Looking Out For Luc

Brendan Morrison had trouble Monday recalling the last time his butt was stapled to the bench with the game on the line.

That's because it's a rare occurrence.

However, that's what transpired Sunday in Denver during a 3-2 loss. With the Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Avalanche deadlocked at 2-2, Morrison and Jan Bulis watched too much of the third period from the bench -- not the ice.

"That length of time -- I guess there's a first time for everything," Morrison said following a long learning day at the Xcel Energy Center, which included a meeting with coach Alain Vigneault.

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What irked Vigneault was a lackadaisical play by Morrison and Bulis on a disallowed Avalanche goal late in the second period Sunday. They flew the zone while Ian Laperriere walked out of the corner and scored. But the whistle had sounded and Bulis went off for a hooking penalty.

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said he would look at the tape and make a decision today, but if Luc Bourdon doesn't make his NHL debut Tuesday night in Minnesota the young defenceman is pretty much wasting his time on this trip.

While the kid is inexperienced and may make some mistakes, it's hard to imagine him making any more than were made here Sunday on Vancouver's back end.

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While there isn't much doubt Bourdon can learn a few things watching from the press box, pretty much the only lessons he could be picking up would be how to take penalties and how to turn the puck over while watching the goalie catch bullets in his teeth.

"For me, talent has no age," Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said Sunday morning, rejecting the idea that Bourdon's age requires him to start at the bottom of the depth chart. "If he shows that he's ahead of one of the six guys playing above him, he's going to play. Right now, he hasn't. At this time, he's our seventh defenceman. Until somebody ahead of him doesn't play as well, that's the way it's going to be."

Vigneault said he didn't know if Bourdon will play Tuesday in St. Paul, Minn., but indicated it could be December before the Canucks exhaust the nine games the first-round draft pick is allowed before the team must make a decision on whether to keep him.

"Whether those nine games take 25 or 30 games [to get in], I don't know," Vigneault said. "Right now, this is good experience for him.

"The question we've got to ask ourselves: "Is he better off going back to junior and getting lots of ice time, or playing with us for 40 or 50 games for 15 minutes a game?"