| Stuck in Leaf Nation |
 Canucks Fanz columnist Brendan Batchelor, who is currently "Stuck in Leaf Nation," breaks down Damien Cox's meager attempt at an NHL Season Preview which was published last week in the Toronto Star. By Canucks Fanz Columnist: Brendan Batchelor The Toronto Star published its “NHL Season Preview” on Monday, October 1st. The 8-page-pullout from the newspaper came full of scintillating and unbiased evaluation of the upcoming NHL season, (I say that sarcastically in case you can’t tell.) The section consisted of a cover page, with pictures of young NHL stars which revolved around the theme that the new NHL is full of better young talent than ever. The first two inside pages were chock full of decent articles revolving around the main theme. In fact I was beginning to be willing to accept that the Star might have actually been able to put together a decent NHL season preview. I flipped the page to see “Damien Cox’s Pre-Season NHL Power Rankings.” A nice table was set up on the right hand side of the page with the teams ranked in the order that Damien Cox, Sports Reporter for the Star and apparent nincompoop, had decided they will finish at the end of the season. Listed next to each team were their point totals from last season and two short phrases each indicating an upside or a downside for each team. I scanned the Eastern conference first and it seemed like Cox had done a somewhat decent job of ranking the teams. He’d even had the gall to rank the Maple Leafs out of the playoffs – AGAIN. I chuckled as I thought that “this Cox guy may not be so bad after all.” It was then that I looked down at the Western conference rankings. His analysis started out alright as he predicted that Detroit would take the conference followed closely by San Jose who would take the Pacific Division and Colorado who would beat out the Canucks for the Northwest. Now, I’m not so much of a homer that I can’t take someone saying the Canucks won’t win the division. I, in fact, am skeptical myself of the Canucks’ chances of taking the Northwest again with both the Aves and Flames looking to have strong teams this year. But after noting Colorado, I scanned down to see where he’d put the Canucks. It was then that my opinion of Mr. Cox changed completely. The Vancouver Canucks sat at 9th place in the Western Conference, just out of a playoff spot behind the St. Louis Blues. That’s right the ST LOUIS BLUES. The same St. Louis Blues that finished more than 20 points behind Vancouver in the standings last year and are relying almost entirely on Paul Kariya for scoring. Cox then goes on to cite Vancouver’s upside as being that “Naslund is capable of much more.” How is the fact that Naslund isn’t producing an upside? Hell, we need him to start scoring! He then goes on to say that the Canucks’ downside is that they rely too much on Roberto Luongo! The same Roberto Luongo that played over 70 games last season without batting an eye and was a finalist for the Hart and Vezina Trophies! I didn’t see Andrew Raycroft doing anything like that, and the Leafs relied on him pretty heavily too. Not only did it say that the Canucks will finish out of the playoffs, but Cox predicted that the Boston Bruins will finish 15th in the WESTERN conference! He can’t even remember all 15 Western teams! This article is just another example of how self centered Toronto hockey fans are. Cox put less effort into his Western Conference predictions than I used to put into my high school newspaper, and that’s saying a lot. I myself see the Canucks finishing atop the Northwest division this season, having a deep playoff run and maybe even contending for the Stanley Cup. But until then, can someone please send me a Vancouver Sun, or a Province, or even a Vancouver Metro? The only thing the Toronto Star is good for is toilet paper to wipe my dirty ass. Discuss it here!                |