Afternoon Headshots: January 22nd

The Canucks gave away scarves to everyone who attended the home opener on Saturday night.
Image via dhamhuis.tumblr.com.

The "must read" piece of the day is so obvious, that you’ve almost certainly already read it. It’s from Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun who had a long sit down with Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis this week. The two candidly discussed Luongo’s trade status, Vancouver’s lack of success drafting under Mike Gillis, changes in team scouting, Jordan Schroeder’s role this season and a whole lot of other topics too. Fantastic stuff, and there’s also an extended transcript with some bonus insight from the Canucks GM. [Vancouver Sun]

Everyone and their mother wrote a reaction piece to the explosive "deal in place" with a "mystery team" involving an unknown player who has to be moved (or waived, or heal from an injury) quote that Mike Gillis gave Cole this week. Here’s Greg Wyshynski’s which, we’ll link to because he speculates that one of the moving pieces could be Subban, Benn or O’Reilly. That doesn’t strike me as all that likely, but boy oh boy, it would be pretty awesome. [Puck Daddy]

Pierre LeBrun has a "rumblings" blog post over at ESPN in which he touches on the Luongo situation and provides us with some fascinating information. First of all, he exchanged e-mails with Mike Gillis, and Gillis confirmed the veracity of the quote he gave Cam Cole. LeBrun then goes on to confirm that the Leafs aren’t the mystery team in question, and that Luongo trade talks between Toronto and Vancouver have reached a period of "detente." LeBrun also mentions that his sense of things is that the Flyers would be willing to amnesty Ilya Bryzgalov if he lays another egg this season in Philadelphia, and he ends off with this intriguing quote: "So far, the Canucks have been offered good pieces, just not the right ones." Hmmm… [ESPN]

Finally, Harrison Mooney runs Mike Gillis’ sexy quote about a mystery team through the "Mike Gillis translator" in a silly effort to determine what exactly Mike Gillis really meant by the quote he gave Cam Cole. [Pass it to Bulis]

In other news, the Canucks have called up 2009 first round pick Jordan Schroeder and he will make his NHL debut on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames. An interesting aside on Schroeder, he never actually returned to Chicago because he was "too ill to fly" over the weekend. So he was called up, and then on the ice practicing with the team within like twenty minutes. So, that’s very strange. [Nucksmisconduct]

Over at Canucks Hockey Blog, Clay Imoo briefly recaps the NHL’s first weekend back. More importantly his post includes footage of Chris Higgins taking off his jersey for the "jersey off the player’s back" ceremony after the team’s home-opener against Anaheim. So… yeah, you might want to watch that. [Canucks Hockey Blog]

Read on past the jump for more news, Canucks links and maybe a joke if I can think of one (no promises).

Cory Schneider will start against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night, and he’s excited for the opportunity to bounce back from his gong show performance in the season opener against the Anaheim "don’t call me Mighty" Ducks. [Vancouver Sun]

While tactically it was probably the wrong call, Canucks headcoach Alain Vigneault is impressed by the initative that Zack Kassian took in pounding Ben Eager’s face mercilessly during Sunday night’s game. Vigneault has rewarded Kassian, by the way, with at least a game as the trigger man on the top-line alongside the twins. [The White Towel]

Speaking of that epic Ben Eager versus Zack Kassian tilt, Justin Bourne finds a wicked photo (that we missed to our embarrassment) that basically explains why Ben Eager is still inactive two days after the fight. Man, that has got to hurt. [Backhand Shelf]

Rob the Hockey Guy profiles three under the radar Luongo trade destinations, and he includes the New York Islanders. Maybe the allure of eventually playing in Brooklyn would be enough to cause Luongo to overlook the whole "going to one of the most depressing franchises in the league" thing, but I doubt it. Anyway, I love the idea of Frans "hockey’s King Felix" Nielsen on the Canucks. Love, love, love it in fact. [Rob the Hockey Guy]

Unswayed by Cam Charron’s convincing argument, Tony Gallagher doesn’t buy that a Roberto Luongo/Cory Schneider goaltending platoon can work over the course of a shortened forty-eight game season. [The White Towel]

Here’s some cool news: long-time Canucks coach and General Manager Pat Quinn is going to be inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Pat Quinn (it’s probably a stretch to call him a friend of the blog, right?) who regardless of what else you think about him, always had his team’s ready to skate through a wall for him come playoff time. [The Province]

Finally, this series of .gif’s from the bi3ksallent tumblr of Ryan Kesler buying groceries for a confused (but ultimately appreciative) old lady are priceless: