Only a handful of games into the young season, the Vancouver Canucks
find themselves in an unexpected position.
First.
The Canucks jumped out to an early lead in the shiny, new Northwest
Division, leaving many local hockey fans to double-check that the
division does in fact contain more than one team. This lead, though
partly attributed to the mediocre start of the Colorado Avalanche,
has been earned through a string of respectable offensive
performances and the standout play of goalie Garth Snow.
Goaltending, thought to be one of the areas on which improvement
would have to be made, has been the one constant thus far. Garth
Snow has looked good in all but one of his starts, a loss to
Edmonton, and has been the key in victories over Los Angeles,
Toronto and Washington. His consistency has helped to make up for
some obvious defensive deficiencies, and has given the offence time
to produce.
Mark Messier has so far erased any doubt that he is no longer able to
lead a team offensively, having been held pointless in only two of
the Canucks' first seven contests. On top of his solid play, he
attained a career milestone on Sept. 23rd when he capped a 5-0
victory over the Florida Panthers with his 600th career goal.
With Messier and Snow leading the way, the Canucks began the season
with three games in the friendly confines of GM Place. Having began
the season with an impressive win over the Kings, and a less
impressive loss to the Oilers, the Canucks finished a short
three-game home stand with a victory over former coach and GM Pat
Quinn's Maple Leafs, in which Snow single-handedly won the game by
saving all but one of 40 shots, many of the spectacular nature. His
efforts earned him first star honours and a poorly sung rendition
of "Let it Snow" from a certain lyrically-challenged LCS Hockey
reporter and his friend.
With two wins under their belt, the Canucks embarked on a five-game
Eastern road swing that saw them visit Carolina, where both fans in
attendance reveled in a 3-1 Hurricane victory, Washington, Florida,
and Tampa Bay, whose Lightning came back from a third period deficit
to win.
As LCS Hockey's media juggernaut rolls out another award-winning
issue, the Canucks' will have just wrapped up the trip with an epic
battle against the Nashville Predators. With LCS Hockey psychic
friend Christopher Walken predicting a lopsided Canucks' victory,
the Northwest division leaders will come home sporting an impressive
5-3 record.
While the team has performed unexpectedly well on the ice, two
problems continue to separate the Vancouver Canucks from their full
potential. While holdout defenceman Bryan McCabe was tendered
another offer by the club Monday, and should hopefully be signed by
week's end, the Pavel Bure situation continues to head Brian
Burke's agenda, keeping him from other pressing tasks like granting
interviews to humble sports reporters who want only to bask in his
omnipotent glow.
The latest Bure rumours have him going to the Rangers for everything
from Nicklas Sundstrom to GM Neil Smith's first born son. New York
Post writer Jay Greenberg, in a recent article, made a strong case
for a Bure deal, the foremost of which was that the Rangers suck
quite badly. Other potential suitors include the Kings and Devils,
who have a potential deal maker in defenceman Scott Niedermayer, who
has demanded a trade.
While Brian Burke has not yet called me for my opinion on a Bure
deal, I'd be quick to point out that a power-play quarterback has
been desperately needed since the trade of Jeff Brown for Frantisek
Kucera and Jim Dowd (who?).
Left wing remains the only forward position at which the Canucks have
real depth with Bertuzzi, May, Naslund and Brashear, so an infusion
of scoring at centre or right wing would also be welcome. I'm a lover
of trade rumours great and small, so if you have one you'd like to
share, and yes, perhaps even have posted on a big-time web site, or
if you just want to tell me how much this column brightens up an
otherwise meaningless existence, please e-mail me:
canucks_eh@hotmail.com .
The Canucks' competition begins to improve over the next couple of
weeks, so stick to LCS Hockey for all the news on the Northwest
division leaders while the term is still accurate.
