Opinion
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Hockey | Jim Hughson
Canucks fans anxious for another magical spring
The Vancouver Canucks have competed for the Stanley Cup twice in 40 years, but unlike those occasions, the team won't be a surprise finalist if they get to the fourth and final round this spring.
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Hockey
Hockey
Jim Hughson: Habs face final playoff tuneup vs. Leafs
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Hockey
Jim Hughson: Rebuilding Battle of Ontario looks promising
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Hockey
Hockey
Jim Hughson: Red Wings no longer airtight defensively
More Opinion
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Jim Hughson
Leafs, Bruins search for consistency
Saturday's game between the Bruins and Leafs in Toronto could have been one where Toronto had a chance to pull even
with the Sabres for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern
Conference.It could also have been a game where the Bruins put away the
Montreal Canadiens and pretty much sewed up the Northeast division
title.
But it doesn't quite have that cache because both the Leafs and Bruins
have been maddeningly inconsistent, following their best games with
their worst and looking lifeless when they need a little extra jump.
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Jim Hughson
Maple Leafs have little margin for error now
Six points out of the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs' margin for error is significantly reduced heading into a massive clash with sixth-place Buffalo Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET), writes Jim Hughson.
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Jim Hughson
Leafs, Blackhawks in the midst of big playoff charges
The top of the West and bottom of the East got a lot more interesting over the last month thanks, in part, to an Original Six resurgence by the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Chicago has rattled off seven straight wins, and while they're still closer to ninth place than first, the Hawks look like they'll get a chance to defend their title in the playoffs, when a few weeks ago a spot seemed like a lofty goal. The Leafs, meantime, got younger and improbably better through the deadline frenzy, and a 10-2-4 streak since the all-star break has put them into a race that also seemed out of reach not long ago.
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Jim Hughson
Hope surrounds Leafs for 1st time in years
The group is still a tad short of the Philadelphia Flyers and
Boston Bruins, and Tim Brent is unlikely to make us forget Ray Bourque
as a power-play point man, but what you're seeing in Toronto for the
first time in years is hope.
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Jim Hughson
Toughness a crack in the Canucks' armour?
Are the Vancouver Canucks tough enough for the playoffs? What may or may not have been detected in recent games is a chink in the armour, or an Achilles' Heel, on the
West's best team. And it's something their rivals from Calgary will likely exploit come Saturday during the final game of our Hockey Day in Canada tripleheader (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. PT, 10 p.m. ET).
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Jim Hughson
Montreal's matinee madness
When the Canadiens got to the East final last spring, it became easy to forget they were an 88-point eighth-seeded David before they became Goliath.
The Canadiens are 10 points ahead of last year's pace so one would assume, if they don't suffer through a massive slump, they'll get a chance to duplicate that performance. But there are a few questions nervous fans could be asking about the chances of warm weather hockey this year.
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Jim Hughson
Caps could be up to their old tricks vs. Leafs
Washington's Alex Ovechkin whacks Toronto like a piñata (19 career goals), so it's entirely
possible we'll see the Capitals and the Ovechkin we're accustomed to at
the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, and not the defensive version that has seemed to have taken hold.
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Jim Hughson
Leafs, Flames in same spot, but different place
It's not the first-place battle we had last week. In fact, it's even a stretch to bill the Toronto-Calgary matchup as a desperate playoff struggle, because they're so far back in the standings. What this tilt is, though, is an interesting contrast of two Canadian franchises in similar spots in the standings, but in very different stages of evolution.
- Jim Hughson All eyes on Sid & Ovie as Classic nears "An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." -- American author Bill Vaughan. If Alex Ovechkin stays up on New Year's Eve, we suspect it will be for the latter. The year wasn't a total dud for the Great 8 but it went decidedly downhill early on. Ovechkin achieved some personal goals and accolades, but anything to do with his Washington Capitals as a team went sideways. The Russian Olympic experience was a bust, just like the Caps' playoff run last year. Halfway through this season his team is just north of mediocre and so, by the standards he's set, is Ovechkin.
- Jim Hughson Canucks look for 60-minute game against Leafs Vancouver's fans expect a blowout of the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, while it's hard to know which Toronto squad will show up based on their diametrically opposed performances in Edmonton and Calgary earlier this week.
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Jim Hughson
Canadiens face daunting task in Detroit
The Montreal Canadiens visit Detroit on Friday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET), looking like the Eastern Conference version of the hometown Red Wings.
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Jim Hughson
Bruins, Leafs heading in different directions
Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into Saturday's featured game.
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Jim Hughson
Leafs, Senators need to find their scoring groove
In any pre-season conversation, objective hockey fans would acknowledge the expectation that Ottawa's top-six forwards should be better than Toronto's.
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Jim Hughson
Canucks-Blackhawks rivalry still runs hot
The Canucks and Blackhawks have played each other 21 times in the last
two seasons and while some of the main combatants have moved on, it
won't take much to stoke the fire in this rivalry when the teams meet in Vancouver on Saturday night.
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Jim Hughson
West remains best in inter-conference clashes
The San Jose Sharks topped the Western Conference last season by one
point over Chicago mainly because they were better against the East. Their records were almost identical in the West, but the Sharks got one extra win against the other conference.Colorado
snagged the last playoff spot in the West by five points over St Louis.
And the Avalanche got five more points than the Blues against the East.The commonality is that West beats East, and it's been that way for years.
- Jim Hughson Big early season clash between Canucks, Wings The Hall of Fame weekend late game features a couple of players (Nicklas Lidstrom, Mike Modano) who will eventually be automatic entries and at least half a dozen more who've got a really good shot at getting into the Hall one day. Vancouver has won five in a row, hasn't lost at home yet and is widely picked as the team to beat in the West. That will come as news to the Wings, who have also had a great start and been the team to beat in the West for a decade or more. And anyone who's paid attention to the Red Wings in recent years knows how proud they are and how they rise to a challenge. They'll be ready for this game, against a team many think is better than they are.
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Jim Hughson
What About Bob?
Hockey Night In Canada play-by-play man Jim Hughson offers insights into Saturday's game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 6:30 p.m. ET).
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Jim Hughson
October key to making the playoffs
Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into the game.
This Week's Work: Ottawa Senators at Montreal Canadiens | Oct. 16, 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT (CBC, CBCSports.ca)
The script
The Ottawa Senators held a players-only meeting two games and five days into the season. The Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins did the same in the midst of their shaky start. Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk have been in fights, John McLean threw the Devils off the ice at the morning skate for Game 4, James Wisniewski lost his marbles. And do you think there might be a Sutter brother ready to punch out a Brahma bull over the Flames bungled beginning?
Why is this news? Because it's mid October for crying out Crosby!