It wasn’t the worst performance of the year.  In fact, I didn’t think that the Canucks played too badly, overall.  But the thing that killed them, as it had a tendency to do in the January-from-Hell, was stupid, stupid penalties, that wound up costing them.

Look guys.  It’s not 2006-07, all right?  Your PK isn’t that good.  Two years ago, the penalty killing was almost flawless.  But those days are over, and for some reason, they don’t look like they’re coming back anytime soon.

Yesterday I wrote that the Canucks need to be sure that they don’t take teams like the Kings too lightly, and I really don’t think that that’s what happened last night.  Except for the penalty situation, the Canucks played well enough to win last night.  They just need to stay out of the box at inopportune times. 

Yes, I’m looking at you, Mats Sundin.  I thought you’d gotten over taking those dumb-ass penalties.

Bright spots in the game?  Unless he suffers a season-ending injury tomorrow, Alex Burrows is going to be a 20-goal scorer this season.  Who would have predicted that two or three years ago?  Probably not many.  Sure is great to see, though.

Time to move on, though.  It’s the struggling Ducks tomorrow night, and then they get to have another kick at the Kings on Friday – an opportunity to show them that when it comes right down to it, the Canucks really are the better team.

Thankfully the Canucks were finally able to shake off the fact that they hadn’t beaten the San Jose Sharks this year (although their last game was close).  It didn’t matter that the Sharks were without a number of regulars in the long run.  The Canucks picked up another couple of points, although they can’t seem to get any closer to the currently struggling Flames.

It was good to see Mats Sundin finally get another goal, his first in about 11 games, and Roberto Luongo played the way he’ll need to in the playoffs.

All you can hope is that they don’t start taking their next four games – 2 against the Kings, and singles against the Ducks and Avalanche – lightly.  In the past the Canucks have had a tendency to not play as well against some of their weaker opponents, and this would be the time to start stepping on the gas, and working towards catching the Flames.  Not sitting back and figuring that a split of the next four games would be good enough.

Of course, there’s never any indication that this WILL happen, it just seems to turn out that way sometimes.

How long are Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler going to keep playing as well as they have?  Who knows.  But they’ve definitely been major parts of what’s been happening lately here in Canuck-land.  And as pointed out on Nucks Misconduct, they’re getting wins even though both the power play and the PK currently suck, Luongo is only 10th in the league in goals against and save percentage, and the only one on the team with more than 20 goals is Daniel Sedin (although Burrows is knocking on that door).

I think these next four games will be a better indicator of what’s to come rather than just a single game against the Sharks.

Thoughts from behind the bench:

• Who Said That? – Crashing the Goalie
• Yeah, yeah, the Canucks beat the Sharks…. – Nucks Misconduct
• Canucks / Sharks – The Humming Giraffe

Could this have been scripted any better?   Alain Vigneault picks two players who are returning to play their former team for the first time to have the chance to win the game in the shootout.  Kyle Wellwood missed, but he wasn’t who the fans really came to see.  Mats Sundin skated in on Vesa Toskala and put a high backhander behind him to win the game, making the Canucks 7 – 1 in the month of February, and extending Roberto Luongo’s personal unbeaten streak to eight games.

Despite the fact that the Canucks got smacked around in the first period, it was good to see that they were able to come from behind yet again to get the win.  But they need to get out of that habit.  Despite what they’ve done recently, they’re not a great come-from-behind kind of team.  And the statistics don’t lie.  The team that scores first has a better chance of picking up the two points.

Alex Burrows continued to show why he’s going to get a rather impressive raise next year, regardless of where he plays.  Sure hope that it’s for the Canucks.   He’s one that they definitely shouldn’t let get away.

One thing that I did before this game that I’ve never done before, was to solicit guest posts from bloggers who cover the Canucks’ opposition.  I contacted a Leafs blogger asking if he wanted to write a post offering his perspective of a Leafs fan seeing Sundin playing for the Canucks.  I didn’t get a response.  This blog was my second choice, too.  The first one in Google had no contact information, and no way to get in touch with the guy who maintains the site.  Oh well.  No links to Leafs blogs, I guess.

Now that this media circus is over, the Canucks can set their sights on sweeping the road-trip with a win over the Canadiens tomorrow night.  They certainly picked the right time to get hot, although it sure would be better if they could close ground on the Flames.  For the moment I think they should forget about the teams chasing them, because as long as the Canucks keep winning, it doesn’t matter what those teams do. 

Go Canucks.

It wasn’t a spectacular game.  Considering what the Senators have done in the last few years during the regular season, it wasn’t much of a game at all to be honest.  But then, these aren’t the Ottawa Senators of just a few years ago – that team that stampeded through the regular season only to flame out spectacularly in the first round of the playoffs.  Usually to the Leafs.

The Canucks are now 2 for 2 on the cross-Canada tour, with what should hopefully be another 2 points tomorrow night when Mats Sundin returns for the first time to face the Maple Leafs. 

This wasn’t like the win against the Flames the other night, though.  It seemed like there wasn’t a whole lot of emotion to the game.  Sort of like a game against the Islanders.  Or the L.A. Kings.  The Canucks really just walked in, built a 4 – 0 lead, and even after the Sens got a couple back, they didn’t fold up and scrape by with the win.  But they didn’t pour it on, either. 

This was Howie Meeker hockey – everything done straight out of the book to get the win.  There’s not anything wrong with it, except for the fact that you can’t do it for 82 games and win the Stanley Cup.  Both the games against the Leafs and the Canadiens will be much more emotional, particularly the Leafs game, for obvious reasons.

While I hope that they sweep all four games, I have a feeling that tomorrow night’s game is going to be tougher than people think.  The Leafs have picked up 7 out of a possible 10 points lately, and there will no doubt be some who focus on Sundin, and try and show him that he made a mistake signing in Vancouver.  That could also work to the Canucks’ advantage if they focus ONLY on Sundin, though.  Not likely, but possible.

Can’t wait for tomorrow night.

Three in a row!  Can you feel the bandwagon getting crowded again?

It sure didn’t seem like it was going to be the Canucks’ night as they started this road trip against the Blues.  Down 2-0 after the first period probably made people think, "Here we go again".  And considering that the Canucks gave up those two goals in the last two minutes of the first period, it might not have been a bad assessment.

But someone forgot to mention that to Mats Sundin.

The big Swede had an excellent game, picking up two goals, and coming close to bagging the hat trick as the Canucks refused to die in this game, coming back each time to tie the game until Janik Hansen scored the game winning goal with a little over four minutes to go.  But they couldn’t make it easy on themselves.  Oh no.

Henrik Sedin missed two chances to seal the deal but shot it high over the empty net on the first attempt, and after picking up his own rebound, STILL wasn’t able to bury it in the back of the net.  Had that come back to bite them, it almost would have been worse than if one of the Sedins had taken their customary late-third-period penalty. 

Thankfully that didn’t happen, though, as Pavol Demitra was able to guarantee the win with an empty-net goal with just nine seconds left.

With the win the Canucks jumped over the Minnesota Wild to move back into second place in the Northwest, still eight points behind the Calgary Flames. 

This was more like the Canucks of a couple of years ago – the team that seemed to find impossible ways to win hockey games.  But they really don’t need to make it this hard on themselves.  There’s really nothing wrong with jumping out to a lead, guys. 

I mean, it worked against the Blackhawks, right? 

Next up is Phoenix, and this is a game that the Canucks can’t afford to take lightly.  The Coyotes might be chasing them now, but at the end of the season, those two points might mean the difference between playing hockey, and playing golf.

Now THAT was a better win.  The Canucks chased Cristobal Huet from his net after the first period last night, and continued having their way with Nikolai Khabibulin for the remainder of the game, jumping out to a 6 – 0 lead by the 13 minute mark of the second period.

But then the Hawks put up a bit of a fight, scoring three unanswered goals that had to have people wondering if the problems of the losing streak last month were forgotten after the win over the Hurricanes the other night or not.  But then Ryan Kesler scored yet another goal to add to his recent list, and the game was out of reach again, and the Canucks closed out their home stand with two straight wins.

Now they need to go out and show St. Louis that the team they embarrassed in January no longer exists, and that the Blues will be facing this other team – that hasn’t forgotten how to win.  I have a feeling that the outcome will be a little different than last time.

Nice to see that the power play is back in form, too, with the Canucks going four for seven with the man advantage.  Mats Sundin picked up a goal and an assist, and even managed to stay out of the penalty box.  Once he and Roberto Luongo both get back into mid-season form, I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be seeing any losing streaks like the January from Hell again this season.

On a night that the Canucks needed to stand up and show that they were a good hockey team again, they didn’t disappoint.  And it appears that Calgary is starting to slump at just the right time, too.  Considering how bad the month of January was for the Canucks, the fact that they’re only eight points back of the Flames is pretty amazing.

So it’s off to St. Louis for the start of another hellish road trip.  Hopefully they’ll come home much closer to the top of the Northwest Division.

I’ll admit that I haven’t been posting here as much as I probably should have been.  I kind of got in to the same slump about this time last year, too.

But then, just like last year,  the Canucks didn’t give me a whole lot of positive things to write about.  The win against the Carolina Hurricanes was different, though.  It showed that they didn’t just roll over and die after letting the ‘Canes back in the game with 2 goals in 25 seconds.  If they’d been playing like their record suggested recently, that game should have wound up with a 4 – 3 Carolina win, instead of the Canucks.

Let’s hope that they’ve turned the corner, and the January from Hell can be quickly forgotten.  Roberto Luongo played better, although not quite at the level he was prior to getting injured in November, and Mats Sundin showed a bit more of the style of play that he was paid $5M to provide.

But obviously the hero of the game was Alex Burrows, with that great breakaway after getting a tipped pass from Ryan Kesler.  The value that they’re getting from AB for what they’re paying him is absolutely incredible.  Whatever raise they give him when it’s time to renew the contract will be much more than worth it.

So now it’s time to get ready for Chicago on Saturday night, and  then a gruelling road trip, which might be just what they need – time away from GM Place.  That’ll be the test to see if they’ve recovered fully, and are able to put the January from Hell behind them.

Well, it was a better effort than last night’s game against the Blues, but the result was still the same, with the Canucks failing to pick up any points on the idle Calgary Flames.

If there was anything positive about it, it was good to see Mats Sundin get his first goal as a Canuck, on a powerplay rebound.  But, for the second night in a row, it was Sundin that killed the Canucks, by taking another penalty at a very inopportune time, giving the Sharks the powerplay that they scored the game winning goal on.

As Zanstrom of Waiting for Stanley said during the live blog, "Sundin’s not a Lady Byng player.  He’s going to take penalties."  That’s fine, but he’s got to avoid imitating Todd Bertuzzi and taking stupid penalties at the wrong time.  At least neither of the Sedins took one late in the game.

The Canucks had the chance to pick up four points on the Flames this weekend.  They got nothing.  And while the goaltending hasn’t been bad, per se, it’s safe to say that it hasn’t been all that great, either.  There’s rumbling that Roberto Luongo might get back into the lineup for Thursday’s game.  Can’t happen soon enough, if you ask me.

It’ll be really interesting to see how the Canucks do against a Devils team without Martin Brodeur on Tuesday.  This is another game that they should probably win, but I said that against the Islanders, Thrashers, and Blues, too. 

So I guess all we can do is wait and see.  And hope.

End of Game

Mike the Yankee predicted that this game would have a few "guaranteed" moments.  One of which was that a Sedin would take a bad penalty in the 3rd period.  Turned out to not be a Sedin, but rather the guy who’s name rhymes with theirs.  Mats Sundin’s penalty killed the Canucks after they battled back to tie the game at 4 with just about four minutes to go.

Twenty one seconds later, the Blues put the nail in the coffin, and the Canucks were done.  Final score 6 – 4.  And this was the "easy" game this weekend.

Maybe it’d be a good idea to bench LaBarbera for a game or two, and let Curtis Sanford play.  It’s not like it could get worse.

Nobody on the Canucks played like they gave a damn about this game, and things like that need to change.  Because even when Roberto Luongo does come back, it won’t mean a thing if the Canucks continue to play like they did tonight.

Okay, brush it off and focus on the Sharks tomorrow night.  Because it’ll be an ugly weekend in Vancouver if the Canucks play two games in a row like that.

2nd Intermission

If there’s one thing that the Canucks have a habit of doing that will frustrate the hell out of you, it’s trying to sit on a lead against a team that they should have no problem beating. 

And once again, it’s coming back to bite them.

Two goals in a 59-second span has them trailing the Blues in a game where they don’t appear to be playing with any enthusiasm at all, and it’s even being reflected in the crowd at GM Place, which sounds more quiet than I can remember at any time in recent memory.  It’s not really fair to put the blame for thise whole thing on Jason LaBarbera, though.  Through 40 minutes, the whole team has done pretty much nothing.

If the Canucks are thinking ahead to the Saturday night game against the Sharks, then Alain Vigneault needs to smack some people around and remind them that they’re playing *tonight* as well, and that’s what they need to be paying attention to over the last twenty minutes. 

And that stat about the Canucks having a 17-5 record when they score the first goal doesn’t matter much anymore, because when they’re down after two periods, their record is nowhere near that good.

This period will go a long way to show what the Canucks are made of.

1st Intermission

Despite the fact that the Canucks were outplayed in the first period, they escaped with the lead, thanks to a late goal by Willie Mitchell, after Lawrence Nycholat gave the puck away in a brutal pass up the middle in his own end.  Jannik Hansen opened the scoring after being called back up from Manitoba.

As Sportsnet has pointed out, the Canucks are 17-5-4 when they score the first goal of the game, so they odds are certainly in their favour.  However, they’ll have to stay focused on the game, and not dwell on the fact that they’re opponent is one of the league’s bottom dwellers.  That kind of thinking resulted in losses to both the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers.

It’d be nice to see Mats Sundin get his first points as a Canuck tonight, but more importantly, it’d be good to see them get the two points that they need to chase down the Calgary Flames, who are idle until next Tuesday.  Wins tonight and against the Sharks would still leave them a point back, but a 1 point deficit is much easier to deal with than a 5-point one.

There was speculation on the part of Mike Gillis the other day when Mats Sundin announced that he would sign with either the Canucks or Rangers on Thursday that he might be waiting until after the ceremony for Trevor Linden.  Whether or not that was the true reason or not, we’ll never know, but Sundin has made his decision.

Welcome to the Vancouver Canucks, Mats.

Sundin joins the team after 13 years split between Quebec and Toronto, and it’ll be interesting to see what sort of a dynamic he’ll be able to bring to the team.

According to Sportsnet, it’s a one year deal, which just seems like he’s a rental player.  Which means that theoretically, the Sedins, Sundin, and Mathias Ohlund could all be gone at the end of the year.

The other thing that Sportsnet seems to be foaming over is the chance for the Sedins to play with Sundin.  But seeing as how both Henrik and Sundin are centers, which one is going to be moving to play the wing?  I wouldn’t count on it being Henrik.

We’ll have more details as they come in.  Mike Gillis will be making the announcement in a press conference from GM Place in about 5 minutes.  So make sure to come back later today for more information.