The Sedins have been enjoying immense success as of late. There’s been much talk of Henrik being right at the very top of the NHL’s scoring elite, being outpaced only by Joe Thornton, while brother Daniel has been making a lot of noise for himself: he recently picked up his third career hat trick, was named 2nd star of the week by the NHL and player of the day December 11th.

Which isn’t to say that linemate Alex Burrows hasn’t been doing well for himself, either. Although cooling down a bit when Daniel was out with an injury, Burrows has 10 points (6g, 4a) in his last 10 games and has been an absolute beast on the penalty kill.

With all that said, there’s been little talk about the Sedins linemate, as the Canucks top line is looking like a top line. Before Burrows was given the opportunity by Alain Vigneault last season, the constant issue for the Canucks was finding someone to fill in that role. Over the years, there have been numerous players who were pegged to be the ‘Third Sedin’, so here’s a look at some of the more notable Third Sedins of the past, as well as a look at one potential future Third Sedin.

Normally, being undefeated in overtime and the shootout would be considered a good thing and something to be proud of. For whatever reason, though, the lack of a ‘loser point’ has been a sore point of contention for Canucks fans as of late. While the fans do have a point: it’s better to get a point outside of regulation in a losing affair than to not get any at all, I wasn’t convinced that this could be the sole deciding factor in whether or not the Canucks will make the playoffs, so I decided to do a little digging around, comparing last season to this season.

Prior to Saturday’s tilt against the Vancouver Canucks, the Minnesota Wild had gone 8-1-1 in their last 10 and were one of the hottest teams in the league. Tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings could be seen as the second verse of the same tune: the Kings had also gone 8-1-1 in their last 10 and were at the very top of the Western Conference. Just like the Wild, the Kings would be a challenge for the Canucks, who are still working out some kinks in their game as they looked to extended their winning streak to 3 games and are now 3-0 against the Kings this season.

I have lived in Toronto for close to 6 years now and as a result, have had a pretty good vantage point of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a corollary to this, I’ve had to deal with the Greek Chorus that makes up the Toronto Sports Media, a group of journalists who can produce some truly awful stuff. So much so, as a matter of fact, that there are blogs devoted to dissecting the worst stuff that crops up in the dailies here in the Big Smoke. For the most part, they’re a harmless bunch who will issue out some amusing diatribes from time to time. Never really had a problem with any of them.

At least until my encounter with Steve Simmons, columnist of the Toronto Sun.

Thought I’d try my hand at a new feature on here, especially since this past week has been a rather eventful one in Canucks land. Basically, just take a look back at what transpired throughout the week, compile any news that folks may have missed and offer my own take on things. Who knows, someone may end up finding this to be useful!

Playoff drama in December. Consistency was the big thing going into today’s game. There’s been much noise made regarding the Canucks being weak in the second period, I’ve written about how the Canucks need to be getting their special teams sorted out and Mike Gillis sounded off earlier in the week.

I’m tardy, I know. I apologise. I’ll try to make this quick and dirty.

The Nashville game resulted in another loss for a Canucks team who has been inconsistent and got burned on the powerplay. The team also looked worn out (!) and tired out there, which again makes me worried about the upcoming Road Trip From Hell, Pt 1 and Pt 2.  Annoyingly, Nashville games continue to be ones that punish our defensemen (remember Bieksa’s laceration and Salo getting his nose broken in the same night?) as Alex Edler is out for a couple of weeks with an arm injury. What makes this all the more frustrating is that Edler was looking to be turning things around and has been one of our more consistent offensive contributers from the backend, alongside Ehrhoff.

Looking back, you could probably say that that there were a lot of odds stacked against the Canucks winning in Raleigh.

There was the fact that it was a criminally early start, part of Gary Bettman’s efforts to forcefeed the NHL to markets that are less than interested in watching the game, sometimes at the fans expense.

There was Alain Vigneault’s decision to start Andrew Raycroft in lieu of Roberto Luongo, who had looked great in back to back starts against the Devils and Flyers. Given how crazy the Canucks schedule will be coming up, you can’t necessarily blame Vigenault for wanting to give Luongo an afternoon off.

A little late with the postscript here, but no harm, no foul, right?

The Canucks played what was essentially a perfect game last night against the Flyers, a team who has now lost 6 of their last 7. I’m not sure what more you could have asked for from the team, outside of chasing the starter, this game had it all.

No recap tonight. A power outage made it so that I missed the bulk of the game. Watching the highlights, it looks like the Canucks played a solid road game. Good to see the first line firing on all cylinders as they combined for 6 points, also nice to see Salo finally get a goal.
Also, congrats to Cody Hodgson for being named to the preliminary roster for Team Canada, although his back woes may yet keep him out of the tourney. Jordan Schroeder also got the nod for Team USA. Yann Sauve and Peter Andersson did not get the nod, unfortunately.

That’s all for tonight. Luongo is set to start tomorrow night against Philly.