NHL Northwest

The trade deadline is creeping up on us and, as always, rumors are a plenty. 

The Vancouver Canucks are once again looking like a dangerous Stanley Cup threat. They have, however, been criticized for lacking grit; something that they'll be looking to disprove in the coming weeks.  

After two hard-fought games against the Western Conference's elite—the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings—it is clear that there is little separating the top teams in the NHL's West.  

The Colorado Avalanche has a problem teams love to have: They have too many defensemen in the young variety.

Currently, the Avs have eight defensemen on their roster and two more who will be ready next year. Tyson Barrie may already be good enough. The needs the Avalanche have are scoring and wingers, and they have the pieces to bring a top player to Denver and could maybe bring back their first-round pick.

This year’s version of the Vancouver Canucks again looks poised to make the long run to the Stanley Cup Finals.  And when one looks at how similar the 2011-12 version of the Canucks is to last year’s team that lost in Game 7 of the Finals to the Boston Bruins, it only makes sense that the Canucks are considered favourites in the NHL’s Western Conference.

The Colorado Avalanche currently sit in the ninth seed in the super-competitive Western Conference.

With the Avalanche sitting in position to push their way into the playoffs, this year's team seems primed and ready to gain a postseason birth.

There are several reasons that the Avalanche will make this push, and here is why.

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The NHL All-Star break is upon us. It is another checkpoint in the season that is ideal to gaze into our collective crystal balls and predict how the season will turn out.

This is particularly challenging in the Western Conference, where the top six teams are within two games of one another. Adding to the difficulty, four of those teams are in the Central Division.

Translation: A single point could separate someone from a division title and a sixth seed.

The Colorado Avalanche are coming off an emotional win on Wednesday night against the Florida Panthers.  The Avalanche overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period and were led by forward Peter Mueller, who missed almost 20 months with concussion symptoms.

Last year, the Vancouver Canucks were one win away from their first Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins, however, would not allow it and won Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals handily by a score of 4-0.

The Canucks were great up until they had finished their two-game home stand that started the series. After taking a 2-0 series lead, it was time to go to Boston.

Last year, Daniel Sedin won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer for the 2010-2011 season.

In the 2009-2010 season, his elder (by six minutes) twin brother Henrik won the Art Ross.

The back-to-back Art Ross trophies by teammates marked the first time this has happened in almost 20 years.

Before the season began, Edmonton Oilers head coach Tom Renney was quoted that last year the team was "playing with house money" and that this year would be where winning and the formation of expectations would take place.  

After a start that had many fans salivating about the ever-elusive, meaningful April hockey (8-2-2 through the first 12 games), the team has won 26.67 percent of the games it has played since then.