Chris Tanev: Total Recalled
Thomas Drance
January 18 2012 05:59PM
Recently recalled Chris Tanev celebrates after scoring a goal this past Preseason.
News broke this evening that the Vancouver Canucks have recalled chain-smoking defenseman Chris Tanev from the Chicago Wolves. As the good folks at Pass it to Bulis noted on Twitter, the timing of the transaction is particularly interesting, and somewhat mirrors the look the team gave Cody Hodgson prior to the trade-deadline last season. Clearly, Gillis and co. are taking this opportunity to evaluate Tanev and to see whether or not he's ready to provide the team with quality top-4 depth. This is Tanev's shot to prove to the team that he can play a top-4 role, and to do so before Gillis is forced to pay a prohibitive price (likely a pound of flesh) for a defenseman at the deadline.
Here's the official press release from canucks.nhl.com. More analysis after the jump.
Headshots January 18th
Thomas Drance
January 18 2012 02:47PM
Luongo took a puck off his mask last night. Now that, my friends, is a head-shot.
Headshots are a Canucks Army feature where we link to the day's freshest news, and other assorted Canucks web-goodies. If you've written a blogpost, produced a tribute video or birthed a clever .gif into existence - please e-mail me at thom.drance@gmail.com.
Quick Thoughts With Cullen
John Cullen
January 18 2012 02:06PM
Every so often, I will think of topics for a blog post that never quite get enough fleshing out. When that happens, I’ll compile them all into this little feature, “Quick Thoughts with Cullen”. Enjoy.
Midseason Awards, Part II: The Norris and the Selke
Jonathan Willis
January 18 2012 01:13PM
As the NHL moves past the midway mark of the season, it’s time to look back at which players deserve hardware, based on their performance over the first half. To answer that question, we polled writers from across the Nation Network, talking to writers at every site.
Today, we look at the second set of our midseason awards: our picks for the winners of the Norris and Selke trophies.
Where it Might Make Sense to Increase Hodgson's Ice-Time
Thomas Drance
January 18 2012 01:11PM
Cody Hodgson is a beast on the power-play.
In the first pre-season game of the 2011-12 season, the Canucks iced two teams: a stronger squad at home against a weak Flames squad, and a bunch of cannon-fodder in Calgary against a stronger Flames team. When Alain Vigneault sent blue-chip rookie Cody Hodgson to the chopping block in Calgary with the likes of Steve Begin and Darren Archibald, the "Vigneault hates Hodgson" meme took off. This school of thinking has continued in earnest throughout the season, and has taken the form of obsessive critiquing of the way the Canucks head-coach deploys the rookie. The hand-wringing reared its head again last night when Hodgson didn't receive a single shift in over-time.
For the most part, I've found this common obsession with Hodgson's ice-time to be a bit confusing. Under the tutelage of Alain Vigneault, Canucks fans have seen Henrik and Daniel go from point-per game players to regular Art Ross contenders. We've watched as fringe prospects like Bieksa, Hansen and Burrows became productive every day NHLers. All the while, Ryan Kesler morphed into a forty goal scorer, and Alex Edler became an All-Star. Yet we're insisting that Vigneault has lost the ability to develop young hockey players? It just doesn't pass the smell test.
