The other day I saw that my younger brother had signed up at nucksmisconduct. I was happy to see that he'd decided to stop lurking and had joined our community, so I shot him an email to let him know my account name. The first thing he mentioned was my Canucks playoff preview from last year and he said I should write another one. Truth be told, that fanpost had completely slipped my mind and there were no plans to write another one.

In that fanpost from a year ago, I asked everyone, "What is the No. 1 reason the Vancouver Canucks will, or will not, win the Stanley Cup?" It didn't garner a lot of attention, but the lovely folks here committed a variety of interesting answers. It was while reading those responses that I was inspired to do this follow up. Let's see what a few of us had to say:

My biggest concern right now is D zone coverage. Not just D men but the whole team. Too many scoring chances against right now and since our goalie is struggling we need to limit chances until he gets back to form.

I’d be lying if i said i weren’t a little nervous about the D. ehrhoff’s a guy i’m comfortable with anywhere on the ice, but not against top comp. i’d really like to see Big Thick Willie back, because he’s about our only defenseman that i feel really comfortable with matched against a top line. The rest are okay, but compared to Chicago, ... it’s amateur week.

More good news: team depth is excellent. Grabner looks poised out there and seems awfully close to breaking out. If he does, then add back Samuelsson and Demo and the team will have three scoring lines instead of just two.

Plus I expect Luongo to bounce back. I really think he’s just a little burnt out right now and should take a few more games off.

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Once again we're nearing that time of year when the rest of Canada tries to decide who to cheer for.  Their team's been eliminated, but they still want to see the Stanley Cup come home for its first time since '93.  Naturally, the diehards will refuse to cheer anyone on but their own team, but some of us just want to watch some good playoff hockey and need a team to attach ourselves to.

On tsn.ca, Dave Hodge thinks it's the Canucks that Edmontonians and Torontonians will have to start cheering for (or against).  In his own blog, he poses the question, "What is the No. 1 reason the Vancouver Canucks will, or will not, win the Stanley Cup?"

Since everyone here has been watching the Canucks all season, I want to hear what you have to say.

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 A nice weekend game I hope everyone was able to watch, but for those who couldn't:

 -The Sedins showed they're worth the money by combining for 7 points, even providing the two goals on the first two power plays.

-Shirokov proved once again that anyone can play with the Sedins and look good, grabbing two assists.  That aside, he did look great and Tommy was so enamored he called him "The Pocket Russian Rocket."

-Scatchard scored a weak goal and made at least one really bad play, his chances aren't looking good.

-Speaking of chances, Baumgartner didn't look good, and Shorty and Tommy were saying Yann Suave looks like he's full of potential, but'll get sent back to junior to gain some confidence.

-The Canucks were outplayed in most of the first and outshot 22-14 in two periods, yet were at that point leading 5-0.  Say what you will about Raycroft, but he looked especially sharp during the PK, while easily outperforming Thomas Greiss

-The third period was won by the Sharks, 2-1, as Marleau who couldn't seem to convert despite several good chances, did eventually get on the scoreboard with two assists.

-I didn't actually see the two Sharks goals, so could someone comment on Raycroft on those?

-I think the Sharks are around 0-13 on the PP in the preseason, and were 0-4 tonight, but keep in mind that their top offensive players, Thorton, Setagouchi, and Heatley didn't play tonight.

-Lots of fights as usual.  Labrie looked good, Desbiens was beat pretty badly, and Burrows was sucker punched by Shelly with Scatchard jumping after that.

-Erhoff looked good with a goal and assist and sending the puck up to the forwards like he's being paid to.

That's about all I noticed.  Nothing new was established, but it was an exciting game.   I can't find an accurate boxscore, but unlike what canucks.com/yahoo/tsn have on theirs, neither Grabner nor Hodgson played.  Those names are actually Parrish and Scatchard, respectively.  Another game tomorrow, and another day closer to the season's start.