Protip to Mr. Desjardins: When your team is eight points back in mid-March and your fanbase is screaming for a rebuild, a good way to respond to your current vision would be something along the lines of, say, “As a team we have to go out and look to win every night. We hope that these games will also be real good learning experiences for the kids, and if they compete hard it could help us both now and later.”

Or anything other than “We’re still looking to make the playoff even with the young guys in the line-up.”. At that point, you sound like you’re still in denial.

Oh, right, this is the mailbag, not Jerk’s Monday Morning Musings. Anyway..

You try to move him. Simple as. You’ll have shown to other teams that he’s still a useful talent, and as long as you stick to the line about using the younger players as your nucleus, they’ll accept it as the Canucks simply looking to sell a veteran.

If you still can’t sell him, then a whole new debate begins. But there’s no point in trying to bring him back to the roster. What could the Canucks possibly gain from slotting a 33 year old in the bottom six while attempting to rebuild?

Sven Baertschi. Desjardins has warmed up to the young Swiss forward and has been giving him more and more opportunity to succeed, and it’s starting to show. At the moment, he’s third in goals behind Jannik Hansen and Daniel Sedin, and I suppose it’s possible that Daniel keeps the momentum going next year, but an uptick in average ice time and additional usage on the powerplay is going to be key in getting Baertschi past the 20 goal mark and beyond.

Bieber’s last two albums were both relatively good as far as pop goes; Purpose, in particular, was one of the better late 2015 albums out there. As he’s grown up, Bieber’s troubles have gone from “out of control brat on his way to a downward spiral” to “comic mischief”, which is the opposite of how these things usually play out.

Really, the only concern that Canuck Nation should have about Virtanen being friends with a pop star in his age group is the fact that Bieber is an unabashed Leafs Fan. Also, it’s a little messed up that there are players on this team now that are multiple years younger than Justin Bieber. We’re getting old.

The big man takes the ice tomorrow. Was that planned out? Tough to say; the news came out after we found out that Luca Sbisa is once again injured. But it’s happening. It’s real. It’s exciting as hell. Will he meet the hype? Who knows; they certainly weren’t this excited about him back in Yekaterinburg as people in Vancouver are right now. But there’s only one way to find out who’s expectations were closer to the truth..

Is Benson worthy of being drafted in the first round? Probably; he’s producing decently well for his age and almost every major publication has him in their first round mocks. Is he worthy of being drafted by the Canucks in the first round? Not unless they get another pick. He’s closer to a 25th overall choice than a 5th overall choice.

Then again, if the Canucks make the playoffs like Willie still seems to believe is possible…