Alex Burrows is Crushing it Defensively this Season

Thomas Drance
April 11 2013 02:57PM

There's another side to Alex Burrows beyond the plethora of even-strength goals: his stellar defense.
Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick via NHLI

The Frank J. Selke Trophy - awarded to the NHL's best defensive forward every season, as you probably know - is kind of like a Gold Glove in baseball: it tells us more about a player's reputation that it does about their real defensive utility.

Consider the example of Ryan Kesler, unquestionably one of the league's best two-way players over the past five seasons. For years Ryan Kesler was Vancouver's primary defensive ace, and a deserving Selke nominee (even winner). That was true up until 2010-11 when Kesler was deployed in a calibrated offensive role by Vancouver's coaching staff. With Manny Malhotra soaking up the toughest matchups, the most short-handed ice-time among all Canucks forwards, and the bulk of defensive zone draws - Kesler took advantage and scored forty goals on his way to winning, ironically, the Selke.

It's telling that Ryan Kesler, a defence-first forward for the majority of his career, finally won the award for "best defensive forward" in the NHL during the one season in his career that he had the least defensive responsibility. Anyway, one guy who won't be considered for the Selke this season, and who probably shouldn't be despite being an absurdly effective defensive presence all year, is Alex Burrows. We'll elaborate on the other side of the jump.

Read Article | 4 Comments

On Mason Raymond's Playoff Production, or Lack Thereof

Thomas Drance
April 11 2013 11:13AM

Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images

For a variety of reasons, most notably his slender build and the fact that he had a tremendous run of awful puck luck in 2010-11, and followed up on it with a disappoiting season in 2011-12 coming off of a serious back injury, Mason Raymond catches a lot of flack from Canucks fans. He's a perimeter player who falls down a lot is the general critique - nevermind the solid underlying numbers - and his offense dries up in the playoffs.

But does it really when you break it down? In comparison with your average NHL player, does Mason Raymond have a unique habit of suddenly becoming an ineffective offensive player once the playoffs begin? I'll look into it on the other side of the jump.

Read Article | 18 Comments

Game #40 Preview: Canucks @ Flames

Thomas Drance
April 10 2013 02:32PM

Photo Credit: The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck

The Canucks are currently riding high in the saddle - they've won their last three games and have looked damn good doing it - and will kick off a five game roadtrip, their longest of the season, in Calgary tonight against the directionless suckhole franchise known as the Flames.

Calgary were sellers at the trade deadline and have lost four of their last five - including a five-two loss to Vancouver this past weekend. They're in full on "hit the skids for Poppeye's kid" mode at the moment, and will be further short-handed tonight as Matt Stajan and Jiri Hudler will be out of the lineup per Brad Ziemer.

The Flames are the worst and this should be an easy win for the Canucks. That is unless they take it too lightly and Kiprusoff stands on his head, in which case it could be a potential trap game. That's probably not how this contest will unfold though. Read more on the other side of the jump!

Read Article | 5 Comments

An Extended Look at Vancouver's Defence Pairings

Thomas Drance
April 10 2013 12:12PM

The Canucks have recently found some functional defence pairings beyond Bieksa and Hamhuis.
Photo Credit: DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

This season, up until the last ten games or so, the Canucks defence pairings have been inconsistently delineated. There's a variety of reasons for that, like injuries and the club employing only one top-four defenceman with a right-handed shot; but the fact remains that Alain Vigneault and Rick Bowness (who runs the defence) have tried out a lot of different personnel together.

Of late they seem to have settled in on a top pairing of Dan Hamhuis and Jason Garrison, a second pairing of Kevin Bieksa and Alex Edler, and a third pairing consiting of whomever is healthy (but preferably Keith Ballard and Chris Tanev). Have they made the right call, or are their other possible combinations that have performed better this season?

Read past the jump for more.

Read Article | 8 Comments