*My* five Canucks games in 2012 I’m not looking forward to…

The NHL released it’s 2012/2013 schedule was released June 21^st and while people, including my colleague Richard here at NWSB have marked their calendars with games they’re looking forward too, I decided to go the opposite way.

Here are the five teams I’m not looking forward to seeing in 2012/2013 for the Vancouver Canucks.

We’ve got a ways to go yet, but in a city that is always hungry for hockey, there’s no better time to do an awkward belly flop in to the schedule and mark off the teams I’m not looking forward to seeing.

At the draft the Penguins may have traded Jordan Staal, but that’s no reason to take the team lightly. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin starting the season there’s plenty of reason to fear the Penguins.

The supporting cast of Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, James Neal and everyone’s favorite cheap shot artist Matt Cooke, also make the Penguins one of my least favorite teams for Vancouver to play against.

It could be a high scoring affair, and without Vancouver’s number two center, the Penguins look a lot better than the Canucks do at this point.

The only thing I’m not looking forward to about this game is having Roberto Luongo play for another team in Rogers Arena.

If Vancouver does indeed trade Luongo to the Panthers this will be his first game against his old team. I’m one of the people who don’t want the Canucks to trade Luongo, and seeing him back here, to me at least is going to be like a punch in the stomach.

I’m sure he’ll get a nice standing ovation, probably a great video montage, too. I’m also sure he’ll get booed by the Vancouver “faithful”, because like most fan bases, they’re quick to forget how good a player was, or how important their contributions were to the team.

This is going to be an ugly game, or at least has the potential to be an ugly game. The Canucks and Blackhawks haven’t played each other since Duncan Keith went head high on an elbow to Daniel Sedin last season.

The result of which caused Daniel to miss the last ten games of the regular season and sit for the teams first three playoff games against the Kings.

If Vancouver does indeed trade Luongo to the Panthers this will be his first game against his old team.

Meanwhile, Keith was banished for five games.

If the matter is settled right away, it could be a regular Chicago/Vancouver game, if it’s not settled, things could get nasty throughout the game.

Especially if that meat head Carcillo is dressed for the Blackhawks.

Last season there was so much hype surrounding “re-match” the Canucks and Bruins had in January.

It was a game filled with dirty hits, fights and of course, who could forget “a spear to the throat”. At the end of the year Gillis admitted that team was emotionally drained after that game in Boston.

So, with both teams keeping most of their rosters the same, who’s to say that this game won’t be similar to that? How can the team move forward and not be left drained once again?

This one really depends on how the teams first meeting goes in November. If there’s still bad blood, well, more bad blood than there usually is between these teams, then it could be a brutal game…again.

What makes it all the more interesting is that Chicago will be playing in their building, behind their fans who will be hungry for what they think is revenge.

So, there you have it, the top 5 teams I don’t want to play.

Do you have any games that you’re not looking forward to?

Let me hear about it!

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© Mitch Dyck for North West Sports Beat, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |

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