Take that, Devils! The Canucks won one for the common good last night, straight up crushing New Jersey 3-0 after a long, long rest between games. Most thought that the 'Nucks would be rusty coming out of their mini-break, but instead they demolished the Devils at home and looked like the Cup contender we've been waiting for.
Bobby Lu got pressured early, and make a couple of key saves on Tallinder and Kovalchuk to get things going, and he didn't let up. El Roberto ended up stuffing 30 New Jersey chances in the shutout, and his offense made it easy for him to relax between the pipes. Of course, it did help that we got that goalie interference to wave off a goal en route to that clean sheet. Glad that the refs were finally looking out for us.
The Devils helped too. With 6:41 remaining in the opening period, Taormina slipped to the ice while collecting the puck. Manny Malhotra snagged it and fed an in-close Raffi Torres, who buried it top shelf. It was a "finally" type of goal, as the 'Nucks had failed to score earlier, with a puck being pulled off the goal line by a defender, and Christian Ehrhoff banging a puck off both posts. Early in the second, Ryan Kesler would double our pleasure. The Canucks maintained amazing possession behind the net and along the boards, as Mikael Samuelsson and Mason Raymond looked like the Twins out there. A feed to Ryan Kesler resulted in a stopped shot by Marty, but Kes bashed the rebound home on the backhand as he spun around. Kesler's "lean back and scream" celebration was pretty fun. Just over half way through the third, we'd round out the scoring with the most exciting play in all of sports. Awarded a penalty shot, Hank came in fast on Marty, faked a wrist shot, and snuck a backhand around the outstretched goalie. H-Bomb's fake wrister completely froze the Devil's keeper, made him look foolish, and set the crowd on fire as they danced to Green Day's "Holiday."
It was a great offensive effort on a night when Bobby Lu decided to whip out the first shutout of the year. And all was right in Vancouver.
We're 5-0-1 on home ice! Now, moving that success to the road is a whole different ball game. Luongo, Kesler, and Alex Edler made the "real" media's top 3 stars list, and that brings us to today's "LSF Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point." I'm going with Keith Ballard. Ballie finished a +1 on the game, and his return bolstered a roughed up blue line for the Canucks. While he was out, I was like Ballard who? Now I'm like, oh yeah, he's awesome. Keep it up, and watch your head.
Now at 5-3-2 after the first 10 games of our 82 game campaign, the Canucks seem to be doing enough to keep fans happy. In the division, we trail Colorado (-1), sit even with Calgary, lead Minnie (+2), and lead bottom dwelling Edmonton (+4). Overall in the West, we still sit tied with #7 Dallas, #8 Columbus, and #10 Calgary, but we have a game in hand on those pesky Flamers. The Canucks, now with a +3 goal differential, rank 19th in goals scored, but 5th in goals against (out of 30 NHL teams). Our SRS is +0.10 (14th), but keep in mind that our Strength of Schedule is 25th in the league (-0.20). Our power play is still about +4% on league average, and our penalty kill is about +2% on league average. So, as you can see, we're doing well, but we have plenty of room to improve.
The Devils game not only saw Daniel Sedin not record a point for the first time this season, but also saw Hank score his first goal of the year. The Twin Shift has led me to want to explore Henrik's season in a little greater statistical depth. Is the lack of goal scoring a bad sign? Or, is he right on track for another career year? Well, despite only having one goal, his 12 points are good enough to tie him for the team lead (with Daniel, of course). To get that many points, he's had to rack up 11 assists, which leads the entire NHL (actually, hs tied with the likes of Duncan Keith and Ryan Gezlaf). He finished with a NHL best 83 helpers last year, and 10 games deep, he's on pace for 90 this time around. At 1.10, he ranks 3rd in assists per game this time around (he led the league at 1.01 last year). While he may have only scored one goal this year, his GC (goals created) is 3.4, which puts him on pace for 27.88 (his GC last year was 37.72). While he may not be nearly on the point or GC pace of his amazing year last year, I think it's pretty clear that he's going to put together another amazing season. Henrik is not just our captain because of last season, he's our captain because he is consistently a good NHL player. He's had more than 75 points every year since the lockout, and he has many years of studliness left in that talented Swedish tank of his.
Tonight, the Vannies are right back at it, off to Edmonton to try and right the road game. Tonight, however, is so much more than just a test with the bottom feeding Oilers. It's the return of Alex Burrows. To make room for my main man AB, the Orca shipped the Tamber back to Manitoba, and will shift things on the lines to be sure. We're all hoping that last year's leading goal scorer will be able to erase our memories of starting the season 0-3-1 on the road. Seven of our next eight games are on the road, and starting things off right against the idiot Oilers will certainly help out.
Go Canucks Go.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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