The Vancouver Canucks enter the season with two goals.The first is to qualify for the playoffs. The other is to incorporate youth into the lineup.If balancing competitiveness and development sounds like a tricky proposition, Canucks general manager Jim Benning isnt concerned.I dont think it has to be mutually exclusive, Benning said. We want our young players to develop in a winning environment so they learn to play the right way.To that end, Benning traded for former Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson and Bruins right winger Loui Eriksson. Benning hopes that the duo, along with Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Alex Edler and some of the other veterans can mentor the youngsters, including Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Jake Virtanen.When you acquire players with experience, they can help our young players, hold them accountable the right way, Benning said. I think you can do a balancing act of trying to draft well, develop your players well and still try to compete and try to make the playoffs.Vancouver has missed the playoffs two out of the last three seasons and the challenge wont be any easier this season in a division with San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.Here are some areas to keep an eye on over the course of the season:OFFENSIVE UPGRADEVancouvers 2.27 goals per game ranked 29th in last season. Enter Eriksson, who had a 30-goal campaign with Boston in 2015-16.When we kind of digested what happened with the team over the course of the year, said Benning, we thought adding a skilled player like Loui would help our group.SWEET SWEDESEriksson is Swedish. So, too, are Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Is it fait accompli that the trio will be a line for the entirety of the season?No, Benning said. We acquired Loui because hes a good hockey player. Hes versatile. He can play left wing or right wing. He can play on your first power play, he can kill penalties. Hes a guy that whatever line hes on, he makes that line better. Hes also a guy that you could move to another line and get that line going.MUSCULAR `DThe trend in the NHL is to emphasize speed and skill over size and power. Yet in trading for Gudbranson, the Canucks brought in a defenseman known for his brawn. Why? I just felt on our back end last year maybe we werent hard enough to play against, Benning said. He brings a hardness and a steadiness to our group back there.YOUTH MOVEMENTThe Sedins and Eriksson are known offensive commodities. But if the Canucks are to qualify for the playoffs, Benning is hoping for production from Baertschi, Horvat, Virtanen and Brandon Sutter. Baertschi finished with 28 points in 69 games. Horvat recorded 40 points in 82 games. Virtanen had 13 points in 55 games, while Sutter was limited to nine points in 20 games.MILLER TIMEShould the Canucks find themselves out of the playoff race at the trade deadline, Benning might have a trade chip in goaltender Ryan Miller. Miller, 36, is in the third and final year of a three-year, $18 million contract. He is coming off a season in which he posted a 2.70 goals against average and .916 save percentage in 51 games. china jerseys . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. replica jerseys china .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. https://www.chinajerseysreplica.us/ . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. cheap china jerseys .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. cheap jerseys from china . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. RIO DE JANEIRO -- They could teach positive thinking to Tony Robbins, but as a group, the U.S. mens gymnastics team actually might have to dial it down a bit.Using the 2012 London Olympics as a ready example, the fervent five must quickly tuck away an impressive second-place finish to China in the qualification round Saturday at Rios Olympic Stadium and come to grips with a few realities.It should not be that difficult.Atop the list is the fact that they finished first in qualifications at the 2012 Games before placing fifth in the team finals.Looking ahead to Mondays team finals, China, team gold medalists the past two Olympics and three of the past four, along with fourth-place Japan and even fifth-place Great Britain are still considered heavier favorites than the U.S.And on a day in which the mood was permanently dampened by the gruesome injury to French gymnast Samir Ait Said, whose bad landing on a vault snapped his lower left leg with a crack heard to the upper reaches of the arena, it was one more reminder of the delicate nature of the sport.This sport is absolutely brutal, said Sam Mikulak, who finished in seventh place to qualify for Wednesdays all-around finals along with teammate Chris Brooks, who finished 19th. We learned that from John Orozco [who was originally chosen for the 2016 Olympic team but lost his spot due to a serious knee injury a little more than two weeks before Rio]. Especially to be in the Olympic Games and go down like that, its a horrible, horrible thing.We just have to get in the zone, stay focused and do the gymnastics we came out here to do.Considering it was far from a flawless day for the Americans, who faltered specifically and significantly on pommel horse, they were still able to maintain a sunny disposition at the overall result.If we hit our sets, I think well be on the podium, said Jake Dalton. It may take a pretty fantastic day to be No. 1, but thats what were shooting for. It depends on the other [teams] but I think were good enough.There is one school of thought that a superior team like China holds back in the qualification rounds, if not exactly lulling its opponents into a state of complacency, then at least saving its best for last.All scores are wiped clean for the team, all-around and apparatus finals.U.S. team coordinator Kevin Mazeika said the Americans subscribe too that philosophy to a certain degree as well.dddddddddddd We definitely talked about keeping something in the tank for Monday, he said.Mikulak agreed.Today was about setting a tone for team finals, he said. We didnt want to put on the best show weve ever had in our lives right now. We wanted to just make sure we got out on the equipment, were comfortable and were ready to improve on what we did today.Its just another day at the office, Brooks said. We just did what we needed to do. I think were sitting in good position. Our consistency is pretty good. Its been going well in training. I have all the confidence in the world that these guys are going to smash what we need to. Take away the good and leave the bad. Monday is a new day and we have to keep the ball rolling.Brooks, 29, sat in the stands in London four years ago as a team alternate. On Saturday, he stood in the tunnel before taking the floor with his team and said he became emotional after I talked to my dad a little bit.Brooks lost his father, Larry, who also coached him, in a car accident in 2008. I started to tear up and I was like, No, no, no, its time, you got to get it together. Lets go out there and do some gymnastics.Before they left their rooms, the U.S. gymnasts continued their ritual of reading one of a supply of inspirational sayings provided to them by their physical therapist.Saturdays was an oldie but a goodie: If you believe strongly enough in your pursuit, it will come to fruition.Four years ago, Brooks wasnt entirely sure the U.S. team did that.From where I was sitting in the stands, we just have to keep ourselves together as a team a little bit more, he said. It seemed like after a couple little mistakes in finals last time, the team chemistry wasnt quite there. It didnt seem like they were picking themselves up. I think thats something this team can do. Were good at that.But first, said Danell Leyva, the 2012 all-around bronze medalist who took Orozcos spot on the team this time, they have to put 2012 out of their minds.Theres no point in trying to remember something negative to obtain a positive outcome, Leyva said. Theres nothing we can do about London anymore. We just have to get as ready as we can for Monday. ' ' '