This post is a fond farewell to the third largest city in the beautiful country of Canada. After 53 games in the 2009/2010 NHL season, my favorite hockey squad are hopping on a plane to Toronto and not returning to play puck until the beginning of March. The longest road trip in the history of the NHL is about to get underway. 14 games. 20,743 km (or 12,889 miles for you non-metric folks). We've known about it since the schedule came out last summer, and we've been looking toward it as a season defining stretch for just as long. Prior to the trip, we knew that the Orca needed to put together some kind of crazy run to help give us a chance to stay high through the break. With a 3-2 win against St. Louis at the Garage last night, we secured what we hoped for.
Mason freaking Raymond is all I can say. The game between the Blues and the 'Nucks started out with a power play goal from Keith Tkachuk at 4:24. It seemed like too easy of a goal to actually count, but such is life. Ma$e came back about 2 minutes later, scoring on a beautiful pass from Ryan Kesler. After a silent second, and thoughts of having to go to a shootout after a 1-1 draw like Buffalo did earlier in the night, Mason opened up the third period (and a lot of eyes around the NHL) scoring his second of the game and his 20th of the year just 3:37 into the final frame. It was Ryan Kesler hooking the play up against. After some doofus named TJ Oshie scored a game tying goal, it was a "phantom call" on Paul Kariya that would change the entire course of the game. NHL On The Fly provided the highlights from FS-Blues, and the St. Louis announcers really didn't like the call on Kariya. Henrik Sedin was back in the Vancouver zone and Kariya slashed him on the wrist. Look, Hank may have overplayed the slash by shaking his wrist over and over, but a slash is a slash. Kariya hit Henrik on the wrist with his stick a couple of times, and even though it wasn't a serious slash, it was a slash. Get over it. Of course, it was hard for the Blues to get over because Christian Ehrhoff blasted a power play game winning goal into the net (although, I thought it was tipped in by Kyle Wellwood). Ehrhoff's slapper from the blue line was set up by Mason and Kesler (3 points for each...and Backes got the second star over Kes?) and ended the game with about 8 minutes to go. In the end, Bobby Lu came away with 25 saves on 27 shots (2 of his saves were video game-esque, standing on his head kind of stuff), the Vannies finally got a power play goal, and the patchwork defense of Baumer, Luko, and Romey did it again. How are they doing it? The Canucks also finally got more shots on goal than the losing squad (34-27), which is always nice to see. It was also nice to see the second line come with it, while the Sedins and Burrows were finally kept off the score sheet.
This win has the Vannies getting six in a row for the first time since February 2007, and has included wins against some pretty impressive teams (Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Buffalo). It has the Canucks exactly where they wanted to be heading into this monumental road trip. At 33-18-2 (68 points), my Canucks are finally all alone in first place in the Northwest Division, leading Colorado by 2 points (are they finally going to fade?). And that, of course, pumps us up to the #3 spot in the Western Conference. We trail first place San Jose by 10 and second place Chicago by 8, but we've got some squads breathing down our throats as we head into this long trip. The trip starts with Part 3 of the LSF Hockey Week we've been living since last Saturday, as my Blue & Green go head to head with Andrew's Toronto Maple Leafs. The Laughs are 17-27-10 on the year with a -45 goal differential. Remember how much everyone talked about how awful Carolina was when they beat us? Well, the Leafs are just 3 points up on the 'Canes. They are 2-7-1 over their last 10 games, and head into the match against my boys with a 4 game losing streak. I can't really think of a better way to start this 14 games road trip then to face off against a squad this bad. Of course, we have to remember that the Canucks have been having a problem this season beating bad teams. Have they finally overcome this problem on this recent six game kick? We toppled Edmonton, Dallas, and St. Louis, who are all kind of subpar. However, let me remind you that we only beat each of those teams by 1 goal. The Canucks are going to need to focus on this game against the Leafs, because it is a huge game for me and Andrew (don't forget, it's live on NHL Network!).
To get us fired up for the road trip, this Vannie Van should do.
Quickly, in other news:
Predictions for tonight's big basketball battle between Austin and Orlando? This would be a huge win for the Celts. I would pick the over (O/U is 189.5 right now) for sure, and my Green Army are being given 3.5 points as well. I'll be watching on TNT in about 53 minutes, and I'm looking for Pierce to drop 30 and Howard to be held to 10 points and less than 10 boards.
UCSB is going head to head against hated tractor loving Cal Poly SLO at the Thunderdome tonight. Man, I wish I was still living in IV so I could go to this game. Don't look now, but the Gauchos are 10-7 (5-2) this season and just 0.5 back of Big West leading Pacific. Orlando Johnson is strong to the hole.
On the pitch, Celtic dropped their midweek match to the Hibs yesterday 1-2 after a 90th minute strike from the Hibs midfielder sub. At 12-4-5 (41 points), we're still back of hated Rangers by 10. Meanwhile, the Amazin' Mags of Newcastle blew Crystal Palace out of the water with a 2-0 midweek match yesterday thanks to an own goal from Crystal in the 20th and a Nile Ranger sub strike in the 90th. At 16-3-7 (55 points), Newcastle continue to lead their promotion bid by 3 points over Nottingham Forest.
Ah, Sports Pickle, it has been too long.
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