Black Ice Vancouver

After Vancouver’s decisive 4-2 win over Atlanta last night I was checking the leader boards after the game and was shocked to see Hank placed third overall in points.

Earlier in the season I predicted that if Vancouver is going to do anything in the playoffs this year they will need–at least–a 90 point contributor on the team. I also argued that Vancouver needs an elite forward if they are to be taken seriously in the post-season.

Things are looking good.

With Daniel out with foot injury it is assumed that Hank will falter, but just the opposite happened–he exploded–taking 25 points in the 20 games Daniel was out. Times Henrik’s increase in totals, with his eerie consistency and you have a very good formula for elite scoring. A fool proof formula.

The game the Sedins play is like no other.

When the twins, combined with Alex Burrows, are firing on all cylinders, they play one of the most beautiful (and one of the most complex) games in the NHL right now. All Daniel’s injury proved is that they are just as good playing together as they are apart–the only thing is, when they play together the game is prettier. Maybe they don’t have the panache of Crosby and Malkin do, or the stamina that Thornton/Marleau/Heatley have, but they do posses, with Burrows, one of the most dangerously sublte scoring games in the NHL.

It is our game, invented in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, and transplanted 3000 km to GM Place where it has quietly become the most consistent point producer in the NHL since the lockout.

There is no question that Henrik is slightly better then Daniel, slightly. Come playoff time, however, that won’t really matter.

Next up – Minnesota

The Vancouver Canucks played their best and worst hockey of the season on this past road swing through the Eastern Conference. With there best hockey they seemed to lose the game and with their bad hockey they seemed to win.

New Jersey

The much ballyhooed rivalry between Brodeur and Luongo never really paid off in this game.  The two prides of St. Leonard, Montreal seemed to be playing opposite games. Luongo was sharp but still seemed to let in a softie. Brodeur was limp, never really recuperating from and embarrassing goal off Daniel Sedin.

Brodeur has excelled in a backwater NHL market with little fanfare, but his numbers and hardware are impressive. Luongo on the other hand honed his craft in the swamps of Florida but has put is money where his mouth is by committing to win a championship in Vancouver.

Luongo has taken more of a risk if you ask me. The goalie with biggest balls ought to be Steve Yzerman’s only criteria for choosing goalies for 2010.

Philadelphia Flyers

Vancouver has not has much success with the Flyers the past few years, but they came to play against a team that did not. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were not the threat they were suppose to be. Phillies best player, Arron Asham, was stoned by our best player, Roberto Luono.

Vancouver is lucky, they caught a good team on the decline. The Flyers will clean up their act. After the Vancouver game they fired coach John Stevens and replaced him with the proven Peter Laviolette–known to squeeze a little blood from stone in the past.

At the beginning I had chosen a Canucks/Flyers final. Will Phillie pull a Pittsburgh this year?

Carolina Hurricanes

It makes sense in retrospect that Vancouver lost this game, but you never want to see them lose in Vagina-jersey town. Not now not ever. They still need to pick up the pace on their road-game that is why I will say that a 2-2 road-trip at this point is actually an improvement.

Nashville Predators

Vancouver could not get anything going from the opening faceoff. They always seemed a step behind the play and every tiny mistake they made turned into a goal for Nashville. Like with Carolina, it’s hard to see a good team beat a bad team, but in both of these cases you can’t fault a bad team from playing well. And in both cases that is exactly what happened.

It was a weird trip, one I’m sure the Canucks are happy is over. Now back to business at home.

Next Up – Atlanta

“There is scarcely a goal he has scored, or a chance he has missed, which, if asked, he cannot recreate in detail, setting each teammate and opponent into place with the precision of a chess master replaying a game. The joy of it all is that we have found him, that the game is so much a part of our lives that when a Wayne Gretzky is born we will find him. The sorrow is that there may also be Wayne Gretzkys of the the piano or paint brush who, because we expose our young to hockey so much than to the arts, we will never know about.” -Peter Gzowski on the genius of Gretzky

Well I think that Gags and McIntyre summed up the weekend with their respective columns pretty well.

Basically the Canucks are going to have dust off their blue-collar game in order to weather injuries to Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra, Sami Salo and Mathew Schnieder. The loss of these four giants seem utterly drastic right now.

And their road game needs to improve from it’s current 0-4 graveyard in order to survive the 14 road-trip-from-hell-thanks-to-the-fucking-olympiad-bullshit-bullshit.

Seeing Calgary pummel the Canucks looked like it might be a regular occurance this season, but after destroying Calgary in the first 2 games last year (remember the Ripper had a pair of goals) this start should realign the balance of power for the rest of the season.

It’s a crap-shoot with these clowns. And speaking of shooting for shit the Canucks have the worst shooting-percentage in the league right now despite being 2nd in shots-on-goal, they are 18th in shooting-percentage.

It makes you think that under Coach Vee’s affable grin he must know that all the soul searching in world won’t produce an accuracte shot.

Oh well, just keep shooting the puck on net, hope for the lucky bounces.

(Here is were I don’t talk about the win against Minnesota on Saturday. The Canucks should have won 7-1 but barely eked out a one goal advantage after shooting everything they owned at a spectacular Backstromm. Kesler played his best game of the season but it still left me wanting more, um, goals)

And then that Russian vs. the Computer of a game against Edmonton.

Going 0-for on the power-play against a team with zero stars takes the Canucks from proverbial bad to proverbial worst.

And if you can’t depress the matter even more, it looks like Luongo is starting to pick up his games. But if the Canucks can’t find scoring (notice the talk of Vancouver’s cause celeb the past few years — secondary scoring — has gone silent) then we may harken back to three seasons ago whereby Louie stands on his head for the team, the team manufactures 2-1 wins down the stretch, clinches the division and subsequently qualifies for one more 2nd round exit (for the ages).

This is the depth of our history folks.

If you were depressed for any reason beside the Canucks before this weekend commenced, leave it to the boys in blue to drain all traces of serotonin from the system.

Next Up – Chicago