'Nucks IceMan

Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson

When you look at the Canucks 23 man active roster you’ll notice very quickly that it is made up of 13 forwards, nine defensemen and two goaltenders. Of these, a team is only allowed to dress 18 skaters and two goaltenders for a game.

So if a team is going with four forward lines (12 players), three sets of D-men (6 players) and two goaltenders, barring injuries, that would leave four skaters in the press box, of which three are D-men.

The D-men seem to be the excess numbers because since the obstruction rule was changed several years ago and there is no holding or hooking the forward charging into fore-check, D-men are dropping like leaves in the fall.

Not many teams get through a regular and play-off season without nine D-men on the roster and the Canucks will testify to that. During the play-offs against Chicago last year, the Canucks looked more like the Manitoba Moose with the number of injuries they had incurred.

Lucky for them that they did not survive to play game seven against Chicago because they were down to only three regulars (Kevin Bieksa, Christian Ehrhoff, Shane O’Brien), that had started the season with them, as Andrew Alberts was added at the final trading deadline.

Gone were Willie Mitchell, Sami Salo (no surprise), Aaron Rome, Nolan Baumgartner and Alex Edler who got injured in game six.

So with that in mind, GM Mike Gillis went out and not only added more D-men but physical/durable ones at that, in Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis.

Much has been mentioned about their physicality and or scoring ability since their arrival but no one has mentioned another important facet – durability.

Over his last five NHL seasons, Ballard has played all 82 games except one in 2006/07 when he played 69. Hamhius has played an average of 81 games over the last six seasons, so we know that they have both been durable.

As a team logging one the highest amount of air miles in the NHL, I’m sure that durability was something that entered into the equation for these two, especially with the $4 plus million dollar contract each of them received.

Still trying to get in to the prospects camp this Friday. Can you believe that training camp is only five days away?

Just where exactly did summer go?  

Some closing thoughts floating around for future articles – Was Canucks Henrik Sedin’s Hart and Art Ross Trophies a one-off or can he repeat one of them this season?

With a healthy Daniel, look for Henrik to repeat the Art Ross, or better yet maybe the twins finish one, two.

For up-to-date NHL news and happenings don’t forget to catch me on http://twitter.com/nucksiceman.

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Filed under: Opinion