Canucks Dropping Like Flies

Ahead of tonight's big tilt against the Chicago Blackhawks, comes word that Chris Tanev will miss at least one game with a  broken thumb, and likely won't be ready until after the Olympic break.

GREAT!  Just what they needed!  Another injury!

In what is quickly becoming a season

10 Possible Reasons Alain Vigneault Doesn't Like/Won't Play Keith Ballard

I don't care what anyone says, I'm convinced that Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault has it in for defenceman Keith Ballard.  Time and time again, since his arrival here Keith Ballard has been benched inexplicably and been passed on the depth chart by virtually every defenceman in the organization.  Most recently by rookie Frank Corrado who has a total of exactly 3, basically mean-nothing NHL games under his belt and a total of 6 total pro games at any level.  I mean, you pretty much have to be going out of your way to push him that far down the depth-chart.
I, for one, think Ballard is not being deployed correctly and is being treated unfairly.  I know many others in the twitterverse and bloggerverse feel the same way.
The narrative we get fed by the mainstream media closely associated with the team is that Ballard makes too many mistakes and turns the puck over too many times.  While I won't argue that he does make mistakes from time to time I would argue that he makes no more mistakes than do Kevin Bieksa, Alex Edler, and Andrew Alberts.  These three however seem to do so with impunity.  So we can rule that out of the possible reasons that Ballard gets sat out so often he has his name engraved on his press-box seat.  For if this were the case, if AV sits players out when they make numerous mistakes, Bieksa, Edler, and Ballard would be sitting out half the season!  Hell, Mason Raymond would be in the ECHL!!!
So I'm trying to delve deeper into the psyche of our good coach Alain Vigneault to try to uncover the REAL reason that he just won't give Keith Ballard a reasonable chance at cracking the Canucks line-up on a consistent basis...

Reason # 10:

Keith Ballard's name is VERY un-French-like.










Reason # 9:

Keith Ballard reminds him of himself when he was an NHLer and since he didn't play much/got benched a lot he projects that on Keith Ballard












Reason #8

Keith Ballard, once early on, didn't offer AV one of his lozenges even though he knew that AV had run out.











Reason #7:

AV once knew a kid back in high-school named Keith who bullied him












Reason # 6:

He's 'saving him' for game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final










Reason #5

Once had a dog named Ballard who he made a doghouse for.








Reason #4:

Some guy named Keith stole his girlfriend at prom










Reason #3:

 If you re-arrange the letters in Keith Ballard's name you can spell CODY HODGSON.










Reason #2:

AV had a thing for Grabner and this is his passive-aggressive way of getting back at GMMG for trading him

NHLers loitering on the sidelines

I attended the BC Lions v Calgary Stampeders game at BC Place on Saturday night and I noticed that a group of Vancouver Canucks had been invited to watch part of the game from the BC Lions sideline.  If I'm not mistaken Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Kesler, Jason Garrison, Alex Edler, Mason Raymond and Cory Schneider.

Everyone knows that the Canucks have a lot of extra time on their hands due to the NHL lockout.  It seemed surreal to me to see them standing there in street clothes, supporting another local team, which, by the way, I thought to be a classy move.  They were supposed to be playing a game at Rogers Arena, or on a road trip, or resting up for another game.  It really was quite bizarre to see them there instead of on the ice all because of Gary Bettman's 3rd lockout.

Then it hit me....the 2012 CFL team salary cap is $4.3M.  Yup.  If you add up the salaries of the entire BC Lions roster it is equal to, or less than, $4.3M.  Ryan Kesler makes $5M.   Jason Garrison makes $6M+ per season.  Edler and Bieksa aren't that far behind.

What must that have been like for them?  Watching 2 teams go at it 100% banging heads, sacrificing limbs, and giving it their all in front of 30,000+ at BCPlace and hundreds of thousands more on TSN, knowing that their annual salary is more than the entire payroll of each of the two teams they were watching.  It kinda puts things into perspective as far as how much money NHLers really make.

The thing is, we can't look at NHL players as just athletes playing a game and being compensated with massive amounts of money.  It is important to realize that the players are a product.  They are a product that generates large amounts of money for the owners and they should get their piece of the pie.  The sooner the owners stop treating the players as employees, or cattle, and become business partners with them, the sooner we can get hockey players off of CFL sidelines.

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