Roberto Luongo will be counted on once again to carry the Canucks far into the post season.

It’s been nearly four months since an exhausted Vancouver Canucks squad surrendered four goals in their game seven loss to the Boston Bruins. Vancouver, and their fans, was forced to watch the Bruins hoist their first Stanley Cup in 39 years on Rogers Arena ice.

Needless to say, the only thing on the Canucks to-do list for this year is celebrate a Stanley Cup win.

But since 1970 only two teams have responded from a finals loss to win it all the following year; one of those teams was led by Sidney Crosby and the other by some guy wearing the number 99.

Up front the Canucks are as good heading into this season as they were last year, maybe better. The offseason addition of Marco Sturm combined with the progress of Cody Hodgson gives the Canucks three solid scoring lines. The Sedins are almost guaranteed 100-point scorers  and Kesler is arguably the best second-line centre in the league. Throw in Malhotra in a third/fourth line role centering Hansen and Lapierre and the Canucks have the potential to be the best offensive team in the NHL, again.

The only question surrounding the offense is whether Kesler can survive another 100+ game war with the physical way he plays. The wear-and-tear of every day play eventually caught up with Kesler in the playoffs last season and led to the injury that stunted his production in round 3 and the finals. But the 6’2″ Michigan native hasn’t missed a regular season game in the last three seasons so his durability shouldn’t be a question.

On the back end the Canucks will have a big hole to fill with the loss of Christian Ehrhoff to Buffalo in free agency. Ehrhoff’s 28 goals and 94 points over the last two seasons in Vancouver is no small void. The top four defensemen for the Canucks all have offensive upside but depth could be an issue without Ehrhoff. Aaron Rome will start the season on Injured Reserve after x-rays revealed a broken finger. Rome suffered the injury on September 25 blocking a shot and could miss 4-6 weeks. In his absence the Canucks will start Keith Ballard and Chris Tanev on the bottom pair.

The Canucks continually have their share of injuries on defense during a season which means Ballard and Tanev will probably see a great deal of ice time during the 82 game season and could be counted on during the playoffs as well. That alone could be the Canucks undoing as Ballard seemed unable to handle the pressure of the Stanley Cup finals after Rome was suspended. There’s no doubt Sami Salo will miss time at some point during the season and the Canucks defense will need to prove that they can survive without the presence of Ehrhoff.

In goal, Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider give Vancouver a chance to win every game. Despite his inconsistency, Luongo proved last season that he can lead a team to playoff success. He certainly wasn’t the reason the Canucks lost to Boston in the finals; however, he wasn’t the reason they won either. Some of the great goalies of all time (names like Brodeur, Roy, and Hasek) were almost single-handedly the reason their team won the Stanley Cup. Luongo doesn’t seem like he’ll ever be that kind of goaltender.

As the regular season continues tonight, the quest for the Cup begins anew for the Vancouver Canucks. Will this year be different from any of the 40 that have come before it? I would say no.

Mark Sheifele played his way onto the Winnipeg Jets pro team with his eight points in five pre-season games.

If you were to sit down and have a heart-to-heart chat with Winnipeg Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff prior to training camp, Mark Scheifele would be considered a longshot when talking about who makes the opening night roster.

Well, the 18-year-old centre not only exceeded management’s expectations during the pre-season – he brought a whole new level of excitement to fans of the team, who would love for nothing more than a playoff berth in the team’s first season back in Winnipeg.

Scheifele displayed a level of playmaking in the pre-season that Cheveldayoff was hoping for when he drafted the Kitchener, Ont., native seventh overall in this year’s NHL draft. He scored two goals and two assists in his first game and ended up with four goals and eight points in five games. He ended up in second place in NHL pre-season scoring behind Dallas’ Mike Ribeiro.

Scheifele ended up signing an entry-level contract and will now be in the big leagues for the foreseeable future.

He will have nine games to prove he can stay with the big boys or he’ll be sent down to play a second year of junior with the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts.

So where will he play? Reports have surfaced he’ll see time on the second unit with young sniper Evander Kane. With right-winger Eric Fehr — who is projected to play on the second line — nursing an injured shoulder, it’s a perfect opportunity for Scheifele to begin the season on a legit scoring line.

He may even end up as the team’s No.1 centre. Let’s be honest, current No.1 pivot Bryan Little has had two rather disappointing seasons after registering career highs in goals (31) and points (51) in 2008-2009.  If Scheifele continues to impress, don’t be surprised to see the youngster usurp Little.

So, was Scheifele’s terrific pre-season an indicator of things to come? Will he prove he can withstand the rigors of the day-to-day life in the NHL? Scheifele will have to answer all those questions and more as he embarks on what he hopes will be a productive first season in the NHL.

If he does indeed provide Winnipeg with another scoring option this season, then Jets’ fans’ dreams of their favourite team making the playoffs in its first season back to the province of Manitoba may very well come true.

Brett Burns, acquired from the Wild, looks to add a boost to the Sharks blueline.

The San Jose Sharks finished the preseason with an impressive 5-1 record as they look to put the finishing touches on building a Stanley Cup team.  It was especially satisfying to win a couple of games against the Vancouver Canucks, who had dashed the Sharks’ Stanley Cup dreams last season in the Conference Finals.

I wasn’t able to attend any of the games, and had to content myself with reading the play-by-play as it was listed on the Sharks website, and listening to radio coverage of the last two games.  I came away from the exhibition games, once again, with the general enthusiasm of a good start to the new hockey year, and a feeling that the obstacles to the path of the Cup were falling away.

With the acquisition of Brent Burns, Jim Vandermeer and Colin White, the Sharks management has successfully filled up the holes left by departing defensemen.  Trying to fill the hole left by Devin Setoguchi is going to be much harder, but Brad Winchester is seeking to accomplish the job and his play during his tryout earned him a one year contract.

Looking back to the Sharks biggest trade to date, when Joe Thornton came over from Boston, I couldn’t help but believe that Doug Wilson and the Sharks organization was tired of trying to dredge up success from the scrap heap of free agency and willing to make tough choices to bring in the talent needed, even though this idea had previously backfired with the acquisition of Teemu Selanne for a lackluster performance unworthy of his ability. Yet, the “transitional veterans” looking for just one more chance at a Cup are vying for a teal colored sweater.  Michal Handzus has jumped in with a two year contract and could find himself centering the third line for the Sharks.

But look out!  The young guns are still blazing with a tough, young center named Tommy Wingels.  This kid’s performance leading up to the start of the regular season has been tremendous, so far.  He played five games in the NHL last season and no doubt he is determined to play many more this year.  The energy he brings to the team is something the Sharks are going to need come next April, and promises to keep Sharks fans on their feet throughout the season.  A young Joe Thornton in the making?  Well, that’s not a hole that needs filling, but his quickness and energy are going to be valuable assets to the team in general.

Sharks fans are still waiting to see Antti Niemi back in goal as he recovers from surgery, but in the meantime, Thomas Greiss has not disappointed them in the least.  Once again, confidence in a solid netminding team gives the Sharks one less thing to worry about this season.

So, as we look forward to the start of the Sharks’s 2011-2012 season, there is only one hole left to fill.  With Round Table Pizza pulling out of their sponsorship, who is going to fill “Four in the Net, Pizza You Get?”  That’s one I’m definitely going to miss!

Jets traded for Fehr in the offseason hoping he can contribute on the top two lines.

With the hysteria that has been created in and around Winnipeg regarding the return of an NHL team, it’s evident that, at this point, fans in that town are simply ecstatic they have professional hockey back.  There will, however come a time when Jets fans will no longer be content to just have NHL hockey at their doorstep. They’ll want a team that regularly competes for the most heralded trophy in all of pro sports — the Stanley Cup.

Breathe easy Jets fans. This is a team on the rise with plenty of young talent. Players such as Bryan Little and Evander Kane up front, Zach Bogosian and Dustin Byfuglien on the blueline and talented puck-stopper Ondrej Pavelec in net. The building blocks are there. Now it’s just a matter of continuing to develop the young talent, while improving the team via free agency, trade and of course, the draft.

Let’s take a look at some of the club’s offseason moves during the summer. Without question, the team’s No. 1 acquisition would have to be Eric Fehr. The towering right-winger, who was acquired via trade with the Washington Capitals in the summer, will, in all likelihood, get the opportunity to play on one of the team’s top two scoring lines. Fehr was mired on a deep depth chart in Washington and primarily saw time on the third line. The 6-foot-4, 212 pound Fehr, a former Canadian Hockey League player of the year, needs to show that he can take the next step in his development and become a “top-six” forward who can consistently score 30-plus goals a season. He has shown flashes of being a big-time scorer — but did not become the player the Caps were envisioning when they drafted him in the first round (18th overall) in the 2003 draft.
Fehr tore the labrum in his shoulder last January and wound up having surgery after the season. His long recovery will likely cause him to miss the opening of the season.

At this point, the first line may be a replicate of late last season as Bryan Little centered a unit with Blake Wheeler and team captain Andrew Ladd. When Fehr returns to the lineup, don’t be surprised to see him on the second forward unit with former Toronto Maple Leaf Nik Antropov and the aforementioned Kane.

Fehr netted 21 goals during the 2009-2010 season, so it’s not out of the question he has a career year if he stays healthy. Add 50-60 points from Antropov and improved production from young sniper Kane and you have the makings of a line that could provide the Jets with solid secondary scoring.

After Fehr, the team focused on improving its depth with the likes of Randy Jones and Winnipeg product Derek Meech on defence and forward Tanner Glass, formerly of the Vancouver Canucks. Of the three players, look for Jones and Glass to make the biggest impact. As a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning a year ago, Jones, who stands at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, played in more than 60 games for the first time in his career and played relatively well, netting a goal and 12 assists as well as racking up 104 blocked shots. Glass, 27, meanwhile, should be a staple on one of the team’s checking lines. The 6-foot-1, 210 pound left-winger has some grittiness to his game (187 penalty minutes in two years with Canucks). Meech has spent his entire NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings. The 5-foot-11, 200 pound blueliner played sparingly with the Wings last season and at this point, should only be considered a depth blueliner, providing the Jets with a fill-in option if one of the regulars get injured.

Now that summer is coming to an end, NHL teams like the Jets are preparing for training camp, which begin mid-September. Will the Jets have the opportunity to contend for hockey’s ultimate prize in its first year back in the ‘Peg after the moves made this offseason? Personally, I don’t think so, but that’s not to say they won’t have the chance in years to come.

Jensen was drafted 29th overall by the Canucks in the 2011 draft.

The city of Penticton will again host the Vancouver Canucks Young Stars tournament feature prospects from the Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets. The tournament will be held Sept. 11-15 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

Which means now is as good a time as ever to take a look at some of the future Canucks playing and whether it will even be worth attending.

Added to the mix of last year’s prospects (including Kevin Connauton, Cody Hodgson, Jordan Schroeder and Chris Tanev) will be this summer’s draft picks.

First-round pick Nicklas Jensen will have plenty of eyes on him in Penticton after a stellar season last year with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. Jensen’s 29 goals and 29 assists in 61 games showed the Vancouver scouting staff that he has the potential to be a gifted offensive player. At 6’3″ the Dane also has the size needed to play North American-style hockey (which he proved during his transition from Denmark to the OHL) although he does still need some time to blossom physically and fill out his lanky body. Jensen definitely has all the tools needed to be a top-six forward in the NHL.

Without a pick in the second round (Vancouver traded the pick to Minnesota for a third and fourth) the Canucks had to wait until round three to make their second selection of the draft and picked up another goaltender to fill the already large waiting line behind Roberto Luongo.

Czech native David Honzik continues to be compared to Predators goalie Pekka Rinne for his incredible play in the Memorial Cup. The 18-year-old helped the Victoriaville Tigres’ pull off a huge upset over their first round opponent, the Acadie-Bathurst Titans, and even gave the eventual Memorial Cup champions, the Saint John Sea Dogs, fits in the second round. That being said it’s hard to imagine Honzik ever becoming more than a backup at the NHL level, especially in Vancouver where Luongo shall sit atop his thrown for another 11 years, or until the Canucks either trade him or buy out his contract in the last few years.

The Canucks other third round pick, Alxexandre Grenier, is a 6’5″ winger who split last season between the Quebec Ramparts of the QMJHL and the Saint-Jerome Panthers of the QJAAAHL. While his nine goals and 15 assists in just 31 games with the Ramparts was impressive enough to make him a third round pick, the fact that he played half of his draft-eligible season with a AAA team means it’s unlikely Grenier will ever don the blue and green sweater for the Canucks.

The Canucks rounded out their draft with an American centre, a Canadian defenceman and three more Swedes to add to the growing list of imports but none looks like they have much of a shot of making the NHL this year or any other.

The only bit of intrigue from the Canucks in the later rounds was their seventh round pick Pathrik Westerholm. The Swedish centreman was passed up in his first year of draft eligibility in 2010 but last year he led the Swedish U-20 league with 57 points in 26 games playing along side his twin brother Ponthus.

Sound familiar? Swedish twins lighting up the entire league. Ponthus remains undrafted and could be a player Vancouver looks to pick up. The Westerholm twins play a cycle game much like the Swedish twins skating in Vancouver already and would look really good skating on a line together in the NHL behind the Sedins. If the Canucks are unable to nab Ponthus, Pathrik might be able to join the Sedins in the puck control cycle

Steve Smith won three Stanley Cups with Edmonton.

The blunder arguably cost the Oilers the 1986 Stanley Cup, which, coupled with the two they won in the following years, would have given them five in a row.  Even more unfortunately, it deprived hockey fans of the chance to see Gretz and Mess meet a rookie Patrick Roy in the Stanley Cup finals in what would have been a series for the ages.

Except for one bad pass, Steve Smith was a solid hockey player, but you don’t cost your team a championship and not end up on a few lists like this.  Unfortunately, Smith stands with the Bill Buckners and Mitch Williamses of the world, who illustrate one of the great injustices of sports: put in a couple decades of solid play, have one missed pass or one ground ball through the legs at the wrong time, and you’re forever a goat, remembered by fans as the latest Charlie Brown to go head over heels after failing to kick the football.

In a lot of ways, Smith wasn’t even really a true choker, unlike…

#4 Joe Thornton

Joe Thornton enjoys regular season success.

Joe Thornton first appeared on the radar screens of Canadian hockey fans during the 1997 IIHF World Junior Tournament.  There, he looked pretty respectable, seemingly leading a team of somewhat less notable young men to Canada’s fifth straight tournament gold, but even back then, cracks were evident in the clutch game of the future first round draft pick.  Brad Isbister was Canada’s leading scorer, Boyd Devereux scored the tournament’s most important goal, and Marc Denis was sensational in net.  Thornton, however, notched a mere four points in seven games for an average far below the 2.06 PPG he maintained in the OHL that season.  The one bright spot for Thornton was the traditional national anthem singalong, where the winning team belts out a notoriously abysmal rendition of their anthem in celebration.  It was then that Thornton did us all proud by managing to hold a tune better than most of the fresh-out-of-puberty teenagers that have come through that tournament over the years.

Thornton’s amazing OHL numbers led to him getting drafted first overall in 1997, and he soon found regular season success with the fledgling Boston squad, hitting the 100 point mark in 2002-03 and accepting the Bruin captaincy that same season.  However, Joe never found playoff success with Boston, captaining the team to three straight first-round playoff defeats, including a seven game series with Montreal in 2004 where he scored a grand total of zero points and took seven penalties.

Most high-level chokers try to direct attention away from their own lack of performance by criticizing management for failing to put a winning product on the ice.  Thornton is no exception, having employed those tactics during his period of restricted free agency in the 2004 off-season.  The Bruins inexplicably re-signed him anyway, but the captain’s words had done their damage and he was soon dealt to the San Jose Sharks.  Thornton has since played exceptionally well there, leading the team to a President’s Trophy in 2009.  However, playoff success has continued to elude Jumbo Joe, likely due in part to his  failure to score points with the same frequency that he does in the regular season, or to score them at the key times within playoff games.

It’s not all over for Joe though: his playoff numbers have been improving.  They don’t yet match his regular season stats, and he wasn’t there for any key goals during the Sharks’ playoff run this year, but there was a time the same could have been said about Steve Yzerman – and he finished his career with three Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe trophy.

Joe is one of two members of this list for whom the book is still open, the other being:

#3 Alex Ovechkin

Ovechkin has enjoyed regular season success, but can't seem to be found when it counts.

On the surface, Alexander Ovechkin’s resume of IIHF World Championship points, individual awards, and medals seems mighty impressive.  That is until one considers that the World Championships are basically a consolation prize for NHL players whose teams got knocked out of the playoffs, at which point Ovie’s constant presence in that tournament should start raising questions about why his Capitals can’t manage to stay in the playoffs.

In the four playoff appearances that Ovechkin has made with the Capitals, he’s never seen the team go past the second round.  His 1.3 PPG in the playoffs stands up pretty well to his regular season average, and he does have 4 game winning goals in his 37 career playoff games, but he doesn’t seem to be there for his team when they need him, and for a Hart Trophy winning team captain, that’s just unacceptable.    Up until this past season, Ovechkin’s Capitals had never won a playoff series in less than seven games, and it’s in the game sevens that Ovie has enshrined himself as a true choker.

Ovechkin’s first game seven experience came in 2008, where he managed one goal against Philadelphia before losing his wind in the third period and turning the puck over on multiple occasions.  Ultimately, it was Philadelphia’s Martin Biron, not the Great Russian Hope, that put on a performance for the ages in that game.  A year later in Washington’s first successful game seven, Ovechkin was held pointless in a 2-1 tilt against the Rangers.  The game was all tied up going into the third period, which is the traditional choke time for guys like Alex.  Washington did score in the third period, when proven playoff performer Sergei Fedorov appeared to finally get sick of not having anybody on his left side and went in to pop the winner himself.

Fedorov’s goal advanced the Capitals to the second round, where they met the Pittsburgh Penguins.  That series, which had a lot of people making wild speculations about what implications the outcome would have on the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry, would be captured by the Pens in seven games.  Game seven was a highlight for Crosby, who scored three points and earned the first star.  Consistent with his past game seven efforts, Alex did manage one goal: a too-little-too-late unassisted wraparound that put the score at 5-1 Pittsburgh.  Ovechkin and Crosby wouldn’t meet outside the regular season again until a round robin game at the 2010 Olympics, where Alex was once again held scoreless and actually played so poorly that his coaches voluntarily selected him to serve a third period bench penalty.  As it turns out, he’s only an “international phenom” in tournaments that nobody watches.

Things aren’t exactly looking up for Ovechkin the way they are for Joe Thorton, but the chance for him to turn it around is still there.  Some aren’t quite as lucky:

#2 Ottawa Senators

The Senators seem to be one of those teams who simply cannot get it done.

The Ottawa Senators Hockey Club is a baffling organization.  In the past fourteens seasons, they’ve had twelve playoff appearances, won a President’s Trophy, and went to the finals.  They established themselves as a regular season powerhouse with intelligent draft picks in their early years, good trades, and eventually made themselves quite attractive to free agents looking to get with a potential Cup winner.  The point of all of this, of course, is that you can’t really blame Sens management for failing to put a winning product on the ice.  The Senators have had everything they should have needed to win a Cup at some point in the past decade, and the fact that they haven’t is what makes them chokers.

But if it isn’t management’s fault, whose is it?  That’s where the Sens start to look like quite the conundrum.  There’s been plenty of turnover in the twelve or so years that the Sens have been contenders, and nobody really stands out as a choke artist.  Alexei Yashin seemed to lose a step everytime the playoffs started, but he was only with the club during the early part of their successful phase, and his off-ice attitude should have been enough of an indication that nobody should expect much from him during crunch time.  Despite his terrible playoff performances, Mr. Yashin is spared his own spot on this list because it’s not choking if you’re “not supposed” to get it done in the first place.  Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Phillips initially look good for the role of choker, having each played for the Sens for almost two decades apiece.  The Sens don’t really lean on Phillips for scoring, even in the regular season, and he performs well in the playoffs doing what he always does: shutting down the opponent’s offensive threats.  Alfredsson, on the other hand, does contribute on the score sheet, with his numbers in the playoffs staying relatively consistent.  He’s also performed very well on the Cash Line and had some memorable clutch goals over the years.  It’s not his fault.

The Senators have had a few goaltender issues over the years, but it isn’t fair to call Patrick Lalime a choker, and Dominick Hasek getting hurt in the Olympics isn’t really anybody’s fault.  That seems to be a theme with the Senators: there’s no Cup, but it’s not really anybody specifically that’s under-performing.  It’s nobody’s fault.  And when it’s nobody’s fault, it’s everybody’s fault, from the backup goalie to the equipment manager to the first line centre to the management: everybody associated with that franchise is a choker.  Always have been, always will be.  Canadian comedian Peter Cugno sums up the whole Ottawa situation beautifully in three lines: “three cheers for Ottawa, they think they’ve got a shottawa, but they must be smoking pottawa, ’cause the Stanley Cup will never go to Ottawa.”

While Ottawa may have a decade long history of choking, they can claim a small victory in the Battle of Ontario, because the greatest playoff choker of all time is a ride down the 401…

#1 Curtis Joseph

Curtis Joseph's greatest accomplishment was losing to Carolina in the Eastern Conference finals.

Curtis Joseph is ranked #4 all-time for career regular season wins by a goaltender, the highest ranking of any goaltender to never win the Stanley Cup.  The next highest is John Vanbiesbrouck at #13.  Beezer can hardly be blamed for his teams’ lack of success, having taken the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup finals in 1996, where he went save for save with Patrick Roy for much of the series.  However, Florida’s appearance was kind of a fluke, and Vanbiesbrouck never really played with a top-of-the-food-chain NHL team that had all the tools it should have needed to be the champs.

Cujo, however, has no such excuse, having always played for top level teams. At the start of his career, in the early 90s, he backstopped the St. Louis Blues to four consecutive playoff appearances.  However, as was the case his whole career, Joseph failed when it counted and the Blues never enjoyed any significant playoff success, despite the league leading offensive numbers put up by Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan and a solid defence anchored by future hall of famer Al MacInnis.

St. Louis decided after four years of Cujo’s failures to go with proven playoff preformer Grant Fuhr, and Joseph signed with the Oilers during their very respectable Doug Weight/Bill Guerin/Ryan Smyth phase.  There, he again posted above average regular season numbers and even twice managed to win  a first round playoff series.  However, as the playoffs progressed Joseph choked once again, failing to bring the Oilers past the second round and any point during his tenure there.

In the summer of 1998, in true choker fashion, Joseph implied that Oilers’ management was the reason for the team’s failures and announced that he’d like to play for a team that had a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup, seeking employment with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Neither party seemed to realize that any team with Curtis Joseph between the pipes doesn’t have a legitimate shot at a Stanley Cup championship, and the Leafs signed him anyway.  Leafs fans generally look back at the late 90s and early 2000s with fond memories of a powerhouse team that always made the playoffs and habitually spanked the Ottawa Senators in the Battle of Ontario.  However, with Cujo in net, the offensively gifted Leafs never made it past the Conference Finals.

Joseph reached the height of chokery in 2002.  First, at the 2002 Olympics, where he played on perhaps the most talented team in hockey history, he allowed five soft goals against Sweden for Canada’s only tournament loss before coach Pat Quinn wisely benched him in favour of Martin Brodeur.  Then, as a Maple Leaf in the 2002 Conference Finals, he handed the series to Carolina on a platter by letting in overtime goals on three separate occassions.

Carolina would go on to lose in the finals that year to the Red Wings, who in the summer of 2002 would make the same critical error that the Leafs had four years previous: signing Curtis Joseph.  Joseph led the Red Wings to a division title his first year with the club, and then promptly proceeded to lead the defending Stanley Cup champions to the golf course after an abysmal first round playoff showing.  The financially affluent Red Wings, who had much less patience for failure than Joseph’s previous clubs, acquired Dominick Hasek for the following season.  The Wings won the President’s Trophy that year, with Hasek, Joseph, and Manny Legace all sharing time in net, but unfortunately for Wings fans, Hasek was plagued with injury and Manny Legace was still not good enough for the playoff spotlight.  By default, the duties fell on Joseph, who, to the great surprise of absolutely nobody, choked one last time before slinking off into obscurity.