After an interminably long summer of house cleaning, the Vancouver Canucks start the 2014-15 NHL season tonight against the woeful Abbotsford Heat Calgary Flames. While this particular foe still makes the Canucks look like world-beaters, there isn’t a pundit in the land who thinks Vancouver has a legitimate shot at winning the Pacific Division. So just how fair and middling will this year’s edition of the Vancouver Canucks be? I’m glad you asked. Here are seven questions we’re slobbering over ourselves in anticipation and excitement:

1. How much Sedinery will we witness this year?
Henrik and Daniel Sedin — the top two point-getters in franchise history — have each won a scoring title in their career, but it’s a pretty good bet that the days of 100-point campaigns are behind the 34-year-old Swedes. The question, then, isn’t whether they’ll top the league in scoring, but how much of a bounce back we’ll see under coach Willie “Not-Torts” Desjardins. Sure, Henrik led the team in scoring last year, but had 50 points in 70 games. A year before, under Alain Vigneault, he had just 45 points, but that was the lockout-shortened 48-game season. If he performs at his career average of 0.83 points-per-game, Hank should put up 68 points over a full season. An extra 20 points from your top line centre means you’re playing from behind less often, and more often playing to win rather than struggling for a Bettman Loser Point. With four or five teams battling for the wild card spots in the West, every one of those points looms large.

2. How is Daniel’s back?
When Henrik missed a dozen games last year, it was major news, as he hadn’t sat out an NHL game in nearly a decade. His brother Daniel, on the other hand, has missed 39 games over the past five seasons, almost all due to back spasms. In his only full season during that time, he went and won the fricking Art Ross trophy as the league’s top scorer. If he misses a game here and there, it shouldn’t be a season-killer for Vancouver, but if Dank’s back keeps him in the press box for any significant period of time, it’s a sure bet the Canucks will sit out the post-season for a second year in a row.

3. How many Vrbata puns will we see?
There’s no doubt that, barring injury, Radim Vrbata offers a few more goals than Alex Burrows did last year. Of course, Burr only potted five goals in 49 games, so perhaps that’s an unfair contrast to make. Vrbata is a proven scorer, with 35 goals a couple of seasons ago on a line with Shane Doan and Ray Whitney. Will he snipe with Henrik serving up saucers? Let’s assume he does. Give him 30 goals, with half of those coming on the man advantage. As Vrbata goes, so goes the power play this season — it should be easy to improve upon last year’s clusterbleep, but I digress. How many cheesy headlines will follow, assuming modern-day newspaper writers remember what a verb is? Donny Taylor would have been all over it on Connected, for sure, but Sportsnet (hallowed be thy name) has gone almost exclusively to Maple Leafs content in its post-game coverage.

4. Will Ryan Miller survive the Goalie Graveyard?
Seriously, why would any goaltender want to sign with Vancouver? This town has shat upon every player to pull on the pads since Kirk McLean got traded to Carolina. (I’ll admit to being part of the lynch mob that put an end to Dan Cloutier’s career, but  come on, people, Roberto Luongo is a lock for the Hall of freaking Fame, and you lionized the guy after he pitched two shutouts in a Cup Final!) Even keeping crazy fans out of the equation, management has mishandled so many keepers over the years that it’s a wonder the team can get anyone between the pipes. I guess it’s a good thing goalies are notoriously out of their minds. Ryan Miller is a former Vezina winner, and one of the most popular players to play in Buffalo in the past decade. He had an okay regular season with the Blues last year, but dropped the ball — and a couple of pucks — in the playoffs. Like Luongo, Miller (fairly or unfairly) has a reputation for imploding at just the wrong moment and letting in a bad goal when his team needs a save. That didn’t stop him from almost singlehandedly winning Olympic silver for the States in 2010. His MVP honours from that tournament, however, won’t soften Vancouver’s ire should he have a horrible season in Canucks colours.

5. How badly will the Ryan Kesler trade haunt the Canucks?
Let’s call a spade a bleeping shovel: Ryan Kesler hasn’t been Ryan Kesler since he put on a cape and carried the Canucks past the Nashville Predators in round two of the 2011 playoffs. His laser-sighted wrist shot has all but disappeared, and for at least two years his mean streak has translated into more photobombs on teammates than thundering body checks on opposition centres. Now that he’s been moved out of the electron microscope of the Vancouver hockey world, he may just be able to recapture his game and help Anaheim vie for the West. Even if he has another mediocre season behind Cory Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, however, he’ll skate with players named Dany Heatley instead of Tom Sestito. Knowing Kes, he’ll up his game against his old team just to get Kevin Bieksa’s goat — remember, this is the guy who shit-talked teammate Roberto Luongo over the Olympic Gold Medal game in 2010, and got up in his kitchen to score one of the USA goals before settling for silver. The Ducks are wildly favoured each and every time they face off against the Canucks this season; Ryan Kesler’s +/- against Vancouver will certainly spill as much ink as which team takes home two points. Considering Anaheim is almost guaranteed first round home ice advantage in the playoffs, and the Canucks will be lucky to make the dance, Ryan Kesler’s +/- might just be a more interesting storyline. Who knows, Nick Bonino’s contribution to the Canucks scoresheet might even make a difference in the conversation.

6. Will a trio of rookies make a difference?
Unfortunately, I’m not talking about Bo Horvat, Nicklas Jensen and Brendan Gaunce. Except for their mandatory cup of coffee in the bigs, those three guys are a lock to lace ’em up in Utica this season. No, it’s Trevor Linden, Jim Benning and Willie Desjardins as first-year president, GM and head coach respectively. Every ball was a floater over the plate during the off-season — how could you do any worse than GIllis and Torts did last year? — but now it comes down to wins and losses on the ice. To be fair, Linden inherited a front office in shambles after Mike Gillis’s goalie fire-sale and a locker room in disarray from a year of John Tortorella’s questionable tactics. They say corporate culture is determined at the top, and gradually affects the lower ranks. Can Linden’s contagious enthusiasm bring an average roster to punch above its weight class, or are Bieksa and the Sedins indeed playing out the string at the start of a franchise rebuild?

7. Will the new food be any good?
Rogers Arena isn’t the only sports building to feature horrid food at outrageous prices. Linden’s off-season announcement that he was planning to improve all aspects of the hockey experience, including in-rink refreshments, raised eyebrows and rang salivary bells. Craft beer, gourmet eats and a greater range of product will provide a huge upgrade in the culinary offerings. (Prices will probably still be outrageous, but at least the only thing upsetting stomachs will be Zach Kassian’s defensive play.) Rogers Arena is hardly the first venue to up its game in the concourse — LA, New York, Chicago: all have quality nosh for patrons of the game, and even neighbouring BC Place has Vij’s curry and Pajo’s fish & chips on the menu for Whitecaps games. It seems like a minor detail, but food associated with an event goes a long way to inviting casual fans back, and lets regular attendees literally leave with a better taste in their mouths for the hundreds of dollars they invest in coming to the rink.