The Canucks continue with their topsy turvy play as they came into tonight’s matchup suffering an ugly loss to the St. Louis Blues. Sound familiar? Yeah, I realize that these recaps sound like I could have simply did a Find and Replace in Word, but better the Canucks win a game than lose all the time. But, tonight’s game did have two guys dressed in green spandex (see above), so this most assuredly wasn’t a repeat!

Things could have gone either way tonight, as the Predators were a hot team, having won 6 of their last seven and have been dynamite against the NW Division as of late. Conversely, they were also a Central Division team, the sole division which the Canucks have had a losing record against all season (1-7-0 before tonight.) Thankfully, things went in favor of the Canucks.

Lots of things to love about this game. Lately, the Canucks weren’t playing with the same jump that they’ve had a lot of success with through the course of the season. There was the lethargic effort against the Blues and the game against Anaheim, where they took forever to register a shot on net. Not tonight, as the Canucks came out flying. The first period saw a strong effort from the Kesler line, as they were buzzing all over the place, particularly Raymond and Kesler. Alex Edler, who had missed a number of games due to an injury suffered the last time the Canucks played the Predators, was back in the lineup and looked great: he had a solid hit in the first and was involved in the power play, shooting the puck.

The defense looked good. How good? When Shane O’Brien is leading the backend in icetime, you know they’ve been playing a good game. Sami Salo also chipped in with some offense, adding a final indignity to the Predators who looked tired and on their heels for most of the game.

I think that Ryan Kesler’s tilt with Shae Weber. At 6′4 and 234, Weber was a bit out of Kesler’s weight class. However, Kesler, who took umbrage with a hit from Weber, decided to stand up to him and show that he wasn’t going to suffer any sort of shenanigans on behalf of the Predators. The resulting 4 on 4 led to Wellwood’s hard work over the last couple of games finally paying off as he worked to contain the puck in the Predator’s end before dishing it to Bernier who scored his 10th of the season. I cannot understand why people continually make reference to Bernier being trade bait. He’s our best bottom guy and one of the more physical players on our team. Boggles the mind.

The Canucks seemed to feed off of Kesler’s actions, as the Sedins, who have been rather quiet and had probably their most invisible games of the season against the Blues and Capitals woke back up. After getting some chances in the first, the Sedins exploded and had a great night. Daniel’s goal, placing him at 8th overall in all time goals scored by the Canucks, surpassing the mighty Don Lever. Henrik, not to be outpaced, notched his 125th career goal, giving the Canucks a stranglehold in the game.

If I had to pick one Canuck to criticize, it’d probably be Hansen. He had a couple of oddball decisions and took a penalty to boot. Still, he was skating well, was doing what he was supposed to do and created enough havoc in front of the net to draw Dan Hamhuis to him, allowing for Salo to score and score midway through the third.

Samuelsson might be the other guy I’d give some grief to. Dude’s been working hard like Wellwood, but has nothing to show for it. Ah well, Detroit fans advised us that he was streaky, so you have to take the good with the bad.

All in all, this was a great game from everyone, top to bottom. The Canucks dominated on the shot clock, in hits, on the scoresheet, had powerplay contributions and were perfect with the penalty kill. For once, can the Canucks please take this great effort into the next game, a tilt against the last place (where have I heard that one before?) Edmonton Oilers on Boxing Day.