Remember, the Canucks need to win one more game over the final two than Calgary to win the division. Last night, they got off on the right start. Bobby Lu was crazy strong, Ryan Kesler gave the Orca all the offense they needed, and my Canucks did it to the Kings 1-0 in the final home game of the year.
20 saves. That is all it took for the Montreal, Quebec native to earn clean sheet #8 on the year and pull the Canucks on his back for victory. LA's Jon Quick was almost equally as solid as Lu, making 27 stops on 28 shots. Quick made a couple of thrilling stops on the Vancouver offense, quite frankly, coming away with much more spectacular stops than our very own captain. After 20 minutes of nothing, we got to the second frame, and a Ryan Kesler power play goal at 5:49. Mats took a shot, the puck came to Kes, and he buried his 26th of the year. It was all my boys would need. The third period went by quietly, outside of the goalie interference pictured above by Brian Boyle, and Vancouver walked to a seriously important 1-0 triumph over the Kings.
Keys? Well, scoring one more goal than your opponent always helps. Going 1 for 5 on the power play while holding the Kings to an 0 for 3 mark adds to the excitement. The Orca obviously poured on more shots as well, which might have been the real difference. The real three stars: 1) Luongo, 2) Kesler, and 3) Kings subpar stud and London (Canada) native Drew Doughty (nothing but 3 blocked shots...is that why he made it?). The LSF's underrated 3 stars starts off similar, and ends differently: 1) Lu, 2) Kes, and 3) Mats Sundin (1 assist and 7, count it, 7 shots on goal).
With Calgary idle until tonight, my boys from Van-ca-tesh climbed to the top of the Northwest with their 44-27-10 (98 points) record. Calgary sit back 2 points with a game in hand now. With the East all set up (sorry Brandon), the West still has a couple of slots up for grab. In the big picture, we have #3 Vancouver (98 points), #4 Chicago (100 points), #5 Calgary (96 points), #6 Columbus (92 points), #7 Anaheim (88 points), and #8 St. Louis (88 points), with Nashville (88 points) and Minnie (85 points) still kind of in things. Calgary starts their final 2 tonight with the front end of a home-in-home with the Oilers, and Vancouver ends their season with a roadie a Colorado team that surprised us earlier in the week. A win against Colorado makes us sitting pretty, as we'll earn the division title with any Calgary loss. If Calgary loses tonight, the win against Colorado will be so important. If the Flames somehow earn back to back wins against the Oil, we're screwed, and we'll play the Blackhawks in the playoffs. It is all in the Canucks hands to finish things the best they can. Rumor is that Lu is starting the game tomorrow night against Colorado, sparing himself the rest, and it is time to step things up and earn this division title.
The Canucks handed out their regular season hardware on the last home game of the year. Ryan Kesler earned MVP of the year for the team, with Steve Bernie getting the "unsung hero award" (see, Vancouver fans are really smart), Willie Mitchell earning the d-man of the year, and my fav Alex Burrows earning the Babe Pratt Trophy for the most exciting player of the year for the second year running. Props to the whole crew. If you care, you can read about it here.
Finally, the LSFISP of the post. Today's Irish slang is benjy, which is slang for "an unpleasant odor." Example: "I'm so glad the Kings got the feck off the ice. They was makin' it mad benjy out there." Feel free to use it.
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