As Cam Charron pointed out yesterday, despite a 7-2-2 record, the Canucks were not great in January, and their first game in February — a 3-2 SO loss to the Red Wings last night — sort of just drove his point home. Since "The Boston Game", the Canucks have been managing points despite not playing very well for long stretches in games. The point where we can brush this aside as typical dog day doldrums is rapidly approaching, if not already past, so let's hope the team figures this out soon. They're fully healthy and there are no excuses right now.
Oh, and I'm all moved into a new apartment. In typical blogger fashion, the only things set up are my desk and my TV. The rest is chaos, so forgive me if this post sort of resembles that.
Vancouver Canucks News & Notes
AV admits the Canucks were "taken to school" by the Wings last night. Missing Higgins because of his recurring Zombie-like symptoms didn't help matters. [The Province]
Jack Edwards believes that Cory Schneider will be the Canucks' #1 goalie in the playoffs, citing his starts against the Blackhawks and Bruins in January. Nevermind that Schneider didn't play for weeks in between those games, lets not let that get in the way of a crazy theory... [PITB]
Jeff Paterson takes a look at the Canucks through 50 games. [Canucks Army]
Cody Hodgson has made a habit of showing up in big moments for the Canucks this year. [CHB]
The Province wants fans to rate each player after every Canucks game, so they can keep a running tally of each player's performance. [The White Towel]
Head to the Net has their February wallpaper up if you're looking for one.
Today in Canucks History
[Feb 3, 2006] Head Coach Marc Crawford becomes the third youngest coach in NHL history to accumulate 400 wins after Vancouver celebrated a 3-1 victory against Calgary. Only Scotty Bowman (43 years, 148 days) and Glen Sather (44 years, 198 days), were younger than Marc Crawford (44 years, 335 days) to reach the 400 win mark.
NHL News & Notes
I know this is a Canucks blog and all, and we don't usually celebrate the accomplishments of our rivals, but it's pretty hard to ignore what Sam Gagner did for the Oilers last night. 8 points in an 8-4 victory over the Blackhawks, tying pluggers like Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey for the franchise record. [Kukla's Korner]
7 of the Oilers' 8 goals were scored at even-strength, mostly by their top line, and somehow Duncan Keith finished even. [NHL Boxscore]
Speaking of basement teams beating the elite, on the flipside we had the Hurricanes completing the season-series sweep of the Boston Bruins last night with a 3-0 win. Cam Ward had a 47-save shutout. [NHL.com]
"Jean-Sebastian Giguere's career in a nutshell":
Patrik Elias delivers a hit that could result in him receiving a phone call from Shan the Man. [PHT]
Also from that game, Adam Larsson is injured after taking a huge, clean hit from PK Subban. [Backhand Shelf]
Surprisingly, Chris Stewart could be available at the trade deadline. [Puck Daddy]
After the controversy in LA the other night, Dean Lombardi explains what happened with the clock. I honestly thought this was a joke when I first read it. Just bizarre. [Puck Daddy]