In morning skate gallery today, Canucks enforcer Jeff Cowan was pictured wearing a visor. You could see his right eye is bruised, so it could be just precautionary.

Both Sami Salo and Taylor Pyatt started off the year without visors and now both of them wear one full time.

Players With Visors: Burrows, Cooke, Jaffray, Kesler, Morrison, Naslund, Pyatt, Raymond, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Shannon, Bourdon, Edler, Krajicek, Ohlund, Salo

Players Without Visors: Isbister, Linden, Ritchie, Bieksa, McIver, Miller, Weaver

Ben Kuzma reports Peter Forsberg has narrowed down the teams he’s interested in signing with: the Canucks, Flyers, and Avalanche.

The Red Wings have been wildly speculated as a destination Forsberg with the large amount of Swedes on the team.

Markus Naslund says he wants his junior buddy Forsberg to sign with the Canucks.

(Quotes Courtesy Of The Province)

“Yeah, I’m hoping but I don’t know what the chances would be,” Naslund said Thursday. “I’d definitely like to see him come play with us and make us a better team and with Brendan [Morrison] out, that playmaker centreman would be a good fit.

“Even if comes down to four, five or six teams, I think it’s unlikely that it will happen, but you’ve just got to keep hoping.”

Nonis also confirmed a report saying that he was in Sweden back in July to talk to Forsberg.

(Quotes Courtesy Of The Province)

“I was there for a brief visit to express our interest,” confirmed Nonis.

Kuzma also writes Forsberg wants to play for a team that plays up-tempo hockey suggesting Alain Vigneault’s defence-first approach won’t be to his liking.

Once again, Wade Redden has been approached by Sens GM Bryan Murray to waive his no-trade clause.

The first time Redden was approached was during the 2007 NHL Entry Draft back in June of last year. Murray had a deal in place with an unnamed team and all he needed was Redden agreeing to waive his no-trade clause, but he declined.

And today, Redden was once again asked by Murray if he’d be willing to waive his no-trade clause after the Sharks made an inquiry if Redden was available. Again, he declined to saying he’s committed to another cup run with the Senators.

If Redden was willing to waive his no-trade clause, it’s almost certain that the trade would of had struggling centre Patrick Marleau going the other way; the top-six forward that Murray’s been seeking all along.

Quoted from the Vancouver Sun:

ATLANTA — Defenceman Mattias Ohlund rejoined his Canuck teammates this morning and will be in the lineup tonight when Vancouver closes out a four-game road trip against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Ohlund, who returned home to deal with an undisclosed personal matter and missed Tuesday night’s game in Dallas, flew to Atlanta early today and skated at Philips Arena for a few minutes after his teammates had completed their morning game-day skate.

“I slept pretty good on the plane, so I don’t feel too bad,” Ohlund said.

Ohlund’s return is a relief to the Canucks, who are already missing four injured defencemen in Willie Mitchell (back), Lukas Krajicek (shoulder), Aaron Miller (foot) and Kevin Bieksa (calf).

“The new guys came in and played extremely well for us in Dallas and it’s nice to be back here and hopefully we can start winning,” Ohlund said. “Obviously we need points and hopefully that can start tonight.”

Ohlund said his personal situation should not cost him any more games in the future.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “It was something I had to deal with and things are looking better now.”

With Ohlund back, the Canucks sent rookie defenceman Zack FitzGerald back to the Manitoba Moose. FitzGerald made his NHL debut in Tuesday night’s 3-2 shootout loss in Dallas.

The Canucks will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak and salvage something from this trip, which has yielded only a pair of shootout losses.

The Canucks have fallen to 10th place in the NHL’s Western Conference and are currently two points out of a playoff spot.

“We have to get back to winning and get some confidence,” said winger Daniel Sedin. “We’re in tight games all the time and we need to start winning them.”

The Canucks will return home immediately after tonight’s game and play host to Colorado on Saturday night and the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night.

Dave Tomlinson on the TEAM 1040 is reporting his sources tell him that highly-touted free agent prospect Fabian Brunnstrom wants to play for the Canucks and alongside Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

He wants guaranteed top-six minutes for the team and bonuses that could him up to $3.5 million a season.

At the beginning of the year Kings GM Dean Lombardi said that the reason that Dan Cloutier was sent to the minors was so they could give him playing time and not to save the team salary cap space; when he’s ready, he will be recalled.

Well, he kept his promise, today the team placed Dan Cloutier on re-entry waivers with the purpose of re-assignment to the Kings (NHL). In a corresponding move, the team placed Jean-Sebastien Aubin on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the AHL.

Cloutier played in 14 games while sharing time with Erik Ersberg and Jon Quick. He compiled a 4-9 record with a 3.50 GAA. Not that great of numbers, but it was good enough for him to get recalled to the NHL.

Aubin has been inconsistent as the backup this season, posting a record 5-6-1 and a 3.19 GAA. The team is paying Cloutier $3.1 million to be in the press box on some nights in the minors, might as well give Clootz a shot at earning his NHL job back.

Best of luck to our ex-Canuck!