Man, what an intense looking bunch there. Wellwood especially. I kid, I kid. Anyway, here’s a brief recap of the Canucks week that was, although it’s a little light on some details.

So the road trip goes on. Despite some late game heroics and a lucky double minor in the latter half of the third period, the Canucks were unable to come from behind yet again against the Montreal Canadiens. Or should I say the Canucks could not find a way to solve Jaroslav Halak and subsequently are STILL without a win in February.

Okay, so this post will be dealing with the Toronto Maple Leafs a little bit, but I promise that it’s for a good reason. There’s also going to be a lot of Internet nerd talk going on here, so if neither of those points hasn’t resulted in you running screaming into the night, thanks.

So Montreal is all abuzz with the announcement that Jacques Martin, former GM of the Florida Panthers, has signed on to become Montreal’s latest head coach. Rumours are buzzing around (in French) that Jacques Lemaire is going to be signing on as a ’special advisor’ and that former Habs head coach, Mario Tremblay are going to become a part of the Habs new coaching staff.

That’s all well and great, but as someone who isn’t a huge fan of the Habs, that whole drama, along with the handwringing going on in Montreal with the notion that the Habs are going to become a boring trapping team doesn’t really interest me. Unless Bob Gainey makes some solid personnel moves and makes the team tougher, hiring Lemaire isn’t going to have a huge impact for the Habs. Instead of being an offensive, ‘high octane’ team that gets ragdolled, they’re going to be a defensive, ‘conservative’ team that gets ragdolled. Good to see that Gainey is at least addressing the defensive problems that plagued the Habs last season, I guess.

What is far more interesting to me, as a Canucks fan, is that this could possibly signify Bouwmeester being on his way out the door in Florida. Jacques Martin had been trying to get the talented youngster signed to a deal all last season but was rebuffed. He made the decision not to trade Bouwmeester at the trade deadline, choosing instead to keep him for a bid to make the playoffs. At the time, it looked like a gutsy move that showed that Martin wanted Bouwmeester and that he had faith in his club to make the post-season. That didn’t pan out, as the Panthers didn’t make the playoffs and Bouwmeester, who has been the subject of rumours that he wants to play either for a winning team or in Canada, can’t be too happy with having his season end after 82 games played yet again.

Martin’s signing as head coach comes as a bit of a surprise, so you have to wonder if something precipitated this decision. Either ownership down in Florida told Martin that he was on his way out and gave him an opportunity to leave gracefully, or perhaps Martin realised that there is no way he was going to be able to retain Bouwmeester and knew that his dismissal would be pending and got out of Dodge as a result. While you could say that I’m reading too much into all of this, all signs do seem to indicate that Bouwmeester is not coming back and that Panthers management have given up on trying to retain him. (Sidenote: It also seems to nip in the bud many of the Phaneuf/Bouwmeester rumours I keep hearing about, assuming that what his agent is saying is true.) So, with the knowledge that Bouwmeester won’t be back, it’s not much of a stretch to think that since Martin’s gamble didn’t pay off, his days in Florida were numbered.

This makes me optimistic that perhaps, just perhaps, the Canucks have an outside chance at landing Bouwmeester. Then again, I was hoping against hope that the Canucks would make a push for Scott Hartnell several seasons ago and, well, the Flyers had to go and break my heart. Bastards.