And so, this week’s bunch: Roberto Luongo, Brendan Morrison, Jeff Cowan and Brad Isbister.

Luongo and Morrison are both suffering from injuries faced a while back—retroactive damage coming back to haunt them, I suppose. Luongo, from a shot faced on December 2nd, damaging his ribs; and Morrison, from a hand injury endured in the pre-season and never given a proper chance to heal.

Apparently the Iron Man is human after all.

Then there’s Isbister who strained a hamstring on Monday against the Kings, and Cowan, out with a separated shoulder from the loss to Pittsburgh Saturday night.

But maybe all of this will pull the team together to play well? It was in late-October/ early-November that the Canucks lost the best of their blueline to injuries, and they responded with a stellar month.

But first and foremost: here’s hoping Curtis Sanford gets on a hot streak.

Now, on a lighter, more pointless note…

Mason Raymond got his recall back to the Canucks yesterday, in the wake of the above-mentioned injuries.

But while our Raymond might be modestly well known to Vancouver fans, you’d think that he’d be virtually anonymous to NHL fans elsewhere, right?

Well, apparently that’s not entirely true.

A friend wrote me yesterday to say that on Monday night, Raymond’s name came up on the CBS television sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”.

On the episode, Vancouver actress Cobie Smulders (now living in Los Angeles) apparently had an excited moment on the television show, bragging how she’d just met Mason Raymond.

So it seems our boy has some fans down in LA, infecting pop culture entertainment with his boyish charm.

A celebrity-to-be?

Perhaps Cobie will be there to cheer him on in Anaheim tonight.

Update December 12 - 11:55am PT:
From Adam Brady at the Ducks official blog, more on Raymond’s brush with fame:

Yesterday the Canucks called up winger Mason Raymond, who just happened to be the subject of a joke on last Monday’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, one of my favorite shows. The character Robin, who is Candian, told a story about going on a date to a Rangers game. “I got to meet Mason Raymond,” she said, to which her friends gave her blank stares. “The Canucks left wing.” Still no response. Finally, Barney (played by Neil Patrick Harris) said, “Is that the opposite of name dropping?”

Note1: Show video is available here. I wasn’t able to see it myself, as there was some sort of block preventing it from playing for me.

Probably has something to do with my sinister Canadian IP address…

Note2:The Crazy Canucks recorded a podcast episode this week, right before the game in LA. I didn’t join them due to illness, but they were far more clever without me. Check it out.