Vancouver Canucks Edition: 2016 NHL All-Stars Survival Guide

Let the suffering begin for the Vancouver Canucks and their fans.

The Vancouver Canucks enter the 2016 NHL All-Star Break on a losing streak, hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a mirage. The next seven days are going to be pure suffering for the Canucks and their fans.

Besides the fact that Daniel Sedin, now the Canuck franchise leader in goals, is participating in the festivities, Vancouver has no need to watch or care about the All-Stars whatsoever.

Does anyone remember anything that Radim Vrbata did last year when he was chosen as an All-Star? I don’t. All I remember is that a bunch of guys had Go-Pros on them and had fun. Great.

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Brandon Prust is the ultimate loser of it all. It will be an excruciating week of waiting for him.

This has nothing to do with the NHL allowing John Scott to captain the Pacific Division. No comment on how the league and the Arizona Coyotes handled the situation and pulled the trade. The NHL can’t lose this.

Look at this Google Trends search and see for yourself how much attention Scott has pretty much single-handedly garnered for the NHL.

Do you have reasons to watch the Skills Competition or the 3-on-3 competition featuring a six-foot-eight, 260 pound Scott who can’t hit? It used to fun watching younger Sedin go four-for-four in the accuracy challenge. Maybe this year being his revival year, he has something in store for us.

Worry not, my friends. Vancouver is not the only one suffering, not after this news from the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night:

The Great Eight will be missing from action this year. That sucks. So much for scoring his 500th career goal just weeks before, eh? The NHL has yet to name who will replace Alex Ovechkin, the captain for the Metropolitan Division All-Stars by fan vote. So only half of the All-Star captains are legitimate “fan-vote” selections? What was the point of the fan vote?

Anyhow.

Read: The NHL All-Star Game just got Even Worse

No Ovechkin, no captain Sedin, no Ryan Miller, and no Radim Vrbata. Are you still watching? For all those are wondering, the 2016 All-Star Weekend will commence with the Skills Competition on Saturday the 30th, followed by the 3-on-3 inter-divisional competition on Sunday the 31st. The rosters can be found here.

To help you survive this week void of Canucks hockey and instead filled with a very interesting “All-Stars” game, here it is, The Survival Guide to the 2016 NHL All-Stars: The Canuck Way Edition. Enjoy.

Next: Survival Tip #1: Try the AHL All-Stars

Survival Tip #1: Try the AHL All-Stars

When was the last time a Vancouver Canucks prospect was invited to the AHL All-Stars Classic?

Folks, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience as a Canucks fan to watch a Vancouver prospect participate in the AHL All-Stars Classic. What better way is there to celebrate the youth movement than watching Hunter Shinkaruk represent the Utica Comets at the AHL All-Stars Classic?

The year 2016 seems to be the year of the youth. Look at how Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat, and Jake Virtanen have been playing. Hence, it is only fitting that Canucks fans watch Shinkaruk play at the All-Stars, hosted this year by the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightnings.

Other reasons to watch:

• Don’t you miss the 4-on-4 overtime and its controlled excitement? Then watch the first portion of the AHL All-Stars game on February 1st! The teams are set to play about 30 minutes of 4-on-4 as part of the round-robin segment of the tournament.
• After the Canucks traded Nicklas Jensen and a late-round draft selection for Emerson Etem, the Canucks’ NHL-ready prospects pool looks awfully thin. Names like Alex Grenier and Ronalds Kenins are set to hit restricted free agency. It would be a good chance for the Canucks to see who is worth trading for, or even worth picking up come free agency.
• Building on that last point, who knows if Vrbata or Dan Hamhuis gets traded for one of those players at the AHL All-Stars game?
• No John Scott on the ice.
• It is difficult to watch Utica Comets games from Vancouver unless one purchases the AHL live viewing package. Want to know if Shinkaruk is ready for the NHL? Better watch him try to outplay the best AHL players, then.

Next: Survival Tip #2: Watch for Sedin's Sake

Survival Tip #2: Watch for Sedin’s Sake

As low as the NHL All-Stars have fallen, the event brings together the best ice hockey players on the planet. Daniel Sedin knows that too. He is the Vancouver Canucks’ all-time franchise leader in goals scored.

It will be fun to watch how the Pacific Division tries to survive the three-on-three portion. Here are your Pacific Division forwards.

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Johnny Gaudreau, CGY
Taylor Hall, EDM
Joe Pavelski, SJS
Corey Perry, ANA
John Scott, ARI
Daniel Sedin, VAN

Funny how they only selected two centremen. That means that one winger will have to take the faceoffs.

It would be ridiculous of the league’s best players to make Daniel take the faceoffs. The poor guy is 35 years old, people. You saw how his brother Henrik was having trouble taking faceoffs with his lingering injury. Don’t you dare tell Dank to take the faceoff. Here’s Jaromir Jagr joking that he would rather be in the Bahamas than in Nashville this weekend. I don’t blame him.

On that note, it might not be so bad to have John Scott play with Daniel. Here are some reasons why.

• Ultimate line of “low-life” NHL-ers. Thank you, Mr. Potvin, of the Florida Panthers broadcast team. After he called the Sedins “low-lives,” it makes perfect sense to me why Daniel was chosen. The NHL wants a “low-life” competition.
• And let’s be fair to Scott. He is a big guy. He will probably take the faceoffs for Daniel. He better.
• Another pat on the shoulder for Scott. Should anyone pull off anything stupid on Daniel, John, our “brother in low-life-hood” should be successful in standing up for Dank’s sake.

As I have mentioned before, watching Daniel on the skills competition was my (one and only) favourite part of the competition. Let’s see if he can show off his accuracy shooting. I wonder if he can learn some moves on the shootout for Vancouver’s sake.

And finally, whenever a Sedin plays without his twin Sedin, it is always interesting to see how it plays out. I wonder if Scott’s brain might get fried after a couple of shifts of attempted Sedinery. Cherish the Sedinery while it’s here, folks.

It might not be a “survival tactic,” but it is one way to pass the week — to actually watch the All-Stars.

Next: Survival Tip #3: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Survival Tip #3: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Yes, the Vancouver Canucks enter the break on a two-game losing streak. Yes, they are the eighth-worst team in the NHL at the All-Star Break. Yes, the Pacific Division is starting to look stronger with the emergence of the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks.

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But Vancouver has all the right reasons to believe that life after the All-Stars will be better than life before the All-Stars.

Top-four defenceman Dan Hamhuis will be back. Captain Henrik Sedin will be back. Brandon Sutter will find his rhythm. Sooner rather than later, the lineup will look a heck of a lot better. With Sutter back, the argument can be made that the Canucks have second-line centres. A one-two punch of Sutter and Horvat will be a huge boost to Vancouver.

Whatever the Canucks plan to do with Hamhuis or end up doing with him, it will be a boost. If he gets traded after a few games, so be it. There is an asset (hopefully) coming back. If he stays? Great. That much more chance of making the playoffs.

Another source of light at the end of the tunnel is for Brandon Prust. Hopefully by the end of the break, Prust finds himself a new home and the Canucks have themselves an extra roster spot as well as some breathing room under the salary cap.

It has been well documented on this site how the schedule is bound to help the Canucks get into the playoffs. So who is the first opponent the Canucks will face out of the break? The Columbus Blue Jackets. It should be a game that revives the Canucks’ confidence in themselves after the break.

It should serve all Vancouverites well to look forward to the potential of the Canucks squad heading into the final stretches of the season.

Next: The Bottom Line