Band Wagon Jumpers Return

Tonight’s game might be the last regular season home game for 2010-11, but we know there is more to come.

While the Canucks rolled over Minny to a 5-0 victory, two significant things took place on this date in history.

First – dating back to 1974,

Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run and broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing career record and second for the rock-n-roll fans in 1994,

Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain (27) was found dead in his Seattle home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

While no real records were broken on this night, it did manage to get the band-wagon jumpers back on the wagon.

With play-offs less than a week away, the President’s men have rebounded from two straight losses, both to the Oilers. The whiners call it a slump, but those who understand the game call it “re-tooling”.

This is the final meeting of the season between these two clubs and currently the Canucks are 3-2-0 against the Wild and 16-4-2 against the Northwest Division this season.

Talent is something that the Canucks have seemed to have a hold on.

Having a goal and an assist on March 31^st against the Kings, Daniel became only the 10^th Swedish born player to reach 100 points in a single season.

Henrik (2009-10) and Peter Forsberg (2002-03) are the only Swedish born NHL players to have been awarded the Art Ross Trophy in consecutive seasons.

The home season comes to an end in front of a sell-out and this victory proves that the team can play like a team that wants to go deep in the play-offs.

The day started out with the Canucks brass hearing about the four game suspension to Raffi Torres for what many might call a questionable suspension, but it’s a league decision and they won’t change it.

They are obviously trying to get the cheap head shots out of the game and I guess they put this in the same category as a Matt Cooke hit.
While the team played as a unit and were back-stopped by Luongo (who played stellar) two players figured in on all five goals.

The first goal came off the stick of Mason Raymond at 8:12 which was followed by the second of the period on the PP by Ryan Kesler at 19:32.

The first ended with the Canucks up by a 2 zip score, but it wasn’t over just yet.  Kesler got his second at 7:20 of the 2^nd unassisted and a short 1:51 later Raymond got his second of the game at 9:11.

They took a 4-0 lead to the dressing room and never looked back.

With the crowd wanting more, Kesler did his magic and got his third of the contest.

It was a bullet from about 30 feet out beating Jose Theodore high over the glove. Hat’s galore and from the look on his face, he was like a kid who scored the winning goal in the final game at the Pee Wee Winter Carnival Tournament in Quebec. All smiles!!

While some might question the ability of Niklas Backstrom, Head Coach Todd Richards of the Wild told me “he has been solid all year long, and it’s been a long season for everyone.

Disappointed – not really, it’s just another game”. While the Canucks have won back the “jumpers” the overall shots had them outshoot Minny by a narrow margin of 29-28.

Three Stars in the contest were:

3^rd Star – Mason Raymond
2^nd Star – Roberto Luongo
1^st Star – Ryan Kesler

Play-off should start April 14^th and the Canucks have home ice.
Can’t wait!!!!!