Every once in a while I like to take stock in where my favorite teams are at as they march through their seasons. I think it's about time to get my bloggles focused back on my Mighty Vancouver Canucks. After a thrilling 6-2 victory at home over the media darlings from Pittsburgh (no points for Sid!), the Orca are a solid 28-18-2 (58 points) and are continuing to try and better their situation before the Olympic road trip hits like a bad disease. Worse than cancer, if you will.
To start, I'll point out that Vancouver is 4-2-1 in 2010 (6-2-2 over their last 10 games), including starting the new calendar year 3-1-1 at the Garage. Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows have been flat out running the show for the Canucks offense, with each nailing down 21 goals through 48 games in the season thus far. Hank leads the entire NHL in points at 67, and Alex Burrows has turned up the heat and helped NHL On The Fly "discover" him and his talent after getting 11 goals in his last 7 games. 11 goals in 7 games. If you read my posts, you know that I always call Burrows "my boy," and hopefully now the world is starting to realize why. It's about the hustle, and being in the right place at the right time. It's nice to see him finally get the respect that he deserves from the rest of the media. With the outpouring of goals from AB and his fellow teammates, the Canucks have lifted their goal differential to +36 on the year. That is the #2 goal differential in the entire Western Conference (only, cough cough, Chicago has a higher mark at +55). I'll bet Brandon is impressed with that.
How about that goalie? The last time we looked into the state of this squad, I talked about how we should expect more from our Mighty Captain between the pipes based on his career stats. Well, he's finally coming around. I told ya'll not to worry. Bobby Lu has dropped his GAA to 2.30 after 41 games, which is a better average than he finished with in 08/09 (2.34) or 07/08 (2.38). Bingo. All those nay sayers from the beginning of the season are starting to be silenced, and in part, that is thanks to Roberto Luongo.
So, what do we have to do to make sure that this #6 squad keeps its playoff posture? We're 3 points back of Nashville and Phoenix (#4 and #5), but we're only one point up on #8 LA. It's a tight race. According to an annual column by one of Canada's most respected hockey writers, James Mirtle of the Globe & Mail, the Canucks are going to need to nab 37 more points to secure a post season spot. That would mean that the Vannies would have to finish 18-15-1 to make it into the top 8 this year. With the huge road trip looming on the horizon, the two weeks prior to the Olympics are going to be very, very important. We'll need to play near flawless hockey to get a good start prior to the infinity long roadie (and that's not taking into account that we'll be missing our Olympians as well). If you want to see how your team needs to do to make the top 8, click here. 18-5-1. I'm going to hope and pray that we can keep 3 over .500, and then all bets are off once the playoffs get underway. Hopefully we can avoid a first or second round battle with the Blackhawks. Right? By the way, the Hawks only need to go 11-21-1 to make the second season.
Leading up to the road trip from hell, we have games against Edmonton (hopefully an easy win), Dallas (a much needed win), Chicago (God, I love playing the Blackhawks), Buffalo (wait, two LSF teams in back to back games?), and St. Louis (you'd figure we have to beat STL eventually this year, right?). So, if we can sneak into 1/30/10 (our first road game against Toronto...wait, all three other LSF teams get it on against the 'Nucks within a span of 7 days? Have I died and gone to hockey heaven?) with a 4-1 record (I'll give us a loss against either Chicago or Buffalo...hopefully Buffalo, I really, really think that) we'll be doing great by my standards.
By the way, in case you are wondering, I'm totally backing Burrows for his comments about NHL ref Stephane Auger. Refs like Auger must be exposed, especially when they are so blatant in their revenge desires. I also want to point out that I'm disgusted by the fact that the mainstream media has been killing Burrows for his comments (especially Hockey Night in Canada). You guys are all knobs controlled by the league.
So, anyone down to get together for the various upcoming LSF battles?
Did anyone else see this elbow by Canada's junior captain Patrice Cormier from yesterday? It's kind of tough to watch.
Okay, back to the poopy diapers.
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