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[Big Steel]

I have been out of the loop a bit lately, I don't even know when the hockey starts back up!!  Probably tonight, but as for who is playing, I haven even checked!!  Just in time for the Nucks to continue their winning ways, and the Laughs to continue to struggle and miss the playoffs!! 
  Now that that is out of the way, how do the ones that care think the Nucks are going to do coming off the Olympics for some, ansd a vacation for others??  The are missing Salo, and Ohlund now as well!!  That can't be good.  So I think that they will finally have to make a trade.  Who would be a good fit?  Can Nonis actually pull the trigger on a deal?

[Sterling C]

Canucks play Calgary tonight. They're goina get spanked though. No Salo, Ohlund, Jovanoski, Sedins. On the plus side however, Naslund is now reporting that he is at 100% for the fisrt time all season.

[Big Steel]

No spanking last night, and one hell of a pass by Daniel for the winner with less then 2 min left!!  Awesome!

[BigJesse]

Does anybody else think that the Second Line(Carter, Henrik, Daniel) is better than the First(Bert, Morrison, Naslund)? 

[Big Steel]

Yeah!!

[Sterling C]

No

[Big Steel]

No

Pfft, whatever Biff!!     The "First Line" of the Nucks, has cost them big time, in many critical situations so far this year!!  Naslund has been hurt, Bert has been coasting most of the time and Morrison hasn't seemed to show up for most of the season!!  I don't have to tell you how many times the Sisters have saved the Nucks bacon this year, and again last night with yet another timely goal!!

[Sterling C]

I thought I'd be able to get a rise out of you 

The first point I would like to make is that The WCE plays against the other teams top defensive pairings and top PK units. This gives the Sedins a break big time.

Next point, Naslund as we all know has been playing hurt for most of the season, now that he's better expect him to start lighting it up. The question was, which line is better and with a healthy Naslund the answer is the WCE.

Also, you need to look at the numbers. The WCE has generated a total of 157 points so far this season whereas the Sedin line has generated 148 points albiet with less ice time.

The point I'm trying to make out of all of this is that while the Sedins give us great scoring depth (somthing that we've been greatly lacking all these years), they are not YET able to match up with the first line.

[fishfinder]

Morrison hasn't been scoring because he's too busy playing defensive hockey, covering for all those silly Bertuzzi drop passes that are intercepted.

[BigJesse]

Yeah, Bertuzzi needs to quit playing like Hayley Wickenheiser out there and start hitting people.

[Big Steel]

Biff I know that you know this!  What are their +/- ratings??

[Sterling C]

Ahh yes the magical +/- stat. If we're going to go by that then Marek Malik would be one of the best defensemen in the league what with his +35 last year. I awknowledge that the Sedins' +34 dominates the WCE's -13, howver, the +/- is a very misleading stat. What about guys like Kovalchuck, Crosby, Marleau, Kariya who have dismal +/- stats.

[Big Steel]

Ahh yes the magical +/- stat. If we're going to go by that then Marek Malik would be one of the best defensemen in the league what with his +35 last year. I awknowledge that the Sedins' +34 dominates the WCE's -13, howver, the +/- is a very misleading stat. What about guys like Kovalchuck, Crosby, Marleau, Kariya who have dismal +/- stats.

Well, Kovalchuck is on Altanta, who gives up a ton of goals.  Crosby is on the worse defensive team in the league.  Marleau isn't that good anyways, and Kariya in my opinion is washed up!!  That is how I would explain it!!  There is no reaason that a top line should have as bad a +/- as that.  Look at Ovechkin, he is on a horrible team, but he is still even on the plus minus!!  Good players get it done.  The Sedins are getting it done!!  Besides I believe the question was who has been the Canucks top line, not who would be if Naslund wasn't hurt, Bertuzzi wasn't floating and Morrison wasn't running around trying to clean up the other 2's mess!!

[Sterling C]

The question was which line is better. And as of now I'm going to go ahead and say that the WCE is. Of course we'll just have to wait and see just how much this olympic break has helped them.

[BigJesse]

I think the second line has been playing better this year.  75 of the first line's 157 points have been on the power play, almost 50%!  The second line only has 60 of 148, or about 40%.  They get way less power play minutes, as well as less minutes overall and still have almost as many points.  Also the first line is a combined, minus-13.  Unacceptable on any club, much less one thats 15 games over .500.  Line two is a combined +34.  Pretty respectable.  So, statistically the second line is kicking butt.  But watch any game and you can see they have a lot more jump than line one.  The Sedins are working and are actually spending time in the corners and Anson Carter...has more goals than Bertuzzi!  Opposing coaches definitely look at these stats and know that the second line can be more dangerous than the first so I don't think it's because they're getting less checking against them.  The second line is just working a lot harder.  Period.