'Nucks IceMan

Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson

One week, seven days, 168 hours or 10,080 minutes, that’s how long it’s been since the Vancouver Canucks have played a meaningful game. Now that might be okay for a sport like football, but hockey is a game that seems to need a continuous performance every couple of days by the players, broken by a gap of a day or two for rest and recuperation of the body.

You think that’s a long time? Think about all the hockey scribes, bloggers, you name it, that have exhausted their thoughts about the key players, coaches, match-ups and anything else that has come to mind, on the Stanley Cup finals between the Canucks and Bruins. After a while it just gets tedious, so start the series already!

It has been noted that the long break has to do with the NHL and Gary Bettman’s need to placate the US television networks that are covering the Stanley Cup. There is another play-off going on called the NBA, that has way more interest throughout the US than the Stanley Cup, so that is why the long wait took place.

The US networks couldn’t or wouldn’t televise an NBA game on the same day as the NHL game, and the NHL game had to be shown in a peek US eastern-time zone slot. Thus the 5:00 PM start for all the games. I’m surprised there isn’t a Sunday noon start somewhere in the schedule.

The biggest news this up coming series has seen, is the imminent return of Manny Malhotra. I’m not about to re-hash Manny’s injury but instead concentrate on the importance he brings to this team.

Besides the NHL and play-off experience he has over a player like Cody Hodgson or Alex Bolduc, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the importance he brings in the face-off circle. I have written so many times about puck possession and its place in the game, that I have lost count.

Manny Malhotra

You will already know the Malhotra finished second in the regular season amongst those that take face-offs, with a 61.7% success rate. The next Boston player was Patrice Bergeron at 56.6% and even Ryan Kesler was ahead of him at 57.4%. But that was the regular season

In the play-offs the Bruins centre’s percentages are as follows: Bergeron 62.3, David Krejci 51.7, Rich Peverley 51.9, Chris Kelley 44 and Gregory Campbell 42.1,

For the Canucks, their centre’s percentages look like this – Kesler 54.7, Maxim Lapierre 50.8, Cody Hodgson 46.9 and Henrik Sedin 46.8.

Without Malhotra, it would have been very difficult for the Canucks to have an advantage in puck possession, if the Bruins kept running out Bergeron every time an important face-off was needed. That is what happened in the Chicago series with Jonathan Toews, who had the best face-off percentage.

Now with Malhotra’s expected return and if he can get back to his regular season form, he could nullify Bergeron, and the rest of the Canuck centre’s (Kesler, Lapierre and Sedin) should be able to start off with the puck, at least at home where the Canucks have the last change and can match-up the centre’s.

Malhotra adds such a huge diversity to the line-up because even if he starts on the fourth line, coach Vigneault knows that whenever he rolls that line, the defensive responsibility part is taken care of, unlike what took place with Cody Hodgson. The face-off mismatch against Boston’s fourth line would be so one-sided with Malhotra, that the Bruins would have to use Bergeron or Kerjci just for a chance.

The Canucks penalty kill will be able to rest Kesler a bit more, with Malhotra taking some valuable seconds and face-offs, and it has a ripple down effect to the rest of the centres like Lapierre and especially Henrik Sedin. I would expect to see Henrik’s numbers improve over this series.

Another big IF, is the possibility of Malhotra moving up to the third line, where he has played with Raffi Torres and Jannik Hansen all season. This would then bump Lapierre down to the fourth line where he can continue to contribute in that role, and he has done that very, very well in these play-offs.

In the dressing room, we have all heard about the importance of the leadership that Malhorta brings.

This all adds up to the “X” factor that the Canucks needed for the Stanley Cup final and Manny Malhotra is that.

I see the Canucks taking this in five games. Why? Because I have tickets to that game and it would be my dream to be a part of the excitement, presentation and parade of the Cup around the ice. That and it would be such a release, after 40 years of passionate investment from following this team.

Footnote: I don’t ever remember a Canucks Stanley Cup final team that will have ten healthy D-men to insert into their line-up. They will need all of them with the bruising Bruins.

Looks like Ryan Kesler has recovered from that leg injury and is ready to go.

Most pressing question, will Bruins pair of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg be able to shut down the Sedins? If so, Kesler will have to be the leader just like against Nashville.

If the Canucks were patient enough to play the Nashville Predators and their trap like hockey, than they can handle the same type of smothering effort from the Bruins.

With the Canucks surviving the Sharks physical play, which I thought would be the toughest of all the teams, then they should be able to stand up to the Bruins.

Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images and Yahoo Sports!

To catch all the news, updates and new articles as they occur, along with the Canucks farm team, the Manitoba Moose, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/nucksiceman (I love this tweeting because it’s like small 140 character articles).

Note: www.nucksiceman.com is now mobile friendly. From the web address on your iPhone, you can choose Options/Mobile formatted and the site will appear in its entire living colour for you to view. Check it out.

Related posts:

Filed under: Vancouver Canucks