It's A Tank. Think A Big, Big Tank: Avs @ Canucks

The true test of a faithful fan is to stick with the team when their play reaches dumpster fire proportions, so since you're reading this sentence, congratulations, you're a good person! Go get yourself a drink and make it a rather stiff one - one where you exhale and the paint on your walls starts to crack - and let's get ready for some Canucks hockey!

For team tank - and there's plenty of room on that bandwagon - this graph below (h/t HockeyViz.com) is the only thing you care about down the stretch:

Fun fact tankers: Vancouver's 2-7-1 run in their last ten is worse than all four teams ahead of them so six more weeks of misery will greatly increase the chances for all your Auston Matthews daydreamin'.

Then again who are we kidding: Edmonton will get the #1 pick. Again. Because we can't have nice things.

Now, if you're still on team hopeful, the good news is today is another clean slate to begin the climb up the hill at what appears to be a 16-6-2 run to have a strong chance at the post season. Colorado is ten points clear of Vancouver and one of the groups they need to catch. The Avs probably have to settle for the wild card since the Central is ridiculous and, with the Wild suddenly not sucking, they need the points arguably more than Vancouver.

All together perhaps we'll be gifted with a playoff atmosphere today and the kids get another lovely lesson in adversity. Last time these teams met Bo Horvat flexed his beautiful muscles en route to a 3-1 win. Swish that around in your mouth and just ignore the last one two three weeks. Onward and upward!

Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Jannik Hansen

Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Radim Vrbata

Alexandre Burrows - Jared McCann - Emerson Etem

Derek Dorsett - Adam Cracknell - Jake Virtanen

Ben Hutton - Chris Tanev

Dan Hamhuis - Luca Sbisa

Matt Bartkowski - Alex Biega

Ryan Miller

Mikhail Grigorenko - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla

Gabriel Landeskog - Carl Soderberg - Blake Comeau

Alex Tanguay - Nathan Mackinnon - Jack Skille

Cody McLeod - John Mitchell - Andreas Martinsen

Francois Beauchemin - Erik Johnson

Nick Holden - Tyson Barrie

Chris Bigras - Andrew Bodnarchuk

Semyon Varlamov

Two Questions

1. It...it...it can't possibly be another 5-2 loss. The hockey gods don't hate us that much do they?

2. Hunter Shinkaruk is one goal away from his 22nd goal for the Comets which would break the club record. Meanwhile the Canucks can't score. So....why?

One Observation

Not that +/- is a terribly useful stat, but checking out the worst in the league and you'll note three Canucks are among the ten worst. All those three all tell different stories don't they? Bartkowski is another in a long line of failed management gambles, Horvat is the clear future and doesn't belong here at all and nothing about Vrbata's play suggests he wants to be in Vancouver eight days from now.

Fearless Prediction