Costa's Canucks Report: Midseason Edition

Quite a bit has happened in Canucks Land over the past four and a half months.

The Steve Bernier experiment with the Sedins was a complete failure. Roberto Luongo suffered a devastating groin injury that to date has kept him on the IR and out of the lineup. Mats Sundin made his Canucks debut, only six months after he was offered a  two year, $20 Million contract. And the Canucks split their four game regular season series with the defending champion Red Wings.

Now, with only 38 games until (hopefully) some playoff hockey, Vancouver will start to make the necessary push to stay in the Western Conference's top 8 and possibly overtake some of the big four: Chicago, Calgary, Detroit and San Jose.

September was the best in Canucks history...it's too bad that going 4-0 means nothing when it's the preseason. The exhibition schedule ended with the Canucks at 6-0-1 and the best powerplay in the NHL. But again, it means nothing when the games don't count.

Roberto Luongo started the regular season red hot. He shutout the Flames in the season/home opener and went on to record four more before injuring himself on Nov 22. Three of those shutouts came in back-to-back-to-back fashion in early November and the Canucks 'tender was thought to be the front runner for the Vezina Trophy at that time. But as fate would have it, a harmless looking incident side-tracked his season.

Moreover, the game after the Luongo injury was the 10th straight where the Canucks put points on the board. Since the injury, the team has only won back-to-back games once!

The second major story of the season is clearly the emergence of Rob Davison as an excellent 6th defenceman...or not.

Mats Sundin, the 3rd highest scoring European in NHL history, officially signed a one-year deal with the Canucks in late December. This saga lasted what seemed like forever and even in the final hours, it looked as though Sundin would be going to the Rangers. Instead, Mike Gillis cemented his place in Canucks GM history signing the Big Swede.

It's only been three games, and he's only potted one goal, but the foundation is there and Sundin could be the help that the Canucks have been looking for at Centre, a position they've struggled with since the hey-day of the West Coast Express.

Overall, this team may not be done in the transaction department. Besides the move to pick up Jason LaBarbera, and obviously the Sundin signing, there may be several other players who could call Vancouver home before the end of the season.

A scoring winger is probably the biggest need right now but if Pavol Demitra, Kyle Wellwood, and Taylor Pyatt can get back on the scoresheet, and the remaining defense corps can stay healthy, this team has the potential to play a spoiler role come April. And who knows, a rematch in one week's time with the top seeded Sharks could be the igniter for a strong 2nd half push and maybe June hockey for the first time in 15 long years.