OffThePost.org

This just in: Chris Higgins showed up to practice with a swollen hand. Not sure if this is a recurrence of staph infection that appeared on his foot. It sounds like he made the practice skate today, but the team want to play this safe and he will be staying home instead of traveling to California for the next road trip. Representatives of the Zombie Apocalypse Movement were unavailable for comment. There's some suggestion that AV will go back to dressing 7 D and using one of them on the 4th line.

Daniel / Henrik / Bureaux
MayRay / Kesler / Hansen
Malhotra / Hodgson / Ebbett
7th D / Lapierre / Weise

wife, MD tells me it's common for staph to travel from one part of the body to another. she also said the swollen hand could be something completely unrelated, like maybe an allergic reaction. or maybe he slammed it in a car door when he saw we lost to the flames (my words).

he'll prob be on some sort of antibiotic and be back in no time.

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Great news!

Boy, if this team ever got healthy and stayed healthy at the same time, the forwards they could dress looks ridiculous:

Daniel / Henrik / Bureaux
MayRay / Kesler / Higgins
Booth / Hodgson / Hansen
Lapierre / Malhotra / Weise
(Volpatti)

I agree but the silver lining of injuries on a team as deep as the Nucks is they allow them to develop the young guys as well and give them a taste of the big league,This is the main thing I love about this team now,there is definitely a future.

Booth (knee) and Rome (thumb) are back on their skates; Booth is hoping to return January 9 against his old team.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=387261

Hank's iron man streak at risk, hope the CT scan comes back negative.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Ballard on IR with a Concussion....my guess hes out till the last game of the year

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

If they add salary in a deadline deal, it'll be much longer than that.

okay till game 1 of round 1

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

http://www.faceoff.com/Canucks+Manny+Ma ... story.html

I feel bad for the kid. This eye injury looks like it's derailed his career just when he was hitting his prime, and it appears to be taking a personal toll.

Take note kids, wear a fucking visor.

Minnesota???? Had 9 wins inthe last 40 games, the worst team in the NHL inthe 2nd half..............

add to that the likes of Buffalo and Montreal and challenged by Columbus......really hope they are resting well for the playoffs

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I think PITB has more or less debunked the idea that Malhotra has "lost his touch". He is used as a pure specialist by Vigneault for defensive-zone draws and has the shortest shifts in the league (but a fair amount of them), so naturally his offensive numbers are going to dip. In terms of everything else, though, the stat-heads seem to think his performance hasn't actually slipped much at all.

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It's not about his offensive #s, anyone with half a brain should know he isn't there to score goals. Hell, his Corsi is misleading as well since he almost NEVER takes offensive zone draws. But he's voiced displeasure with his own game on more than one occasion this season. The only "dip" he's taken #s wise that might be indicative of his struggles is that his -10 is his worst plus/minus since he finished a -10 in 50 games for a supremely shitty Rangers team. Hell, even playing for the Blue Jackets he was never worse than a -8. I know, I know, +/- numbers aren't a fantastic indicator either, but you can't sit there and tell me Malhotra has only regressed a tiny bit.

Besides, if Malhotra were doing the same outstanding job he was doing last season, I doubt Gillis would've traded for Sammy Pahlsson.

What's the Go with Bieksa? I know he missed the last game and just read some tweet about "if he misses the next 2 games as expected"....?

This is the only thing I've heard wrt to BXA... Hopefully, we can accept this at face-value.

So the numbers are swelling, did anyone see the interview with Bieksa after the last game or perhaps it was before it, something like "situation is the same, I'm still maintaining, I need to maintain...yadda yadda, pretty funny. I'm guessing groin, or Salary cap (or does the cap not even come into play with less than 10 games left)

I doubt it's salary cap-related. They would have quietly leaked something to that effect to the media if it were. I'm more inclined to think it's a mild strain like a groin or something. I don't believe that the Canucks would have gotten any cap relief unless he was placed on LTIR so his cap hit remains.

Ballard is back skating and has been cleared for full contact practice.

Kassian is day-to-day; AV doesn't believe it's anything serious - Bitz has been recalled.

No word or change regarding Daniel. The fact that we're hearing nothing suggests he'll be ready for Game 1.

GOod news, after two days of being symptom-free, Daniel is back skating alongside Henrik and Burueax on the top line. Hopefully, he is dressed for the opening night of the playoffs on Wednesday.

EDIT: Apparently, Keith Ballard is also back skating but was on the 4th pairing so it's unlikely that he'll be ready to play on Wednesday. Bitz is also with the team.

Kassian was also skating with the team and is expected to return on opening night...

I can't believe how healthy we are. We basically have a fully capable 4th line and 3rd pairing sitting in the press box and a backup goalie with Vezina like stats based over the last 2 seasons ready to step in at any time. This bodes well for a really long run if we can get past the Kings

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"