Fans who arrive at General Motors Place for Vancouver Canucks games will have new high-resolution graphics to watch on the scoreboard and on a new ribbon board that runs around the building.

There's a new coach, 14 players gone from last year's team, and a chance the Vancouver Canucks will even have a new captain this season.

Centre Brendan Morrison thinks subtracting Todd Bertuzzi from the Vancouver Canucks could result in an addition to his scoring totals this NHL season.

For most of the last five years Morrison has been the setup man on the Canucks' high-scoring top line along with wingers Markus Naslund and Bertuzzi.

The Vancouver Canucks signed defenseman Lukas Krajicek and forward Alexandre Burrows to new contracts as prospect camp opened on Friday.

In other Canucks news, Jason King reportedly walked out on training camp Thursday after rejecting the team's latest contract offer. King has played 55 games in the NHL as a member of the Canucks. There is no word as to what the team offered the product of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Defenceman Luc Bourdon isn't one to dwell on the past.

Not the world junior championship gold medal he won last Christmas. Not the broken ankle that sidelined him for two months, or returning in time to play in a Memorial Cup final.

Bourdon's mind is on the present, and that means earning a job with the Vancouver Canucks, who opened their prospects camp Friday.

King walks out on 'Nucks camp
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''I know what I can do and I'm here to do my job,'' said the 27-year-old Montreal native. ''I can't help what happened here in the past.

''I'm very serious about the way I work and the way I play. I'm here to do my best and help this team get a Stanley Cup possibly.''

"I was told a long time ago that Bob Clarke would kick his grandmother down a flight of stairs if it would give him a better chance of winning," Nonis said yesterday. "That's what it comes down to. It's something I didn't understand. It's something I don't understand to this minute."

Daniel and Henrik Sedin finally played up to their promise and had their best NHL seasons last year. Both had career highs in goals, assists and points on a Vancouver Canucks team that failed to make the playoffs.

The Swedish twins, who turn 26 later this month, want to improve on those numbers this year, and get the Canucks back into the playoffs. But like everyone else they have no idea who will be the other winger on Vancouver's second line after free-agent Anson Carter signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets. <link>

Marc Chouinard, a free-agent signing, said it's make-or-break time for many players.

"This is the big test of the camp," said Chouinard, who had 14 goals and 30 points in 74 games with Minnesota last year. "A lot of guys are going to get opportunities. To see how many opportunities each guy gets, it's up to them."
...
Naslund hopes to play four or five exhibition games. He wants to use that time to adjust to a new linemate to replace Todd Bertuzzi, who was traded to Florida in the Luongo deal.

"It is nice when you can find a combination that fits well and the chemistry is there," said Naslund. "I am hoping we can find the right combination during training camp and the exhibition season and stick with them."
...
Luongo is expected to play between 65 and 70 games. That means the Canucks need a backup goaltender who is content to sit most of the season but be ready to play when needed.

Right now, the job is Flaherty's to loose.

(Luc) Bourdon and Alex Burrows also made noteworthy contributions to the (Sunday's Super Skills) competition by being the dupes in the traditional pie-in-the-face routine. The two grass-green Canucks were asked to perform a Halloween type event and then called to centre ice for interviews.

The Aquilini Investment Group took full control of the Vancouver Canucks and their arena Monday, giving the NHL franchise 100 per cent local ownership.

The Vancouver Canucks added a bit of depth to their lineup on Saturday, claiming forward Jeff Cowan off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings.

Clean your hockey equipment

For all you weekend hockey warriors out there, please learn from Canucks minor leaguer Tyler Bouck: not cleaning your equipment could kill you.

Bouck, who has been beset by injuries during his professional career, suffered what could have been a life threatening illness after contracting a viral infection, writes the Vancouver Province. The bacteria, which was lingering in his hockey glove, entered his body through a cut on his finger.

...
"When the doctor finally came in and told me you can die from it -- or at least be pretty messed up by it -- it really hit home. [The virus] attacks your heart and weakens your valves and can really do some damage."

They're talking about the money they collected for dancing...loonies and toonies.

But we're not going to talk about the playoffs, partly because it's a little early for a serious discussion and mostly because this Vancouver team is actually one point behind the pace of last season's Canucks, who slipped in the stretch like a greased pig down a waterslide and missed the playoffs.

Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo can't talk about the playoffs because he has no first-hand experience in them. Until this winter, he had no real experience in a playoff race, either, because his teams from Long Island and South Florida missed the playoffs by an average of 18 points since the goaltender began his NHL career in 1999.

An epic lawsuit pitting the would-be owners of the Vancouver Canucks NHL franchise against the family that bought the team has begun in B.C. Supreme Court.

The owner of the Vancouver Canucks ''scooped'' the team from his former business partners, unlawfully going behind their backs to conspire to get the upper hand, a lawyer charged Monday.

Burke remembers 1988 when Linden, son of a cattle farmer in Medicine Hat, Alberta, began his journey.

“He gets embarrassed when I tell this,” Burke said, referring to the oft-quoted story about the Canucks’ psychological, predraft testing.

Linden said he couldn’t make it because he was needed on the farm.

Burke asked what his job was.

“When the cattle come into the pen I have to hold them down and pin them while they brand them and castrate them,” Linden said.

“OK,” Burke said, “You can skip the test.”

I know Vancouver Canucks fans are disappointed in their team now that they've been eliminated in the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. I know this because they call me on my XM Radio show and complain about the team — never more than after they let a two-goal lead slip away in Game 4 at home and then faced elimination in three straight games. But you have to put it in perspective and that's what I tell the callers.

VANCOUVER — One of the toughest things Roberto Luongo did after the Vancouver Canucks' season ended was to face his teammates for a second time.

Luongo did just that yesterday, shaking hands with his fellow Canucks as players cleaned out their lockers at General Motors Place and met with the coaching staff before departing for summer destinations.

http://www.thetoque.com/hockey/vancouver_c...o_20070508.html

Enough said

I just got it in an email and thought I would share it.

Good thing they got that picture before he had to run to the bathroom

...and canuckDUCKluck you can't be snitty. Only your alter ego could You're a Ducks' fan

Gary Lupul, a member of the Vancouver Canucks team that reached the 1982 Stanley Cup final who remained with the club as an amateur scout, died Wednesday at age 48.

The cause of death was not given.

Ex-Canuck Lupul dead at 48
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Yeah, I had to do a double take on this one. Does anyone know if he's related to Joffrey?

"If that day comes, I don't think you'll be seeing me in the NHL," the Vancouver Canucks goalie said Tuesday during a conference call. "I have no intention of playing with bigger nets."

How about just a couple of inches wider than the current six feet?

"No. I'd retire."

Luongo vows to quit if nets get bigger: Says league bid to boost scoring very bad move
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I'd almost want the NHL to call his bluff.

I'm with my hero on this one.

Hey, NHL "brain"stormers, quit mucking around with the game. I was all for the no-change-on-icing call and the offside tag-up, but changing the dimensions of anything is dumb. The game is fine.

Stick to your guns, Roberto! If I have to drive out to Chilliwack to watch you play, so be it.

Buttman should keep his grubby little fingers off this game.

See? No offense, but that's the problem with AllDucks.com.

All the people on here are reasonable and knowledgeable about hockey. On the CDC, there'd be some nimrod taking up the "make the nets bigger" standard within fifteen seconds.

As it is, there's nobody to mock. (except the out-of-town guys, and that always ends badly)