Remember how I told you all to relax after all that ridiculous early panic after the first games? The Canucks went 2-2-2- in their first games and have now improved to 7-2-2 in 11 games following a 5 game win streak! Solid goal-tending was responsible for the first three wins of that streak and finally balanced offense won the most recent two games. In the last five games the Canucks have out scored their opponents 20-5! Both Luongo and Schneider have been incredibly solid in the last 5 games. Not too mention the rest of the team has finally found their offensive stride.

Games 9,10 and 11 were all about finding balance. Game nine saw the Canucks begin a road trip last week facing Edmonton’s young guns. The game began with Edmonton all over the Canucks for the first half of the game. The Oilers had gained a 2-0 lead with a powerplay goal and a shorthanded goal! It looked like Edmonton had the game under control…[much like the Canucks when they had the 2-0 lead back in the game January 20th]. The Canucks found their legs midway through the second period with a goal by Jannik Hansen. It looked like Edmonton had control of the game and that they would be skating away with the two points. The game was winding down with less than three minutes on the clock before a Kevin Bieksa goal beat Devan Dubnyk. We had a tied game with time winding down. Cue overtime.  Chances go back and forth. Taylor Hall on a breakaway was taken down by Daniel Sedin[yes Daniel Sedin] leading the refs to call reward Hall with a penalty shot….which if it went in, meant the game would be over. Taylor Hall went in all alone and was stopped by LUONGO with just under two minutes to go into the overtime period. Time on the clock was winding down….inching closer and closer towards what would have been their 5th shootout in 9 games. Ridiculous. Cue some #sedinery no look passes followed by a perfect tape to tape pass to Chris Tanev who made no mistake in scoring his first NHL goal. Did I mention that there was only 20 sconds left? Needless to say he will not soon be forgetting that goal. Has it really been nearly 70 games since he made his debut? It may have been his first NHL goal [finally!] but the guy has been extremely solid defensively in all his games before this one. Canucks did not have the start that they wanted but they did get the two points that they came for.

Game 10 saw the Canucks face off against the Minnesota Wild. The Canucks were up against the newly acquired Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Expectations were risen to a whole new level in Minnesota with their big contract players arrival. Both teams have high expectations from their fans this year. Landing the free agency sweepstakes and having so-called goal-tending controversy will do that to you. Needless to say there were endless headlines heading into this game. Parise and Suter were suited up and Cory Schneider was between the pipes. The Canucks were much better prepared for this game. They wasted no time in getting on the scored board, by the end of the second period they had a 4-0 lead! The Wild would eventually get one goal, but that is where their offense ended. The Canucks went on to win this one 4-1 and the Wild were left wondering where their offense went as they dropped yet another game. Rumor has that the Minnesota Wild could be looking to replace their head coach following a disappointing finish last year and start to this season.

Game 11 would bring the Canucks back home to face another division rival, the Calgary Flames. Like any other Canuck fan, I love watching the team in blue beat the Flames[and yes I know its the reverse for fans of the Flames]. Calgary was looking to build on their 2 game win streak. Cory Schneider was again given the nod[see! I told you that he would get some starts..relax….we have 2 great goalies…let’s enjoy it while it lasts!]. The first period was pretty even and many times it looked like the Canucks would get on the scoreboard early, but they did not. It was the Flames who got a buzzer beater to take a 1-0 lead into the second period. Not exactly what the Canucks were looking to do. If the Canucks wanted to turn the tide, they would need some serious #sedinery and that is exactly what happened. The #triplets[Sedins & Burrows] got the game all squared at 1 and just 27 seconds later on the powerplay, rookie Jordan Schroeder scored his 1st NHL goal to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead. The offense did not end there…the Canucks would add 3 more goals including Jordan Schroeder’s second NHL goal!! The Canucks were sloppy in the opening 20 minutes of this game but came out all cylinders on fire in the final 40 minutes to skate away with a 5-1 victory. It was their 5th WIN in a row which improves the Canucks to 7-2-2 over 11 games.

Have you heard? Ryan Kesler and David Booth have officially returned to practiced. Kesler even traveled with the team on their mini road trip to Edmonton and Minnesota. Next up is a home game the Minnesota Wild tomorrow at 7PM where the Canucks look to extend their win streak to 6 games. Luongo won the coin toss and will start in tomorrow’s game. [Has anyone seen this coin of Vigneault’s?] The Canucks will have to be prepared as Minnesota will not make it easy on them to take the two points as both are fighting for playoff positioning.

Rumor has it that #17 could be back in the line up as soon as this weekend. What better game for him to return to than in his home state of Michigan when the Canucks take on the Detroit Red Wings? He always plays some of his best hockey at the Joe.  #fingerscrossed

In other news headlines, Canucks Captain Henrik Sedin is on the brink of setting franchise history. Henrik sits just one point behind former Captain Markus Naslund with 755 points[Nazzy scored 756 points in his 12 years as a Canuck] . Tomorrow night he will have a chance to tie and to surpass the record. The question is not if he can tie the record, it is merely when will he tie and surpass the record? Henrik will tie the record and possibly surpass it tomorrow becoming to the franchise leader in points scored for the Canucks. From #Sedinery to #recordbreaker #GoodLuckHank

We shall see what tomorrow brings at puck drop. As always, until next time, nuck said.

Sarah E.L.