I Watched This Game: Canucks at Avalanche, January 2, 2011

Canucks 2 - 1 Avalanche

With a gritty, hard-fought win against the Avalanche, the Canucks have won 5 straight, haven't lost in regulation in 12 games, and have the best goal differential in the NHL. And, oh yeah, they're first place in the entire NHL right now. Now, there are plenty of spoilsports out there who will complain that being first place in January is meaningless, or that no one cares about the President's Trophy, just the Stanley Cup. To them I say, "Boo! Boo! Boo!" I, for one, am a Canucks fan and I will take pleasure in the Canucks doing well, whether you like it or not.

I take pleasure in watching the Canucks win, and I watched this game:

• Alexandre Bolduc got his first NHL goal (above), added a particularly savvy assist, and finished a game-high +2, but let's not lose perspective. He still played only 5:52 in the game and didn't see a single shift after Paul Stastny narrowed the lead to one. That said, he made the most out of his limited time tonight. His heads up play on the odd bounce that led to Mason Raymond's goal was very nifty. I suspect he got a brief lecture on knowing where his teammates are on the ice after confessing in a 1st intermission interview that he had no idea where Glass was on the 2-on-1 that led to his goal.

• The scorekeeper for tonight's game was apparently feeling generous, as somehow Kevin Bieksa received an assist on Mason Raymond's goal despite about 5 different players, including a couple from the Avalanche, touching the puck between his last touch and the goal. Unless Bieksa's giant forehead gives him telekinetic powers, there's no way he should get an assist, although that would explain the bizarre bounce that puck took off the seamless glass.

• Unsurprisingly, Mason Raymond got the most ice-time for the fourth line as he saw some penalty killing duty and briefly skated 4-on-4 with Jeff Tambellini. He still played under 10 minutes in his return to the lineup, but it seemed clear that his hand wasn't impairing his shot, as he fired 3 on net including the snipe from the slot for the game-winning goal. Welcome back, Raymond, we missed you.

• While the fourth line did all the scoring, Roberto Luongo did all the saving. He was fantastic in net, making 31 and a half saves. He battled hard through traffic to make saves and didn't give up many rebounds, unless he clearly meant to, like when he sprung Glass and Bolduc with a great kick-save pass. Seriously, he got credited with an assist on that one. I honestly was not aware that they gave assists for giving up a rebound. That's like saying the wall in Shaolin Soccer was passing the ball to Mighty Steel Leg Sing.

• Ehrhoff and Edler were solid as a tandem. The duo played the most minutes for the Canucks and made nice plays at both ends of the rink. Ehrhoff was connecting well with his passes, had 3 shots on net, and was smart with his stickwork in the defensive end, getting credit for 2 takeaways. Edler was the more physical of the two and was credited with 3 hits, including this destruction of T.J. Galiardi. If that video doesn't work, try this one, it's a bit of a better angle.

• In a show of support for the Make it Seven campaign, the Avalanche played the dying moments of the game with 7 skaters on the ice. J.J. Guerrero from Canucks Hockey Blog has the picture to prove it. The refs were getting a fair amount of criticism from Canucks fans during this game and that gaffe won't help their case.

• For my part, I think it's just nice to see the Canucks winning in spite of the difference in powerplay time. The Canucks penalty kill was perfect at 5-for-5 and didn't even give up a single shot on net for the latter 3 powerplays. Lost in the hubbub of their record and powerplay has been the steady work of the penalty kill which jumped up to third in the league with their performance tonight. The Canucks are better at being shorthanded than Dr. Curt Connors.

• Despite not recording any points, the top three lines did not play particularly poorly. The Sedins had several shifts where they penned the Avalanche in with strong possession and the second line shifted the momentum several times with their speed. It was a solid shift by the third line that led to the possession on which Mason Raymond scored his goal. Part of the problem was all the penalties that prevented them from icing their normal lines for large chunks of the game. It's incredibly encouraging, however, to see the team pick up a win without any points from their top offensive contributors: balanced scoring is the key to playoff success.

• Part of the reason the normal offensive contributors didn't show up on the scoresheet tonight was faceoffs. Manny Malhotra was the only centre above 50% and even he had a relatively pedestrian 53%. It's troubling because the Avalanche are a sub-50% team on faceoffs. On the plus side, the Canucks were 5-for-8 on shorthanded draws, which aided their killing abilities like a golden gun.

• During the broadcast, Shorty promoted a Breakfast Television interview with Alison Sweeney, host of The Biggest Loser. Garrett: Alison Sweeney is on "Days of Our Lives." Do you watch that? Shorty: No.

• Mikael Samuelsson apparently had 5 shots on goal. Did you even notice him tonight? Because I didn't. Torres, on the other hand, was very noticeable, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. He took two very dumb penalties. You can criticize the officiating if you want, but the 4 minute difference in powerplay time can easily be pinned on Torres.

And on that critical note, congratulations to the Canucks for moving to the top of the NHL. Continue being awesome, boys.