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Vancouver Canucks: Luca Sbisa is Losing his Roster spot
Team Europe’s surprising trip to the World Cup of Hockey final could cost Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luca Sbisa his NHL job.
For an NHL player like Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luca Sbisa, the worst thing that can happen is an injury in training camp because it takes away the opportunity to prove the player can still compete with his NHL peers.
Sbisa is losing that opportunity, not because of an injury, but because he has been unable to crack Team Europe’s lineup in the World Cup of Hockey, aside from one meaningless game against Canada. Instead, Team Europe has relied on defensemen like Christian Ehrhoff and Dennis Seidenberg, neither of whom have NHL contracts at this time.
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In Sbisa’s one game at the tournament, he finished as a minus-one, with two shots, two blocked shots, and a hit in 15 minutes of ice time. Those aren’t fabulous stats, but also not horrible against a Canadian team that has dominated the tournament. With Team Europe heading to a final, three-game series with Canada, after upsetting Sweden in the semifinals, Sbisa will be stuck sitting in the press box for at least a few more days. If the series ends in a two-game sweep, that would mean Sbisa won’t be heading to Vancouver Canucks training camp until September 30th at the earliest.
Sbisa was already going to be in a fight to make the Canucks roster this year with a crowded Canucks blue line that includes Philip Larsen, Nikita Tryamkin, Andrey Pedan and Alex Biega all looking to make the team this year.
In the few days that Sbisa will be watching Team Europe, the Canucks have preseason games scheduled against the San Jose Sharks and the Edmonton Oilers. Those games will provide two prime opportunities for the players mentioned above as well as a player like Troy Stecher, who is already making a name for himself, to impress and earn their way on to the Canucks roster while Sbisa sits by, not able to show what he can do.
Although Sbisa can be a good, serviceable NHLer in a bottom-pairing role, nothing is guaranteed in this league and teams tend to have a “what have you done lately?” mentality. With Sbisa sitting in the press box, the answer is, unfortunately for Sbisa, “not much.”
So now, instead of cheering for Team Europe to beat Team Canada, Sbisa should be hoping this tournament ends as quickly as possible, so he can get to Canucks training camp where he will have to fight twice as hard, in half the amount of time, in order to keep his NHL job.
This article originally appeared on 
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