Evidently, Luongo sucks and so does the Northwest.

There is something about being a Canucks fan. We are all completely crazy. Some of us are crazier than others, but we are all crazy to some extent. Case in point, the latest Luongo-gate that is blowing up the blogs, papers, and sports talk radio shows around British Columbia. In case you didn't know, Roberto Luongo is a little brat who shows no respect for us fans. Add to that the idea that the only reason the Canucks are good is because the Northwest Division sucks, and you've got fans buzzing about the Canucks. Of course, I don't believe that either of those statements are true, but that's what we're talking about.

Last Wednesday, the Canucks matched up against the Flames, and thanks to Kesler, Bieksa, and Daniel Sedin, were up 3-0 late in the third. Then, with 10 seconds to go, the Flames' Tim Jackman banged a puck home, broke up the shutout, and the game ended 3-1. Roberto Luongo faced 44 shots, and stopped all but the last one. He won, but he was completely dejected, and frustrated with the way that the game ended. I think that's fair. Based on his amazing performance, Luongo earned the first star honors, but because he was so pissed about blowing the shuout by giving up the lone goal with 10 seconds remaining, he didn't skate around in a circle when they announced his name. I'm sure all of us who have actually played sports can understand exactly what Luongo was feeling, right?

And yet, a good number of Vannie fans are just straight up killing Luongo for not skating around in acknowledgment of the honor. Statements like, "he's a little baby," "he's full of himself, he's nothing more than a rich brat who doesn't care about us fans," to "we'd be a better team without him" are all coming off the lips of some idiot Canucks fans, and I couldn't be more disgusted with them. Are you morons serious? Do any actual hockey fans notice the skate around after the top stars are announced? If you are crushed because of your pure passion for the game, does that make you a little bitch? I don't think so. I think it's pretty stupid to think so. To me, what happened actually shows how awesome our goalie is. He actually cares about the games. And no, you jokers, we wouldn't be anything close to what we are without him. He returned to action against the Red Wings and stopped 32 of 33 shots only to lose in overtime. He earned the third star honors, and he skated his little circle after the game. Happy now?

The overtime loss to the Red Wings over the weekend further extended the Canucks undefeated (in regulation) streak beyond even my wildest dreams. It has now been 16 straight game with at least a point earned for my boys (13-0-3) and they are rocking a 17-1-3 record in the last 21 games (two of those OTL came against the Wings). At 27-8-6, the Orca have a 12 point lead over Colorado in the division, and they have more points than any other team in the entire NHL (+1 on Detroit). Now, as it usually happens, we have all the haters saying that our 60 points only exist because we play in a horrible and weak division. It may be hard to argue against, but we can try.

If you read the blog, you know that I constantly point out that the Canucks have a weak strength of schedule. Currently, Hockey Reference ranks our strength of schedule as the 6th easiest schedule in the NHL (out of the 30 total teams), but does that mean we would suck if we weren't a member of the NW? Our record against the Northwest is a very impressive 12-1-0, and you can't deny that the record has something to do with the Oilers and Flames sucking. Outside of the division, we're looking at a 15-7-6 record. While not as impressive, it is 36 points in 28 games. So, where would we be if we took out the division record and replaced it with out out of division pace? Would we be that much worse?

Our record, based on projecting our out of division record to the currently played 41 games (thus, trying to negate our "easy" wins against the "crappy" Northwest), would be 22-10-9. We would have 53 points, and we would be leading the Northwest division by 5 points over the Colorado Avalanche. That's just 6 points (or 3 wins) that we're getting thanks to playing in our crappy division. Not that big of a difference, really. We'd still be better than the Blackhawks.

Sorry J, but I had to get that jab in.

Tomorrow, we get the 13-21-6 New York Islanders. Yeah, and I have to deal with people saying our division sucks. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē