Afternoon Headshots: March 6th

 
Jeff Vinnick captures the precise moment M.E. Vlasic feels the impact of this Jannik Hansen hit.
I feel like Vlasic face could be a thing.

Today at Canucks Army we wondered whether or not the Canucks were maybe, possibly thinking about trading the wrong goaltender, scoffed at Damien Cox’s latest criticism of Mike Gillis’ avarice on the Luongo trade front and recapped Tuesday night’s home shootout loss against the San Jose Sharks.

More links and analysis (and links to analysis) after the jump.

Jeff Paterson zeroes in on Daniel Sedin’s massive drop in power-play shot-rate as a primary reason Vancouver’s struggling with the man-advantage. [Team 1040]

Cody Hodgson scored a pretty sweet short-handed goal for Buffalo yesterday, which caused Wyatt Arndt to sob gently, the sentimental chap. On the subject of Hodgson, it’s pretty clear he’s not driving the bus offensively in Buffalo, as he only has two assists in the 80 minutes he’s spent without all-world sniper Thomas Vanek on his wing at evens. He’s also not driving play, and is underwater like Atlantis unless he’s on the ice with Christian Ehrhoff, who might be having a career year in Buffalo this season. You want a former Canucks skaters on the Buffalo Sabres to miss, pick ‘Hoff. [Legion of Blog]

Brad Ziemer lavishes some well deserved praise on the Chris Higgins, Jannik Hansen, Mason Raymond line who have been fantastic together since Kesler returned to the IR. I’m not saying that the shift that led to Jannik Hansen’s late second period game-tying goal on Tuesday was beautiful per se, but I definitely want to buy that shift a malt if I ever work up the guts to ask it out. [Vancouver Sun]

David Ebner with an excellent take on Chris Tanev’s meteoric rise and transformation into one of the Canucks’ most dependable "defensive stalwarts." [Globe and Mail]

With their "Dreaded Two-Goal Lead" feature, Daniel Wagner summarizes in entertaining fashion (including a really amusing tongue-in-cheek swipe at my cheeky headline about Cory Schneider’s Millionaires mask earlier this week) some of the news that the Pass it to Bulis crew missed this week (until now!). [Pass it to Bulis]

Cam Cole thinks the Canucks need more Killer Instinct. Perhaps Cinder, Riptor and Ballrog T.J. Combo (same damn thing!) are available at the trade deadline? In all seriousness, killer instinct has nothing to do with it and neither does the defensive play. The Canucks’ problem at the moment is that both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider are struggling to stop saveable pucks when the games are close. Luckily those two are awesome at hockey and will figure it out. [Vancouver Sun]

Jim Jamieson reports that Nicklas Jensen might play his first game with the Wolves this season as early as Saturday against the Milwaukke Admirals. Also drops that while the Canucks consider Jensen’s agreement with the Generals to be "nullified" as a result of his SEL transfer, Oshawa’s General Manager doesn’t quite agree. As I said yesterday, and will probably say again: I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this story. [The White Towel]

Despite his sore groin, Kevin Bieksa will join the Canucks on their upcoming roadtrip through Columbus, Minnesota and Columbus again. Fuck that’s a boring roadie. Also the headline writer’s groin pun here is just awful (in the best way). [Vancouver Sun]

Henrik Sedin, who took a puck in the face off of an Edler slapshot and missed a grand total of zero shifts because he wears appropriate protective gear, would like to see visors made mandatory in the NHL. "If guys aren’t doing it," Henrik "Mayor Bloomberg" Sedin told Ben Kuzma, "somebody has to make the choice for them." [White Towel]

Jason Botchford writes some interesting stuff about Keith Ballard and also hops onboard the "sometimes the defenseman who leads the team in average ice-time by a square minute, plays the toughest competition among all blue-liners, and attempted seventeen shots on Tuesday should be benched when he has an occassional brain-fart" train. [The White Towel]