head coach: Mike Keenan

roster: C - Mark Messier, Trevor Linden, Mike Sillinger, Dave Scatchard; LW - Geoff Sanderson, Markus Naslund, Gino Odjick, Donald Brashear, Larry Courville; RW - Alex Mogilny, Pavel Bure, Brian Noonan, Scott Walker, Lonny Bohonos D - Jyrki Lumme, Dana Murzyn, Matthias Ohlund, Grant Ledyard, Bret Hedican, Dave Babych, Steve Staios, Chris McAllister, Enrico Ciccone, Bert Robertsson; G - Sean Burke, Arturs Irbe.

injuries: Gino Odjick, lw (knee January 24, day-to-day); Geoff Sanderson, lw (shoulder January 21, indefinite); Bret Hedican, d (missed one game with back spasms, returned January 24); Larry Courville, lw (wrist January 14, indefinite); Enrico Ciccone, d (fractured tibia January 8, day-to-day); Dana Murzyn, d (knee December 27, out for season.

transactions: Larry Courville, lw, recalled from Syracuse (AHL) January 12; Lonny Bohonos, rw, recalled from Syracuse (AHL) January 20; Bert Robertsson, d, recalled from Syracuse (AHL) January 20.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA 
Colorado     52  24  12  16    64  153  126
Los Angeles  49  21  19   9    51  139  136
Edmonton     50  18  23   9    45  129  143
San Jose     49  18  24   7    43  120  132
Anaheim      51  17  25   9    43  124  151
Calgary      51  13  28  10    36  128  160
Vancouver    50  12  30   8    32  129  180

game results:

1/12 at Chicago  L 3-2
1/14 at Detroit  L 4-0
1/15 at Buffalo  L 6-2
1/21 Phoenix     L 6-1
1/24 at Calgary  L 5-2

team news:

by Carol Schram, Vancouver Correspondent

Q: What do the Vancouver Canucks and the Titanic have in common?

A: Thirty minutes after they hit the ice, they sunk.

Two more weeks, 10 more possible points squandered, and another new bunch of controversy and confusion. Those who remember the sometimes hellish 28-year history of this franchise are beginning to believe that this is the worst it has ever been. They may not be wrong.

Let's not even talk about hockey: let's talk about the unadulterated confusion that seems to be surrounding the Orca Bay organization.where no one even seems to know who's in charge. The team that has been without a general manager since Pat Quinn was fired in November has turned into a hodge-podge of contradictions. Orca Bay upper management has continually said that the search for a new GM is "ongoing", although it's clear that Mike Keenan has a very vested interest in any hiring that might be made. Any new GM who doesn't see eye to eye with the coach will likely make very short work of him. So that could explain the shroud of secrecy that surrounded John Muckler's visit to Vancouver over All Star weekend. Despite the fact that he is older than Pat Quinn and possibly in poorer health, Muckler could be coveted by Orca Bay since he cut his teeth in the vaunted Edmonton Oilers organization, won a Stanley Cup, and is most like an AOM (Ally Of Messier's). Muckler, of course, was unceremoniously dumped after his confrontation with Ted Nolan last season in Buffalo.

But what's the deal? What really happened last weekend? Muckler's people admitted that a meeting took place, and there was a rumor that a decision had to be made within five days - which would have taken us to about last Friday. Mike Keenan said he knew nothing of any talks - as far as he knew, everything was status quo. And the Orca Bay brass, of course, was mute on the whole subject.

Nevertheless, Friday comes and goes.no announcement.then on Saturday, Hockey Night in Canada breaks the story that Keenan has been granted new powers and is now the official "Go-to" guy in trading matters. They begin by implying that he has assumed all General Manager duties, but in a live interview, Keenan himself corrects this perception and says that he is not G.M., but rather will have control over any deals that need to be made, and that the Orcans have asked him to use his expertise from his previous player personnel roles, in a similar role to the one Scotty Bowman plays in Detroit. Keenan managed to squeeze in a bit of horn-tooting, about the success he had in Chicago and the nice little team he left behind in St. Louis. He also admitted that he wasn't looking to make a deal purely for the sake of making a deal, but rather was just being called upon to add his expertise and "see what's out there."

The strange part is that Keenan's proclamation hasn't been accompanied by any sort of formal announcement. Canucks' Director of Media Relations Devin Smith, with the team in Calgary, told the Associated Press that Keenan had been asked to use his contacts to "work the phones", that Steve Tambellini was still in the loop, and that any deal struck by Keenan would still require the approval of his superiors at Orca Bay. Back in Vancouver, CEO Steven Bellringer and Steve Tambellini were both out of town, so Vice President Steve Gass was left to answer queries as best he could, and essentially said that nothing has changed and the story is a non-issue.

So what does this all mean? My guess is that the Muckler talks have stalled, but the prospect of having to answer to somebody with some knowledge of hockey scared Keenan enough that, when asked to perform a couple of simple extra tasks, like making some calls, Keenan took the request at something a little greater than face value, and may have put his foot in his mouth in the process.

The bottom line, though - as if we didn't know this already. Systems are not in place. The Canucks can't seem to maintain their web page; they can't seem to maintain their arena's ice surface; their injury reports are consistently vague and even incomplete; now, they're not issuing press releases or making statements about personnel moves. Orca Bay is a large corporation which employs a significant staff - from arena security and food service workers to front office and sales types to their actual product - the players, on both the Canucks and the Vancouver Grizzlies. While the "coach-killers" have shown that they're going to play with the exact same lack of brains or effort no matter who is behind their bench, perhaps it is time to start thinking about the fact that internal problems at the top of corporations often tend to filter down to front-line workers. It's possible that these players feel a lack of loyalty to this organization, and so are just collecting their paycheques, in the same way that Orca Bay ushers feel that they are, say, somehow mistreated or underappreciated, but they still appreciate the perks of seeing the games and events while they're at work.

That's this week's theory on how one of the highest-payroll teams in the league has become a true cellar-dweller: a team that other losers like Florida and Calgary can look upon and think "Well, at least we've got two sure points coming there." Even the Vancouver Grizzlies recently snapped their long losing streak when they took on the even-worse-than-them Denver Nuggets last week, and managed to parlay their added confidence into the team's first-ever three-game winning streak. For the Canucks, that leaves just one way of thinking: bring on the Tampa Bay Lightning!!!

In addition to the fact that Vancouver's defense is just hideous, in the last two weeks their offense has also dried up. The only statistic they seem to be able to put on the board with any consistency, lately, is penalty minutes.

Things didn't start off so badly on the three-game road trip before the All Star Break. With games against Chicago, Detroit, and Buffalo, it looked like at least one or two of the contests were winnable. And even though they got down 2-0 in the first two periods against the Hawks, they battled back to tie the game, outshooting the Hawks 11-4 in the third period, only to have Tony Amonte put a fork in `em with just over two minutes to go. See ya.

Next up - Detroit, and while the Stanley Cup Champs are no pushovers, the Canucks have played them well a couple of times this year and have better luck at the Joe than, perhaps, they deserve. Nonetheless, the Red Wings haven't lost a game this year after building a two-goal lead, and Mike Keenan seemed to be well aware of this statistic. After Detroit made it 2-0 with just less than four minutes to go in the second period, Mike Keenan pulled out Sean Burke in favor of Arturs Irbe, and pretty much sat his core players for the third period. His explanation? The game was already lost, so he figured he had better rest the guys that he would need the following night in Buffalo.

Keenan's point is backed up by Detroit's statistics, but is it really right to throw in the towel, or should the team have kept on battling, based on the philosophy that they need every point they can get, and to even salvage a tie would be a great moral victory. Is it really right for a coach to send a message that he has given up - for the day, or for the season?

In this case, Keenan didn't do himself any favors by `saving' his best players. Another incredibly mediocre team, Buffalo, beat the Canucks 6-2 in a cheap-shot-filled brawl-fest. I don't know what Gino was thinking when he took on Dominik Hasek in the corner - he claimed it was retaliation for an earlier cheap hit from Jay McKee on Pavel Bure. But that led to Matthew Barnaby - who doesn't even particularly like Hasek - taking a shot at Sean Burke. Then, a big melee, which led to coach Lindy Ruff pulling Hasek in order to protect him, which led to a center-ice battle-of-the-goalies between Sean Burke and Steve Shield - neither of whom would shy away from a little physical contact. My only question there - how exactly do two goalies brawl at center ice, when neither of them gets a penalty for leaving the crease?

The other significant fight of note during that skirmish was Trevor Linden's "incident" with Rob Ray. While Linden has often been criticized over the years for his lack of physical play, Ray is one of the baddest men in the league. Not many punches were thrown during the tilt, but Linden stood in there and showed the physical strength and the emotional intensity not to get treated as Ray's latest punching bag. He may even have landed a shot or two.

For better or for worse, we got to see more of this side of Linden a week later, after the All-Star break, when the Canucks got hammered again - this time 6-1, by Phoenix, and a whole bunch more fights ensued. The ugly incident in that game occurred in the first period. The Canucks were down 2-0 when yet another skirmish ensued. Somehow, with Norm Maciver holding Scott Walker's arms, Michel Petit got four good shots on the pit bull's face, turning him into a bloody punching bag. Walker eventually got free and got his revenge on Petit, but for the second time this year, his face was beaten to such a pulp that it was tough to tell if you were looking at Scott Walker or at Frankenstein's monster.

The rest of the first period and all of the second continued fairly uneventfully, but the Canucks' mood appeared to change when they came out for the third. First off, Keenan was in the medical room as the period was about to start. When informed that it was time to go back behind the bench, he once again brushed off the importance of the rest of the game. I'm not sure how long it was before he went back to rejoin his team. But it also appeared that the Canuck players had been apprised, in the second intermission, of exactly what had happened to Walker, because it became open season on Michel Petit. Cheap shots were popping up from even the most unlikely sources, and it was finally Dave Babych, of all people, who squared off against Petit midway through the third, earning them both game misconducts. Interestingly, that incident erupted after small defenseman John Slaney made contact with Mark Messier. Trevor Linden saw it as a knee-to-knee hit and, in a pretty uncharacteristic move for him, dove on Slaney, threw off the gloves, and started to pound on him as Slaney turtled. The officials gave Slaney a minor for kneeing and tossed Linden for fighting, but the act was interesting, again, in terms of Linden's newfound physicality and also the fact that it was Messier, of all people, that he was sticking up for.

The Canucks play Phoenix again this Monday down in the desert, and much revenge has been planned. The Coyotes aren't buying it, however, as Petit himself points out that tough-man Donald Brashear was suspended last year for sucker-punching LA's Ian Laperriere, so he isn't really one to talk about fair play.

The only good news from that night was that, while the Canucks were getting pummeled by Phoenix, their next opponent, the Calgary Flames, were also getting thrashed, losing 7-1 to San Jose. Both teams were riding four game losing streaks when they faced off on Saturday night, so something had to give.

In a rare glimmer-of-hope moment, the Canucks actually seemed to come out pretty well, taking an early 1-0 lead on Pavel Bure's 29th of the year, then getting ahead 2-1 when Bert Robertsson scored his first-ever NHL goal on a tap-in while perfectly positioned in front of the net. But Marty McInnis, who hadn't scored in 29 games before this contest, was David to the Canucks' Goliath. He got the Flames' first goal early in the second, then banged a harmless-looking slap shot through Sean Burke's pads on the power play just before the end of the second period. That was the backbreaker for Vancouver: once they lost the lead, they lost it for good. Burke was pulled after James Patrick scored what would be the winning goal five minutes into the third and German Titov added a power play marker before McInnis finished off his hat trick with an empty-netter to finish the game at 5-2. That put the second-to-last place Flames four points up on the Canucks for the bottom of the Western Conference, and leaves the Canucks 18 games below .500 and 13 points out of the last playoff spot.

Na na na na.hey hey hey.goodbye.

Looking forward to two weeks without the Canucks when the Olympic Break comes, and hoping to get this over with as quickly and painlessly as possible. Keep those front-office soap operas coming in order to hold our interest, but please don't do anything to destroy the team even more. It's time to stop the bleeding and start looking towards a real, sane rebuilding of the entire organization.

OTHER NEWS:

Sean Burke spent the All Star Break back in Carolina, pleading guilty to the charge of assaulting his wife - pulling her hair and pushing her down. Burke was fined just $200 and ordered to take aggression-management training -- ask Steve Shields about that. Somewhat strangely, it wasn't until after he entered his plea that Burke learned that there were options available to him where he wouldn't have been slapped with a criminal record, and he says that he is now looking towards re-opening the case with one of these possible solutions in mind.

Poor Larry Courville got called up before the Chicago game, and given the not-so-pleasant task of getting in Chris Chelios' face all night. While not the stockiest player in the NHL, Courville has a bit of a mean streak and acquitted himself well, so he was granted the same type of duties the following night in Detroit. That was all fine until the third period. The game may have already been over, according to Keenan, but Courville slammed awkwardly into the boards, injuring his wrist severely and likely leaving him on the disabled list for the rest of the season. The only bright side is that, since he was hurt during his Canuck tour-of-duty and he's on a two-way contract, he will continue to draw his big-league salary until he is ready to play again.

Courville's misfortune was Lonny Bohonos' gain. After spending many a night in the press box and eventually getting shipped back down to Syracuse, ostensibly for a two-week conditioning stint, Bohonos was named AHL Player of the Week after amassing four goals and eight assists over five games in his first week back with the Crunch. Despite his lack of impact on the scoresheet so far, Bohonos' added jump was palpable when he returned for the Phoenix game, and goes to show that, all other things aside, hockey can still be very much a mental game.

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