The NHL trade deadline came and went earlier this afternoon and man, what a difference it made with these new look Canucks. What do you mean, we only traded for one NHL regular? Oh well.

Amazing how tonight’s game worked out. Second game of a back to back, Luongo playing his first post-Olympics game against Detroit on the road, all signs pointed to a Canucks loss. But it was not meant to be!

The Sedins, after going cold for a long spell, seem to have finally broken free of whatever Satanic enchantment Mattias Weinhandl had woven on them. Both had 3 point nights and helped Alex Burrows continue his rampage on the scoresheet. Henrik reached a new season high in point totals and is within 6 points of Alexander Ovechkin’s lead atop the NHL’s scoring race. Ovechkin, it should be mentioned, went without a point in a 3-1 drubbing of the Buffalo Sabres. Should Ovechkin get cold and Henrik get hot…

There was also help from the Canucks secondary scorers. Ryan Kesler notched a pair for the Canucks second line while Mikael Samuelsson and Kyle Wellwood both chipped in with goals for the Canucks third line.

Basically, a perfect game for the Canucks top nine.

The defense also got in on it, with the Canucks powerplay only needing 5 seconds to let Salo score from the point. Aaron Rome also had a couple of points on the night and was throwing some great tape-to-tape feeds all night long. Where the hell has this guy been all season?

Unfortunately, there were some warts. Nolan Baumgartner will hopefully have played his last game as a member of the Canucks. Baumgartner’s inexplicable decision to simply stand there and let Zetterberg skate past him and shoot led to the second Detroit goal. Ryan Johnson, who played a mostly mistake free game, wound up blowing it during the powerplay, leading to Johan Franzen’s tally. While the Canucks bottom six played a vastly better game tonight, this sort of performance isn’t going to be the norm and I am desperately hoping that Steve Bernier is out for an extended period, not because I am wishing injury on him, but because with the roster limit being removed today, the Canucks could try and bring Matt Pettinger or Michael Grabner up.

Well, I can hope, right? Guh.

Still love what I’m seeing from Demitra. Thought Luongo played really well: Williams goal came out of nowhere off of a laser beam that most goalies would be hard pressed to find, nevermind stop, while the other two goals were the result of defensive zone cockups from the Canucks skaters. Great game from Luongo to ease back into the NHL game and a good warmup for Friday’s game against the Blackhawks.