Canucks get 3 on opening weekend.

What an opening weekend for me and my Vancouver Canucks. It was Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend, and it was 2 games where the 'Nucks gave is a glimpse of what we can expect this season. We opened up at home against Willie Mitchell and the Los Angeles Kings. The game featured a solid Luongo and a 1-0 Vannie victory. Oh wait, my DVR shut off ran out of time with 5 minutes to go. Oh wait, the Kings came back and won in the shootout? Bummer. Last night, the County Holiday was wrapped up nicely with another studly effort from El Roberto, and this time we found a little more offense. A 2-1 win thanks to Daniel Sedin and the top line, helped secure our mini-streak of two straight games with at least a point.

Canucks 1 - Kings 1 (LA SO win)

Yeah, I don't believe in crediting the Kings with an extra goal just because the NHL and it's American fans aren't willing to accept ties. This game, though, made me VERY concerned about my favorite hockey team. Sure, I am wanting to focus on the positives, but the lack of a killer instinct on the squad makes me nervous (even though I know it's CRAZY early).

Roberto Luongo was completely amazing between the pipes against the Kings, looking on top of his game early on in the season. 31 out of 32 by Lu, with just that late goal by Williams. It's hard to blame him, though, when the team tries to take a 1-0 lead from 12 minutes into the second period and make it stand up. It never is (as they even proved against the Kitty Cats last night). You can't just score one and sit back, and I'm wondering if this will be the story this year. However, German Christian Ehrhoff's goal was pretty special. On the power play, the Twins were busting their usual cycling stuff down low, Ehrhoff crept up into the slot, and sent the pass from Daniel right into the net. It was good stuff.

What wasn't good stuff was the penalties. The first period opened up with the Canucks getting 3 minors compared to the Kings 1, and the final whistle against us was for too many men on the ice. I thought it was a bad call. What wasn't a bad call was the Bieksa elbowing earlier in the period. Bieksa needs to take it easy. You made the team, now tamper it down a little. Of course, it was the Kesler interference call on Ponikarovsky at the end of the game that set the Kings up. It seemed accidental, but it got called, and we couldn't kill it.

Despite being outshot by 8, the game was pretty even in terms of stats. Roberto Luongo was the only Vannie boy to make it in the "real" media's top 3 stars (#2). While Christian Ehrhoff is an obvious choice, I'll submit my "Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point." How about Mason Raymond? Ma$e was on fire with his speed, and had a couple of huge chances to score in the game. He finished pointless, but put the puck on Quick 5 times. He caused some mischeif and deserves some recognition as a stud.

By the way, Hank was named Captain at the pregame faceoff as we all knew he would be. It was still kind of fun an exciting.

Canucks 2 - 1 Panthers

A win! The Canucks "found a way to win" on Monday night in honor of the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday (how is that not a US rip off, by the way? Different ship, pilgrims, and Natives?) Daniel "Freaking" Sedin was on point, netting two very impressive goals past an equally impressive Vokun, to lead the Orca to victory.

Daniel's first period goal came on him diving out to slap a Samuelsson rebound home. My question always is, how does he get so much height on his backhand? It blows my mind! After the Panthers tied the game up with 38 seconds left in the second on an Alex Edler own goal, it deflected off of his skate and in, Daniel was ready to be the hero with his game saving third period goal to win it all. After the game, the Twins were humble about their play. Hank called their performance "Average at best," and Daniel talked about the need to improve. 

Bobby Lu doesn't seem to have any room for improvement. Luongo stopped an onslaught of Florida chances coming from the sticks of former Vannie's like Bernier and Hordie, who, by the way, both looked really good on the ice. Luongo made 41 saves in the game, and obviously cannot be faulted for the deflected own goal that beat him. He may be a slow starter in his career, but he's stopped 72 out of 74 to start the season. I'd say he's ready for a career year. 

Let's be sure to give Vokun some credit as well, as he stuffed the Canucks at every chance. He was keeping the Orca out like a champ as well. The highlight for Vokun came on a breakaway for Guillame Desbiens. Vokun stuffed Desbiens' chance, closing the door early. It was bring you to your feet kind of stuff...until it was saved.

The Canucks seemed to be in control for most of the game, even when it got evened up, it was a fluke goal, and we just kind of kept the good flow going. I kind of expected that the loss of Alex Bolduc was going to be felt more, after he sprained his ankle against the Kings, but Jeff Tambellini was brought up and did well enough. It was an interesting night for the refs, though, as the 'Nucks were called for three penalties while the Panthers didn't have a single minor called against them. Our power play was 0 for 0, and I can't remember if I've ever seen that before. So much for being the home team, eh? 

Daniel and Roberto were obviously recognized as the top two stars be the "real" media, but my "Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point" award goes to Kevin Bieksa. While he may have been a little so so on defense, he did apply some offensive pressure with three shots and a +1 game. I, like not all Canuck fans, am glad Bieksa is still around. I wanted to recognize Desbiens, but he really only had that one shot, even if it was really exciting.

Well, we have started the season 1-0-1, with 3 points in our first two games. While the Oilers are 2-0-0, there is no need to be concerned, even though we are Canucks fans. If you are "that Canucks fan," we are ranked 6th in the West, 1 point off the top. We get a day off to rest and recoup before game 3. Hopping on a plane to Southern California, the Orca prepare for their first road game of the year against the formerly Mighty Ducks. At 0-3-0, Anaheim is off to a prett disappointing start. In their three game road tip to start their season, the Ducks were outscored 13-2 and outshot 145-72, and that's against the likes of Detroit, Nashville, and St. Louis. Of course, we don't know how good those teams acrually are, but that aside, Ducks fans are getting anxious. Good thing they're all just Mission Viejo soccer moms and little 4 year old kids. They can all hold onto the hope that they are a "home" team (25-11-5 last year). You have to hope for two things coming into Wednesday night's clash, 1) a continued hot start for Bobby Lu and 2) the offense to finally start to click.

I know I give a lot of love to the "Reference" websites, but Hockey-Reference.com has some pretty fun stats to think about as we continue through the 2010/2011 campaign. They are rocking the SRS (Simple Rating System), which takes into account a team's goal differential and strength of schedule to rate how good a team is. A rating of zero is the average NHL team. The Canucks are rating at -0.60 right now, which is 23rd out of 30 teams. Obviously, their GD isn't all that great (an even zero), but hopefully this stat will be interesting to follow as we move through the season. We are, however, above average on power play and penalty kill percentages, which has me feeling pretty stoked, and we're ranked 5th in the league for goals against, which gives a lot of love to Luongo and the blueliners. 

 My apologies for not having time to proofread this post, which I'm sure has multiple errors. It's time to cook my wife and son dinner. 

Let's light up the pond on Wednesday, boys.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē