There are three things which the Canucks should be looking at, all of which are of varying importance and had an impact on tonight’s loss.

The first, clearly, obviously, is the penalty kill. Allowing three straight goals on essentially the same plays is problematic, regardless of this the preseason, regular season or postseason. More worrying is the fact that the bulk of these goals came with the Canucks top penalty killing unit out on the ice. People can start pining for Ryan Johnson all they want, but the problems transcend any sort of contribution he could be making on the penalty kill. Kesler and Burrows are supposedly the Canucks best guys on the penalty kill and they were on the ice for 2 goals against, Burrows was on for 3.

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!

What a fascinating game, today’s matinee affair was.

Partially because I’ve been high on cold medication all day and it took me a while to gather my thoughts, but also because this was pretty much the reverse instance of what went down with the Montreal game. The Canucks had a rather poor start (which saw the first goal being scored by the opposing team and which saw yet another early penalty leading to said goal) but were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to an absolutely stellar effort from Roberto Luongo, who responded well after being sat Thursday in Ottawa.

Another horribly late postscript. I apologize. My move from Toronto to Calgary has drained the hell out of me so I’m just getting things sorted out. I basically passed out after the game last night and had to run around doing errands today, hence the superlate post. I’m hoping things will be totally sorted come Saturday. We’ll see…

Lots to talk about this week, both on ice and off. Olympic nominations! The World Juniors! Off-ice shenanigans! Oh yes, and the Canucks also played a couple of games as well. While everyone was out celebrating Christmas and Festivus, I was staying on top of things in Canuckland. Here’s what you need to know about the Week That Was.

So we’re officially at the midway point of the season. We have a relatively solid understanding on how things look right now in the NHL. For the Canucks, things are looking good, as they’re starting to carve out a playoff berth and are playing some great hockey. It’s a good time to do some evaluating of talent, which is what this post is about.

Today marked the announcement of America’s men’s hockey roster and as expected, Ryan Kesler was named to the squad, making it the first time he’ll be representing his nation at the Olympic level.

That by itself is a major accomplishment and is something Ryan Kesler can take pride in. I would suggest, though, that Kesler’s Olympic nomination provides a great opportunity for the 25 year old. Namely, that he has a great chance to capture the attention of the collective hockey media, a group that rarely has all of its attention focused on the west coast, nevermind Vancouver proper.

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!

Playoff drama in December. Consistency was the big thing going into today’s game. There’s been much noise made regarding the Canucks being weak in the second period, I’ve written about how the Canucks need to be getting their special teams sorted out and Mike Gillis sounded off earlier in the week.

Looking back, you could probably say that that there were a lot of odds stacked against the Canucks winning in Raleigh.

There was the fact that it was a criminally early start, part of Gary Bettman’s efforts to forcefeed the NHL to markets that are less than interested in watching the game, sometimes at the fans expense.

There was Alain Vigneault’s decision to start Andrew Raycroft in lieu of Roberto Luongo, who had looked great in back to back starts against the Devils and Flyers. Given how crazy the Canucks schedule will be coming up, you can’t necessarily blame Vigenault for wanting to give Luongo an afternoon off.

Normally, I’d be happy with back to back wins with the Canucks. Especially when the Canucks outscored their opponents 11-4. However, sloppy play has been a concern as of late. Now, I’m not trying to dip into eternal pessimist territory (Tony Gallagher and Dan Russell have that position on lockdown), but the Canucks inability to play a consistent 60 minutes should be worrisome, particulary with big games against the Sharks, Devils and Flyers coming up.

Basically, when you have a mostly healthy team going up 4-0 against the Edmonton Oilers, a team that played the night before and has been ravaged by the injury bug, there’s no reason why you should be letting that team get back into the game.