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Canwest News Service
It seems the Vancouver Canucks' idea of firewagon hockey these days is limited to attempting to crash and burn early. They save all their energy for the third period.
They managed to get the fire out in time to come away with an unconvincing win Thursday night, but you certainly didn't have to be Rip Van Winkle to sleep through periods one and two. Plodding through yet another game against an opponent which played the night before, this team, which flashed so much hope in the preseason, is now making everyone wonder just what they really have here.
When before there was talk of challenging for the Cup, there is now the grim reality of the standings which indicate this team is going to have to get on a long winning streak at some point if they hope to get where they intended to be at the start of the year — Northwest division champions.
And, last night, that did not seem likely. Without Roberto Luongo, they could have lost by three or four goals.
Go down the roster and you have a legion of players so underperforming, you have to start asking what gives. While Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows returned to form Thursday night, and Luongo could not have been much better, Mason Raymond has retreated to invisibility lately, only to revive and show a few third-period flashes once the Kings were completely leg weary although it didn't prevent a demotion to Ryan Johnson's line. Maybe it was just changing the look? Who knows?
Mikael Samuelsson has cooled off and the third and fourth lines are so loaded up with minimum-wage types they generate all the excitement of Polyfilla. Kyle Wellwood scored his first goal of the season — although it was like birthing triplets — jacked his point total to four and got a standing ovation in the process. Further, Tanner Glass also scored, so perhaps we should reserve judgment.
"I've never seen that, a guy get a standing ovation for an open net when he busts his egg," said Glass. "Then again, I've never been booed at home for scoring either."
All good fun but, again, instead of attacking the visitors, the Canucks seemed content to exchange chances, evidently hoping Luongo would be brilliant enough to make the one-goal lead Burrows furnished seven minutes into the game stand.
Needless to say, the entertainment value is such that Fin was clearly the second-period highlight unless you counted Luongo's brilliant play.
"I don't know what happened to us in that second period," said Luongo, who had a steady diet of Dustin Brown coming in on him. "I thought this was one of my best games of the year."
At the back end, the flow of goals against has abated at home at least, largely due to Luongo, but some defenders continue to struggle, particularly Alex Edler. Brown walked around him so many times last night there was talk the Canucks might lose the defender's services to TransLink, who would immediately solve their turnstile problems upon his arrival. What has happened to this guy?
But in this town, any time there is a win, the fans are quickly mollified no matter what has gone on in front of them — and to be hopeful, maybe this was the start of something good.
Everyone knows there's talent here, particularly on the back end, with enough up front to make a very good team. But when is it going to get going? When are they going to start cuffing aside lesser opponents?
Perhaps this win was a lift, a confidence builder, and this is the beginning of a long run.
They could use one.
