Vancouver Canucks, Daniel and Henrik Sedin

Canucks NHL Skate: Vancouver, ON; World Cup No-Go

It’s A Canucks Weekend

The Vancouver Canucks have invaded Toronto. Not only is BC’s NHL team taking on the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, but three former Canucks will be the focus of Hockey Hall of Fame festivities.

This is the weekend that Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin and goalie Roberto Luongo will enjoy the spotlight leading up to Monday night’s induction ceremony. A fan forum, a fancy-shmancy dinner, and a legends game featuring the new Honoured Members will be just three elements of the revelry leading up to the big night of speeches.

Vancouverhockeyinsider.com will have you covered throughout. It’ll mean missing the action at the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday evening, which may or may not be a bad thing. The Maple Leafs are coming off a 4-2 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night while the Canucks are following up a 5-2 loss in Montreal on Wednesday. The poor start to the season for the BC Boys has trade rumours and coaching rumours all heating up. While we await to see how the Canucks do …

Let’s Skate !

The already struggling Columbus Blue Jackets lost their top minute munching defenceman Zach Werenski to a separated shoulder and a torn labrum on Thursday night and he appears to be out for the season. More bad news for a team that’s come out of the blocks with a record of 4-and-9. The Jackets are sitting deep in the basement of the Metro Division with 8 points.

Werenski hurt himself on his awkward check attempt that tumbled him into the right wing boards in the offensive zone against the Philadelphia Flyers. After crashing hard, he fell to the ice, and stayed down for a bit in discomfort,

The Blue Jackets actually went on to win the game 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. They’re already missing three other regulars to injury.

Scrolling past all of the Ohio State football stories, we found these deets in the Columbus Dispatch.

No World Cup

NHL.com reports that the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) have decided it’s not feasible to hold a World Cup of Hockey in 2024. Part of the problem is the league’s and the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) relationship, or lack thereof, with Russia and Belarus following the former’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Russia is banned from IIHF events and the NHL has supported that mandate, suspending business operations with the country and its national federation. Russia still has dozens of players playing in the NHL which presents a bit of a quandary.

The World Cup, the successor to the Canada Cup, was last held in Toronto in 2016 and won by Team Canada. It was also held in 1996 and 2004.

The league is talking about holding the event in February of 2025, which would be exactly one year prior to the Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Enjoy the Hockey Action !!

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.