tOfficial thank god "so and so" is back thread.

[mooger_35]

Iain MacIntyre was tweeting it last night. Pure speculation. And Alberts is solidly in, I agree.

MacIntyre wrote an article about it yesterday.

Canucks? Keith Ballard could be bumped with Dan Hamhuis return


Key blueliner Dan Hamhuis, out since Oct. 17 with a bruised bone in his foot, practised fully here Monday and will return to the lineup against the Canadiens if things go equally well in Tuesday morning's skate at the Bell Centre.

That means Keith Ballard, one of the Canucks' marquee summer acquisitions — a player with nearly five years and $21 million US on his contract — could be a healthy scratch for the first time in his National Hockey League career.

Ballard, Hamhuis and Aaron Rome, who got into the lineup due to Hamhuis's injury, rotated through the third defence pairing in today's practice. But it would be grossly unfair for Vigneault to bump Rome, playing the best hockey of his career, from the lineup to avoid any embarrassment about sitting out Ballard.

“Like any situation, you [play] the players who enable you to win,” Vigneault said today. “That's the decision we'll make tomorrow.

“I don't think [Ballard] is struggling as much as he might think he is. It's a new environment for him. Unfortunately, he had to miss a few months of summer training because of the [hip] operation he had. He was a little bit behind schedule, but I thought he was coming along fine and then he got hurt. We're going to work with him to get his game to where he thinks it should be and where we know it can be.”


From the sounds of that Rome is in and Ballard is out if Hamhuis is good to go.

 

[Automattic]

MacIntyre wrote an article about it yesterday.

Canucks? Keith Ballard could be bumped with Dan Hamhuis return


Key blueliner Dan Hamhuis, out since Oct. 17 with a bruised bone in his foot, practised fully here Monday and will return to the lineup against the Canadiens if things go equally well in Tuesday morning's skate at the Bell Centre.

That means Keith Ballard, one of the Canucks' marquee summer acquisitions — a player with nearly five years and $21 million US on his contract — could be a healthy scratch for the first time in his National Hockey League career.

Ballard, Hamhuis and Aaron Rome, who got into the lineup due to Hamhuis's injury, rotated through the third defence pairing in today's practice. But it would be grossly unfair for Vigneault to bump Rome, playing the best hockey of his career, from the lineup to avoid any embarrassment about sitting out Ballard.

“Like any situation, you [play] the players who enable you to win,” Vigneault said today. “That's the decision we'll make tomorrow.

“I don't think [Ballard] is struggling as much as he might think he is. It's a new environment for him. Unfortunately, he had to miss a few months of summer training because of the [hip] operation he had. He was a little bit behind schedule, but I thought he was coming along fine and then he got hurt. We're going to work with him to get his game to where he thinks it should be and where we know it can be.”


From the sounds of that Rome is in and Ballard is out if Hamhuis is good to go.

Bobby Lou better duck if this happens....Heads will roll for sure!