Issue #80 — Injury Is Still Out
“Red ice sells hockey tickets.” –Bob Stewart
Somebody call the doctor, Sami is back.
Or in the age of infinite irony, Sami Salo is back and half of the other certified blue liners on the Vancouver Canucks are on ice. Dan Hamhuis is out with a concussion because Ryan Getzlaf decided to clean the end glass with his face. Keith Ballard is out with an ailing knee because of a Milan Mihalek slew foot . Alex Edler is out having microdiscectomectomectomewhatever.
All this means for slim pickin’s south of the red line.
And how about that forth line eh?
The facts are the facts, and like most tautologies they speak for themselves. Vancouver holds the best record in the National Hockey League. they are having their best season in franchise history. They have the reigning Hart and Art Ross champion on their roster (Brother Henrik). They have two legitimate 40-goal scorers (Kesler and Brother Daniel) in the line-up. And, if Alexandre Burrows and Mikael Samuelsson are still scoring at their current break-neck pace, the team could have four 30+ goal scorers.
Much like Satan and eternal souls, this team exists to possess pucks.
Most of that puck possession game (a term forged in the fires of hockey hell — Detroit) begins in the defensive zone. Mike Gilles has done an admirable job shoring up possession in other ways, like bringing in Manny Malhotra as a face-off specialist and having Rollie Melanson teach Luongo some stick handling skills. It all begs the question now, how are the Canucks gonna get the puck out of their zone now?
With mobile defenders such as Hamhuis and Edler out indefinitely it remains to be seen how the Canucks will execute their evolving game-plan. So far the no-such-thing-as-too-many-defensemen approach has worked. Inevitably there is no such thing as too many defensemen in the NHL. We saw as much last year when wily Willie Michell went down for the season and the Canucks were left handicapped in D-man land.
As with most questions this season, all roads lead to the playoffs. The Canucks are in no risk of missing the playoffs, but without a cadre of defenders breaking down plays, the team could see another early exit.
When it comes to the question of injuries to defensemen, the jury is still out.
Let the future judge now!
–Joseph F. Delamar