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.

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.

What can you say about last night’s game other than it was a preseason game, and it was good to see the Canucks back out on the ice.

It wasn’t a stellar effort, but the Canucks did seem to carry the play a little more than did the Islanders.  The passing definitely could have been better (both teams were guilty of poor passing at times), but, as mentioned above, it was only the first game of the preseason.

Sergei Shirokov played pretty well (2 goals will do that), as did both Cory Schneider and Rick Rypien, who chipped in with a couple of fights.  Ronald Petrovicky impressed me a little, too.  The guy just kept digging whenever he was on the ice, which seemed to be all the time.

Nobody was really guilty of any boneheaded plays, the kind that you want the guys to get out of their system before the games start counting.

And Terrace did a great job of hosting the whole thing, with about 10% of the town’s entire population showing up for the game.  Those that weren’t able to get into the game were treated to appearances by Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa at an outdoor event.

All in all it was a good night for the Canucks who have to get ready to head down to Anaheim to face the Ducks on Thursday.  I wouldn’t really expect to see anything resembling the actual regular season lineup until probably game 6 or so.  By that time everything will be flushed out, with the odd players on the bubble being given final chances to either make the team, get sent to Manitoba, or be released.

That certainly wasn’t one of the Canucks’ best efforts.  They played like they had back in January – a team that just gave up on themselves and wouldn’t have won the game if they’d been playing a Junior ‘B’ team. 

Which isn’t to say that they didn’t do some things right.  They definitely did, jumping out to a 2-0 lead, before allowing the Blackhawks to completely dominate the rest of the game, and even the series at a game apiece.  Now the Hawks have the split they want before heading back to the United Center and a crowd that used to be absolutely terrifying to play in front of, at least when they played at the Chicago Stadium.  We’ll have to see about that.

It looks as if Sami Salo might be lost to the Canucks again, as he appeared to injure himself scoring his goal, and didn’t play the balance of the game.  Is the guy made of onionskin paper or something?   This might be Ossi Vannanen’s chance to make an appearance in this series.  No disrespect to Ossi, but the Canucks would be a better team with Sami on the blue line.

It wasn’t Roberto Luongo’s best effort, but it wouldn’t be fair to dump this whole loss on him.  The Canucks stood around and watched the Hawks walk around them, and the final result was predictable.  The Canucks got away from what made them successful in the St. Louis series – they stopped hitting everything that moved.  Sure, not all series’ are the same, but come on – hit something.

If it’s true that Dustin Byfuglien just likes to cause mayhem but rarely wants to fight, maybe Rick Rypien should knock him on his ass three or four times with some good hard open ice hits, and maybe that’ll keep the guy in line for the balance of the series.

Next up is the 5pm start on Tuesday.  Should be interesting to see how the Canucks respond to last night’s loss.  What they really need to do is silence the crowd in Chicago and just get the win.  That’ll guarantee them at least the split, and if they manage to win both games, they can come back here and close out the series on Saturday night.

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.

Now that was a lot better. The Canucks rebounded from a lousy performance on Wednesday night with a much better one last night in a 5-2 win over the Oilers to get them back to .500 on the season.

Henrik Sedin, Alex Burrows, Rick Rypien, Markus Naslund, and Brendan Morrison all chipped in goals for the Canucks while Roberto Luongo stopped 28 shots.

It was hardly a game to write home about, though, as games between the Canucks and the Oilers always seem to turn into slow-paced, boring games. Not at all like the Calgary game was last Saturday night.

The other thing that the Canucks are going to have to avoid is their typical poor showing at GM Place after a win on the road in previous nights. Never mind the fact that they’re 0-2 at home and 2-0 on the road. It’s time to get some wins on home ice, and there’s not better time than tonight.

I called the winner correctly last night but not the score. So tonight I’m still going with the Canucks and again with a score of 3-2.