Well, the puck drops on hockey in a matter of hours and as I title suggest, yes I bleed blue, green and white for the Vancouver Canucks (Bruins are my second NHL team). Last season, the Canucks came one game of short of lifting the Stanley Cup but despite the cup final lost, it was still an excellent season. Winning the President's Cup and coming one game short of the championship are no small potatoes. But for many fans me included, the defeat still stings. Many were hopeful that after 18 long years a Canadian team will be able to lift the cup again. Sadly, the cup has been won by a American team from 1994 to the present. At present, I see the Canucks as being very motivated and and hungry after that stinging seventh game loss on home ice.
Though right now, the team needs to do it without Selke winner Ryan Kesler who's recovering from off season hip surgery and speedy Mason Raymond who's still recuperating from a broken vertebrae suffered during the cup finals. However, Canuck fans are cheering for rookie Cody Hodgson who'll be part of this year's roster as well a healthy Manny Malhotra who recovered from a possible career ending eye injury to play just in time for the cup finals. Also back after surgery is d-man Dan Hamhuis who's expected to lead the defense together with Kevin Bieksa. I'm looking forward to see the twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin pressure their opponents and hopefully Roberto Luongo will be finally able to exorcise his demons.
Its also worth noting that during the off-season the two former Canucks passed away: Rick Rypien and Pavol Demitra. Its confirmed that the Canucks will be honoring Rypien on October 18 against the Rangers while no plans have been reported yet for Demitra who was killed together with the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team of the KHL when their plane went down en route to Minsk.
Hopefully this is a season where there will be lots of cheers, goals and hopefully we'll see our team finally raised the cup and return it to Canada after nearly two decades. Also, I'd like to welcome back the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL. Its nice to have another team from Canada.
Anyway, welcome back Canucks and NHL 2011-12 season.
