Yeah, I’m skipping the Islanders game. Don’t worry, I have a blog post forthcoming on that game! Chronological order? What’s that?

I know, I’m late. Furthermore, I’m like two weeks behind with the Week That Was. Unfortunately, paid work trumps unpaid work.

I’m going to do a 2 in 1, sort of, for this, considering I missed blogging the Sens game as well. (That sound you hear? Google Analytics dying of crib death…) I thought this was probably one of the best games, top to bottom, from the Canucks in a long time. Kevin Bieksa looked good coming back in his first game since his calf was sliced and diced, Luongo was in fine form and just about everyone was doing their job. Even guys like Ryan Johnson.

So I’ve made mention in a couple of other blog posts that I was going to be doing up a piece talking about the Canucks bottom six. And why not? There’s been a lot of talk lately about certain members of the Canucks third and fourth liners, most of it laced with profanities.

Steve Bernier needs to be shipped out of town, Kyle Wellwood should be benched and so on and so forth. While I’m not in disagreement that the bottom six players are bad, I would argue that there are reasons why our bottom six hasn’t really been performing all that well that extend beyond ’such and such player sucks.’

At least that’s what I’m hoping to get across here.

So the road trip goes on. Despite some late game heroics and a lucky double minor in the latter half of the third period, the Canucks were unable to come from behind yet again against the Montreal Canadiens. Or should I say the Canucks could not find a way to solve Jaroslav Halak and subsequently are STILL without a win in February.

This was sort of a lazy week for me (and presumably most of you folks out there!) There was Christmas, naturally, but also travel concerns cramping my style and making it so that I couldn’t write as much as I wanted to. No plugs and also a condensed look at the Canucks. A little heavier on commentary than straight up news. I’ll try to balance it out for next week.

Or, The Assassination of Darcy Hordichuk by the Coward Trevor Presiloski

Alright, this is sort of an extension from my postscript on Wednesday, where I talked about the problems that are going on in the Canucks bottom six. Kyle Wellwood has been catching a lot of flak from people as of late as his offensive production so far this year has ranged from miniscule to dreadful. Just as Wellwood’s waistband has been shrinking, so too have his numbers on the scoresheet. Some fans have called for his being waived or bought out, as we simply must have him off the roster post-haste. Others have been content to let him stew up in the pressbox, letting him have a couch potato’s seat for his couch potato efforts.

But are ALL of these criticisms fully deserved? Is Wellwood truly as bad as everyone is making him out to be, or are people getting caught on the lack of offensive numbers and roasting him on a spit as a result? I don’t think so, as even without Wellwood’s offensive contributions, he actually improves the team and gives them a better shot at winning when he is in the lineup. So, here comes the analysis!

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.