Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Daily: Practice Rink Plans? Torts to Reappear? More
Among the items VHN touched on with Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford on Wednesday, one was an update on the club’s new practice rink, or lack thereof. At this point there aren’t really any new details to pass along other than to say this could be a somewhat lengthy process.
Once a location is chosen, kind of the easy part, Rutherford expects a process of permitting and build out that’s likely to take three to four years.
Although we didn’t discuss it, a “cool” spot that’s previously been brought up is near Rogers Arena on the water at False Creek near, or at, what is the Plaza of Nations.
The Vancouver Canucks mostly practice at Rogers Arena but also at the “8 rinks” complex in Burnaby.
St. Louis Surge
Wow, home ice for the Colorado Avalanche, a hat trick for Nathan MacKinnon, and a three nothing lead, but the St. Louis Blues come back to win Game-5 in Denver to stay alive in their second round series.
After tying the game 3-3 in the third period, the Blues fell behind again on MacKinnon’s glorious third goal of the night, an end-to-end rush with just 2:46 remaining in regulation. But Robert Thomas tied it again with the extra attacker on the ice at the 19:04 mark and Tyler Bozak won the game 5-4 in overtime at 3:38.
The series returns to St. Louis for Game-6 on Friday night with the Avalanche leading 3-games-to-2.
Brotherly Love of Torts
Former Vancouver Canucks Head Coach John Tortorella, who lasted just one season in BC, has interviewed for the vacant head coaching position with the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s not the only one, but he did get an endorsement from one of his former players with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a current Flyer Cam Atkinson.
Apparently Barry Trotz, recently fired by the New York Islanders, is also up for the job.
Cat Conundrums
Plenty of news out of the Florida Panthers after the Presidents Trophy winners were swept away in the second round by their cross-state rivals the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Or maybe it’s plenty of question marks. The Panthers pretty much went all-in for this playoff run, acquiring former Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux at the trade deadline to add even greater depth up front. It didn’t work out.
Questions: What is Giroux’s future, what is the future of ‘Jumbo’ Joe Thornton, yep he played in this series, the 42-year-old center who was the first overall pick in the NHL Draft to the Boston Bruins back in 1997, and what’s the future of head coach Andrew Brunette, who took over when Joel Quenneville was excommunicated from the league last fall for his silence during the Kyle Beach sex scandal of 2010 with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Always a lot of questions when a team gets bounced unceremoniously.
No question however that you’ll enjoy our Vancouver Canucks free agent roll calls, or that you’ll enjoy tonight’s Stanley Cup playoff games.
Enjoy the Hockey Action !!