Canucks Army

Do you love it, or hate it? Does it get you feeling excited and pumped up or do you simply ignore it? I'm talking about the Canucks Entrance Song, Where the Streets Have No Name. It's the song that's played as they take to the ice for warm-up before each game. And there seems to be some debate, albeit all in fun, about the effectiveness of the classic U2 track as a warm-up song. For as much as I like (nay LOVE) that song, it's time as a pump-up track has come to end. Don't get me wrong. I love Where the Streets Have No Name. And when I watch Canucks games on TV, I get goosebumps from time to time when the starting chords warm up and come to life. It's great. However, isn't it kind of irrelevant what the fans think of the song? Isn't the entrance song supposed to evoke a little fear, uncertainty and doubt into their opponents while riling up their own players? While it might give the Canucks players a little rise, I don't think it does anything to instill panic into the hearts of the other team. While I hate to give props to anything related to the Chicago Blackhawks, their entrance song (Ted Nugent's Stranglehold) is friggin' awesome. It's ballsy, loud and menacing. Perfect. So I came up with a list of 10 songs that would be a better choice than their current entrance song. Cochise - Audioslave. Nice and loud and gets the blood pumping. Money City Maniacs - Sloan. It starts with a blistering siren and some great guitar chords. I've always liked this track to get me started. Welcome to the Jungle - Guns n Roses. Sure it's a bit cliche, but dammit it rulez. The Shock of the Lightning - Oasis. Loud and fast-paced and relentless. Just the way the Canucks are gonna play all year. Use It - The New Pornographers. Also, loud, fast-paced and relentless. Not quite as hard-hitting as some of the others, but The Pornos are local kids. Ya gotta give some love for that. Guerilla Radio or Bulls On Parade - Rage Against the Machine. Their songs are anthems for class struggles and defending rights and freedoms. They also double as kick-ass entrance songs. Bulls on Parade would be especially fitting as the Canucks fight their way through to the Stanley Cup. Running With The Devil - Van Halen. Like Welcome to the Jungle, it's a bit cliche and out of date. But it's a powerhouse song. Joker & The Thief - Wolfmother. It's just a fantastic amp-up song. Plus it makes me think of The Hangover when Alan is taking down the casino for 80 large. The Canucks will steal wins and hopefully sneak away with the Cup this year. Do you have any other suggestions? Hit me with them! Go to www.canucksarmy.com to post your comments!

<img src="http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab192/canucksarmy/CanucksArmy%20Logos/PotP.jpg" class="imageFloatLeftFramed">The Canucks should be making special wishes to Santa Claus tonight. "Please Santa - give me a win and a healthy roster at the end of the night!" The Nashville Predators visit Vancouver tonight as the Canucks look to rebound from a woeful and disheartening effort in their last outing. The Canucks have two games remaining on this eight-game home stand and should be looking to win both, starting with tonight's contest against the squad from Music City. Nashville continues to surprise the entire league with their play all season. Despite a miniscule payroll and a cast of mostly uninspired names, the Predators continue to win and creep up the standings. Nashville currently sits in fourth place in the West, only one win out of the division and conference lead. That said, the Canucks lead the Predators in most statistical categories - GF, GA, PP%, PK%, 5-on-5 GF/GA. One stat where the Preds lead, and this could be a very important stat tonight, is winning percentage when scoring first. The Preds are third in the league at 0.842. It will be vital for the Canucks to not only score first, but to be leading after the first period. Nashville is not particularly good at comingback when down, so the Canucks need a quick, successful start to the game. The Predators have only three players with 10 goals or more, and their highest goal scorer has a mere 12 goals. Now, granted the Canucks only have 4 players with double-digit goals, but they also have Kesler and Bernier each sitting on 9 goals coming into tonight's game. The point on Nashville is that they score by committee, so it will be tough for the Canucks to focus in on one player or one line, in particular. Tonight is a night for Roberto Luongo to win one all on his own. It's been a while since Luongo was the first star of a game. Tonight is just as good as any for him to reclaim the spotlight. Go to it, Captain Lu!

<img src="http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab192/canucksarmy/CanucksArmy%20Logos/PotP.jpg" class="imageFloatRightFramed">The eight-game home stand continues tonight as the St. Louis Blues visit GM Place to play the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks will look to buck their recent trend of playing well against good teams, and playing poorly against struggling teams. The Blues are struggling right now, so the perfect tonic for them would seem to be to play the Canucks. For one reason or another, the Canucks just can't seem to find the wherewithal to pounce on bad teams. Instead they drop their game and their guard down and put forth lacklustre efforts time and time again. Tonight's game could be a telling sign as to the mental state of the Canucks right now, after winning a gutsy effort against the Capitals. Can the Canucks step n the neck of a bad team? Already this year, the Canucks have lost to the Hurricanes, who were (and still are) the league's worst team. They also lost to the Ducks who were, at the time, the Western Conference's worst team. They face the Blues tonight ho si in last place in the West - another one of these troubling games that Vancouver loses. They just don't seem to get their energy level up enough for these games. And it REALLY hurts their chances of moving up the standings. The Blues' problem is simple. They can't score. It's strange, given all the young firepower that they have in the lineup, but they just can't light the lamp. The Blues are last in the league in GF and trail the Canucks in every main statistical category with the exception of PK. For some reason, the Blues PK is fantastic, putting them at 4th in the league. Their PP is absolutely aweful, again putting them dead last in the league. The Blues have recently become a bit of a hated rival for the Canucks, as the two teams have faced off several times in recent playoff runs. The Canucks need to pounce on their wounded rival and go for the kill. They also need to prove that they can beat the bad teams, just like they beat a good team two days ago.

<img src="http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab192/canucksarmy/CanucksArmy%20Logos/PotP.jpg" class="imageFloatLeftFramed">The Vancouver Canucks look to bounce back from a disappointing home loss as they host the league's most electric player tonight, as the Capitals come to town to take on the Canucks at GM Place. The Canucks could have gutted out a valuable, important, spirit-lifting win against Anaheim on Wednesday night. But they didn't. They could have finally been in a playoff spot in te standings for the first time this season. But they didn't. They could have had their first 4-game winning streak of this year. But they didn't. So they're still out of a playoff spot. They have no winning streak. They're back to square one. Just in time to face to face one of the hottest teams in the NHL and second in the Eastern Conference. Oh yeah, and they're facing some obscure, plucky Russian player in Alex Ovechkin (do I have that right?). In the Canucks' favour, Vancouver is 6-1-0 against Eastern opponents this year, with their only loss coming against the league's worst team (Carolina Hurricanes). The Canucks also have a dominating record against the Capitals in recent years. Their last game against Ovechkin and the Caps was a 5-1 loss very early last season. Before that, the Canucks had won five in a row against Washington. In their last 10 meetings, spanning 11 years, the Canucks are 7-3 against the Capitals. The Canucks need a win tonight to reclaim the momentum they had built up from the wonderful start to this pre-Christmas home stand. The Canucks do tend to play well against the better teams in the league, so there is promise. The Capitals also had their Rookie Dinner in Vancouver this week, and that usually leads to teams letting down their guard. The Canucks need to stay out of the penalty box tonight. The Caps sport the league's best Power Play, and they do that because they draw a lot of penalties because of their overall team speed, and the fact that they a good number of snipers in their lineup. There is no sense finding a key area of focus in trying to beat the Capitals. They are good at everything - literally. They are near or at the top of the league in almost every statistical category. GF, 5-5 GF/AA, PP, Leading after 1st or 2nd, Trailing after 1st, Faceoff %... it oes on and on. The ONLY two main stats where the Capitals aren't in the top 7 is GA and PK. Their GA is respectable, but the PK is terrible. So if their is one area to exploit, it might be their PK. But let's remember, the Canucks PK is only marginally better. Good luck tonight, Canucks - you'll need it!

<img src="http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab192/canucksarmy/CanucksArmy%20Logos/PotP.jpg" class="imageFloatLeftFramed">The Vancouver Canucks look to avenge a lopsided side loss from earlier this season as they host the Anaheim Ducks tonight at GM Place. While the Canucks are riding a three-game home winning streak, the Ducks are sitting in last place in the Western Conference. Hopefully for Canucks fans, this game will see a much different result than the first meeting between the two clubs. That game saw the Canucks jump out to an early 2-0 lead then surrender seven straight goals, en route to a 7-2 loss in Anaheim. However, the Ducks have a pretty dismal record on the road, while the Canucks have the most home wins in the NHL. Moreover, the Canucks have won three straight and are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games, while the Ducks are only 4-2-4 in their last 10, and have the second worst road record in the entire league. The Ducks have also win only twice in their last eight games, but have managed to pick up extra points but taking four of those losses into extra time. The Ducks still have their national-team caliber top line racking up points, along with their top two defencemen. If you take away their starting lineup, the Ducks' individual numbers are atrocious. With Teemu Selanne hurt and Saku Koivu underperforming against expectations, the Ducks secondary scoring has all but dried up. The Canucks need to take advantage of a team that plays poorly on the road and has no potency past the starting lineup. The Canucks clearly love playing on the road and have two high-strength scoring lines at the moment. If the Canucks can play the same game against Anaheim, as they did against the LA Kings, the Canucks should see another two points. The Canucks were very effective at shutting down Anze Kopitar, and have proven that they can play a fast forecheck, choking style of game and take the game over with puck possession. The Canucks need to win faceoffs to control the puck, stick to Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan like glue and they'll surely see their first four-game winning streak of the season tonight.

The league's best home team host the Western Conference's best overall team as the Canucks host the Los Angeles Kings tonight at GM Place. The Canucks play their third game of their current eight-game home stand, and are perfect so far with 2 wins and no losses. Tonight's test will certainly be the biggest challenge yet, as the Los Angeles Kings sit atop the Western Conference standings and are the NHL's hottest team, going 8-1-1 in their last ten games. The Canucks have had a lot of success against the Kings in recent years, and will look to keep that going. Vancouver has won four in a row against LA, and 6 of their 7. The Canucks will also be looking to break a trend this season - Vancouver has not won more than two games in a row all year. This inability to put together a lengthy string of wins has been a main contributor to the team sitting in 10th place in the Western Conference. For the Kings, their star forward Anze Kopitar appears to be coming out of a goal-scoring slump. Kopitar has scored two goals in his last three games, after having gone goalless in 13. The Kings other big threat this season is sophomore Drew Doughty. Doughty is only three points away from matching his point total from last season and is currently +27 higher than last season in the plus/minus category (-17 last season versus +10 this season). Doughty has also been mentioned by many as a serious candidate for the Canadian Olympic team, ahead of contenders like Mike Green and Brent Burns. For the Canucks, right now it's all about Henrik Sedin. Hank is now tied with Marion Gaborik for 2nd in overall league points, and tied for 4th in assists. His is also a +9 and leads the league in even-strength points with 29. Right now, quite simply, Hank is a Hart-trophy candidate and it's been a long time since we've been able to say that about a member of the Canucks. The Sedin line overall has been electric since Daniel's return from injury and will continue to be a force against the Kings tonight. Canucks' games against Los Angeles tend to be low-scoring, tight-checking affairs. Look for more of the same tonight, as the Canucks aim to remain perfect during this home stand and inch higher up the standings in the West.

Can the Vancouver Canucks build on a great start to their eight-game home stand? They'll try tonight as they host hated division rival Minnesota Wild tonight at GM Place. The Canucks kicked off their lengthy home stay with a decisive win over the visiting Thrashers Thursday night. Vancouver played a solid, all-around effort and should look to duplicate that tonight. The Canucks still have room for improvement, as they took a quick succession of penalties in the first period, allowing the Thrashers to cash in on the power play. Vancouver's penalty kill continues to plague them and is a massive Achilles' heel for them right now. The Minnesota Wild have rebounded lately after a dismal start to the season, and are the hottest team in the Western Conference, going 8-1-1 in their last ten games. The problem for the Wild is that they simply don't score goals. They're great at keeping the puck out of their own net, but have problem putting in the other one. The Wild have a very good PK and are 4th in the league in faceoff winning percentage. These are two areas that the Canucks are going to have to win in order to turn the momentum of the game in their favour. The Canucks themselves have a very good power play and are 6th in the league in the faceoff circle. The key battle that I see tonight is when the Canucks are shorthanded. The Wild are not especially good on the power play, ranking 19th, but the Canucks PK is terrible this season, ranking them 27th. More importantly, the Canucks lack of ability to kill penalties has cost them games. The biggest factor in tonight's game will be for the Canucks to stay disciplined. If they do take a penalty, they need to play smart simple defence and kill off EVERY penalty. The Wild are not very strong offensively, but they are opportunistic. If they get a lead, they'll hunker down and shut the game down quickly and effectively. The biggest positive for the Canucks is the fact that the Wild come into Vancouver after playing and winning last night in Calgary. The Canucks again need to take advantage of a potentially tired team, playing the second of back-to-back games. The Canucks faced the same situation against the Thrashers and took full advantage. Can they do the same against the Wild? They need to stick to their same lineup and game plan, and they should see a similar result.