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(SportsNetwork.com) - The Vancouver Canucks hope an upcoming stretch of home games will be enough to get the club into the postseason. That span begins on Saturday night, when the Canucks welcome the Anaheim Ducks to Rogers Arena. The Canucks have been to the postseason in each of the past five seasons, each time going in as champion of the non-defunct Northwest Division. Vancouver has had a tougher go in the new-look Pacific Division, where it sits fifth overall with 79 points. That leaves the Canucks hoping for a wild card spot and it trails the Phoenix Coyotes by five points for the second extra playoff berth. The Coyotes, though, have played one fewer game and play host to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Vancouver does have a point in four straight games. The Canucks opened a quick two-game road trip with a 5-2 win over the Wild on Wednesday, claiming a third straight victory, but dropped an overtime decision the following night to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs got the winner 55 seconds into overtime. Matt Duchene circled around the left boards to get clear of defenders before firing a pass to the front of the net where Tyson Barrie tipped it home for the win. Yannick Weber and Zack Kassian scored for the Canucks, while Eddie Lack turned away 25 shots in the loss. "We out-played them in the third, but it was not good enough," said Kassian. "We got the point and had a good road trip." The Canucks played both games on the road without leading scorer Henrik Sedin and his status for this contest is unknown because of a lower-body injury. Sedin leads Vancouver with 36 assists and 46 points. Vancouver fell to 16-19-5 on the road with Thursdays loss and will play five straight and six of its final seven games this season at home. The Canucks are 18-11-6 at Rogers Arena on the campaign. Lack is 0-2-1 with a 3.65 goals against average in his career versus the Ducks, who have won all three of their games versus the Canucks this season. That has pushed Anaheims series winning streak to four straight overall and it also has won seven of the previous 10 meetings. The Ducks have won two straight and four of their last five in Vancouver, a trend they look to continue as they chase the Pacific Division crown. Anaheim is one point back of the first-place San Jose Sharks, who visit Colorado on Saturday afternoon and have played two more games than the Ducks. Anaheim did fail to pull into a tie with San Jose last night as it lost a 4-3 decision to the Edmonton Oilers in overtime. Edmonton had taken two penalties earlier in the overtime, leading to a brief 5-on-3 for Anaheim, but the Ducks took a whistle and the teams wound up skating 3-on-3. With a lot of ice to work with, Edmontons Andrew Ference grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and skated down the middle, winding up for a big blast that ticked off the right post and in with 1:09 left on the clock. Jonas Hiller made just 19 saves in defeat, outdueled by Edmontons Ben Scrivens, who posted 48 stops. "Yeah, he was pretty good tonight," said Anaheim head coach Bruce Boudreau about Scrivens. "Anytime you get over 50 shots on a goal and you lose, youve got to tip your hat a little bit to the goalie." Nick Bonino, Mathieu Perreault and Patrick Maroon all scored for the Ducks, who had won two straight entering the contest and fell to 4-4-3 in their past 11. Perreault has five goals and three assists over a seven-game point streak. Hiller was making his third straight start and could give way tonight to backup Frederik Andersen. It helps that Andersen has won both of his previous career starts with the Canucks while allowing just two goals on 68 shots. Cheap Shoes From China Free Shipping . Louis Blues are reportedly taking restricted free agent forward Vladimir Sobotka to arbitration. Cheap Shoes Clearance . Jeff Carter had two goals and an assist as the Kings stretched their streak to seven wins in a row with a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday. http://www.shoescheap.us/ . Pominville scored in all three of Minnesotas games last week to help the Wild (8-4-3, 19 points) earn four out of a possible six points. His best performance was in a 4-3 win over Montreal on Friday, where he posted a season-high three points (two goals, one assist), including the game-winning goal. Cheap Shoes From China . 1 overall pick in the draft by the Houston Texans, is recovering from sports hernia surgery. Cheap Shoes Wholesale Free Shipping . -- Billy Donovans bench came up big, bailing out top-seeded Florida in a tight game against what was supposed to be an overmatched opponent.History and Controversy in Week 2 The Ottawa Redblacks will go through a lot of firsts this year. On Thursday we witnessed the first game played by the new franchise, the first touchdown scored, (Chevon Walker, who will one day be the answer to a trivia question), and almost the first win. The Henry Burris-led expansion franchise got out to a 14-point first quarter lead, but couldnt hold on against a Blue Bomber team that is for real. More on the Bombers shortly, but it was fantastic to see and call a game involving Ottawa again. Football teams in our nations capital never had bad fans, just bad owners, and that is not the case this time around. The business model is sound, the league is strong, and football fans in Ottawa can trust that this team will be around for decades to come, and get emotionally invested. The players on this team are certainly "all in". They played hard, on the road, in a hostile environment, and almost got it done. It wont be long until we see some more firsts. Like the first game at home which is already sold out on July 18, and based on Thursdays game it wont be long until we see their first win. The Real Deal Now to the Bombers, and yes they are for real! On paper there still may be some who are suggesting other teams in the league are more talented, or maybe more experienced. However, this is a "what have you done for me lately?" business so experience only helps you if you are executing. Also, at the pro level every player is talented, and the difference between winning and losing is smaller than third and inches, so the culture you create for those talented players is what gives you the edge. The difference in Winnipeg this year is that head coach Michael OShea is a team first guy to the core. It oozes out of him when he talks and it is the main reason the Bombers are off to a 2-0 start. Yes, Drew Willy has looked excellent and they have found a tailback in Nic Grigsby but lots of teams have good QBs and tailbacks. OShea is teaching that the team is the priority and that all decisions must be made with the team considered before any personal agendas. It sounds simple but there are many examples of coaches that couldnt get the message across to their players. OShea has not been perfect. He kicked around the handling of veteran Korey Banks for longer than he had to, but his teams record is perfect so far, and that is what matters more than anything. Oh, and in the end the Bombers new head coach did eventually make the right decision when it came to Banks when he cut him loose. Banks wasnt happy with his role and that may have affected the culture in the locker room. By cutting Banks and letting him continue his career somewhere else, OShea made a team-first decision. Reaction to Willis hit on Collaros There are lots of differing opinions on the hit from Odell Willis of the Edmonton Eskimos on Zach Collaros of the Ticats. On one side there are those that argue the game is fast, physical and played by tough men who know what they signed up for, which is all true. It is an old school mentality and its not wrong. However, we live in a new world where player safety has become a priority in contact sports. Finding ways to make hockey and football safer for those who participate is not just dominating league meetings, but is also very important to the playerrs associations.dddddddddddd So what about the hit from Willis? First, it looked like the Esks defensive end did try and turn his head and avoid helmet-to-helmet contact. Second, it also looked like he tried to lead with his shoulder, therefore you can assume that there was no intent to target Collaros head. It is also true that if there is a penalty flag thrown every time helmets collide than there would be a penalty called on every play. Having said all of that, if in fact Willis did contact the head of Collaros - whether it was an accident or not - a penalty had to be called. Many times a defensive player gets pushed or trips into the quarterbacks legs accidentally, and that has to be called as well. The league will also review the hit and there could be supplementary discipline handed down in the form of a fine. It is no longer acceptable to say that it is a tough game and things happen at light speed so you have to let the guys play. Improving player safety is priority number one, and has become a legal issue. In fact you could take the discussion even further. The Players Associations in hockey and football are negotiating the player safety agenda into new CBA agreements, and yet dont self-govern when it comes to questionable hits in a game. How many times have we heard the CFLPA announce that they are appealing a fine by the league on a player who has made a questionable hit? It happens virtually every time a player is fined or suspended. Meanwhile the player that took the hit, in this case Zach Collaros, missed the rest of the game and could possibly miss more due to concussion issues. How many times has the Players Association announced a fine within their own organization to a player/member for a questionable hit? That to my knowledge has never happened. The players associations in contact sports have got to start imposing their own fines to players that cross the line, and show the league that improving player safety is not just the responsibility of the leagues head office, but the associations as well. It looks like the hit by Willis was an accident with no intent, but it was to the head of a quarterback, and that is a penalty and should also result in a fine. There is no provision in the rule book that says, "if the player hits a quarterback in the head by accident, or if he didnt mean to do it, then the hit becomes legal." The only way that Willis could avoid a fine here is if the league determines that Collaros didnt actually get hit in the head but it was the whiplash effect that caused his concussion symptoms, and of the TV angles shown so far that doesnt seem feasible. The tougher rules in contact sports these days are designed to change the behaviour of players to protect them from themselves. Those rules are not going away anytime soon, in fact they are getting tougher. We might as well all get used to it and drop the tough guy talk. If the league lets the Willis hit go without supplementary discipline, it will set a precedent for every other time a defensive player hits the head of a quarterback accidentally. There cant be any more grey area. If a defensive player hits the head of a QB, it is a penalty and a fine or suspension - thats the new reality of football. So much so, it is hard to see why there was even a debate on this hit in the first place. ' ' '