describe Mike Smith as a "diver." Read past the jump.
CanucksArmy Podcast: Episode 6
Thomas Drance
May 14 2013 03:28PM
Welcome to the sixth episode of the CanucksArmy podcast!
We're joined today by CBC broadcaster Jim Hughson with whom we broke down the epic game seven collapse of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night, previewed the upcoming second round series between the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins, and discussed matchups and their impact on player performance and evaluations. We talked about the Canucks a bit too.
Read past the jump to listen!
