Calgary Flames vs Canucks || November, 1, 2011

That's a little better.  Almost like clockwork, the Canucks seem to have worked their way out of the October funk, and right back into mid-season form.  With twelve goals in the last two games, they are boosting their dismal plus/minus numbers, as well as closing in on the point gap left by Ehrhoff.  Alex Edler has 6 points in two games, while Vancouver's obvious leading goal scorer - ahem, Chris Higgins - continues his hot streak.



It just seemed to be Vancouver's night tonight.  Most of the passes had eyes, like Hodgson's goal from Lapierre and Daniel's goal from Hank.  There is no way that Lapierre's blind centering pass should have made it to Hodgson (see video), but it did, because it was just one of those nights.  The Sedin's connected (again), which pretty well put the game away.  Burrows' goal from his rear-end was just pure, old fashioned hard work.  That's exactly what he needs to be doing when he plays with the Sedin's.  You can't match the twins for skill, all you have to do is sit in front of the net and swing your stick wildly, hoping you connect with the puck. And of course, Edler.  Ahhh, Eddie, what would we do without you?  Alex Edler continues to tear up the score sheet, this time with a couple assists and a goal.  The latter coming from a wrist shot from the point, bouncing and deflecting it's way past Kipper.

Burrows doing his best Tomas Holmstrom impression

Then we get to Luongo.  Always a hot topic in this fair city of ours.  Actually, he played really well.  Looked sharp, never seemed to lose sight of the puck.  The only thing was, he let in one of his famous last minute goals.  How many times last year did he have a shutout going, then with less than a minute to go, he lets one in.  I'm sure he would have been leading the league in shutouts last season if it wasn't for the 5 or 6 goals that snuck past him with 30 seconds left.  Either way, shutout or no shutout, he played really well. He stopped more pucks than the other goalie (isn't that the real goal?), and showed more confidence than he has in the games earlier this season.

One final thing, notice when Booth had his stick slashed right out of his hands.  Instead of throwing his hands up in the air and looking at the ref's, he just thought nothing of it, and played the puck with his feet.  I've said this before, that it seems like the Canucks - mainly Kesler - have been looking for calls more often than not.  Why not just play the puck?  This kind of goes hand-in-hand with what Don Cherry recently said.  That the Canucks can be seen as whiners sometimes.  I don't think were whiners, but I also don't think that throwing your arms up in the air and giving the ref's puppy eyes helps with that image either.

Anyways, Vancouver is looking a whole lot better than what their record shows.  Yes their last two games have been really good, but their record is far from it.  If they keep this kind of record throughout the season, they probably won't make the playoffs.  Now, that won't happen, but I'm just saying.  October is over, November is here, let's start winning some hockey games.

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P.S.  Grow your mustache for Movember!  It's for a great cause!  - http://ca.movember.com/