2005 Vancouver Canucks Preview
Welcome to the 2005 Vancouver Canucks Preview page. The NHL Hockey Season is around the corner and what better way to remind the public how exciting the NHL can be with a 2005 season preview from Maddux Sports. Remember if you are betting on NHL hockey look no further, as we are one of the few sports handicapping services that offers NHL picks against the hockey betting line and can help you be a winner this NHL betting season.
2005 Vancouver Canucks Hockey Season Preview
In his last three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks veteran winger and Captain Markus Nasland has averaged 80 games and 92 points a season. Dependable, speedy, and with an uncanny ability to make instant evaluations of fluid situations, Nasland is a player’s player. When you add Brendan Morrison at center and Todd Bertuzzi at right wing, you’ve got one of the scariest offensive lines in the NHL. In 2003-04 Morrison and Bertuzzi each posted 60 points for the Canucks. Together the three have set a standard for team performance.
In the Canuck goal Dan Cloutier proved to be a dependable presence playing in 60 games and going 33-21-6 with 5 shutouts. His save percentage was a solid .914 and his goals against average a respectable 2.27. Playing against Calgary in the first round of the playoffs, Cloutier was injured in the third game and after he was replaced things were never the same for the Canucks. The Vancouver club took it to the limit but were burned 3 –2 in the seventh game by the Flames.
During the lock out, the Vancouver goalie played 23 games for KAC in Austria where his record was 13-5-4. Again he performed solidly with a 2.29 GAA and a .924 save percentage. It appears that Clotuier is back and in good shape, which is good news for his teammates.
On defense the Canucks are relatively young with most of the “D” being comprised of players between 20 and 25-years of age. Twenty-nine year-old Ed Jovanovski is returning to Vancouver for his seventh season; he hopes that he can be the player he was prior to his injury year of 2003-04. Jovanovski, one of the hardest workers on NHL ice, is usually good for about 70 games, 45 points, and 105 penalty minutes per season, but in 2003-04 he saw those totals drop to 56, 23 and 64. He took the lock out year off and should be in good health and ready to go.
To be successful the Canucks need their two-way defenseman healthy and effective, their number one goalie on task, and their front line on the same page. All indications are this is exactly the case.
