It's Christmas Eve and I'm with my wife's family in Redmond, WA. "Die Hard 2" has been watched, stockings have been stuffed, and the cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning's breakfast are in progress right now. As for me, I'm left to ponder the Canucks Christmas gift to their fans, a marvelous 7-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets that featured arguably the first example of true Sedin dominance this season. What is truly astonishing is that it came in a game where they played just over 15 minutes each.With that performance, the Sedins put themselves fourth in the league with 43 points each. Henrik is first in the league in assists with 35 and Daniel is fourth in the league in goals with 18. Against all odds, the Sedins have been able to continue the elite level of play they established last season.
On top of that, Ryan Kesler is immediately behind Daniel in goals, with 17. Kesler is playing some of the best hockey of his life going into the Christmas break with 13 points in his last 8 games and is seventh in the league in faceoff percentage at 59 percent. The only Canuck ahead of Kesler in faceoff percentage is Manny Malhotra, who sits at second in the league at 62.8%. Even Henrik Sedin is in the top 30 at 53.9%.
As a team, the Canucks are leading the NHL in faceoff percentage by a wide margin. They're at 57.2%, with the second-place Sharks at 53.6%. Sometimes those percentages don't always illustrate the Canucks' dominance effectively. To put it another way, the Canucks have won 1141 faceoffs and lost 854. On a game-to-game basis, that comes out to 35 wins to 26 losses, 9 more faceoff wins per game. That's huge.
The Canucks have lost only one game in regulation out of the last 13, with a record of 10-1-2. They lead the Western Conference in goal differential at +26. A big reason for that is their special teams: the powerplay is back to first in the league at 24.4% and the penalty kill is fifth at 85.5%. And after a rough start this season at even-strength, the Canucks are tied for 6th with Detroit for team +/-. Every single aspect of the Canucks' game is clicking and the Canucks have firmly established themselves as one of the elite teams in the NHL, with a 20-8-5 record. They lead the Western Conference in point percentage, getting 45 points out of a possible 66.
Basically, it's a good time to be a Canucks fan. Merry Christmas, Canucks fans. And while all the wonderful statistics above are surely present enough for our wonderful Bulies, make sure to read these two Christmas-themed posts if you missed them:
Holiday Gift Ideas for the Vancouver Canucks on Your List
Daniel's Worst Christmas - An Original Holiday Tale
Yes tis a great time to be a Canuck fan, A team that can compete night in night out that is all I ask.
ReplyDeleteAs for PITB, Thank you for all your hard work on the blog I have enjoyed it immensely. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
right you are ken
Merry Christmas, PITB. Enjoy your holidays.
ReplyDeleteIf the fans could just be as zen-like as the Canucks themselves and stop pressing the panic button every time the team loses, all would be right in this world. (same goes to Montreal to minimize the number of riots)
ReplyDeleteThank you PitB for all the awesome updates -- your blog is so good it has become my no.1 go-to site while I've been away from all the Canucks goodness in Hong Kong. Can't wait to come home in a couple days.
Merry Christmas guys and happy holidays!
- Simon.
Merry Christmas to all the Canucks fans and of course especially to PitB.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoy reading your blog since I discovered it at the beginning of this year when doing a bit of reasearch about the team Christian Ehrhoff went to. Being from Germany and not too familiar with Hockey and the Canucks the "Bandwagon Canucks Fan Cheat Sheet" was the ultimate source to get to know the team, hehe.
Anyways keep up the good work. I've not only become a fan of the sports (and now not only follow the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk in the NBA) and the Canucks but a great fan of your work.
Thanks for the holiday wishes, you guys. It means a lot!
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome to hear from Canucks fans in other countries. We are humbled to have become the go-to source for the Canucks for you guys. We seriously appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteAnother stat: Canucks are tied with Philly for the fewest regulation losses in the NHL with 8. Both the Canucks and the Flyers have only 5 OT losses as well, meaning both teams have only lost 21 points out of the games they've played.
ReplyDeleteTo put those 21 points in perspective, the league-leading Penguins have already lost 22 points, as have the Red Wings, and the Dallas Stars have lost 24. The Sharks have lost 27, the Capitals have lost 29, the Blackhawks have lost 31, and the Devils have lost 48. That really puts their poor position into perspective.