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 had every intention of posting an update after each and every Canadian game.  But, things sometimes take priority.  So, I’m making up for it today.

No one really thought that the qualification game against the Germans was really going to be that much of a challenge, and thankfully things went pretty much the way that everyone expected them to.  I felt kind of bad that Christian Ehrhoff’s Olympics were going to be over, but given the choice, better him than Canada.

Next up was the matchup that most people figured was going to be the gold-medal game.  The Russians.  Ovie vs. Sid.  Raw heart vs. awesome talent.  Oh yeah, and Roberto Luongo was announced as the goaltender for the duration.  This was gonna be a hell of a game.

Except it wasn’t, really.  No one expected the Russians to crumble the way that they did.  I mean, 7-3?  Seriously?  The big, bad Russians – the pool winners – bowed out easily.  Best thing to come out of the game, though, was the fact that the Canadians played like they gave a damn, something missing earlier in the tournament.  Maybe it was personal pride, maybe they were all starting to believe they could win this, thing, or maybe Mike Babcock chewed them all out. Who knows, and, for that matter, who cares?  On to the next round, and a matchup with Sweden.

Uh, wait.  What happened to the Swedes?  They lost to Slovakia?!?  WTF?  Okay, then, instead of the Sedins, we get Pavol Demitra. It was good to see Canada start out quick, working to get the first goal of the game (first team to score has won 26 of 28 games) and it was good to see the lead quickly grow to 3-0.

The first goal that the Slovaks got was just a bit of a misplay on Luongo’s part.  One got snuck in.  The second goal could hardly be blamed on Lu, though, as the defense was not doing a whole lot to stop the shot from getting through.  But it sure would have been heartbreaking if it had been Demo that managed to bury the third one behind Luongo so late in the game.  Thankfully, though, the bounce went the Canadians way, and it was time to get ready for the rematch against the Americans.

Sean over ‘Nucks Misconduct wrote a great post this morning (For Underdogs, You Sure Yap A Lot) which takes some info from the Province about how Patrick Kane gives the impression that he wants to face Luongo because he knows how to beat him.  Good for him.  And if he can’t beat Luongo, make sure he doesn’t take a cab after the game, eh?    Sean goes on to mention that both bloggers and paid journalists seem to be trying to stir up the fact that Canada has a goaltending controversy.  Really?  Luongo’s record in this tournament?  4-0.  Martin Broduer? 1-1.  Where’s the controversy, folks?

It’s simple.  Roberto Luongo is a big part of the reason that Canada is in the gold medal game, and there’s no reason to believe that anyone other than him should be between the pipes tomorrow afternoon.

Go Canada Go.

As I wrote yesterday, any time your powerplay is 4 for 5, chances are, you’re going to win the game.  Consequently, if in the follow-up game, your powerplay goes 0 for 4, AND you give up three straight powerplays to the opposition in the second period, AND if that opposition is the league-leading San Jose Sharks (who’ve scored 77% of their powerplay goals this season on the road), well…you can kind of see what’s coming, right?

The Canucks were in the game for the first 20 minutes, but then seemed to be content on sitting back and watching the Sharks walk all over them.  In fact, the 4-2 final is pretty flattering to the Canucks.  Down 2-1 late in the game, they allowed a pair of really soft goals to put the thing completely out of reach.  In fact, I turned the game off after the fourth Sharks goal.  I was more than a little surprised to find out that the Canucks had actually scored with 7 seconds left in the game.  Minus the easy ones they gave San Jose, and we would have had a tie game and maybe a different result.  Ah, well, not to be.

To be honest, it was tough to find anyone really worth mentioning in the recap if all you had seen were the final 40 minutes.  Roberto Luongo didn’t play badly, except for the couple of lapses late in the game which handed the decision to the Sharks.  Sure, the Canucks did have moments of looking like they might tie it up, but unfortunately those were just moments in the game.  There was no real extended periods of domination by the locals.

So they finished up the home stand at 3-2 and now get to jet off to face the east coast for a few games.  Devils and Flyers should be good games, although not easy ones.  The Preds and Hurricanes should be a little easier, but certainly not to be taken for granted.

Also, according to Canucks.com, the team has also assigned both Alex Bolduc and Aaron Rome to the Manitoba Moose.  Considering the fact that pretty much everyone except Pavol Demitra is back from injuries, it’s not really that surprising.

Scary way to win a playoff game, eh?  The Canucks didn’t start out flat, but they sure almost finished that way, handing the game back to the Blackhawks in the third period.  Thankfully they were able to capitalize on Brian Campbell’s mistake late in the third, and convert a four on one breakout into a Sami Salo goal, and a 1-0 lead in the series.

I don’t think that anyone was under the impression that these were going to be one-goal games, and in that way, they didn’t disappoint.  But it would have been wrong to think that the Canucks were going to have as easy a time in the second round as they appeared to against St. Louis.

But a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Pavol Demitra, Henrik Sedin, and Ryan Kesler did a lot to keep people believing about what this team could accomplish this year.  If they sweep the home series, it’d be hard not to think that the Hawks would consider themselves up against the ropes a little.  Sure they could come back from a pair down, but that would mean having to win at least one game back here in Vancouver, and that might be a tall order right now.

Did the 9-day layoff contribute to what happened in the third period?  Who knows.  But it doesn’t really matter now, anyways.  The Canucks found a way to work around the situation, and still come out with the win in a game that sure looked like it was headed to overtime.  And that’s a crapshoot that it would be best to avoid if at all possible.

Game 2 on Saturday night will hopefully be just as entertaining as the first one, but even if it’s not, the end result is the most important thing anyway.  It doesn’t matter if it’s an ugly win, so long as it’s a win.

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.

It’s not something that the Canucks have been particularly good at over the last year or so – coming from behind.

Their record when they score the first goal of a game far exceeds their record when they don’t.  But last night they came back from a one goal defecit not once, but twice, after falling behind both 1 – 0 and 2 – 1 to the Wild in their building.  And with Curtis Sanford in goal, giving Luongo a well-deserved night off before the Cancuks have an early 2pm game in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Pavol Demitra picked up a goal and an assist, while both Kyle Wellwood and Henrik Sedin had two assists each, including Daniel’s game winner with a little under 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The win puts the Canucks three points up on the Wild and the Flames for the Northwest Division lead, although they have played 3 more games than Minnesota.

The Pittsburgh game should be interesting, as it’s a rare chance to see the Canucks take on Sidney Crosby in his home rink.  Although the 11am start time here in the west leaves a little to be desired, at least it’s not a pay-per-view game.

Based on the way that they’re playing, I’m standing by my prediction that the Canucks will go 3 – 1 on the road-trip which means they should pick up the two points tomorrow.

And to think that the game against the Islanders was supposed to be the “easy” game on this road trip.  But then, those seem to be the games that the Canucks have more of a tendency to choke on.

When Pavol Demitra scored, it looked like it was going be a good night for the visitors, as their record when they get the first goal is much better than if they have to play catch-up.  They went to the dressing room at the end of the first and all looked well.

But then the Islanders woke up and completely out-classed the Canucks in the second period, and it was only because of Roberto Luongo that they weren’t down about 4 -1, instead of tied at the second intermission.

I have to admit, though, that the overtime period was some of the most exciting, wide-open hockey I’ve seen the Canucks play, with lots of end to end rushes going both ways.

But then it all came down to the shootout, and the Canucks were done after the first Islanders shooter put the puck behind Luongo.  And that was all they needed as the Canucks couldn’t put it past Joey McDonald.

It doesn’t get any easier, either, as they move on to Manhatten, to play Nazzy and the Rangers.  That’s going to feel a little weird for some of the players.  Markus, in particular, I’ll bet.

If they’re going to come home from this trip with a 3 – 1 record, like I predicted, they’re going to have to run the table against the Rangers, Wild, and Penguins.  A tall order.

Bobby will have thoughts on the Ranger game for you on Wednesday night, and I’ll bet Mike at the Yankee Canuck is getting cranked up about this one all ready.  Should be fun.

Okay, it’s not quite as bad as last year, but the Canucks are suffering a little in the injury department again, with Demitra and Salo both out (yeah, I know, big surprise, but still…) and now word that Rick Rypien is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a “sports hernia”.

And there’s been no shortage of coverage of the injury scene, with Alanah, Mike, Sean, and various MSM sites covering the details, but if they start suffering any more damage, things are going to turn out like last year, with the Canucks losing 265 games to injury last year, according to James Mirtle.

But as bad as we thought we had it, the Islanders lost over *400* games to injury last year, so…

Admittedly though, Salo, Demitra and Rypien all have the reputation of being a little fragile, so the fact that they’re out isn’t a major shock, but could a longer training camp have prevented maybe one or two of these injuries?  I mean, a weekend in Whistler, and you break camp?  I know that the CBA limits how much ice time the vetrans are allowed to practice, but come on – two days?  I think it’s amazing that they haven’t suffered more injuries than they already have.

Anyway, the rant is over.  Time to get ready for the Bruins tonight – a team I’ve always enjoyed watching them play, even though the wins haven’t always been there.  I’m going to call 5 -3 for the Canucks.