Oh and three

Thoughts and Notes on the Canucks disaster of a season. I'll try to look at the positives, but it's going to be digging deep.

--- "This team is so good that last year's CHL player of the year couldn't even grab a roster spot" was the collective knowledge of a Vancouver sports fan before the Flames took a 3-0 lead on the Canucks. Now, it's straight up "this team sucks, and our top rookie sucks." But what I'm going to do is compare Cody Hodgson to Philly's James van Riemsdyk. You know, the kid who got drafted behind Patrick Kane and in front of Kyle Turris? That's the problem living in a NHL-crazy town. Nobody in hockey media every talks about van Riemsdyk, and the only reason we hear about Turris is because he's Canadian. Why is it that Philly's number two pick gets less pressure than Vancouver's number ten pick?

--- Somebody might have to remind Roberto Luongo how much money he's making to stop the puck. And another reminder that the season starts in October, not November. We can live with him not making the spectacular saves that we've grown accustomed to in his last three years, but the goals he let in against Columbus? Unacceptable. It reminds me of the episode of Friday Night Lights when Smash Williams needs to have a big game with a scout in town, but for some reason can't get it together. One problem: this is an impatient town, and unlike Dillon, Texas in FNL, it's real. What's Sportsnet's slogan? Hockey that matters? Luongo better realize that to these fans, it does matter.

--- To Mikael Samuelsson: Shooting from everywhere, at any time, whenever you get the chance, isn't going to fly when you're sporting a minus-4 rating. That sick save Steve Mason made on Samuelsson? Great save. Yeah. But Kesler's drop-pass that set it up actually brought Mason forward out of the net. If Samuelsson fakes that shot, he has a clear lane to a wide open cage, and what I think would have tied that game up. He's listed as having ten shots. That does not count the amount of missed nets and blocked shots he's unleashed. And above all else, those two categories of shots only lead to one thing: loss of possesson. News flash, watch the Sedins. This is a possession team.

--- While Willie Mitchell obviously has the ugliest slapper I've ever seen in all my year's of watching hockey, his goal against the BJ's was actually an impressive shot. Whether or not he was aiming to put it off the post and in is anyone's guess. But that's not the point. Mitchell is leading the Canucks in scoring. Probably something that should be changed.

--- Gotta admit, this is quite the town we live in. Maybe it's just me, but people, including myself, are really PO'd at this team. Who's gonna score our goals? Is Luongo going to be buried in the goalie graveyard? Did he not get over game 6 against Chicago? Is our Russian not as good as we thought he was? Will Hodgson ever be good enough? Relax. It's three games. I need to tell myself that every once in a while. But, if this gets to 0-5, 0-6, 0-7, we've got problems.