Roberto Luongo is the most valuable asset for Vancouver, and the new G.M. to replace Dave Nonis will need to build a stronger offense around the All-Star goaltender. (CP Images)
Greetings from Vancouver!
Yep, I'm sitting out here on the Pacific edge of Canada, soaking up rays wondering if I slept through summer. You know that when the weather reports mention a slight chance of snow flurries, you've probably picked the wrong time of year to visit.
When I made plans to fly west, the plan was simple enough. Spend a little time with family, do the tourist thing and catch a little playoff hockey uh, well, hmmmm.......two out of three ain't bad, right?
The big hockey news out here, of course, is Dave Nonis getting the can tied to him earlier this week and the subsequent search for the next general manager that will take the helm.
On Wednesday, the day my plane touched down in BC, there was a long, multi-paged editorial in The Province that seemed to have a page count just short of War and Peace. Besides speculating on the search for the next GM, fans were also given their platform to sound off.
Besides the short-sighted rationale from the lunatic fringe suggesting the ‘Nucks should re-sign Trevor Linden and give him the ‘C'-hey, '94 was a long time ago-one vindictive reader went as far as to suggest the Canucks "shouldn't be like the Leafs", whatever the heck that means. Last I checked, Vancouver's Cup count was no larger than Toronto's. Or, for that matter, Columbus, Atlanta, Nashville, Florida, Los Angeles....
Uh, newsflash. The Canucks ARE the Leafs with a great goalie. Should they not try to address a little scoring, Luongo may choose to bolt town when the opportunity arises.
Robeto Luongo masked a lot of problems with the Canucks, the most glaring being an impotency to score. That is something the next general manager, whatever his name happens to be, will need to fix in a hurry. The process can begin sometime this spring for the Canucks, who own the #10 pick in a mouth-watering, top-heavy draft.
Nonis was canned, at the end of the day, for not parting with any prospects at the deadline for a short-term scoring fix, which could be seen as a noble, falling-on-his-sword sort of move. It ended up costing him his job, but the Luongos Canucks are better for it.
Whether they package that pick for some scoring help or take the free agency route this summer, it is a situation that needs to be addressed. As in now.
Luongo can only keep them out.
Scoring is an art he hasn't quite mastered yet.