Here Is My Opinion.

With 21 games left the Vancouver Canucks sit in 5th place in the West with 70 points. The chances of us catching calgary in the Nowrthwest division are slim, It would have to come with about 18 wins in our last 21 games and have calgary go on a bit of a slide. However I believe that 90 points gets you a playoff spot. That would mean we would need at least 10 wins in the remaining 21 games. I think the Vancouver Canucks will get 15 wins in the last 21 games. Thats saying that they continue to play like they are right now. One thing to take into consideration though, is that all our games are now against Western Conferance teams. The Western Conferance is so tight right now that almost every team will be pushing for wins to make the playoffs. The Canucks cannot go into another 8 game losing streak. Even a 5 game losing streak could cause us to miss the playoffs. We don't want to miss the playoffs by 1 point like we did last year. It would be nice to have 5 or 10 games left and have a playoffs spot clinched. Then we could rest some players and get prepared for the playoffs. GO CANUCKS GO!

Guess Whose Back!?

On the day when Ossi Vaananen made his debut in Canucks practice, Rick Rypien made his return. He has been cleared to skate. He made his first appearance since a sports hernia injury sidelined him back in late October forcing him to miss 53 straight games. The scrappy forward skated with assistant coach Darryl Williams prior to practice and issued the following statement to the media:

"I would like to thank the Canucks organization and my teammates for their tremendous support during this challenging time. Everyone has been so supportive and I can't thank them enough for everything. I would also like to thank the media and the Canucks fans for their respect they have shown me during my time away. I am happy to be back practicing with my teammates and would ask that thus matter remain private at this time. I will speak to the media at an appropriate time in the future. Thank you."

AV says that Rypien will skate by himself for 4 or 5 days and then return to playing with the players. There is no time line for his return, they will take it one day at a time and he will play when he is ready.

Ossi Vaananen

The Vancouver Canucks picked up Ossi Vaananen off waivers from Philadelphia early Saturday morning. He is a 28 year old defence man. This is a very good pick up, getting him for half price. We know have 6 solid defense man, plus 4 or 5 good back ups in case of injury. If the Vancouver Canucks go deep into the playoffs this will help a lot because we can put in these trustworthy defense man to have some fresh legs out there. Vaananen skated for the first time this morning in practice.

Ohlund Ready To Test The Free Agency Market?

This article came up on TSN.com today. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=268813

NHL Trade News.

There was 2 trades today in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens were at it again trading Steve Begin to Stars for Doug Janik. Steve Begin was i healthy scratch for the last 5 games. The Pittsburgh Penguins have cleared up a bit of their logjam along their blueline as they have traded Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi.

With The return of Hordachuck.

With The return of Hordachuck Alexandre Bolduc got sent back down to the Moose as well.

Canucks Recent News.

Darcy Horachuck will be back in the mix Friday night VS. The Tampa Bay Lightning. He was out of the line up for the past 2 games because him and his wife were delivering their first baby. Pavol Demitra was not expected to play on friday so the 21 year old Austrian forward Michael Grabner was called up from the Manitoba Moose. He practiced with the Canucks this morning and then got sent back down to the Moose after Demitra said he will play Friday night.