What a difference two weeks makes.
Two weeks ago, the Vancouver Canucks were bottom feeders in the Western Conference. Now, they’re a mere three points out of a share for the division lead with a game in hand on the Minnesota Wild who have 24 points.
A shellacking of the Nashville Predators and losing Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo ironically was what the doctor ordered. All of a sudden, Markus Naslund is clicking on all cylinders with the Sedins, the trio of Ryan Kesler, Brad Isbister and Taylor Pyatt are making magic and Willie Mitchell of all people is scoring goals. How could this happen in such a short period of time? Two weeks ago, fans were talking rebuild and trade Naslund. Now, they worship Naslund.
Such is life in the new NHL.
Look closely at the standings and you’ll see that while the Canucks are three points out of the division lead, they’re only six back of last place in the West. Five points separate teams #2 through #11 and, while it’s still only a quarter way through the season, the Canucks still have plenty of work to do with 63 games left in the 82-game schedule. As the month of October has showed, the Canucks are a slide away from reverting back to a poor team but a winning roll away from being Conference leaders.
And as the eight game Northwest series comes to a close this week, the Canucks have their work cut out for them with some serious tests against the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, two teams who have substantially improved over last season. After that they’ll square off against the defending champs in Anaheim and the troublesome Blue Jackets two nights later. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Canucks and it’s up to them to keep up this pace against non-NW foes.
Just pretend like they’re from Calgary and they’ll do fine.
