Oilers Play Spoilers and Canucks Clinch From Couch

Canucks Nation was abuzz all day Tuesday after a huge Canucks come from behind shootout win over the reeling LA Kings.  The win put the Canucks firmly in control of their own destiny and, even though they picked up a loser point, put the Kings in a spot of trouble.

However, the season wasn't over yet and the Canucks hadn't officially clinched, after all.  They could clinch with another win on Thursday versus the lowly Arizona Coyotes.  Or, with a little help from the out-of-town scoreboard, they could clinch beforehand.  There were multiple scenarios that would put them in.  The least likely was the Spoilers, err.. Oilers beating the Kings in regulation.

Canucks followers, myself included, basically ignored that possibility.  The Los Angeles Kings had only lost in regulation ONCE in the last 27 games against the Oilers.  The Oilers are having a terrible season even by their standards.  The Kings thumped the Oilers 8-2 in their last meeting. You could basically chalk up 2 points

The Lowdown on the Canucks Playoff Implications (updated)

The Canucks appear to be in good shape to get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year after missing last year.  With 5 games to go in the regular season, the Canucks hold down 2nd place in the Pacific Division and sit 4 points up on 3rd place Calgary and 7 points clear of the 4th place Los Angeles Kings.
The Canucks currently hold the 1st tie-breaker (ROWs) on both of those teams.


The remaining schedule for Vancouver looks like this:

@Nashville (WIN 5-4 in shootout)
@Chicago
@Winnipeg
Los Angeles
Arizona
Edmonton

Compared to Calgary and LA, the Canucks have the toughest remaining schedule

Canucks Trump the Kings in Crucial 4 Pointer

The Canucks came into the Staples Center for a key battle against the Los Angeles Kings with both teams jockeying for playoff position in the NHL's tight Western Conference.  Still smarting from a blowout loss at home to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets and having been owned by the Kings in recent years, things didn't look good early on as LA took a 1-0 lead 7 seconds into their first power play of the game.  Usually a 1-0 lead is all the Stanley Cup Champions need to cement a win. Especially at home. Especially, especially against the Vancouver Canucks.

But not today.

No today, would be different.  The Canucks came alive

Canucks Face Do or Die vs Arch Nemesis

Dating back to Round One of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the LA Kings have absolutely owned the Vancouver Canucks.

Yes, the Canucks have had difficulty with all of the California based teams in recent years, but the LA Kings it seems, have proved to be kryptonite to the Canucks Superman

Canucks Continue to Collapse

The Vancouver Canucks lost tonight to the Montreal Paciorettys.

Let's try this again...

The Vancouver Canucks lost to the Montreal Canadiens --powered by Max Pacioretty, who netted a hat-trick on Sochi-bound Roberto Luongo.  Luongo, going head to head with fellow Team Canada goalie Carey Price, stoned Max Pacioretty on not one, but two penalty shots in the second period.  Pacioretty was the first player to get

Latest Loss to Cup Champs has Canucks Fans Calling for Rebuild

Latest Loss to Cup Champs has Canucks Fans Calling for Rebuild

We all saw it, we all know what happened.  It was ugly.  What made it even uglier was the fact that the Vancouver Canucks jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the defending Stanley Cup Champions raising the hopes of the hometown faithful.  Only to have it ripped away like velcro on a kids running shoes.

The Chicago Blackhawks responded with 4 unanswered goals in approximately 8 minutes in the second period on their way to a 5-2 win.

Cue fan angst.  Cue widespread panic.  Cue unruly mobs and general pandemonium.

If you've listened to the call-in shows or seen the

Canucks Dropping Like Flies

Ahead of tonight's big tilt against the Chicago Blackhawks, comes word that Chris Tanev will miss at least one game with a  broken thumb, and likely won't be ready until after the Olympic break.

GREAT!  Just what they needed!  Another injury!

In what is quickly becoming a season

Canucks Explosion of Scoring

Canucks Explosion of Scoring

The Vancouver Canucks, somehow, managed 5 goals tonight at home against Mike Smith and the Phoenix Coyotes, a team chasing them for a playoff spot in the NHL's Western Conference.  This comes on the heels of a run of games that has seen the team's scoring drying up of late, further exacerbated by injuries to Henrik Sedin and Mike Santorelli -courtesy of Martin Hanzal of these same Phoenix Coyotes.  

Though none of the Canucks players risked a $5000 fine (the penalty that the NHL levied on Hanzal for committing stick fouls on 3 Canucks players in one game shaking up one and seriously injuring two) to go after Hanzal or his teammates in earnest, they did exact some revenge by beating them on the score sheet with a 5-4 overtime win, albeit in overtime.  The Canucks once again gave up a 3rd period lead, something that has plagued them this season especially of late, but managed to get it together in time to pull 2 points out of the fire courtesy of a Kevin Bieksa overtime goal.  Bieksa had two on the night doubling his season total.

The team faces another division rival tomorrow, the lowly Edmonton Oilers before battling the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

Canucks 2012-2013 Aftermath

Here's my take on the end of the Canucks season.  I've given it a couple of days.  I've digested it.  I've calmed down.  Much like Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis intimated in his end of season media address about not making emotional decisions, I didn't want to write this in the heat of the moment in a heightened emotional state.  You won't read a hysterical rant about the Canucks' terrible play and the absolutely abysmal and game-affecting officiating throughout their 1st round series with the San Jose Sharks.  For that, you can read my twitter feed leading up to and immediately after whatever that was that Kelly Sutherland thought he saw

Canucks vs Sharks - Renewing Acquaintances

Tomorrow night the San Jose Sharks invade Rogers Arena to take on the Vancouver Canucks in Game1 of the NHL Western Conference Quarter-Finals.  These teams have met once before with the Canucks taking out the Sharks in 5 games in the Western Conference Final on their way to losing in Game 7 of the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins.

Both teams have made a few changes since then.  For the Canucks the most noticeable change

10 Possible Reasons Alain Vigneault Doesn't Like/Won't Play Keith Ballard

I don't care what anyone says, I'm convinced that Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault has it in for defenceman Keith Ballard.  Time and time again, since his arrival here Keith Ballard has been benched inexplicably and been passed on the depth chart by virtually every defenceman in the organization.  Most recently by rookie Frank Corrado who has a total of exactly 3, basically mean-nothing NHL games under his belt and a total of 6 total pro games at any level.  I mean, you pretty much have to be going out of your way to push him that far down the depth-chart.
I, for one, think Ballard is not being deployed correctly and is being treated unfairly.  I know many others in the twitterverse and bloggerverse feel the same way.
The narrative we get fed by the mainstream media closely associated with the team is that Ballard makes too many mistakes and turns the puck over too many times.  While I won't argue that he does make mistakes from time to time I would argue that he makes no more mistakes than do Kevin Bieksa, Alex Edler, and Andrew Alberts.  These three however seem to do so with impunity.  So we can rule that out of the possible reasons that Ballard gets sat out so often he has his name engraved on his press-box seat.  For if this were the case, if AV sits players out when they make numerous mistakes, Bieksa, Edler, and Ballard would be sitting out half the season!  Hell, Mason Raymond would be in the ECHL!!!
So I'm trying to delve deeper into the psyche of our good coach Alain Vigneault to try to uncover the REAL reason that he just won't give Keith Ballard a reasonable chance at cracking the Canucks line-up on a consistent basis...

Reason # 10:

Keith Ballard's name is VERY un-French-like.










Reason # 9:

Keith Ballard reminds him of himself when he was an NHLer and since he didn't play much/got benched a lot he projects that on Keith Ballard












Reason #8

Keith Ballard, once early on, didn't offer AV one of his lozenges even though he knew that AV had run out.











Reason #7:

AV once knew a kid back in high-school named Keith who bullied him












Reason # 6:

He's 'saving him' for game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final










Reason #5

Once had a dog named Ballard who he made a doghouse for.








Reason #4:

Some guy named Keith stole his girlfriend at prom










Reason #3:

 If you re-arrange the letters in Keith Ballard's name you can spell CODY HODGSON.










Reason #2:

AV had a thing for Grabner and this is his passive-aggressive way of getting back at GMMG for trading him

Time To Channel Your Hated for the Sharks

Remember the Canucks 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Run? Of course you do.

1 game short.

Do you remember how much anger and hatred you (assuming you're a Canuck fan) felt towards those evil thug knuckle-dragging Boston Bruins?  Of course you do.

Everyone remembers

Canucks Playoff Ready? They Better Be

Last night's game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks can be looked at in two ways depending on your perspective.

One might say that the Vancouver Canucks played one of their best games of the season thus far against the top team in the NHL and soon to be crowned President's Trophy winners the Chicago Blackhawks. One might say that the Canucks, despite missing 3 of their top 6 defensemen shut down the explosive Blackhawks save for a fluky rarely seen ref-assisted goal.  One might say

Back Up Goalie? I Don't Think So

The Canucks got on a roll tonight in the last 8 minutes against Calgary on their way to a 4-1 win.  This was also made possible by the outstanding goal-tending of Mr Roberto Luongo who had an amazing 40 saves tonight and was quick to read the plays made by the eager Flames.

Luongo was called to start after Cory Schneider was reported to have the flu, which ended a streak of 11 straight starts for Schneider.  Tonight's game made me realize how much I enjoyed seeing Luo back in net. The Canucks have two great goalies and no one else in the league has this advantage. So why not use them both? Seems like it was a great strategy in the beginning. Looked like the pressure was off of both Luongo and Schneider. So my question is why did we stop switching the two?

As far as I can see we need Luongo. When given the opportunity he shows us that he is a star and a lead goalie. I just have more confidence in the team knowing he is here and because any other back up just isn't good enough. No offense Dustin Butler.

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Canucks Smell Playoffs Around the Corner

The Vancouver Canucks extended their winning streak to 4 games and are now 10 - 2 in their last 12.  Pretty decent considering they haven't played any of those games without their full complement of starters.  In fact, the line-up they dressed in some of those games closer resembled an AHL team then the usual Canucks squad we've gotten used to.
Even with a full line-up, 10 - 2 is impressive.  To do it with a depleted roster is almost jaw-dropping.  I've been critical of Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault in the past, and I'm still not convinced he can fully get the job done, however, credit where credit is due.  He's managed to not only keep the team competitive while missing multiple starters, dealing with the 2 headed goalie "champagne problem" as well as rampant trade deadline speculation, he has kept them absolutely rolling.  So I lay bouquets at the feet of the coach.

                                                                         

If the Canucks Didn't Have Bad Luck they Wouldn't Have Any Luck at All

Much was made yesterday about the return of Ryan Kesler --- the straw that stirs the Canucks drink, the engine of the Canuck-mobile.  Kesler's much anticipated return certainly lived up to expectations as the team's Selke winning centre came flying out of the gates on his first with a shot and a hit, showing no lasting effects of his lengthy absence due to a broken foot bone.  Kesler opened the scoring banging in a rebound from his office right in front of the net with a  goal that turned out to be the game winner as Cory Schneider went on to post his 4th shutout in the last  9 games (yes you read that correctly).
Kesler's return also bumped newly acquired Derek Roy down to the "3rd line" if you will where he has been impressive playing with Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen.
The team looked good offensively, carrying much of the play, creating several chances,and getting off over 40 shots for their highest total of the season.  The score, in my opinion, greatly flattered the Phoenix Coyotes due mainly to goalie Mike Smith being up to the task and stopping everything the Canucks threw at him except for the previously mentioned Kesler effort.
One might say that with Kelser's return and the addition of Derek Roy that the Canucks look as deep offensively as they have all year and probably in the last few years.  Perfect.  Let's get this thing rolling.  Just in time for the playoffs.
But wait.  In what is becoming an almost expected occurrence, we find out this morning that Chris Higgins and Chris Tanev will be out indefinitely and will more than likely miss the rest of the regular season and perhaps the playoffs.
They just can't seem to get a break...unless its a bone.

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