Vancouver Canucks: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from the First Month

The NHL season is just about one month old, and the Vancouver Canucks—more than anyone—are glad the calendar is changing. Off to their usual ho-hum start, the Canucks hope that November brings them better luck than October did. 

It hasn’t all been terrible for Vancouver, who is coming off of a short summer—but it hasn't been great, either.

While it's still too early to panic, the Canucks will need to step it up.

It's a good time to look back and analyze what is working and what isn’t. 

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly for the Vancouver Canucks after the first month of the season.

The Good

Sedins: The Canucks' top line appears to be picking up where it left off last season. The Sedin twins both have 13 points in 11 games so far and are back to working their magic. 

Alexander Edler:  A lot is expected of Edler, as the Canucks hope he can replace the production lost by the departure of Christian Ehrhoff. So far, so good, as he has racked up nine points and is an early plus-three. 

Sami Salo: Healthy to begin the year for the first time ever, Salo is off to a good start. His monster slap shot appears to be back, as he has raced out of the gates with eight points and a plus-six. He looks slow on the ice but has shown he can still rip the rubber. 

Maxim Lapierre: The Canucks' deadline deal to bring in Lapierre may be one of the best moves in team history. Known as a pest, Lapierre has been that and more for Vancouver. While playing with a bit more discipline, he has led a respectable fourth line and has even chipped in with three goals so far. Plus, the ladies like him. 

Cory Schneider: The wonder backup is back—and, in his first five games, has shown that last year was not a fluke. Schneider looks more and more like the real deal, with a 1.97 goals against average and a  .927 save percentage so far this year. His play is fueling the goalie controversy in Vancouver. 

Mike Gillis: After an offseason that didn’t produce much, general manager Mike Gillis pulled the trigger on a trade with Florida to bring in winger David Booth. Booth has scored in the NHL and looks like he will be a great fit for the Canucks. To get him, the team unloaded slug-like Marco Sturm and an aging Mikael Sameulsson.

The Bad

Second Line: Secondary scoring has been a big need for Vancouver since last season’s finals. The Canucks did not address this in the offseason—and so far it’s been a mess. Already they’ve tried at least seven different guys on the second line. With Ryan Kesler back and the addition of David Booth, the second line may finally settle down.

Defensive Pairings: The Canucks defense has been spotty so far this season. Last season, Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa were as good a paring as any in the NHL. For some reason, they have been split up this season. The Canucks often look confused in their own end and this needs to be cleaned up. 

Alain Vigneault: The oft-criticized head coach should take some heat for not having the Canucks prepared to start the season. Not that he ever has—the fact the the team has started slowly every year since he’s been in Vancouver should be noted. He is the one constant.

His decisions on defensive pairings and power-play lineups have also been head scratchers. 

Manny Malhotra: Malhotra was an inspiration last season, rebounding from a horrible eye injury to play in the finals. He still looks a little lost out there this year. Still good on faceoffs, he hasn’t done much else and may have lost his third line centre duties to Cody Hodgson.

The Green Men: Where have they been? 11 games into the season and they have yet to be spotted. According to their Twitter feed, they’ve been in training camp. Perhaps like the team, they believe the season begins in November.  

Special Teams: Last season, the Canucks led the league on the power play and were second in the league on the penalty kill. That combination made Vancouver the league’s best team. This year, they've been pretty mediocre. 

After 11 games Vancouver is ranked 11th on the power play and 13th on the kill. While the numbers aren't terrible, the team must still improve.

The Ugly

Roberto Luongo: Coming off the best season of his career, Luongo is sputtering. His 3.54 goals against average and .869 save percentage have been terrible. His play—and that of Cory Schneider—has opened him up to harsh criticism and calls for trades.

While Luongo usually struggles early, this is his worst start yet—if it doesn’t improve, things are going to get ugly quickly.

Kevin Bieksa: This past summer the Canucks had one big decision—whether to sign Bieksa or Christian Ehrhoff. Both were free agents and the the team couldn't retain both. They chose to lock up Bieksa.

The move made sense—Bieksa was great last year. This year, he is off to a terrible start, with only three points and a minus-seven. Hopefully being paired back with Dan Hamhuis can cure this. 

Fans who booed Luongo: After the greatest season in Canucks history, Vancouver fans jumped all over the team and Roberto Luongo in a game last week against New York. Yes, Luongo gave up some questionable goals, but the Canucks were shut out in that game—so you really can’t blame the whole thing on the goaltender.

Vancouver fans should cut Luongo a little slack, as they should be used to this kind of start.

Now, if he is still terrible in January then by all means, boo away.