from Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun,

The sky is blue, the birds are singing, and the Vancouver Canucks are unbeaten.

Well, one out of three isn’t bad.

So it was cloudy Thursday and the birds were taking cover. It was a lot cloudier in Chicago, where the National Hockey League’ reigning big birds, the champion Blackhawks, were trying to slap a coat of happy over the awkward presence of proven bad boy and now, perhaps, much worse Patrick Kane at their opening media session of training camp.

But here in Vancouver, where president Trevor Linden and GM Jim Benning have modestly remodelled the Canucks over the summer — and most everywhere else that NHL teams are gathering to embark on another nine-month marathon of hope — the assembled pieces all seem to fit snugly, seamlessly, sensibly, on a roster sheet.

Twenty-nine of those teams will turn out to have figured wrong, some more wrong than others.

The Canucks? Let’s just say that Benning’s idea of what he and coach Willie Desjardins will be working with this season, and the estimation of the majority of pundits, are considerably at odds.

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