After seven straight losses, and on the heels of blowing another two-goal home lead Wednesday against Nashville, the Vancouver Canucks held a spirited workout Thursday.By "spirited", I mean "we nearly had a fight". These types of things are going to happen when you have two points in seven games, and you're on the verge of taking yourself out of serious contention in the Western Conference. The Canucks are out of the top eight for the moment, facing the always-tough Minnesota Wild on Saturday, and with every game they don't win, they're putting more pressure on coach Alain Vigneault.
During practice Thursday morning, Mason Raymond took a hard hit from Willie Mitchell. Raymond took exception to the hit, and quickly got some backup.
The confrontation had the makings of Godzilla-Bambi 2 until King Kong arrived in the form of teammate Shane O'Brien, who briefly jousted with Mitchell before offering to take Raymond's spot in the ring.I covered Raymond in college at Minnesota-Duluth, and I'll tell you that he's not shy, but he's also not one to purposely get involved physically. Vancouver Sun blogger Elliott Pap calls Raymond a "hockey pacifist," and that's not terribly inaccurate.
Mitchell, on the other hand, is a very physical player. He'll hit anyone, apparently even his own teammates.
Click the video to hear from Raymond and others on what happened on the ice.
Is this enough to get the Canucks out of their doldrums?
