After a horrible effort in Chicago the other night, the Canucks had to regroup, and try and win in a rink that hasn’t been that good to them in recent times.  Nashville.  The Preds aren’t really that good, but they always seem to wind up frustrating the Canucks.

Not to mention the fact that if the Canucks were able to win the game, it would be the quickest that they’ve gotten to 40 wins in their history.  And on  top of that, they can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the road trip from hell.  Just two more and they can get ready to play on some friendly ice again.

The game started off well enough, with Alex Burrows getting into a fight with Dan Hamhuis just three minutes in.  Not there was ever really a chance that this one was going to turn into something similar to the Hawks game the other night.  Alex Edler shook of a hard shot into the boards to take a pass from Pavol Demitra and pick up his third of the year. 

The the Canucks did something that they’ve done far too often lately.  Given up the lead and had to come back.  And did they ever.  The Canucks lead the league in coming from behind when trailing after two periods, and they didn’t disappoint again.  After a breakaway goal of his own the other night, Kyle Wellwood threw a pass up to Jannik Hansen for his own breakaway goal when Pekka Rinne thought he’d covered the puck, and not given up the rebound.

The Sedins finally seemed to get going again as well, with Henrik picking up an empty net goal to seal the deal in the final minute.

So not only did the Canucks come from behind yet again, as I mentioned above, they got to 40 wins in only 65 games, making 50 wins a distinct possibility.  Not many people thought that was going to happen at the start of the year, eh?  Especially considering the slow start, and even slower start on the road.

But now it’s Colorado for a chance to open up the division lead, in what could very much turn into a preview of the first round of the playoffs. 

I can’t think of anything that would have been better than to be following a live blog of the Leafs – Canucks game last night.  From the Leafs perspective.  It would have almost been insufferable, listening to people going on about how the Leafs scored in the first minute of the game, and chased Roberto Luongo after the first period, to be replaced by Leafs cast-off Andrew Raycroft.  And it was kind of funny to listen to Craig Simpson trying to figure out just what the big deal was about the Sedins and Alex Burrows.  Jim Hughson was rather quiet on that subject.  Did a good job of letting Simpson paint himself into a corner.

By the end of the game, Simpson was trying to figure out what the hell happened.  The Sedin-Burrows line took the Leafs apart, scoring all five goals in what was one of the most satisfying victories in a long time.  Simpson had no idea why the Leafs didn’t just “contain the Sedins” and then Burrows would be neutralized.  Hughie flat out asked him, “Don’t you think other teams would have thought of that?  It doesn’t work.”

It was great to see Andrew Raycroft enjoying himself out on the ice towards the end, celebrating with those wearing Canucks jerseys, and giving it to the Leafs fans.  I didn’t realize that the Leafs were still paying his salary, too.  Cool to think that they were paying the goalie that came back into town and beat them on Hockey Day in Canada.

Turns out after the game that Brian Burke pulled off a seven player deal with the Calgary Flames, that included Dion Phaneuff leaving a team that might still make the playoffs for a team that definitely won’t.  I’m sure he’s thrilled.

There couldn’t have been a much better start for the road-trip from hell.  After all, the only thing more satisfying than beating the Oilers, is beating the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Next up, Montreal.

Other Thoughts:

• It’s Just Not Being Good Enough – Pension Plan Puppets
• Hockey Day In Canada Was Not Fun in Toronto – Frozen Leafs
• Canucks Erase 3-0 Leafs Lead and Embarrass Them 5-3 – Nucks Misconduct
• Sunday Morning Coffee: The Comeback – Nucks Misconduct

How long has it been since I last posted here?  Let’s see…the Canucks’ record before I updated the sidebar widget, was 19-15-0 for 38 points, 3rd in the Northwest, and 10th in the Western Conference.  Since then, they’ve gone 7-1-1, and are STILL 3rd in the division, but have moved up to 6th in the conference.  Well, at least they’d be in the playoffs if they started today.  Unlike the Detroit Red Wings, who wouldn’t.

The difference is, though, that they’re only two points out of a tie for first in the division.  Makes that game coming up against Calgary seem even better, doesn’t it?

Back in November I wrote a post on Canucks.com saying that if the Canucks were to go 10-5 in December, that they’d probably be all right for the balance of the season.  What was their record?  10-5 (yeah, yeah, there was an overtime loss, I know.  But it’s still 10 wins and 5 losses, okay?)

So far they’re 2-0 this year, and they completely dominated the Blue Jackets last night, after they recovered from spotting them a 2 goal lead early in the first period.  Roberto Luongo didn’t have to stand on his head, or save the game for them, as scoring wasn’t an issue.  And whenever someone like Rick Rypien chips in with a goal, you know that the secondary scoring is contributing the way that it should be.  A hat-trick from Alex Burrows doesn’t hurt either.

I have to admit that Mikael Samuelsson’s goal was one of the weirdest I’ve seen in a long time.  Sure looked like the guy was offside, but it appears that the officials indicated that the Blue Jackets put the puck back over the blue line, which made Samuelsson on-side.  But shouldn’t that have made it an unassisted goal, rather than giving two assists?  No matter.

Two more games coming up this week, and with the Phoenix Coyotes not playing the way they did last year, maybe the Canucks will play a little better, too.  Not play down to the level of their opponents.  And the Calgary game on Saturday night is just going to be nothing but fun.  Especially if the Canucks knock them off 5-1 like they did in their last meeting.  Time will tell.

I’d like to announce right now that while the league might be shutting down for the Olympics, CanuckNation.ca will be posting on all of Canada’s games during the tournament.  Or games that involve Canucks players, anyway.

Last night’s game between the Devils and the Canucks was just that – a regular season NHL game.  It wasn’t a “showdown” between Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur to see who should be the starting goaltender for Canada in the Olympics.  It was an opportunity to see two of the best goalies in the game facing off against each other.  Nothing more.  Nothing less. 

Hell, the way the game started, you’d think that Brodeur not only wouldn’t get the starting job, but would be dropped from the roster completely.  But then you’d think the same thing about Luongo if  you watched the last five minutes of the first period, too.  But that’s not the way that Steve Yzerman or Hockey Canada work.  And that’s not the way people should be thinking about it, anyway. 

Alex Burrows has settled in quite well with the Sedins again, picking up his 7th goal of the year.  The Sedins had four points between them on those first three goals, and it was sure great to see Sami Salo rip one in from the point.   Without a doubt, the Canucks outplayed the Devils for almost the entire first period, just having those lapses at the end to make the game appear a little closer than it actually was.

It was fundamentally sound, if not the most exciting thing to watch, save for the final outcome.  There were no obviously glaring errors that showed up.  Definitely a good thing.

One thing that kind of struck me was how empty the Prudential Center seemed to be.  I saw a whole lot of empty seats for a game against a decent team that doesn’t turn up too often in Jersey.  I mean, it’s not like it was St. Louis in town.  I checked the box score on NHL.com, and I wasn’t imagining it: 13,586 in attendance.   This for a team that’s 8 games above .500 and 3 points out of first in their division?  Or maybe New Jersey’s always like this?  I don’t know.

I think tonight’s PPV game against the Flyers will have a little more emotion in it.  Roberto Luongo will probably be starting tonight and then Andrew Raycroft will most likely be getting the start against Carolina on Saturday morning.  10:30am?  Jeez, it only used to be Sunday games in Boston that started at weird times.

Any time your power play is effective 80% of the time, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to wind up with two points for the win.  Which is exactly what happened last night.  The fact that it happened against the Oilers made it even better.

While having a four goal lead after the first 12 minutes of the game is great, it’s not always the best position for the Canucks to be in.  Once they have a lead like that, they can have a tendency to try and sit on the lead, which is a dangerous tactic to try, regardless of whether you’re playing San Jose or Toronto (okay, maybe not so dangerous against the Leafs).

After Gilbert Brule gave the Oilers some vague hope of at least scoring, Tanner Glass restored the four goal lead, and that appeared to be the end of the Oilers.

Then the second period started.  And in a span of just a minute and four seconds, the Oilers were within two, and I’m sure the tension was starting to creep back into GM Place.  They couldn’t really blow a four goal lead, could they? 

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, with Alex Edler and Mikael Samuelsson contributing to the effort to put the Oilers away, for the Canucks’ fourth win in five games. 

It was a night when a number of players got the scoring monkey off their backs.  Daniel Sedin finally got his first of the year, Edler got his first dating back to last year, and Alex Burrows seems to have benefited from Daniel’s return, scoring his second goal in as many games.

A lot was made about the fact that the Oilers were a tired, injured team, and while that might be the case, I don’t remember hearing the Canucks using the injuries as an excuse when they had a lot of regulars out of action.  They just sucked it up and kept playing.  Did pretty well, too, if I recall.

The game against the Sharks tonight should be really interesting, as San Jose had an emotional win over the Oilers themselves a couple of nights ago.  The Sharks are looking like the scary team that they were at the start of last season, although maybe not quite as completely dominating, but you still can’t dispute their record.  If the Canucks want to show what they’re capable of doing, tonight’s the night.

I’m the first to admit that I get a little lax when it comes to covering the PPV games.  I don’t pay for them, and don’t feel that I can offer as much just by watching the highlights and commenting on what Sportsnet chooses to show.

But I have to admit to being a little pissed off hearing about the fact that people were actually booing when they heard that what was initially thought to be Kyle Wellwood’s first goal of the season had been taken away and given to Tanner Glass.  Look, I understand that people want Welly to get his first goal, but for God’s sake, don’t boo Glass because the on-ice officials made a mistake.  Does it really matter who scored the damn goal?  Wellwood wants to start scoring too, but do you think he’d whine about it?  No.  He wouldn’t.  At least he got his first goal later in the game, so now people can get over it.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the incredible goal line save Roberto Luongo made on Teddy Purcell, throwing his glove back to pull the puck off the line.  There’s no way that they could have called that a goal because there was no way to see the puck, seeing as how it was covered by the glove.  Was the puck across the line?  Possibly, but without proof, they couldn’t have called it a goal.  Only Luongo knows for sure.

From the reports I’ve heard, the first half of the first period would pretty much put you to sleep, but then the Canucks came out flying to leave the Kings in the dust in the third period.  But it was good to see that Henrik Sedin hasn’t slowed down since Daniel’s return, and that putting Alex Burrows back on a line with the twins has paid off with him opening the scoring.

The Oilers and Sharks should make this an interesting weekend indeed.  A couple of wins would get the Canucks right back into the playoff hunt.  We’ll see what happens.

The only other Canucks’ bloggers with a recap of the game were Sean and Mike at ‘Nucks Misconduct (and this is even with the Yankee Canuck partaking in the American Thanksgiving).  So here’s the link.

Considering that the Canucks have had almost another week off again, it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if they had come out in their rematch against the Avs and laid an egg.

And that’s almost what happened – finding themselves down by a pair before the game was nine minutes old.  After that, though, they woke up and decided that they were going to try and make a game of it.  Five unanswered goals?  Awesome.

As seems to be the Canucks’ way, when those who are expected to score fail to do so, there always seem to be those who step up and fill in the gaps.  With Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, and Kyle Wellwood not doing much, it was Christian Ehrhoff who stepped up with the first multi-goal game of his career, scoring a couple and picking up an assist as well.  Steve Bernier, and Mikael Samuelsson chipped in as well.  And of course, Henrik Sedin hasn’t slowed down at all.

Unfortunately I only got to see the third period, but the way they were flying for the final 20 minutes, a complete game like that and the score would have been 8 – 2 again.  They need to remember, though, that playing less than 60 minutes with any regularity ain’t going to get it done.  The Avs might be on top of the division right now, but they’re 1-5 in their last 6, so you know that the teams that are supposed to be above them are going to quickly start closing that gap.

Sunday night’s game against the Hawks should be interesting, as it’s the first time the two have faced off since Willie Mitchell’s  hit on Jonathan Toews, which knocked him out of action for six games.  I still say it wasn’t a dirty hit, too.  A win over the Hawks would go a long way to boosting the confidence as well.  More than a pair of wins over an over-achieving team like the Avs. 

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.

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.

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)