So I've been from the interwebs, but I have a few things to catch up on and one really great cause to talk about (next post).

Rome is back for 2 more

The Canucks re-signed Aaron Rome to a two year deal. I did loathe to see Rome out on the ice at the beginning of the season, but I have to admit that he did get better. He got more comfortable on the blueline as the season went on, and by the end of it I thought he was a good depth defenceman. Also compared to Alberts, shit he look great. By the end of the year, the 26 year old played 49 games for the Canucks but missed games in the playoffs when he had a high ankle sprain.

So good for depth, but we're still needing a good defenceman badly

Training Camp in Penticton

• The 2010 Canucks training camp will be held in Penticton this year beginning on September 18th
• All on-ice sessions will be open to the public and free
• There will also be a Young Stars tournament where prospects from the Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Ducks and Sharks will participate in an eight game round-robin tournament from Sept 12 - 16
• If you want tickets to watch the Youn Stars tournament a pack to tix for all eight games start at $66, see the press release for details about how to purchase. You get reserved seating for the regular training camp if you are parts of the first 1000 to pick up a pack of tickets for the Young Stars tourney. Single tickets will be available sometime in August

Burrows has Surgery

Burrows had surgery a couple days ago to repair two tears in the labrum of his left shoulder. Rehab for this type of surgery as per The Province is supposed to take approximately four to six months but Burr hopes to be back in time for training camp. The tears didn't come from any hit in particular but just over time.

So this past weekend was my buddy's bachelor party weekend. Not just one night, no, it was a whole weekend; and a glorious one at that.

The majority of the large group that I spent the weekend with are all huge Canuck fans. That maybe be actually one of the reasons we are all so close to each other, as we spend so much time together watching games together. So the topic of the team came up more than once in conversation throughout the weekend. On most offseason moves we'd like to see Gillis make, there was usually an overall agreement but I got quite a bit of backlash when I suggested that Mike Gillis trade away Mason Raymond.

First off, it's not because I don't like Raymond but my suggestion came because he may be one of the Canuck players that has the greatest trade potential.

Click read more to continue reading after the jump...

The Hamilton Bulldogs' Guy Boucher was offered the head coaching job in CBJ, but after thinking about it over the weekend has turned it down. Boucher will instead stay with his AHL team which is the farm club for the Montreal Canadiens.

But his refusal turns into a job for our Manitoba Moose coach Scott Arniel. Columbus will hold a press conference tomorrow at 1pm PST to announce Arniel as the new head coach for the Blue Jackets.

He spent the last 4 seasons as the coach for the Moose and had a 183-106-31 record. Since he was good with young guys like Mason Raymond and Michael Grabner, the change could be good for Nikita Filatov who played this past season away in Russia.

Postseason performances and dollars:

The Kurtenblog looks at postseason performers who might be in line for big raises. They bring up an interesting question regarding cheap goalies since Antti Niemi is an RFA this year:

"So what happens when your cheap goalie wins a Cup? Do you expect him to re-sign for cheap? Or do you just go find another cheap goalie?"

New Patch:

Icethetics says that the new patch that will appear on the Canuck jerseys next year will celebrate the Canucks' 40th anniversary, and this is what it will look like

The Canucks announced today that 24 year old Cory Schneider has been signed to a two year contract worth $900,000 US per season. He was Vancouver's first pick in the 2004 entry draft.

Schneider will back up Luongo next season and will hopefully (unlike prior appearances in the NHL) increase his trade value. In 10 games played with the Canucks, he has a record of 2-5-1 (2 games were with coming in on a goalie switch). Needing to showcase Schneider, the Canucks will need to play him more than they did Raycroft last year. This should reduce the number of games Luongo plays and add a bit of competition for games played.

The Canucks also signed two Swedish prospects today as well, Anton Rodin and Peter Andersson. Both were picks from the 2009 draft and played this past year in the SEL. Rodin played this year for Brynas and Andersson played for Vastra Frolunda HC.

The Canucks have signed three defensemen, Yann Sauve, Lee Sweatt and Chris Tanev as per Canucks.com today.

Yann Sauve was a 2008 second round draft pick of the Canucks and played with the Saint John Sea Dogs this year.

Sweatt and Tanev are both free agent defencemen. Sweatt is 24 and a native of Illinois and split the last season in Europe between Riga Dynamo (KHL) and TPS Turku (FNL). Tanev is 20 and played with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Also in the news, Daniel Sedin won TSN's Play of the Year competition

If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, Elliotte Friedman questions whether maybe Luongo needs to re-invent his style?

In my 30 Thoughts from two weeks ago, I posted critiques from other players about his inability to handle traffic and habit of lunging instead of pushing off. Obviously, those are problems he's going to have to solve. Another I've heard is that his long, gangly body creates big rebounds.

Both Luongo and the organization must do an exhaustive examination into his technique, which is already occurring, I think. Then, they've got to find the Mason/Matwijiw to fix it. Is it the current coach, Ian Clark? Or, is it someone else?

He also gives some thoughts on whether Cory Schneider is the best type of backup for Luongo next year:

The Canucks have to ask themselves if having Cory Schneider back up Luongo is the best idea. A better fit would be a smart, helpful veteran who knows he's not going to start more than 20 games and is satisfied with that. (I've written several times how Curtis Joseph credited Glenn Healy with a lot of his success in Toronto.) This is not to say Schneider's a bad guy, but when you're 24, you want your chance to play. Martin Biron would be a fantastic fit, if he's ready for that role.

As always, Friedman's 30 Thoughts are worth the read (one of the best regular features in hockey)

Here is the SCF schedule for the Blackhawks vs. Flyers

Saturday, May 29      at Chicago, 8 p.m.      NBC, CBC, RDS
Monday, May 31     at Chicago, 8 p.m.     NBC, CBC, RDS
Wednesday, June 2     at Philadelphia, 8 p.m.     VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Friday, June 4     at Philadelphia, 8 p.m.     VERSUS, CBC, RDS
*Sunday, June 6     at Chicago, 8 p.m.     NBC, CBC, RDS
*Wednesday, June 9     at Philadelphia, 8 p.m.     NBC, CBC, RDS
*Friday, June 11     at Chicago, 8 p.m.     NBC, CBC, RDS

I haven't decided who I want to win this series. Part of me wanted whoever came out of the West to just massacre the East, but I have a friend who is trying to say that the Flyers is a team I could fall in love with (temporarily), so while I decide on who I'll cheer for, who will you be cheering for?

A whole playoff series later and the Blackhawks leave another team questioning their team makeup. This time they just out-hustled the Sharks and surprisingly swept the series.

Does the sweep of the Sharks make me feel any less disappointed about the Canucks' loss to the Blackhawks? No not really, but I think it's about time that I get around to give my thoughts on the team that was.

In the summer, Mike Gillis will have some interesting choices to make with Demitra, Mitchell, Johnson, Wellwood and Raycroft being some of the UFA's on the Canuck roster. There's also a plethora of RFA's as well, like Raymond, Hansen, O'Brien, Rome and Schneider to name a few. But this team that we had this year had what people thought of as the make up of a team that could have gone all the way, so what happened?

After the jump I go through the car crash that was the Canucks in the playoffs...

Henrik and Daniel were on The Hour Strombo this week, here's the video if you didn't catch it:

I've taken a few days away from writing to just relax and let me tell you, it's a whole new world out there with no hockey games to watch every single night. I'm still following the playoffs but with the schedule for the conference finals having both games scheduled on the same day for today and Tuesday, well it leaves me a little bit more free time. Here are some links of stuff I've written, stuff written about the Canucks and interesting hockey stuff to read for this links dump.

• Me and the other Cycle Like the Sedins writers have written a round table on our thoughts about the conference finals

Canucks Reads:

• One of the best things I read after the Canucks exited the playoffs was this one written by the Kurtenblog on their thoughts about Luongo being captain. I completely agree that although I don't think Luongo should be captain, I can't say his captaincy was the downfall of the team. There is a photo of an otter holding a beer bottle in the post, and if that does draw you to click on the link, well I don't know what will
• The Province lets us know that Shane O'Brien will be around in Vancouver to watch the UFC and questions whether O'Brien will be on the roster next season
• Last week Luongo said "I love being captain", "I really do. I enjoy the role. I enjoy the pressure of it. It's nothing around the hockey aspect that has changed. It's just other stuff, like talking on the morning of games. That seems to be a big deal. Those are things I have to reflect on."
• Also last week, Willie Mitchell slams Colin Campbell and the league's refusal for handing out a suspension to Malkin for the hit that caused the concussion (Vancouver Sun)
• Interesting quote from Mitchell in The Province: "There are a lot of things I wanted to do in the last couple of months to get myself in the right frame of mind, but a lot of those things I just couldn't do. People would kind of look at you the wrong way."
• Mason Raymond and Christian Ehrhoff was added to Canada and Germany's roster respectively at the World Championships. Not to slag Mason Raymond or anything, but you know that Team Canada doesn't have it's top players playing when you see Raymond's name being added to the roster

Good Hockey Reads:

• Pierre Lebrun on San Jose success as a hockey market. Also come with video of shirtless Jumbo Joe
• James Mirtle write this excellent piece on Keith Tkachuk's brutal dental injury and resulting surgery. Really really good read
• Puck Daddy has it's 10 facts about the Sharks vs. Blackhawks and 10 facts about the Philadelphia vs. Montreal

I still haven't gathered my thoughts for an end of season post mortem, but will have that up when I get some time in the next few days.

Last night I attended my last Canucks game of the season. Yes the loss was disappointing but before going to the game I knew that there was the potential to be disappointed. After the 1st period I was still cautiously optimistic but after those two quick goals in the second period by the Hawks were like a dagger to my heart. Highlights of the night involved the crowd chanting "Balls of Steel" for Salo when he carried the puck up ice.

Now I love playoff games. Really, really love them. The crowd is completely different (sometimes a little bit more bandwagoney or douchey) but for the most part the energy off of the fans that go to playoff games, well it's awesome. It all starts with the nervous anticipation, the intro video that gives you chills, the beers, the anthem, the high fives and Woos and sometimes the really disappointing losses.

Here is my photo adventure from game six:

Click on read more to see the photos...