Raffi, Raffi, What Were You Thinking?

This isn't what you want to be dealing with as a fan of a President's Trophy clinching team with two games left on the regular season schedule. With all the focus on head shots this season, Crosby getting blasted, Chara crushing Pacioretty, and Cooker acting like a fool, it's hard to believe that a player on my Canucks would do something so stupid. And it's even harder to believe that he would call the league into question for the mere thought of holding a hearing against him, which they have now announced they will do tomorrow.

In case you missed it, Raffi Torres hit Jordan Eberle with 7 minutes to go in the Canucks 0-2 loss to the lowly Oilers last night. I can explain it, but I'll provide you with a link so that you can see it for youselves: http://www.nucksmisconduct.com/2011/4/5/2093877/is-torres-facing-suspension-after-hit-on-eberle Thanks to Nucks Misconduct for putting the video up. Of course, my favorite 'Nucks blog made a mistake by saying they don't think he'll catch a suspension. Raffi was handed 5 and a game for the hit, and I don't see how something more serious isn't on the horizon. Look, as a Canucks fan, I feel like just standing up and saying that this hit was just a hockey play. I mean, Eberle popped right up to stand by and watch his Blue & Orange buddy drop the gloves with Raffi immediately after the hit. How bad could it have been if he popped right up?

However, as a maturing sports fan, I have come to learn to look at plays from both sides of the fence. Sure, my gut will always have me going with my team and thus saying this was a clean hit. But if the tables were turned, and it was Henrik Sedin getting blasted like that by some goofball from the Oilers, I would obviously be crying foul. I would want that guy run out of the season on suspension, and I'd be counting down the days for when the Canucks could get some revenge on the punk (I'd have to wait all offseason). With that in mind, I have to admit that Raffi's hit on Eberle was clearly dirty, and I don't see any way of saying that he should get off suspension free.

The way Torres handled it after the game with the press made me even more frustrated with him. Raffi dropped this garbage, "It was a fine hit. I was finishing my hit and he had his head down. We were both going for the puck. I've got to finish my hits. He was obviously in a vulnerable position but at the end of the day I have to finish my hit or else I'm out of a job. If they are trying to get rid of clean hits like that, what's this league going to be in a couple of years?" Where do I begin with that statement? It wasn't a fine hit. Yes, you were finising your hit, but you extended your elbow, and went directly for his head. He was in a vulnerable position, which is exactly why you shouldn't have hit him as you did. To suggest that you'd be out of a job if you didn't drop Eberle like that is a pure joke, and a disrespectful comment toward the organization as a whole. The league is working on cleaning up the dirty hits around the league, and you should have known that, and played it smarter than you did.

Raffi is getting a phone hearing with the NHL tomorrow, and I just hope he won't miss the opening round of the playoffs. That being said, I wouldn't be shocked if he did.

The Canucks were down 0-1 at that point in the game, and that hit completely destroyed the team's hope for a comeback. Raffi went to the dressing room, and then Alex Burrows and Aaron Rome got called for cross checking at the exact same time. The rulings gave the Oilers a 5-on-3 for 4 full minutes, and I'm not sure how even a team like my Canucks could survive that kind of situation. Edmonton converted with the advantage, and the Canucks were metaphorically laughed off the ice in the City of Champions, losing to the worst team in the entire NHL for the second straight game.

The Canucks look like a team that just wants to go to bed and wake up when the playoffs start, and even though I don't want to be the "typical" Canuck fan, I am getting a little concerned about the way we're ending the regular season. The Canucks went 0 for 3 on the power play last night, and they just looked sloppy out on the ice. Alex Burrows had to be the sloppiest guy out there, getting called for three minor penalties in the game. While Mikael Samuelsson made his big return, and led the team with 3 shots on goal, the overall play just wasn't good enough. And while we've got the #1 spot in the Western Conference wrapped up, these losses to make me at least a little nervous. 

We've got two games left on the regular season schedule, tomorrow against Minnesota and Saturday against Calgary, and if we drop both of those, I'm going to be really, really nervous. There is something to be said for wins helping to pump up the fan base, and that's what these last two games have the potential to do. Sure, I understand Alain Vigneault when he says this veteran team knows how to turn it up as needed, but when you get into a rut after there is nothing left to play for at the end of the year, is it just that easy to flip a switch and get back to playing like it's meaningful again? I don't think so. I think you have to kind of be playing in the playoff mindset before the playoffs actually start, or you might find the Blackhawks up 2 games to none on you before you start playing like it matters. I wouldn't be able to handle that.

With that being said, I will tip my hat to 'Nucks Misconduct yet again for helping us to think a little more rationally about this situation. They provided the stats to help us settle down. In the years since the lockout "season," the team winning the Stanley Cup went 14-4-7 over the final five games. However, in the same amount of time, the highest seeded team to be eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs over their final five regular season games had a record of 15-5-5. Both add up to 35 points, and it goes to show that performance over the final 5 games of the regular season is almost no indicator on the chances of a team getting to drink from Lord Stanley's Cup. Okay, take a deep breath.

The Canucks are 52-19-9 with their franchise high 113 points, and with two games to go, we're all paying special attention to the 7 teams battling for position around that #8 spot. Here is the current rundown:

4. Nashville (97 with 2 to play)
5. Phoenix (96 with 3 to play)
6. Los Angeles (96 with 3 to play)
7. Anaheim (93 with 3 to play)
8. Chicago (93 with 3 to play)
9. Dallas (91 with 3 to play)
10. Calgary (91 with 2 to play)

It's still a pretty tight race, but Chicago has been sitting 8th for a while now, and it's starting to seem that the hockey gods may be interested in getting this Vancouver-Chicago opening round series to actually happen. Out of those seven teams, I'm only worried about Anaheim and Nashville (slightly less about Nashville), and while I do realize that a series against the Blackhawks would probably be a coin toss because of the passion and intensity between these two teams, I think we'd edge those punks out (shocking, I know). We're getting down to the end here, and I just can't freaking wait.

Tomorrow night, the Orca welcome Minnesota to the Roger for the final regular season game of the year, and along with most Canuck fans, I'm hoping that the Vannies can put a strong effort together to ease our fears.

Update: Team 1040 in Vancouver is reporting that the buzz around Raffi Torres is a three game suspension (the regular season and the first game of the playoffs), but we'll find out for sure tomorrow.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē