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Avalanche At Canucks: The First Strike Is Deadly!

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By Zanstorm
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 AVALANCHE
 CANUCKS

AT

Time Wed. 7:00 PM PST
 TV Sportsnet Pacific
Season Series 1-0 Canucks
 Last Meeting
       4-3 (OT) Canucks       Oct.26/10
The Enemy Mile High Hockey, Jibblescribbits Scoring Leaders

  D Sedin: 12-12-24  C. Stewart: 11-13-24
Avalanche
 Category Canucks
12-7-1 Season Record 10-7-3
3rd
 Conference Position 8th
Won 4
 Streak Lost 4
6-3-1
 < Road Record / Home Record >
 6-2-1
7-3-0
 Last 10 5-4-1
+12
 Goals For / Against +/- +2
3.50 (3rd)
 Goals Per Game 2.90 (12th)
3.0 (21)
 Least Goals Against Per Game 2.70 (13)
1.61 (1)
 5 On 5 GF/GA 0.80 (24)
22.2 (7)
 Power Play %
 27.0 (1)
76.8 (26)
 Penalty Kill %
 87.2 (5)
31.0 (17)
 Shots Per Game 31.4 (11)
31.3 (19)
 Least Shots Against Per Game 31.4 (20)
66.7 (20)
 Winning % When Scoring First 80.0 (8)
83.3 (12)
 Winning % When Leading After 1 87.5 (7)
54.5 (3)
 Winning % When Trailing After 1 20.0 (22)
100
 Winning % When Leading After 2 85.7
33.3 (2)
 Winning % When Trailing After 2 0
55.6 (10)
 Winning % When Outshooting
 40.0 (22)
55.6 (15)
 Winning % When Outshot
 62.5 (8)
49.1 (21)
 Faceoffs % 56.6 (1)
15.4 (20)
 Least PIM's Per Game 13.1 (14)
(NHL.com)

UPDATE (1:00): Justine Galo has a great Kirk McLean tribute piece up at Canucks Corner.

UPDATE: Roberto Luongo will start tonight, and cool stats and pregame notes from Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun:

The Avs are 12-1-1 when scoring three or more goals this season. They are 0-6-0 when scoring two or less.

***************************

Even though Kirk McLean is the goaltending coach of the Avalanche, he will most definitely show his "true colors" prior to the game tonight as he is inducted into the Canucks' Ring of Honor. Captain Kirk. 1994...oh man. Great stuff. Some of the sickest goaltending I have ever seen. And he made it look easy, (McLean videos below).  Let's hope the Canucks can find some inspiration after the festivities. Check out the bold faced stat for the Avalanche above and cue the Twilight Zone music. 5 on 5. Hopefully Alain Vigneault's line juggling proves to be magic and lights a fire under a bunch of asses. I think it will. It has to. A flat performance from the Canucks tonight will point even more guns at the coach, which is mostly knee-jerking at this point. 

This is going to be a very entertaining

affair. The coaching staff wanted more speed in their lineup with the subtraction of Peter Schaefer and addition of Jeff Tambellini and they are going to need it against Colorado. Speed..and FINISH. Please! Oh and stop falling behind 2-0 for god's sake!

Ironically, Jeff Tambellini scored a goal against the Avs when they played in October. A beauty. He played one more game and then was sent down to Manitoba. You're welcome. Even more irony: Peter Schaefer scored in that game too.

  • Colorado has 3 wins and 4 losses in their last 7 games in Vancouver.
  • Colorado is leading the Northwest Division by 2 points over the Canucks. That's how quickly things change. Like Missy mentioned, the Canucks can drop several spots in the standings if they lose. That is still no reason to panic if it does transpire. Hell, the Sharks are currently in 11th spot. That ship will right itself soon enough as will ours.
  • Check out the Avalanche scoring leaders. Oh my. Chris Stewart is dominating. Most-intriguing, to me anyway, is the resurgence of Milan Hejduk and the point production from defenceman John-Michael Liles. He was named the NHL's 2nd Star of the week last week.
  • The red-hot Avs have won 4 straight and 5 of their last 6. In the past 4 games:

- they have outscored their opponents (Stars, Rangers, Sharks and Blues) 19-10.

-Peter Budaj played in 3 of those 4 wins. He played well in the absence of Craig Anderson who returned to the Avs lineup last Friday where they pummeled the Rangers 5-1. Anderson had missed several games with a knee injury and Budaj rejuvenated his career in his absence. Not sure who is starting against the Canucks yet. Craig Anderson will start for the Avalanche tonight (Terry Frei, Denver Post)

-John-Michael Liles has 2 goals and 5 assists, Chris Stewart has 1 goal and 5 assists, Kevin Porter has 4 goals and a shootout winner on top of that (see below), Paul Stastny and Kevin Shattenkirk each have 2 goals and 2 assists and Milan Hejduk has 2 goals and 1 assist. Lots of weapons to shut down.

  • A tough test for Vancouver. On to some video:

Canucks scrape past the Avalanche in OT on October 26:

The slaughter of Anderson:

Blast From The Past: Jovanovski KO's Deadmarsh:

Deadmarsh missed a handful of games with a concussion from that point, but much to his credit he returned and fought Jovo again.

OK, on to Kirk McLean. THE SAVE!

I can't tell which I like better: that save against the Flames or the following absolutely huge performance in game 1 of the 1994 Finals M'eh! Both are super gold:

Go Canucks! Get that first goal and dictate the play. The first strike can be deadly.

OT: A comedic Canucks fan to follow on Twitter: Drunk Canucks Fan. haha

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