So, what could be better than a Saturday night victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs?  A win over the Oilers as a chaser?  Yep, that would make for a pretty damn good weekend. 

The Canucks played better in the first half of both games, trying hard not to allow a tying goal in the Leafs game, before Mason Raymond managed to finally put the game out of reach after Alex Burrows had hit the post on a shot at an empty net (the *second* time they hit the post after the Leafs pulled Joey McDonald).

It felt like the Canucks were trying to sit on their 2-1 lead, but it became pretty clear that that wasn’t in fact the goal.  They were hanging on for dear life after more failed attempts to get the puck out of their own end than I could count.  Rather weak attempts.  This would have been one of those times that it would have been fine to ice the puck, and then have Alain Vigneault call a time-out to give those stuck on the ice a break.  Yeah, the puck still would have been in the Canucks’ end, but it might have been enough to break the momentum.

Failing that, and I know they’re paranoid about putting the puck over the glass and taking a penalty, but here’s a tip.  Don’t aim for the glass.  Try and scoop the puck up and hit the damn scoreboard.  It’ll get the puck out of the zone, and no chance of taking a penalty because the puck caught the top of the glass.

All in all, a good win, though, with Ryan Kesler also picking up a goal on a great wrist-shot from the point.

And then the Oilers came to town.  Roberto Luongo picked up his first shutout of the season, and 21st as a Canuck to move him past Kirk McLean as the all-time leader in shutouts as a Canuck. 

It wasn’t the typical extremely physical contest when the Oil come to town, but still entertaining.  Michael Grabner bagged his second goal, and Henrik Sedin  managed to tip in a shot from the point and ice the game. 

Neither of the games was particularly thrilling, in my opinion, other than the fact that the Canucks picked up four points.  They were just…wins.  Even with the whole thing in the media about Brian Burke and Mike Gillis, it seems to have been more of a creation of the MSM.  Kind of like when two teams have a brawl filled game and play each other again four or five days later.  The followup game has none of the issues of the first game.  But the MSM makes it sound like WWIII is going to happen.

Meh.

One more home game against the Wings on Tuesday, and then it’s off on a road trip for a bit.  Things appear to have turned the corner, particularly with Luongo, who gives the impression that he’s finally hit his stride after his traditional slow start.

Which is a good thing, because they’ve got some work to do catching the Flames and Avs (!) before the tough work starts after the new year.

So let me get this straight.  Willie Mitchell throws a perfectly legal hit on Johnathan Toews, and gets a penalty for it.  The Canucks have a 2 on 0 breakaway blown dead because Dustin Byfuglien jumps Mitchell.  Beautiful.

Apparently goaltenders don’t need to stop breakaways anymore.  Someone just needs to jump someone behind the play, and things get blown dead.  No more breakaway.

This whole thing lately about a fight breaking out over a clean but hard hit is just pissing me off. It’s a physical game, for God’s sake.  People get hurt.  Just because someone gets hurt from a hit DOESN’T mean it was a dirty hit.

Did the Pens get jumped when Roberto Luongo got hurt last year?  Was there a fight after Daniel Sedin or Sami Salo got hurt earlier this year?  (Okay, bad example on Salo).

Regardless, the Canucks played as close to a complete game as they have in awhile, coming back to beat the Blackhawks for their first road win of the year.  Killing off 5 on 3’s, Michael Grabner getting his first NHL goal, and Mikael Samuelsson chipping in the game winner.

Alain Vigneault has been a little too light on the Canucks (at least in the media) by saying that the Canucks have been out-chancing their opponents two or three to one lately.  Uh, coach?  How many points do you get for outshooting the other team 40 – 20 if you lose 3-1?  That’s right.  NONE.  You need to get chances, but if you don’t finish more of them, you might as well have not had them.

Hopefully the trend continues tonight with a Leafs team that’s had a week off, but is still looking for its first win.  Best thing that they could do?  Jump out to a quick two goal lead to take the pressure off, and then keep driving.  Hell, run up the score.

Because, of course, there’s nothing better than beating the Leafs on national TV.  Until the playoffs start, of course.  Not that the Leafs will be playing in the post season anyway.

I’m not in much of a position to comment on the Friday game against the Flames, as when I finally got a chance to turn the game on, there was only about 9 minutes left in the third period, and the score was 5-1 for Calgary.  Okay.  Let’s just turn that off now and hope for a better result against the Wild.

When I got around to checking the score I found that they’d at least made a bit of an effort and popped in a couple more goals to make it at least a little more interesting.  It also happened to be the second time that Roberto Luongo has been pulled this season.  Can’t remember the last time that happened in the first month of the season.

So I was looking forward more to the game against Minnesota.  Especially considering that they’re missing a whole lot of their better players, and consequently are winless on the road this year.  Nice to see that trend continuing. 

If it hadn’t been for Nick Backstrom, the score last night would have been a lot higher than 2-1.  The Canucks completely dominated the last two periods of the game, particularly Mikael Samuelsson, who buried the puck behind Backstrom after picking up the rebound on his backhand, and transferring it to his forehand.  While normally this leads to a goaltender making a miraculous save because has time to get somewhat back into position, it didn’t happen last night.  Mason Raymond is playing the best hockey of his career lately.  Things are going to start going his way.  And Ryan Kesler’s shot got behind Backstrom from just an impossible angle.  Sometimes those lucky bounces sure go the right way.

Michael Grabner didn’t look all that bad, and neither did Andre Bolduc, despite his taking a penalty at a very bad time.  And I wouldn’t say that Henrik Sedin looks lost at all without his brother.  Although I do think he shouldn’t have tried to walk around Backstrom late in the game when he had that chance.  Just shoot the damn puck.

It’s nice to see that they’re not going to be just sitting around for the next week waiting for the Leafs next Saturday, either.  Games on both Monday and Wednesday should keep them sharp to face Toronto, who have a week off to contemplate that they’re 0-6-1.  Wonder how long it’ll be before they start calling for Ron Wilson’s head? 

Thoughts from around the Canuck Nation:

Okay, so it’s just Nucks Misconduct with any reactions to the game.  But jeez, when Zandberg is posting at 3am, you know that the guy’s got some good stuff to read.  Go check out the post here.

And because it’s more entertaining, here’s some posts from Leafs blogs:

• Leafs Winless In More Places Than One – (budblog)
• Leafs Lose Again – Gone Until November – (budblog)
• The Pit of Ultimate Darkness – (Pension Plan Puppets – We’ll Win A Game Eventually)
• The Bright Side: Six Good Things About Six Awful Losses – (Down Goes Brown)
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Ugly Numbers – (Bittler Leaf Fan Page)

Seeing as how we were downtown for the Thanksgiving long weekend, I decided to head down to the hotel bar for the final half of the Dallas game. 

Maybe it was just the fact that it wasn’t much of a sports bar, but there didn’t really seem to be a whole lot of life to the place, even when Willie Mitchell gave the Canucks the lead with about 14 minutes or so to go.

But the room sure did get quiet when the Stars tied the game late in the third.  You could just kind of feel that the game was destined for the shootout based on the overtime – not a whole lot of chances really, at either end.  But with both Kyle Wellwood and Ryan Kesler scoring, and Roberto Luongo stopping everything the Stars threw at him, the Canucks managed their second win of the season.

Now they’re off again until Friday, when they play in Calgary.  Nothing like almost a week off to kill some momentum.  It won’t even help them injury-wise, really, as Daniel Sedin is off long-term, and God knows how long Sami Salo will be out this time.

Hank didn’t play too badly without his brother, either, picking up assists 4 and 5 of the year.  We’ll see how he continues to play over the course of Daniel’s forced time off.

I wrote yesterday that a pissed off Roberto Luongo usually means that he’s destined to have an incredible game in his next outing.  Seems that I was a little wrong in this case.  While Luongo certainly played well, it was the rest of the Canucks that looked like they were pissed off about the outcome of the previous three games.  As they should have been.

But, damn, that was a good game last night.

Henrik Sedin scored twice, including a 2 on 0 break where he would normally have passed the puck.  This time he took the shot, and was well rewarded.  He should remember that good things happen when you shoot sometimes, too.

But it seemed like everyone was scoring last night.  Mason Raymond, Ryan Kesler, and Steve Bernier all got their first goals of the season, with Alex Burrows and Mikael Samuelsson rounding things out.

The best moment of the night for me, though, was watching 5’11” Rick Rypien squaring off with 6’7” Hal Gill.  And Rypien handled himself perfectly.  I really thought the crowd would respond more vocally than they did. 

Yeah, it’s only one game, but the Canucks showed what they were capable of last night.  Complete domination of another team.  And Jacques Martin is supposed to be a defensive specialist of a coach?  Uh, not from what I saw last night. 

So that’s the first win of the season and now the whining can stop (okay, okay, at least die down a bit).  But it’s time to get ready for the Stars on Sunday night.  It should be interesting to see what they do with three days off between home games.

Not sure what happened with the tail end of my live blog the other night.  Posts for the entire third period just seemed to fall into the bit bucket or something.  Wasn’t the net connection, because I was still able to post to Twitter.  Oh well.

Thoughts on what happened Monday night.  The Canucks didn’t play a horrible game.  They played a horrible three minutes or so, which wound up costing them the game, but other than that poor stretch, they played fine.  Certainly well enough to win.  But spotting the Blue Jackets those three goals just made the mountain that much steeper.

Have the wheels fallen off completely?  Of course not.  Do you think they’re calling for Mike Babcock’s head in Detroit?  The Wings are off to as poor a start as the Canucks.  Probably not.  Teams lose games.  If they had started 10-0 and then lost their next three do you think people would be complaining as loudly?  Again, probably not.

Roberto Luongo traditionally plays pretty well against the Canadiens.  True, the game isn’t in Montreal, but he also has to face the fact that he got pulled in the home opener.  Bobby Lu is going to be pissed.  And from what I’ve seen in the past, when Roberto Luongo is pissed, it usually means that he has an incredible game.

Sadly it’s a PPV, so I’m going to have to be content with listening to the game on the radio and watching the highlights on Sportsnet.  No matter.  I have a feeling that after tonight, it won’t be the Canucks who are looking for their first win of the season.

Prediction?  2-0 for the Canucks.

Update: And again, I made a mistake.  The game isn’t a PPV, but rather on TSN.  I’m just so used to them being on Sportsnet.  And this usually the type of game that they would include in the PPV package anyway. 

Good evening, and welcome to the first of what I hope will be many live blogs this season.  The Canucks are playing their 39th home opener, and they’ll be raising the 2008-09 Northwest Division championship banner tonight. 

Hard to think that it’s going to be anything other than insane inside GM Place tonight.  So let’s get it started….

First Period:

18:00 – Fairly good action so far.  Canucks need to come out with a lot of jump.  If they can get the first goal, the crowd might just drown the Blue Jackets.

17:00 – Rypien just crashed into someone, and then Hordichuk hit the guy again from behind, driving him into the glass.  Pretty stupid hit by Hordy.  Hopefully they can kill this off.

15:00 – Not a bad kill so far.  Jackets aren’t really getting set up.

13:35 – Penalty is killed.  Pretty fast paced game.  Canucks really need to get the first goal here.

12:20 – Jeez, even Ryan Johnson is out there hitting people.

11:15 – Luongo makes a great save on a breakaway to keep the game scoreless.   Ehrhoff takes a penalty trying to stop the breakaway.  Again with the penalty trouble.

9:39 – Mason Raymond is playing like Alex Burrows.  Head down, full tilt. 

8:13 – Seeing Shirokov get a goal tonight would be just perfect.

7:30 – Good pressure by the Canucks, but this is seeming like one of those games that looks like one team is getting all the chances and then all of a sudden it’s 2-1 for the other team.  Let’s hope not.

5:20 – According to @mozy19, the Canucks are being outshot 7-3 “Two PKs will do that to ya.”

4:20 – Goal!  Henrik Sedin from Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa.  Just what they needed.

3:13 – Finally – a Canucks powerplay.  They came VERY close to making it a 2 goal lead.  But now they’re 5 on 3.  This is where they need to take advantage.

0:42 – Goal – WTF?!?  Canucks give up a 3 on 2 while on the powerplay and the game is tied at 1.  Talk about a momentum killer.

0:00 – Except for that one lapse at the end, the Canucks didn’t play too badly.  Now they just need to get away from those lapses.  That one really hurt.  No way they should have given up a 3 on 2 while on the powerplay.

Second Period:

19:01 – HOW was Bernier that open in front of the net and he didn’t get a shot off?

17:53 – Goal.  A 2 on 1 and Luongo backing up on the Husalius (sp?) shot.  2 – 1 for the Jackets.

15:40 – Bernier getting a hell of a lot of chances tonight, but nothing to show for it.

14:27 – Canucks feeling the pressure now.  3 – 1 for the Blue Jackets.  Oh crap.  4 – 1.  And Luongo is getting pulled.  Andrew Raycroft is in.

12:37 – From Nucks Misconduct on Twitter: The mighty Raycroft era begins for the #canucks. Grab a drink folks, this could get ugly.

11:33 – Goal! Christian Ehrhoff on a great blast from the point.  They needed that goal so badly it wasn’t funny.

9:40 – Fans cheering Raycroft’s first save.  Luongo is going to be in a foul mood after this is all over.

8:35 – Canucks need to start pounding everything in white and get themselves back into this.

6:56 – If they can get out of this period no more than two down, they’ve got a chance to come back and win this thing.  Getting at least one more would sure be good, though.

5:30 – O’B wants to go with Methot, but nothing’s going to come of it.

1:43 – I really didn’t think they’d be able to get the crowd back on their side, but they’ve done it.  Get the feeling it’s just a matter of time till they get at least one more.

0:00 – That was a real ‘holy shit’ kind of period.  The Canucks completely fell apart early in the third period, but surprisingly, refused to fold the tents and give in.  After Luongo got pulled, they woke up and completely outplayed the Blue Jackets.  If they play the third like they did the end of the second, I have a feeling they’ll be picking up two points tonight.

Third Period:

Sportsnet debating whether the Canucks should put Luongo back in for the third period.  Explain to me again why these people get paid the money that they do?

Yeah, now’s not a good time to go on a two-game losing streak, but come on, the season is only two games old.  People will be saying that this is the proof that the Canucks can’t get anything done.  That the Canucks won’t even make the playoffs.

Which, of course, is a load of crap.

Do you think those people are saying the same thing about the Detroit Red Wings?  They’re in the same ditch as the Canucks right now.  0-2.  Or the San Jose Sharks?  0-1.

Teams lose games.  I wrote earlier that no one thinks that the Canucks are going to go 82-0 for the season.  But no one believes that they’ll be 0-82, either.  It’s not time to panic or jump off the bandwagon just yet.

Like the Calgary game the other night, the Canucks failed to put in a 60 minute effort.  But this time they started out strong and went limp by the time the game was over.  Without question, though, Avs goalie Craig Anderson had a hell of a game.  The Sedins and Alex Burrows had a number of chances, but the guy just stood on his head.  And the defense needs to learn that you can’t carry the puck out your own end through a bunch of traffic.  I thought the ghost of Jyrki Lume was in the building.

The Canucks didn’t really give the impression of having a whole lot of life in them for this game, and maybe that’s just because of opening up the season on the road.  I have a feeling that things are going to be a lot different come Monday night when the Blue Jackets are in town. 

I kind of wish it was Calgary, Edmonton, or Chicago, because a home opener win against one of those three teams would be a little better for the team’s mental state than Columbus, Atlanta, or Phoenix. 

Thoughts from the Canuck Nation:

• Canucks Lose to Avalanche 3-0 (Canuck Life)
• Canucks Still Unable To Hit Stride In 3-0 Loss to Avalanche (Nucks Misconduct)

It looked like it was going to be a long night when all of a sudden the Canucks found themselves down 3-0.  This was NOT how it was supposed to be. 

But, penalty trouble was what did them in last night, surrendering two powerplay goals on their first two PK’s.  But then a funny thing happened – the Canucks woke up, and if they hadn’t had as big a hill to climb as they did, probably would have come back to tie the game up.  But they didn’t, and maybe it should be a lesson to them that they can’t float for the first period and come roaring back in the second and third all the time.  If they’re going to be considered an elite team, they have to play 60 minutes a game for all 82 games.

The CBC mentioned that this was the first time that all of the regulars had played together this season.  Maybe they need a game or two to all get back in synch.  They shouldn’t need that, but we’ll give them a little (very little) bit of slack.

It didn’t seem like the standard Canucks – Flames game, either.  At times it seemed like they were playing the Minnesota Wild.  The game got better as it went on, but it just didn’t feel the same for some reason.

I guess we’ll see what happens on Saturday night.

As we say at the start of each season, it’s the Canucks’ Fans Prayer:

Please God – anyone but the Leafs.  Amen.

Go Canucks Go.