(Wait who are we playing tonight?!)
The Canucks train comes rolling into Calgary tonight, winning their last four on the road. Calgary is 6-3-1 in their last 10. They are currently sitting at eighth in the West, caught up in another log-jam at the bottom of the playoff picture. They are tied with Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix at 81 points, and all four are only one point behind Dallas, and two points ahead of Anaheim. Calgary is what Calgary has always been, a quagmire. No not Peter's Griffin's neighbor, although I bet Jokinen runs around the locker room yelling giggity-giggity. The Flames always seem like they are underachieving, but are they really? If anything I would say the last few years they have been overachieving.
Considering their roster I would say they are achieving at their potential. Their fourth leading scorer is a man all Canucks fans are familiar with, Brendan Morrison, who signed with them on a training camp tryout. Nothing against Brendan, obviously he still has something in the tank, although he is injured right now, but when your top scorers, other than Iginla, are Jokinen, Tanguay and Morrison and its not 2001, your expectations should be right around the fifth seed at the very best.
Now on to the 400 pound, ginger gorilla in the room. Cory Schneider has been playing like a man possessed lately. His numbers are unreal: 13-3-2, 2.33 GAA, .927 S%, 1 SO. His play this year has been better than anyone expected, which creates a problem in net, actually not much of one, because there is only one option: trade him. Although, Luongo has similar numbers, which is encouraging, but this comes down to contracts. Schneider has one more year on an entry-level contract, while Luongo is making about $10 million a year (a $6.7 million cap hit), with another 12 years on it. That essentially makes him un-tradeable.
Now this is not a Luongo bashing session. He has played well this year and has very similar numbers to Schneider: 31-13-7, 2.22 GAA, .925 S%, 3 SO. He just got 300 wins, and is no doubt one of the best goalies in the NHL. But he has had two playoff let downs in the last two years, is under contract until he is 43, and is on the wrong side of 30. Its tough to see him making so much money, when there is a guy seven years younger, that is playing just as well, and not think of the players they could sign with the money they would save to make this team even better. What do you guys think?
I think this has the potential to mirror the Bryzgalov debacle from a few years ago if Gillis doesn't play it right. Everyone knows the Canucks won't be able to resign Schneider after next year even if he were to regress a little, but still be solid in 11-12. So, the Canucks should be reasonable on what they expect to get for him in a trade. Gillis doesn't seem like the type to let his ego get the better of him, like say a Brian Burke would, so as long as he's realistic about Schneiders trade value then the Canucks should at least get a good pick or a prospect in return. If he plays it like an idiot though, you might be seeing Schneider on waivers and snatched up by a perennial bottom feeder like the Iisles, Oilers or the Sens.
ReplyDeletePart of me hopes they just trade him this off-season, so they can get the maximum price for him. I don't think (I hope I am right) Gillis will pull a Burke and ask the world for him. He has seen this coming for awhile now, and should be able to get something done. But he has made some questionable moves in the past, so we'll see.
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