What a huge week for Alex Burrows and the Canucks! Although it ended on a sour note, the Canucks continued their solid play to start the New Year. Plenty to go over, so no mucking around. Let’s take a look at the Canucks Week That Was.

Shameless Plugs (That Don’t Involve Bob McKenzie’s Great Book)

Well, I debuted over at Canucks.com as a Fan Zone blogger with my thoughts on the Woo, which was originally published here. A fun, entertaining read that even has DJ Dave himself weighing in on the Woo.

In a buzzer-beater of a post, I also talk about Henrik Sedin’s Hart chances. I’m sure it doesn’t take the Amazing Kreskin to figure out where I stand on that particular issue.

Games

Although the Canucks have earned a bit of a reputation for being coach killers, having gotten Flyers coach John Stevens and Blues coach Andy Murray fired after their teams lost to the Canucks, they weren’t able to add another name to their list when they tore the Columbus Blue Jackets a new one on Tuesday. Burrows did notch a hat trick as the Canucks came up huge against a beleaguered Blue Jackets team.

They were able to carry that play over on Thursday against the Coyotes, as Burrows accomplished something that a Vancouver Canuck had been unable to do for a long time: score back to back hat tricks in a game. The last Canuck to have done it was Petri Skriko way back in 85/86. While exacting some revenge against the Desert Dogs (whom the Canucks suffered a shootout loss to not too long ago), some other notable accomplishments were made by the Canucks. Roberto Luongo notched his 50th career shutout (23rd as a member of the Canucks), which puts him in a tie at 2nd with Chris Osgood for shutouts amongst active goaltenders. Some guy by the name of Brodeur is number one. Mikael Samuelsson also earned his 100th career goal and Henrik Sedin managed to ascend to the very top of the NHL scoring race, where he still sits as of Sunday with 62 points.

Saturday’s game against the Flames was probably one of the most entertaining games of the season, despite it resulting in a shootout loss for the Canucks. Full credit has to go to the Flames for earning the win. Unfortunately, what was otherwise an awesome hockey game has been overshadowed by some idiot with a laser pointer, whose actions have ended up having all Canucks fans getting painted with the same ugly brush.

Injuries

Although it was hopeful Demitra was going to slot in Monday against the Predators, Jason Botchford seems to think that he’s still got a little ways to go and should be ready to go for Saturday’s game against the Penguins or Jan 20th agains the Oilers.

Sami Salo missed a game due to the high stick he took from Willie Mitchell in the Phoenix game, although he’s expected to play Monday against Nashville.

Aaron Rome took a nasty hit (need to have a YouTube account) from former Canuck Taylor Pyatt, also in the Thursday game, and is day to day with a concussion.

Ryan Johnson was also placed on long term injured reserve this week with a foot fracture.

Kevin Bieksa’s injury may not be as severe as originally thought, according to Mike Gillis. As is, he remains on the injured reserve with a time table of 2-3 months.

Off Ice

There were some personnel changes this week as the injuries to the Canucks blueline resulted in Mike Gillis recalling Evan Oberg, in addition to Brad Lukowich. Oberg, who was subbing in for an injured Sami Salo, played in the loss to Calgary and was sent back down today.

Henrik Sedin was named NHL Player of the Month for his play in December. Great to see him getting recognition.

Mathieu Schneider reported to the Manitoba Moose and picked up a $250,000 bonus for his efforts. Yay.

The Canucks expanded their front office this week as well, adding Trent Carroll as Executive VP of Sales & Service. Carroll previously worked for Labatt before joining the Canucks, so you now know who to call about the overpriced and overwatered beers at GM Place!

Talk has started up by the media about contract negotiations with Ryan Kesler (at the bottom), who is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of this season. There’s nothing going on at the moment, according to Kesler’s agent Kurt Overhardt. While many fans may recall that Kesler talked about taking a pay cut last season, he’s since shut up and has deferred on all matters to Overhardt. Hopefully this won’t become ugly or protracted. Kesler’s a keeper and the Canucks don’t need to deal with the headache of a potential offersheet.

Also, the funniest article coming out of Canucksland this week isn’t care of the boys over at the Kurtenblog, but rather the Province’s own Tony Gallagher, as he insisted that the Phoenix Coyotes are receiving help from the on-ice officials due to the Coyotes being owned by the NHL. I guess he didn’t watch the Phoenix/Edmonton game earlier in the week, which was a travesty in officiating in favor of the Oilers. Research, what’s that?!

Down On The Farm

The Moose had 2 disappointing losses to the Hershey Bears, the same team that beat them in the Calder Cup Finals last spring. I was hoping the Moose would avenge their Calder Cup loss, but they came out largely flat and were dominated by the Bears for large portions of the game. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider made his debut wearing the Antlers and, in my estimation, was less than impressive.

Jimmy Sharrow was also signed to a part-time amateur contract. Sharrow, some fans may recall, was traded to Chicago last year by the Canucks for the enigmatic journeyman player Future Considerations.

Taylor Ellington was also recalled for the Moose this week.

Defenseman Michael Funk who was signed by the Canucks this past off-season, appears to be done for the season due to concussion problems. This may also spell the end to his playing career as well, given that he’s had a number of concussions in his short career.

Both Nathan McIver and Geoff Waugh are out with broken hands, which explains the recent moves made by Craig Heisinger.

Baby Canucks

Big news for Cody Hodgson fans regarding his ailing back. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily good news. Hodgson, who is still recovering from his back problems, received a cortisone shot earlier this week. In an earlier article back in December, it was mentioned that cortisone would be the next step up in treatment to help him recover and try and get some playing time in before this season is over, although there is no timetable for his return as yet.

That said, Hodgson appears to be getting better, so while treatment may have gotten more aggressive with the aforementioned cortisone, he still seems to be on the right track to recovery.

The World Juniors wrapped up, with the United States besting Canada in the gold medal round. Jordan Schroeder wound up contributing on the scoresheet for America’s win and managed to surpass Jeremy Roenick’s all-time scoring record amongst Americans at the WJCs. His performance also put him past Eric Lindros for third in assists at the World Juniors. That’s great company to be keeping and with the Americans victory, that gives 2 gold medal winners in the Canucks prospect pool.

Anton Rodin, who had a great tourney as well, ended up being tied for second in scoring for Sweden. Peter Andersson also had a solid tournament and looked good in the limited time he had.

All in all, a successful outing for Canucks prospects at the World Juniors, although it would’ve been amazing had Hodgson been able to make the team. Oh well.

Defenseman Kevin Connauton notched his 20th goal of the season and his 50th point as the Vancouver Giants beat up on his hometown Edmonton Oil Kings. Fantastic numbers and a great performance thus far from Connauton was also named the WHL Player of the Week for his efforts last week.

As I mentioned last week, Taylor Matson is out with a sprained ankle and could possibly be out for as long as 8 weeks. Not good, as he already missed significant time last season with a knee injury.

And that about does it for the Week That Was!