Hockey is coming! That means the return of hockey content! We’ll be writing a lot of things on Canucks Army this year; hundreds of articles, of which you’ll probably enjoy about four or five. With that comes a fancy schedule that will ensure that you never miss a moment of the action, which kicks into place starting next week.
Of course, there will be some concessions. For example, the Monday Mailbag is no more. Thankfully, it’s just being relocated to Friday
@canucks_news asked: Realistic/optimistic expectations for Markstrom this season? Still hope of becoming what he once was heralded to be?
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect him to be as awful as he’s been in the NHL for very much longer. At the end of the day, he hasn’t had a sample of more than 12 games since 2012/13, and his run in Utica last year was nothing short of spectacular.
It would be a reach to expect him to blossom into an elite NHL goaltender, though I suppose anything is possible; but his last four AHL stretches would lead you to believe that he’s better than a sub-0.900 goaltender. My expectation would be for him to play 25 or so games and land in and around the league average SV%.
@Johnny_Perogy asked: Is there any player in the system who could realistically replace Henrik as top-line centre in the next few years?
Henrik is a hall-of-fame calibre player and the best centre in Canucks history, so unless the plan on nosediving this year and selecting Auston Matthews, no. Jared McCann is probably the best centre in the system at the moment, and he isn’t someone I’d project to play on the top line.
@SGKirkby asked: Can you see Sbisa getting benched/press boxed?
It would take a lot for that to happen, especially with him just getting his new contract. I’d love to believe in a world where they’d just dress the six best defencemen they have available to them every night, but even if Sbisa finds his way out of being in that group (some will argue he already has), it would be a PR disaster and it would significantly lower his trade value.
Even in a worse case scenario, you likely won’t see him straight up fall out of the lineup until next season. That’s not to say that I believe that the worst will happen, and one certainly hopes that they don’t, but the odds lean closer to that than they do to a breakout.
@Morock90 asked: How come there isn’t more Canucks swag on the Nationgear? Why isn’t there a 16-bit Hero’s Bure t-shirt?
It’s a supply and demand world; Oilers Nation are the big chiefs in the network, not to mention that Nationgear is made and shipped out of Edmonton.
That said, I love the idea of more merch, and I’ve even dabbled in the design process in the past (nothing Canucks related, though). If there’s sufficient interest, we’ll find a way to make some CA designs happen.
@JDylanBurke asked: Is soup a beverage?
This is just a way for you to get around the “no food until you get back on schedule” punishment I gave you, isn’t it?
