Afternoon Headshots: April 29th
Thomas Drance
April 29 2013 05:42PM
We'll miss you Northwest Division.
Words from PiTB/Vancouver Sun, photo from knothappening.
It's NHL Playoff's eve and that means it was a busy day at Canucks Army. We podcasted with Kevin Woodley and Elliotte Friedman, we touched on the San Jose-Vancouver series being snubbed by CBC, I self-flaggelated over for some weak preseason prognosticating regarding Vancouver's goal totals this season, argued that playing Andrew Ebbett over Jordan Schroeder doesn't make much sense, and delved into the reasons why Jason Garrison should play on Vancouver's top power-play unit.
We also introduced the Nation Network's NHL Playoff Pick'Em Contest: Streak Cred, which you should totally get in on since it supports a couple of good causes, will be an awful lot of fun to play over the next couple of months, and gives you an opportunity to win some great prizes (including a trip for two to attend Oktoberfest in Bavaria).
Click past the jump for more Canucks news and other tidbits.
Jason Garrison and the First Unit Power-Play
Thomas Drance
April 29 2013 03:01PM
Photo Credit Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty
On Wednesday evening, the Canucks will open their first round playoff series against the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are quite possibly the league's single best special teams club, and the Canucks will be hard pressed to match them in this area.
One adjustment that could help is changing up the first unit so that it features Jason Garrison's ridiculously powerful slapshot. I'm convinced that the Canucks need to add some heavy artillery to the first power-play unit, and I crunched some numbers in an attempt to prove it. Check it out after the jump.
A Baffling Personnel Decision: On Andrew Ebbett and Jordan Schroeder
Thomas Drance
April 29 2013 02:32PM
Phorograph by: Jamie Sabau, NHILI/Getty Images
On the very same day the Canucks acquired Derek Roy, they sent Jordan Schroeder back to Chicago. He hasn't been back with the team since, as the Canucks coaching staff has preferred to roll with Andrew Ebbett in the lineup and often in their top-nine.
I'm very much unconvinced that this makes any sense in the postseason, and I'll explain why after the jump.
My Canucks goal total projections were more noise than signal this season
Thomas Drance
April 29 2013 10:51AM
Ryan Kesler and David Booth battled injuries all season. In doing so they made me look bad.
Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press
Before the 2011-12 season I predicted Vancouver Canucks goal totals over at Pass it to Bulis and I did astonishingly well over the 82 game season:
My overall team predictions were much more successful: I had the Canucks scoring 57 power-play goals (they have 55), 178 even-strength goals (they’ve scored 176), 7 short-handed goals (the Canucks have 7) and 5 shootout winners (they’ve scored 8). That my friends, is some serious Rainman schtick.
Yep, I was pretty proud of myself. Well, this season my bubble burst and the model fared significantly less well. I'll dive into why after the jump.
Canucks Open First Round Series Wednesday, Will be on TSN
Thomas Drance
April 28 2013 10:06PM
Whoa, the Canucks series won't be on CBC?
Photo Credit Jeff Vinnick/Behind the Lens
So the playoff schedule is set, and the Canucks will open their first round series against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM Pacific Standard Time. In an interesting and somewhat surpising move, the CBC, which gets to pick the Canadian broadcast rights to the two series they want most before TSN gets their first selection, decided to pass on the Pacific Time Zone series between the Sharks and the Canucks. So the CBC picked the Toronto versus Boston series and all-Canadian Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series between the Habs and the Senators instead, with TSN happily snapping up the Canucks series.
Read past the jump.
