At one point this season, it looked as though the Vancouver Canucks had gone off the rails. Getting shut out 3-0 at home against Nashville was bad enough. The loss dropped the Canucks to three games below .500—but that wasn’t the worst of it.
The bad news was that the club saw two of its top four defenseman go down to gruesome long-term injuries. Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo were both helped off the ice leaving trails of blood behind them.
For Bieksa, whose calf muscle was sliced nearly in half by an errant skate blade, there were whispers that the injury might be career-threatening. The news for Salo wasn’t much better—he was gone for multiple weeks with a badly broken nose.
The Canucks faced the prospect of eight straight games against tough divisional opponents, and all seemed lost. Two nights later, though, the Canucks edged the Avalanche 4-3 in Denver.
It was a result nobody expected.
And the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.
Since November 1st, the Canucks have gone 18-6-4, and have climbed right back to where they expected to be.
The Vancouver Canucks have now played exactly half the season, and have delivered pretty much as advertised. Through 41 games, the Canucks have done just enough to be competitive in the fierce Northwest Division. Their 50 points are good for second in the division and fourth in the Western Conference.
After a sluggish October and that nightmarish start to November, the Canucks look very much like the team that caught fire last season—and should be in the hunt for a second straight Northwest title through the rest of the year.
Still, there's room to improve.
First, the team doesn’t score enough. Beyond Daniel and Henrik Sedin, there's virtually nobody from whom the Canucks can expect consistent scoring. Captain Markus Naslund has shown flashes of his former self—but too often he’s looked like the same player who lacked confidence last season.
The Canucks rank 20th in the NHL in Goals For, and the power play has been only average, ranking 14th in the league.
One would think that GM Dave Nonis would be looking for offense via trade, but he’s hesitant to give up what other teams are seeking in return. Nonis would be loath to move Ryan Kesler, for instance, after the former first-rounder has finally started to round into form.
Alex Edler, meanwhile, may be one of the best young blueliners in the league, and you can be certain that rival GMs would be all too happy to take him of the Canucks’ hands. But the Canucks finally seem to have a good crop of prospects, and there's almost zero chance that Nonis would move his top young players for short-term help.
For the most part, the Canucks work hard, and coach Alain Vigneault has the team playing a sound defensive system. Combine that with the work of Roberto Luongo, who may well be the best goaltender in the game, and the Canucks are a virtual lock to be competitive every night.
Vigneault deserves credit for getting the most out of this group, especially given the injuries to key performers. But this is Luongo’s team. He gives his teammates confidence in their ability to hang with any squad in the league.
As we look ahead to the second half, Canuck fans can be reasonably hopeful more of the same.
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