When the Canucks score 7 goals in a game, it’s tough to know which one to break down. We even had calls on Twitter to break down Henrik Sedin’s gorgeous penalty shot goal or Maxim Lapierre’s slick breakaway marker. As nice as those goals were, it’s more than a little difficult to break down a goal when it’s just one skater and a goalie. It would just be one screen shot with the breathtaking analysis of, “Well, you see, he did something the goalie didn’t expect him to do and the puck…well, it went in.”

It seemed obvious to me which one needed the full Breakdowning treatment: Mason Raymond’s seventh goal of the season, which came on a beautiful passing play that incorporated every single Canucks skater on the ice.

Every now and then we like to take a break from all the words and just post some numbers. And some words describing the numbers, as otherwise it would just be a whole bunch of numbers with no context, which would be really weird. Here are some odd and interesting numbers and statistics from the Canucks season so far.

The reaction to Jannik Hansen’s hit on Marian Hossa was immediately polarized. Reactions ranged from outrage and demands for 8-15 game suspensions to incredulousness that a penalty was even called on the play. We fell somewhere in the middle: it looked unintentional, but was still careless and resulted in a hit to the head.

Harrison theorized that Hansen would get a one-game suspension due to the recklessness of Hansen’s action and Hossa’s injury history, even though it was essentially an accident.

Brendan Shanahan only half-agreed. Hansen did get suspended one-game, but in the video on the suspension, Shanahan appeared to think the hit was worth far more than that, making his decision completely baffling.

Jannik Hansen has already avoided discipline on one hit from behind this season, when he cross-checked a referee off the opening draw in San Jose. “I don’t think I even realized what I had done or who I had done it to at the time,” Hansen said after the game. His eyes fixed on Ryane Clowe, Hansen shoved the first body in between him and his target. It was referee Dave Jackson.

But somehow, Hansen escaped that incident without so much as a talking-to from anyone on the on-ice crew.

Will he be second time lucky? That’s the question the hockey world is asking after Hansen perpetrated another hit from behind Tuesday night in Chicago, when he and Blackhawks’ star Marian Hossa came together at centre ice, the puck overhead like hockey mistletoe, only have to have their contact end not with a kiss, but with a nasty forearm shiver that forced Hossa from the game with a suspected concussion.

We’ve been extolling the vices of Jannik Hansen a lot over the past few months — his violence and behaviour, his inability to be calmed down, his cross-checking of referees, and his fictional elbows to the unmentionables — but he also has a fair number of virtues. He’s a speedy, defensively sound two-way forward, who’s great on the forecheck and penalty kill.

Also, after his goal against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, Hansen is tied for third in Canucks scoring with 6 points in 10 games. To put it another, more exciting and inflammatory way, Hansen has the same number of points as Henrik Sedin.

While we’ve long said that Hansen is an underrated playmaker, this new scoring pace is still a surprise. He’s on pace for 49 points if this were an 82-game season, a full 10 points more than his career-high last season. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to happen.

Hockey is a rough game. Sometimes, you have to lay it all on the line, you have to sacrifice the body, you have to squeeze every ounce out of it in order to get the edge.

Of course, normally, when “the body”, refers to one’s own body. But if this photo of Jannik Hansen crushing Jordan Eberle’s junk with his forearm is any indication, occasionally, victory comes by laying, squeezing and sacrificing someone else’s body.

Jannik Hansen officially became the second Vancouver Canuck playing in Europe when, as expected, he made his debut in Finland’s SM-liiga Thursday. It didn’t take long for him to shake off the rust of the long offseason, either: he contributed 2 assists and the 3-1 goal in a 5-1 Tappara win over KalPa.

The disparity between Hansen’s skill and the rest of the league isn’t quite as vast as Dale Weise’s turn as the Mario Lemieux of the Dutch league, but Hansen is still among the best players currently playing in Finland. And, like Weise, his arrival to his new team necessitated a video interview. Unfortunately, we don’t follow Hansen as he makes his breakfast and pontificates on the cosmic comedy that everyone everywhere eats peanut butter and jelly. Neither does he tell us he couldn’t find the country on a map until he arrived.

But we do get to hear Hansen talk, and if you missed the Great Dane’s quaintly high-pitched, monotone speaking voice, this video’s got the goods:

Good news and bad news, friends.

The good news is that the content of this blog, which has been Dale Weise-centric for the last week or so, will finally see some sweet variety: Jannik Hansen has become the second Vancouver Canuck to say “nuts to this noise” and opt to play out the lockout overseas.

The bad news is that Hansen has signed not with a team in the Danish league as some had expected, but with Tappara of SM-liiga, the Finnish Elite League.

Now, maybe this isn’t bad news to you, but when you run a super-juvenile hockey blog, the news that Hansen’s jersey won’t feature any advertising from the amusingly-named, Danish government-owned DONG Energy company (shown above) is a disappointment.

Spitballin’ (or Super Pass It To Bulis: All In, if you love adventurous acronymizing) is a feature that allows us to touch on a multitude of things really fast, because in the world of hockey, there are always lots of things to find and colour. Here are a few quick topics.

Sometimes when I get curious enough about something to investigate it, digging up statistics and putting together charts, the answer turns out to be the obvious one. Fortunately, it can also turn up some other interesting information along the way.

Here’s the question I had: which wingers were most effective with Ryan Kesler last season? One of the big questions coming into this season is who should play on the second line with Kesler, once he returns too early? David Booth seems to have his spot all sewn up, but there are many competitors for the opposite wing, including Chris Higgins, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen, Zack Kassian, and Nicklas Jensen. Heck, if Shane Doan signs with the Canucks, you can add him and Alex Burrows to that list.

David Booth and Chris Higgins were Kesler’s most common linemates last season, but were they his most effective linemates? To get the answer, I did some WOWY (With Or Without You) analysis to see how Kesler performed with and without various linemates. In this case, the answer appears to be pretty definitively “yes.”

You didn’t think we could end the Every Goal series on such a positive note with Chris Higgins, right? You should know by now that things can never end well for Canucks fans. That is why the last post in our annual off-season Every Goal series will end with all 8 goals the Canucks managed to score during the 2012 playoffs versus the Los Angeles Kings.

On the plus side, we’re only looking back at the good parts, when the puck was going into the Kings’ net. If you squint and ignore the scoreboard, you can imagine that the Canucks won the series. While you’re at it, imagine that the NHL and NHLPA have concluded their CBA negotiations and that there won’t be a lockout to start next season.

In any case, the Canucks scored some pretty goals during the playoffs and they deserve to be remembered and highlighted. Seeing them outside of their disappointing context makes them a lot more enjoyable.

The middle of the summer is the last time an NHLer expects to receive supplementary discipline. But that didn’t stop Jannik Hansen, who received a one-game suspension from the International Ice Hockey Federation on Friday. It is yet further proof that Hansen is the Honninggrævling – the Danish Honey Badger – particularly when you read the IIHF’s description of his transgressions.

The annual Every Goal series will run Monday to Thursday through July and August, remembering every goal scored by the Canucks, player by player. Today, we take a second look at Jannik “At the Disco” Hansen. I’ve known that Jannik Hansen had the ability to score more for quite a while. You don’t undress an [...]

The annual Every Goal series will run Monday to Thursday through July and August, remembering every goal scored by the Canucks, player by player. Today, we look at Jannik “So Hot Right Now” Hansen. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to dislike Jannik Hansen. He’s the type of player that everyone can enjoy. He never stops [...]

Jannik Hansen is one of only two Vancouver Canucks at the 2012 World Championship, but he’s not the only player from the NHL on Team Denmark. He is, however, one of Denmark’s top players and one of the most important. That has already proven to be true just three games into the tournament.

Hansen was named Denmark’s best player of the game in a 2-0 loss to the Czech Republic, finishing the game with 4 shots on goal from the second line. He also received a 2-minute minor for boarding that turned into a one-game suspension, causing him to miss Denmark’s game against Italy on Sunday.

While 2-0 was a solid result against a team like Czech Republic, the most important games for Denmark at this tournament are against teams like Italy, who they will be battling to avoid relegation. Unfortunately for Denmark, they seemed to sorely miss Hansen against Italy, losing 4-3 in overtime.

Here’s a photo of Jannik Hansen from the Canucks’ first-round series with the Kings. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in it. It looks like, maybe, Hansen collided with Rob Scuderi along the boards and the two went down.

But it also sort of looks like Hansen convinced Scuderi to let himself be used as a beanbag chair. The LA defender’s nickname is “The Piece”. Maybe that’s only half of it, and the second half is “Of rumpus room furniture”?

If you want proof that Ryan Kesler is a strong leader in the Canucks dressing room, consider the growth of interview ruining in the team. It started with Kesler’s obsession with Keslurking, but he started recruiting his teammates earlier this season, ruining Aaron Rome’s moment in the sun.

Now the team has started ruining interviews even when Kesler isn’t around, attacking Jannik Hansen with rolled up balls of hockey tape as he talked to Joey Kenward prior to Thursday’s clash with the Red Wings.

A week ago, we shared with you Jannik Hansen’s unique response to spotting Gene Simmons at the glass during a warmup skate, when the Danish winger went full honey badger, ignoring all manner of decorum and asking the KISS frontman to sign his stick then and there. It was in keeping with what we’ve come to learn about Hansen over this season and last: that dude don’t care. If he sees something he wants, be it a puck or an autograph or a plate of delicious cheeseburgers (speculation), he’s simply going to take it.

That in mind, can you imagine Hansen’s reaction if he had known local legend Pamela Anderson was at Tuesday night’s game? He wouldn’t have just approached her for an autograph; he’d have leaped into the stands mid-shift, thrown her over his shoulder and climbed into the rafters. Unfortunately for Hansen, he didn’t learn about Anderson’s visit — not only to the game but to the Canucks dressing room — until it was too late.

But his reaction was still money. Here it is, courtesy our pals at the Team 1040.

Jannik Hansen may be one of about a million billion athletes that’s been given the honey badger nickname by fans, media, and teammates since that Youtube video went viral, but just because the nickname has become a huge cliché doesn’t mean it’s a poor fit for his personality. Truth is, like his animal namesake, Hansen does and takes what he wants.

Case in point: last Sunday night versus the Anaheim Ducks, while he was skating around in warmup, Hansen saw Gene Simmons sitting by the glass, and screw it, he wanted an autograph right at that very moment. So, you know, he just skated over and got one because Jannik Hansen don’t care.

Welcome to Day 2 of PITB’s countdown of the top 50 goals the Vancouver Canucks scored in 2011. This afternoon you’ll be treated to a Daniel Sedin hat trick, a brilliant Ryan Kesler power move, and the bowling ball that is Raffi Torres.

There’s also a hat tip to what was a very common theme in the year that was: the victimization of the Pacific Division, as both San Jose and Dallas get burned multiple times. Provided you’re neither a Sharks fan nor a Stars fan, you’ll probably enjoy today’s goals.

Like life (according to John Lennon), we begin at 40.

We get a lot of mileage out of Chloe Ezra here at Pass it to Bulis (such as the Pass it to Comics series, which will return in the new year, we promise). But our defense is a simple one: Chloe rules. She has a great style and great ideas, and when the two come together, well, the results tend to be pretty great.

As yet another example, we present Chloe’s completely original and completely adorable “Hanging Canuck tree things,” original creations that feature members of the Vancouver Canucks drawn hanging by their sweaters, to be strung up anywhere your heart should so choose.

With the news today that the Canucks and Jannik Hansen avoided the ugly squabble and dish-throwing of arbitration comes the beautiful realization that fans can look forward to three more years of frenzied forechecking, possessed penalty killing, and delightful high-pitched interviews. At a $1.35 million cap hit, Canucks fans should be thrilled. I’m thrilled. Why aren’t you thrilled? You should be.

With free agency looming on July 1st, Mike Gillis still has some work ahead of him before he can take a brief vacation. We have already taken a look at the unrestricted free agent defensemen and forwards from the Canucks roster, and they will certainly be his first priority, but there are a few restricted free agents that will need to receive qualifying offers or raises. While the danger of losing any of these RFAs to another team in free agency is minimal as the team can match any offer sheet, such offer sheets can drive up the price of these players, making it more difficult to work within the salary cap.

Two of the Canucks’ RFAs were important contributors to their playoff run and will certainly require some attention prior to July 1st: Maxim Lapierre and Jannik Hansen.

In light of the Canucks’ disastrous trip to Boston, we expect some significant line-up tweaks from the occasionally esteemed Coach Vigneault. During the last Canucks’ meltdown (the first round near suicide swoon against Chicago), we threw out some ideas for roster changes (see our April 23rd posting where we recommended reuniting Ryan Kesler and Alex [...]

In his early days in Vancouver, Coach Alain Vigneault was known to juggle his lines at the slightest adversity. Though as the Canucks have morphed into an elite team, his juggling act has reduced greatly.