10. Kyle Wellwood is in shape!

Wellwood has always been the combination of a gifted hockey mind with the body of a couch potato. That is about to change, as this year he has come into training camp 17 pounds lighter than last year!


9. New and Improved Steve Bernier.

Bernier was the Canucks' “goat” last year, missing a ridiculous amount of scoring opportunities. He has worked on everything in the off-season, from foot-speed, to fitness, to pressure situations with the puck. We might finally see him reach his potential.


7. No slow start for Roberto Luongo

The knock on Luongo’s career thus far: slow starts to the season. With the pre-season Team Canada Orientation Camp taking place, and the starting job for the Olympics on the line, Luongo knows he has to be on form early. Pressure usually works in his favour.


6. Sergei Shirokov

No idea what to expect, but Tommy Larsheid has dubbed him the “Pocket Russian Rocket”, and he has looked great in the pre-season.


5. Cody Hodgson

Finally, the future of the Vancouver Canucks has arrived!


3. Demitra is injured

Not even getting into his softness as a player, the positive here is that young Hodgson, Shirokov, and Raymond will gain playing time and have a chance to show what they’ve got.


4. Christian Ehrhoff and Mathieu Schneider Replace Ohlund

We were worried when we lost Ohlund to free agency – our depth of offensive defensemen was low, considering Salo’s brittle body. With the arrival of Schneider and Ehrhoff, the Canucks’ blueline seems even better than it was last year.


2. Schedule Fixed

Finally, after three long seasons of playing too many divisional and conference games, the schedule has been fixed! This year we will see the Penguins, Capitals, and all 5 other Canadian teams at GM Place at least once.


1. Optimism

Not since late in the Brian Burke era, have Canucks fans felt so optimistic heading into a season. Back then, we had one of the league’s most offensive powerhouses, led by the “Westcoast Express” – Bertuzzi, Morrison, and Naslund – but no goaltending. With Luongo signed to a 12 year deal in the off-season, that will not be a problem for a long long time.

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics looming, I am going to devote some time to preparing for what’s to come. I will focus on the sports that Canada will be competitive in and attempt to introduce our medal contenders. We should know the athletes who will be wearing the maple leaf, so that we can put our full support behind them. To kick this off, we focus on figure skating.

Patrick Chan:

Patrick Chan provides us with a reason to believe that the future of Canadian figure skating is very promising. At just 18 years of age, we might have expected to wait a few more years for his work to bear fruition, but since he has been Canadian champion 2 years running, then winning the silver medal at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, we can sense that the future is upon us.

The fact that he has already achieved so much in such a young career is indicative of Chan’s determination. In an article by Lori Ewing on the ctvolympics.ca website, Canadian figure skating legend, Kurt Browning, recalls a very motivated, younger Patrick Chan, declaring, “I want to be part of what keeps figure skating in this country great.”

This resolve is what pushes Chan to always be working. As Ewing writes, “When he's not on the ice, he's doing pilates and yoga, and taking care of his aching limbs in the whirlpool and ice bath.” Indeed, work ethic and ambition make up a large part of any professional athlete’s successes, but just as important are an individual’s built in talents.

In this regard, Chan has no shortage of praise being thrown his way. On his abilities, choreographer, Lori Nichol, says, “He has such mastery of his blades and of all the things blades can do, but he's also incredibly strong and so he can take it to all sorts of levels.”

Retired Canadian skater, Jeffrey Buttle, bronze medalist at the 2006 Turin Olympics, agrees, “"He skates like he's 10 years older than he actually is. In terms of maturity, he has skating skills and edges and posture that are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the competition.''
The other ingredient to his accomplishments is perhaps just as rare and also essential: a lack of anxiety. Browning, a competitor who has felt the pressure of skating in front of millions at the Olympics, is notably impressed by the youngster, "You're used to seeing skaters go to the competition and the level drops because it's competition. You're nervous. It didn't with him, and I'm starting to get used to it now. He just has a way of going out there under different and difficult situations and being able to lay down a really high percentage of his planned content. . . it's rare, really rare.''

What’s rare is seeing so much admiration and respect pouring from past champions to such a young man. A greater endorsement is hard to imagine, and if they deem him worthy of such acclaim, there’s no reason we shouldn’t believe.

Come back on Monday to read about our female medal hopeful – Joannie Rochette

They are fleet footed, skilled, and intense and entirely unstoppable when at top flight. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the two best footballers in the world, as ranked by the FIFA 2008 Player of the Year rankings, and they play for Manchester United FC and Barcelona FC respectively, the two teams that will face each other in the UEFA Champions League final this Wednesday May 27th, at 10:30 A.M. PST.

For one month every four years, North Americans take notice of the world’s most popular sport when the FIFA World Cup of Football takes place. Aside from that, the average American or Canadian all but forgets that another form of football exists, thinking there’s no point in watching unless the best of the best are representing their countries at the world’s largest sporting event. Newsflash: high level football exists outside international competitions, and in many cases, club teams are even better than even the best national side.

In sports like basketball, hockey, and baseball, when international competitions occur, it is a chance for a particular country to assemble their best players, and in such cases as Canadian Hockey and American Basketball, they are basically all-star teams – a combination of the NHL or NBA’s best players all on one roster. In football, this may actually be reversed, as the most powerful clubs actually pick the best and brightest players from all the football playing countries in the world and combine them on to these super teams. Manchester United and Barcelona are two such powers.

United’s Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar, is widely regarded as the best football player in the world. During his 2007/08 season, he scored 42 goals in 46 matches, showing that his heart matches his skills. Barca’s Messi, at just 21, is perhaps more skilled, and even faster than his counterpart, and it’s likely only a matter of time until he overtakes Ronaldo as the world’s best. The Argentinean has already scored 41 goals in 56 matches in his most recent season, and at such a tender age, it is just a sign of things to come.

Manchester’s all-star supporting cast is led by Messi’s country-mate, Carlos Teves, and the English superstar, Wayne Rooney, two players who would headline any other team they played for. Add the 2009 PFA Player of the Year, Ryan Giggs, and the best defensive squad in football, featuring Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra, and it’s easy to see why United are the defending champions.

Barcelona has a reputation as being able to score their way out of any trouble they find themselves in. Never was this on greater display than during the Champions League Semi-Final against Chelsea, where Barca, down by a man due to a red card, needed one goal to make it to the final. In the 93rd minute of the match, Spaniard Andres Iniesta, finished off a wonderful pass from Messi – an incredible last gasp that landed the team in the championship match. Indeed, the team offers many scoring options, as they boast four players ranked in the top 10 of FIFA’s 2008 Player of the Year rankings. Along with Messi and Iniesta, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o and Spain’s Xavi Hernandez Creus, are members of that exclusive list. Add Thierry Henry, the French striker who has scored 42 goals in a season, and it is clear why Barcelona’s front line is the most feared in the world.

The odds-makers are calling Manchester United the favorite, based on an all-rounded team, but Barcelona will counter with more fire-power up front. With so much talent on one field, it promises to be a wonderful match, one every sports fan should be watching.

Open the papers today and you’ll see comments about how the Vancouver Canucks have not hit their stride yet:

“We haven’t seen the Canucks play their A game in this series.” – Vancouver Sun Sports Section.

Others offer criticism of certain players by stating that the Sedins or Alex Burrows have been invisible.

Well Mr. MacIntyre, Mr. Average Fan, what, to you, would constitute the Canucks hitting their stride? Here’s the answer: the Canucks play their best when they’re dominating the offensive boards, forechecking hard, and containing the puck in the opposite team’s end. This type of game plays directly into the hands of the Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler, and probably most of the Canucks forwards. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see it because the coaching staff has been so focused on their trap.

Thus far in the Canucks second round series with the Chicago Blackhaws, this has been the game plan: obtain the lead, shut down the hawks, win the game. Sending one man past Chicago’s blueline and keeping the other two high is not an up-tempo fore-checking scheme. More often than not, it will not lead to more goals for the trapping team. Pointing out that the Canucks have underperformed or not shown up only displays a lack of hockey understanding from the analyst, because in reality, the Canucks have done quite well at trapping. In fact, before game 6, the Canucks have held a lead 90% of the time in this series.

The problem? Chicago can score in bunches in a very short time period. The answer? Keep trying to score! Build up as big a lead as possible and count on an attempted comeback, because you can be sure it will come. And trust in the best goalie in the league to step up and make the key save.

I have a feeling that whatever the coaching staff says tonight, the Canucks will be too jacked-up to play shut down hockey. Roberto Luongo will be too dialed in, facing elimination, to allow anything past him. It’s going to be a good one. Get ready.