Avalanche-Canucks: The Best Game of the Year

It's deja vu all over again.

And to steal McDonald's slogan, "I'm lovin' it."

I could have sworn this script was played out a night earlier.

The Vancouver Canucks scored a pair of quick goals in the first period to take the lead over the home team.

Daniel Sedin scored one of the goals, and Markus Naslund had a hand in the other tally.

The Canucks outshot the home team during the first 20 minutes of play.

And then the wheels fell off once the puck dropped to start the second period.

Nonetheless, if this keeps happening the rest of the season, it will be very satisfying indeed.

In what was the most enjoyable game for me thus far in the 2007-08 season, the Canucks fell 6-3 to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday in "the Battle for Seventh Place", just one night after blowing a 2-0 lead in Calgary.

The script was strikingly similar, and the final outcome was exactly the same.

Another Vancouver loss.

Vancouver took a 2-1 lead with goals 3:19 apart midway through the first stanza and skated off the ice with that one-goal advantage after 20 minutes.

Then the Avalanche took over, outshooting the Canucks 23-11 and chasing Roberto Luongo in the process with a four-goal outburst in the second period.

That's not a typo. 23-11 in the second period alone. At least that was better than the 18-3 shot disadvantage Vancouver suffered in Calgary the night before in the middle frame, and 33-13 over the final 40 minutes.

But back to the Colorado game, Luongo was gone by the 11:31 of the second.

By then, Vancouver was done, trailing 5-2.

I'm not going to lie; seeing Luongo get pulled was awesome.

While the Flames—Vancouver's opponent the night before—are essentially a one-man show offensively with Jerome Iginla, the Avalanche on the other hand, have a bunch of snipers that can hurt any team.

And some of Colorado's big guns—specifically the No. 2 line of Milan Hejduk, Peter Forsberg, and Paul Stastny—delivered in this must-win affair, on a night when Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth were held pointless.

Hejduk, the game's first star, had two goals—including the eventual game-winner—and an assist. Forsberg, still goalless since his return to the Avalanche after sitting out the first four months of the season, had three assists. Stastny had a goal and two assists.

The loss, the Canucks' third in a row, dropped Vancouver to eighth place in the Western Conference.

The Canucks are 38-29-10 with 86 points.

The Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 losers to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday, are three points behind Vancouver. The idle Nashville Predators are two back of the Canucks.

Colorado, now 41-31-6 with 88 points, have moved past Vancouver into seventh.

Best game of the year!

Let's all say the Mickey D's catchphrase again!