Before I get into the post, I'd like to give my boy Andrew a huge "LSF Tip of the Hat" for breaking the Andrew/Brandon/Jon post strike of 80 days. Glad to have you guys back on board. This team blog sucks when the "team" part of it goes missing.
The Canucks rolled into Edmonton and straight up dominated the Oilers, despite only winning 2-1. Sometimes you have to look beyond the scoreboard, and when you see that Roberto Luongo only had to make 11 saves in a 2-1 win, you start to realize just how dominated the Oilers were. Did I hear their home fans booing? Man, I hope so.
The old crew was back at it against Edmonton, as Daniel, Henrik, and Alex Burrows carried the team to the victoy. The Twins were especially impressive, even to the point of Coach Vigneault saying,
"That's probably the best game they've played this year."
High praise. Both Sedins helped set up Alex Burrows' game opening goal just 6 minutes into the game. Daniel fed the puck to Henrik, who was right in front of the net, and Hank slid the puck across the crease to a waiting Burrows. AB banged it home with some serious authority. Alex made the comment of the night,
"I could have got four goals just by standing there tonight, the way the Twins were moving the puck and passing it."
Well, why did you just score one? I'm fairly certain that Oiler fans must hate the Twins. Daniel has 53 points in 56 career games against them. Hank has 53 in 59. Oiler killers, indeed. At 7:13 of the first, Andrew Alberts tried to make a play on defense, but ended up handing Magnus Paajarvi a penalty shot. Luongo promptly stopped it, with Magnus not even getting the shot off. The Oilers would put just four shots on Lu in the first, seven in the second, and a lowly one in the third (although, they scored on that one). That's not going to do it. Henrik scored in the second on another sweet feed from his brother, and despite being out of it, the Oilers managed to end the shutout bid for Luongo with 5 seconds to go on a garbage goal for Eberle with everyone crashing into and around the net. It didn't matter, though, as we walked of with a well deserved win.
The "real" media's stars were Henrik (goal, assist, +2), Daniel (2 assists, +2), and Oiler goalie Devan Dubnyk (30 saves on 32 shots). That's a pretty stupid choice for third star, but it brings us to the "LSF Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point." We had plenty of choices, but I'm going with tween heart throb Alex Edler. He finished a +2 with 16:22 TOI and 2 shots, and his skills on defense allowed the Sedins to work their magic without fearing the Edmonton rush.
Now 16-8-4, the Canucks are 2 up on Colorado, 6 up on Minnie, and 9 up on Edmonton and Calgary in the division. Again, it's so sweet to see the two Alberta teams in the cellar. In the Conference, we're now ranked #2 per ESPN, trailing the first place Red Wings by 5 points. However, we are tied with #3 Dallas and #4 Anaheim in points, and leading the #5 Blackhawks by 1. Once again, we are the only Northwestern team in the top 8, which is only separated by only 7 points from last to first. My boys are kind of rolling right now. We're a +17 in goal differential (10th in goals scored, 8th in goals allowed), we're rocking a +0.54 SRS (making us the 5th best team in the NHL per that stat), and it's possibly all because we have played the 6th easiest schedule in the NHL so far this year (-0.07 SoS). Our power play (25%) is still amazing (+8% on the league average), while our PK unit (85%) is just 3% up on the average.
I think that Alain Vigneault's claim that the Sedins played their best game of the year last night may have been a bit of a non-factual comment, and I figured we'd explore that.
Last night (v Edmonton):
Daniel- 0 goals, 2 assists, +2
Henrik- 1 goal, 1 assist, +2
Games where Daniel has...
Scored more than 0 goals: 14
Had an equal number of assists: 3
Had more than 2 points: 1
Had an equal +/-: 2
Games where Henrik has...
Had an equal number of goals: 4
Had more than 1 assist: 9
Had more than 2 points: 1
Had an equal +/-: 2
Both Daniel and Henrik played in one game this season where they had more than the two points they each had last night. They each tallied three points in the exact same game about one month ago. And, it would follow that their best game of the year would not be last night's effort against Edmonton, but rather...
11/15/2010 against Buffalo
Daniel and Henrik combined for a 1 goal 5 assists game that night, which would seem to be significantly better than the 1 goal 3 assist night they combined for last night. The fact that the Canucks lost to Buffalo 4-5 in OT compared to a dominating 2-1 win over the Oilers may be what is swaying the decision in Vigneault's mind, but "the outcome of a game does not a good individual game make." Correct? Not only did we find the "true" best game of the season for the Twins, but we also furthered the heated 'Nucks/Sabres rivalry.
Next up is a Wednesday night clash between the Orca and the Blue Jackets at the Roger in BC. At 16-11-1, Columbus are no joke. Hopefully the hot handed Vannies can keep the magic going.
Let's spray the Bugs.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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