This and That: O'Brien, Defensive Defensemen, Brodeur

So the Canucks begin December with a little eastern roadtrip starting off in New Jersey. It begins 15 games in 30 days for the month of December which includes one back to back game (on the road) and one 10:30am PT start time (in Carolina).

Wednesday's game against the Devils will be on TSN, while Thursday's game against the Flyers will be PPV. Strangely enough, two of the Christmas shopping days for ticket holders fall on those days where they have a game. It's kind of lame of the Canucks to make us choose to either watch the game or take a photo with Santa Fin instead.

Anyways, links about Canuck related things:

• O'Brien should get to play soon, either on Wednesday or Thursday because of the back to back games, with Schneider sitting out the game against the Flyers maybe? AV said to the press that O'Brien needs to play like Douglas Murray of the Sharks "There's a guy who, when he was on the ice, our guys knew it. He was physical, he was hard to play against. He was a guy, who if something happens on the ice you know he's going to be in there and he's going to defend his teammates," -AV to The Province
• Mirtle put together a list of the top 25 defensive defencemen in the NHL so far (a little past the quarter mark of the season). Christian Ehrhoff and Willie Mitchell come in on that list at #22 and #25 respectively.
• Brodeur was just named this past week's NHL second star of the week. Tommorrow's game could be great to watch for the goaltending alone. Brodeur and Luongo face each other in net on Wednesday for what is going to be the matchup of the starter and backup for Team Canada (with Fleury taking the 3rd goalie spot) (barring any crazy injuries or terrible play for either player).
  
• Even though New Jersey had a coaching change this past summer, don't expect their games to have gotten any more interesting to watch. Their new coach is former Wild coach Jacques Lemaire. Yes, the hated defensive style Minnesota coach. Does this help Brodeur look better in net? Oh maybe. Though what Brodeur has going for him on his resume that Luongo does not is Stanley Cups and lots and lots of playoff experience
• Brodeur just became an American citizen, actually dual citizen, but don't worry, he'll still play for Team Canada
  
• Jeff Vinnick is on the road with the Canucks to capture their Eastern roadtrip, check out his first set of photos here. I love the candid one of the Sedins having lunch (click to enlarge, photo from Canucks.com). Feel free to throw captions in the comments.