Who did I name as yesterday's "LSF Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point" from the game against the Leafs? Yes, Aaron Volpatti. And, who do you think scored their first career NHL goal against the St. Louis Blues last night? It would seem as though this blog is starting to gain a power we never would have imagined. Peppermint Volpatti scored, along with Kes and Tambers, and the Canucks rolled the Blues aside like a bunch of little injured puppies, 3-1.
Volpatti's goal, the first of the game, was a thing of beauty. Not good looking asthetic beauty, but more like crazy hard Tanner Glass checking beauty. Glass completely crushed Pietrangelo along the rear boards, and I mean completely crushed him. Tanner looked like he was flying through the air when he leveled the guy. The puck came loose to Bolduc, and homie slid a perfect pass to a perfectly positioned Volpatti, who buried it over the outstretched leg of Halak. You might say that Volpatti is showing a real "Ha-knack" for scoring. You'd say that, I wouldn't. Ryan Kesler would do what he does best two minutes later, snapping a shot past Volpatti on a 2-on-1 break. With 2:03 to play in the second, that hate monger (I call him such, because I hate him) Alex Steen scored from the slot on a backhand, but again the Canucks silenced the opposing crowd by putting an end to things when Tambers scored as time ticked further down on the power play at 18:23 of the third.
Much is being made of the Canucks inability to score with the advantage four times in the game, including a 5 on 3. However, it isn't just scoring on the PP that matters. It's the way that the other team lacks all ability to gain any kind of momentum, and that's what happened here. Of course, I'm only saying that because we won. The Blues fans are enjoying their complaining today because of a high stick call to Backes late that may not have actually been a high stick. But, when you get outshot 29-16 and out-face-offed 31-22, you don't deserve to win. Sorry.
The regular media picked Kesler (1 goal, +1), Samuelsson (2 assists, +1), and Alex Steenkavonkavich (1 goal, even +/-) as the three stars. Really, Steen??? You don't pick Volpatti? Come on! I can't pick him either, but I will give you the "LSF Top Star Who Didn't Score A Point." I don't do this often, as you know, but how about Roberto Luongo? Fool stopped 15 of 16 shots, including stopping all 4 he faced when special teams were on the ice. When Bobby Lu sucks, everyone (including me, I'll admit) is all over him. When he puts together a nice little streak of greatness, no one notices. No longer! Great game, El Roberto.
7th Canucks, rejoice! We are back in the Northwest Division lead at 19-8-4 (42 points). We've got Colorado second at 42 (but behind us based on their 19-10-4 record), Minnie third at 34, Calgary fourth at 31, and Edmonton last with 29. In the Conference, we are #3, just two points behind #1 Detroit and one point behind #2 Dallas (who I picked in $treak for the Ca$h tonight). There is only a 5 point difference between #8 Chicago and #1 Detorit, which is pretty crazy. I really enjoy seeing the Hawks at #8.
Our 10th ranked offense and 4th ranked defense have helped us to a +23 goal differential, while our SRS of +0.67 is third in the league. We're that good! As you know, I always provide the caviat that we have played the fifth easiest schedule in the NHL thus far. But still, it's pretty cool.
So, how amazing has Ryan Kesler been this year? At the start of the season, he was given tons of junk from everyone (not me) for not producing. Now, he's tied with Daniel Sedin for the team lead in goals (16), and is very quietly having one heck of a season. With all the crap he got, it made me wonder if he had crazy gang buster seasons before. I mean, I love the guy, and I think he's awesome, but isn't a 16 goal-10 assist output in the first 31 games good enough? So, let's extrapolate his goals and assists to an 82 game season (aG and aA are the stats assisted to 82 games, otherwise it's just noted as G and A), and see where this season ranks.
2003: 5.85 aG and 8.79 aA
2005: 10 G and 13 A
2006: 10.25 aG and 17.08 aA
2007: 21.26 aG and 16.4 aA
2008: 26 G and 33 A
2009: 25 G and 50 A
2010: 42.32 aG and 26.45 aA
Are you kidding me? Yeah, kids, Kes is on pace for over 42 goals here in the '10/'11 season. 42! That's 16 more goals than he's ever pulled down in a season. How can anyone say that he's having a slow start to the year? He's off to an amazingly fast start. In your face, haters!
Ry-Ry gets a chance to continue his career high start to the year against Detroit live on NHL Network tomorrow afternoon. It's a serious battle between the best in the West and us, and if we win we might be the best in the West! Let's bust up these Wings.
No time to proof read, apologies.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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