The Canucks return to the ice following the Christmas break and take on Alberta rivals the Edmonton Oilers.
The Canucks sit with 44 points with a record of 21-12-2 while the Oilers have a record of 15-16-3 for 33 points and are in 13th place in the Western Conference.
The highlight for the Oilers is the addition of Burnaby native Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who played his first career NHL game and also scored his first NHL goal October 9th against Pittsburgh.
He is the fastest Edmonton Rookie to record a hat-trick and was also named Rookie of the month for October and November (16 points in Nov.) and is only one of three Oilers managing this feat.
October is not a kind month for the Canucks, but they manage to turn things around in an impressive fashion.
While the Canucks take to the ice tonight, so does Henrik Sedin who is playing in his 535th game and is also the franchise leader for most consecutive games played.
The previous record was held by Port Moody’s Brendan Morrison who held the record from March 16th to December 10th, 2011.
Tonight’s game see’s three officials from BC working and all have graduated from the officiating program in BC.
The three (in no particular order are) Kelly Sutherland, Jay Sharrers and Lonnie Cameron. Show’s how productive the program is in BC.
Hockey insiders knew this game would be rough and aggressive from the start and it had the tempo of being physical and it never disappointed anyone.
Luongo is sporting a new mask which is a “take-off” of” of the Curt Ridley mask he wore when he was with the Canucks from the 1975-76 season till he was traded to Toronto in the 1979-80 season.
The November 23rd game saw Alain Vigneault become the winningest Coach in Canucks franchise history.
His 247th win in his 431st game surpassed Marc Crawford’s 246 wins in 529 games. He does get the most out of his players!
The winner in the 50-50 would take on home $39,600 tax free. How do you say Merry Christmas?
Through two periods the Canucks had six penalties while the Oilers had five. One to the Canucks was a Major plus a Game Misconduct to Weise for Charging. You can question the call, but if you saw the play, it was indeed a Major.
The Canucks pull out a win with a 5-3 victory and now move into first place in the Northwest Division, which helps them build any confidence moving towards 2012.
The Canucks ended up with nine penalties while the Oilers finished with six. Final shot total saw the Canucks manage 26 allowing the Oilers to have 21
Next Canuck home game is against San Jose on January 2nd at 5 pm.
Game Stars were:
1st A. Burrows
2nd J. Eberle
3rd R. Kesler
