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’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.

Man, where to begin with tonight’s game? It was bowling shoe ugly…

As I wrote in my recap last night, the Canucks needed to play a full 60 minutes and get away from the sloppy play that allowed an injury riddled and exhausted Oilers team to make it a game after going down 4-0 in the first period.

Taking 3 penalties in a row is a recipe for disaster against a team like the Sharks, particularly when your PK has been having problems like it has for the Canucks. Factor in a team that played the night before and a powerplay that was firing blanks by going 0 for 4 and the Canucks could ill afford to suffer poor play.

The Vancouver Canucks have a couple of things to be thankful for after tonight’s win over the Los Angeles Kings. Top of the list is that they’re thankful for the stellar play of Roberto Luongo, who had a brilliant glove save in the second period and stopped 32 of 33 shots, all while looking like the potential Team Canada netminder we all know he can be.

Contributions from their role players is another thing the Canucks faithful can be thankful for, as Tanner Glass has continued to quietly put together a strong season, notching his third goal of the year.

They’ve also got to be thankful for the end to a couple of streaks. Alex Burrows managed to break a 6 game goalless streak, bulging the twine in the first period and adding an assist.