As you see pictured above, last night's Canucks game was primed and pumped to be about the return of our boy Alex Burrows. Instead, Raffi Torres decided to make a statement against his former team, as he posted his first career hat trick en route to a 4-3 Vancouver road win over the Oilers. While the story ends happy, the Canucks watched the 3-0 lead they had in the first period drift away, and luckily Torres was able to save the day with his third goal to help nab a rare (in fact, our only) victory away from Roger.
Halfway through the opening period, the Canucks opened a can...quickly. At 11:01, Daniel Sedin redirected a deep shot from Henrik, sending the puck into the net. 32 seconds later, Raffi Torres would double our pleasure. And, did he show his effort, or what? Manny Malhotra (who leads the NHL in faceoff win percentage, by the way) put a shot on Khabibulin that bounced back out. A marked Torres, dove for the puck all out, and somehow chipped it over the Edmonton goalie. It was gritty stuff. Less than five minutes later, the Vannies were back on the advantage again, and this time it was Raffi redirecting a Kevin Bieksa bomb into the net. 20 minutes deep, we were 3 clear.
The Oilers made it a tale of two games, though, as they worked hard for some garbage goals to get close. Andrew Cogliano stole a puck behind the net and fed Dustin Penner, who banged on Luongo over and over again until the puck went in. Early in the third, Zach Stortini put a puck on Luongo, and Ryan Jones kept swatting at Luongo until the puck finally slid through. These were a combination of a late whistle from those lovely refs, and a lack of toughness down low by our defenders. You can't let the offense just bang on your goalie like that. It was weak. Not too long after the second goal, Gilbert Brule connected on a perfect one timer from Cogliano to beat Luongo and tie things up.
Lucky for us, Raffi Torres was about to do something special. Skating into the zone with more than half of the final period gone, Raffi threw a harmless spinning backhand to the net from the top of the circle. Those are the ones that you just never know about. Khabibulin never saw the slow shot, and it slid past him to secure the win for our BC Boys, and the hat trick for newbie Orca Raffi Torres. The former Oiler must have been well liked in Alberta, because even Oiler fans tossed their hats onto the ice to celebrate the achievement. So, in the end, Burrows shared the spotlight on his first game back, and it worked out pretty well for us.
The Canucks outshot the Oil 30-26 in the game, managed 6 less giveaways, and won 57% of the faceoffs. However, watching the 'Nucks sit back and wait for the Oilers to chip away at their three goal lead was pretty annoying. Aggression up 3-0 and especially up 3-1 is important, and letting up almost always makes things dicey, especially against a rival. The "real" media handed us Torres (3 goals), Cogliano (2 assists, and a reach at best as a second star), and Kevin Bieksa (3 assists, and a huge game) as the three stars. I'm sure you know who I'm going with, but it's time for the "LSF Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point." It, obviously, goes to my main man Alex Burrows. Not only did he return, but he brought back the spark we all felt was missing. 3 shots on goal, an even +/- rating, and a number of chances, make all of us 7th Canucks excited by his return.
We lead the division! How quickly things can change! The 6-3-2 Canucks now top the Avs (-1), the Flames and Wild (-2), and the Oilers (-6) in the division. Since we're leading the division, the overall picture in the West is fun to look at too. We're now ranked 3rd in the Conference, trailing #1 LA (+2) and #2 Chicago (+1), and are tied points-wise with #4 St. Louis and #5 Columbus. It's cramped in here! The 'Nucks are now +4 in goal differential, as we're ranked 12th in goals for and 10th in goals against (out of the 30 NHL teams). Our Simple Rating System sits at +0.18 (12th), while or Strength of Schedule remains a little weak at -0.18 (26th). After last night, our power play has improved to nearly +7% on the league average, while our PK still sits at about +3%.
So, just how good was this 1 year/$1 million pick up of Raffi Torres? A guy who has been tossed about like a replacement player, and here he is with 6 goals and an assist in his first 11 games with the club. He's even second in goals behind Daniel! This is the amount of talent we have sitting on our third line. Did his former teams let a great player slide through their hands? Or, is he simply playing above his head as he reaches for a contract extension? Right now, Raffi is ranked 5th in the NHL in even strength goals, 6th in game winning goals, and 4th in shooting percentage. Has he always been this much of a stud, and our hatred of him when he was with the Oilers clouded that fact?
Well, his career started with the Islanders back in 2001, but he only played 31 games in 2 seasons before getting shipped off to Edmonton, where his career really kind of took off as he finally got noticed. In his first 3 seasons, he averaged 21 goals and 16 assists, while posting 0.45 Points/game. He was injured in his fourth year, but came back and scored 31 goals in a season and three fourths with Columbus before getting dealt to Buffalo. This is where his value took a huge dip. Torres never ended up taking off in Buffalo, despite all his previous success. He played in 14 games, had 0 goals, 5 assists, and was a -3. Obviously, this is why the Sabres saw no reason to keep him. Advantage Canucks. We swooped in and snagged him, another stellar Mike Gillis move (see Mikael Samuelsson's performance from last year), and now he's producing like a champ. 11 games in and he's averaging 0.31 GC/game, which is far and away the highest mark of his career (his previous high was 0.22 in Edmonton in '05). Hopefully he can keep it up. And to think, we used to hate this guy!
The road trip continues on Thursday night in Denver, and this is going to be about as big as an early season game can get. At 6-4-1, Colorado is neck and neck with the Canucks for the division lead. The Avs are coming off of an impressive 5-1 win over a pretty good Columbus squad, and are led by Chris Stewart's 9 goals and 16 points overall. But, we all remember October 26, when Mason Raymond scored a "lucky" OT goal to dust the Avs 4-3, right? Hopefully we can take this one as well, and maybe even with a little more ease.
Go Canucks Go.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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