The Two-Line Pass

After an incredibly underwhelming display in his only regular season game of the year, the Canucks have officially placed Kyle Wellwood on waivers. That’s the second time in four months.

Maybe it was the fact that his only game was part of Tuesday’s pathetic offensive display in which the Canucks put 10 shots on net in 60 minutes. Maybe it’s that he turned the puck over several times even if the NHL’s official stats don’t show that (giveaway/takeaway stats are notoriously iffy, just like hits). Maybe it’s that he’s too injury-prone and afraid of contact, just like everyone in Toronto said he was.

Whatever the reason, this could be it for Wellwood’s NHL career, and he’s just 25 years old. The Canucks brought him in because they were worried about offensive production, but they’ve scored 16 goals in four games, so it’s not like that’s a huge concern any more either. They have no use whatsoever for a player that doesn’t hit, doesn’t work hard, and doesn’t score.

But the cruelest insult of all came in this CBC release:

Never the most toned player even at full health …

Ouch.

This is pretty much the only logical choice the Canucks could make. Vancouver needed a new guy to wear the C after seven-year captain Markus Naslund bolted for New York, and didn’t really have anyone left that could take over convincingly (read: Trevor Linden).

So the responsibility fell to Roberto Luongo, who can’t wear a letter on his jersey, as per NHL rules. Luongo is also only the fifth goalie in league history to receive the honor.

“I’m ready for that responsibility,” Luongo said. “I feel that last year, even though I didn’t have a letter, I was part of that leadership group.”

Because Luongo can’t have a letter on his jersey, Ryan Kesler, Mattias Ohlund and Willie Mitchell will all wear the A for games. If Luongo was smart, he’d stick a “C” on his helmet.

Here is a nice video about all this from the Canucks site. Mike Gillis credits Ryan Walter with getting this all squared away. It is also important to note, by the way, that this is certainly a move meant to discourage Luongo from hitting the market in two years when his Vancouver deal runs out. It worked on Naslund for as long as the Canucks found him useful.

Luongo is the first goalie to be team captain since 1947-48, when Bill Durnan of the Canadiens rocked the C proudly. Some might remember, and I think I am correct in saying this, that Durnan was the player that held the record for most consecutive shutout minutes before Brian Boucher broke it a few years ago. Durnan also wore two gloves that allowed him to catch the puck because he was ambidextrous. That’s all I know about Bill Durnan.

For the record, the other goalies to captain a team that were not Luongo or Durnan are John Ross Roach of the 1924-25 Toronto St. Pats, George Hainsworth of the 1932-33 Canadiens, and Charlie Gardiner of the 1933-34 Black Hawks.

The Vancouver Canucks are what you’d call a defensively responsible team.

But don’t tell Pavol Demitra.

For starters, Demitra said he’s not a fan of line juggling. And if he’s playing centre, he’d like to take a pass on the position’s responsibilities which are accompanied by the adjective “defensive.”

“When I was in Minnesota, I preferred playing the wing because the centre in Minnesota has to stay back and play defence,” Demitra admitted Monday. “In St. Louis, I preferred centre because I had the puck all the time.”

That’s going to go over big. But Demitra wasn’t done there. The number of inexplicably selfish, stupid things he says in one small interview is pretty impressive.

Some other choice highlights:

“I’m hoping they’re going to try to change it here and they’re going to play a little bit of offence here,” Demitra said.

Uh huh. Getting a 33-year-old past-his-prime Pavol Demitra is going to cause the Canucks to completely rethink the way they go about playing the sport.

“We have a top goaltender and I think we can open it up a little bit,” Demitra said.

You’d know.

I can’t tell what’s worse, the fact that this article blathers on and on about how he’ll be the sure-thing No. 2 center or that he seems to think so as well. Just make sure he gets all the ice time he wants, with the linemates he wants.

In his two years with the Wild, Demitra scored 64 and then 54 points.

“I don’t know what happened,” Demitra said. “I had a good time when I played with Gabby. But what bugged me there, is that I never had a chance to play with the same guys. The first year, I played with Gabby for stretches but not really much in the the second year. The way it works there, the coach [Jacques Lemaire] was always switching guys and the lines around. I didn’t like that.

People thought Markus Naslund was a pain in the ass the last two years in Vancouver because he, too, was not a fan of playing in the back third of the rink. Imagine how Demitra’s going to feel when he’s asked to pick up the defensive slack for Kyle Wellwood. It could turn into a serious problem, and one that’s not going away for another season after this one.

And it’s not like he’ll be insulated against line juggling. The article points out that there’s no one that’s really slotted into the second line. Mason Raymond, Wellwood, Taylor Pyatt, Steve Bernier, etc. could all get second-line minutes and that’ll make for a sad Demitra, who will not be shy about bitching to the media about it.

This really is shaping up to be an outstanding pickup for the Canucks.

Remember in April when the Canucks owner said the Sedins might not be part of the team’s plan for the future?

Well, turns out that was all just big talk.

Only two months later - and after the twins’ names were splashed across newspapers on two continents in speculative trade reports - Gillis said he hoped to re-sign the 27 year olds, who are eligible for unrestricted free agency next July.

Barry, however, has declined Gillis’s request to open contract negotiations.

Now, fearing the only proven two big guns his offense has at this point will be skipping town come next July, Gillis is in maaaaaajor backtrack mode.

“It wasn’t my intention to disparage their ability,” Gillis said.

“When I was asked that question [about the Sedins], I answered in the context of players going into the last year of their contract. I can’t build around players I might not have for more than a year.

“I tried to correct that because it did come out the wrong way. It was my fault.”

I’ll say. What Vancouver did here was try to prepare fans for the eventuality that the Sedins might tire of Vancouver’s inability to get them a right wing that can put the puck in the net and try their hand perhaps out East (at best) or elsewhere in the West (not ideal) or, in a nightmare scenario, with another team in the Northwest Division, which seems to love signing players from other division rivals.

But now there are these reports that Vancouver management and those lovable twins will be meeting next week to discuss the future. From the Sedins’ quotes though, it doesn’t seem like they particularly care for their current situation.

“It was a little bit of a surprise to us,” Henrik Sedin said of Gillis’ remarks. “But we can’t really say anything until we talk to him about it and what he’s thinking. It’s more disappointing than frustrating. But we’ve been used to it from Day 1.”

…

“First of all, we’re used to it, so it doesn’t really bother us,” Daniel said. “Maybe it’s a good thing for us; it made us work hard over the summer. I think it probably entered our mind that a trade was a possibility, but it’s not our choice.

These are probably not things you want your star forwards saying. Especially given the team’s chase for Mats Sundin (whose name I am actively trying to avoid using on this blog until he signs somewhere), at TEN MILLION DOLLARS a season, it seems very unlikely that both or either of the Sedins will re-sign with the Canucks.

All this does is give them motivation to exceed their ho-hum, not-first-line output of.. wait it says here Henrik has 231 points in his last 246 games, and Daniel has 229 in his last 245. It also says they turned stiffs like Anson Carter and Markus Naslund (yeah, I said it) into 55- or 60-point guys. The addition of Steve Bernier, who unlike Naslund actually goes into high-traffic areas, will make the Sedins even more dangerous, and turn Bernier into a 40-goal scorer (yeah, I said that too).

“We’re not players that are going to look for the biggest deal, the last few dollars,” Henrik said. “We want to be here. [But] there are new people coming in and we don’t know what they feel the future is for the team. Vancouver is where we want to play; that’s where we see our future. But it’s not up to us.”

Smart, Vancouver. Real smart.