The Canucks' month-in-review and top five goals of December (video)

With 10 points in 11 games, Daniel led all Canucks in scoring this December.

Bless those Canucks for keeping it interesting. Never mind Thursday night's all-too-familiar victimization at the hands of Los Angles. December's back-and-forth 5-4-2 record is a microcosm for everything Canucks fans are wondering about their team right now. The Canucks have dropped in the standings and now that expectations have levelled out in kind, it's been hard to get a proper read on the team mid-season.

On one hand, you have a team that can appropriately dismantle bottom-rung teams like the Arizona Coyotes -- complete with a rousing swan song from Tom "skill-is-overrated" Sestito. The same team that can register a gutsy 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks on the back of Ryan Miller.

On the other hand, there's the Canucks we've seen this past month that can't time a pinch from any defenceman to save their lives. The same Canucks that gave up a 3-0 lead to the 23rd-place Ottawa Senators. And yes, the most-recent iteration of the Canucks that have been outshot a well-documented 103-51 in their last three games.

But hey. It's the holidays. So while the Canucks' YouTube channel gave you three minutes of feel-good Christmas banter and Luca Sbisa adorably cuddling a BC SPCA kitten, Bure's Triple Deke is here to give you the team's top five goals from the past month.

Vancouver Canucks Top 5 Goals of the Month | November 2014

One of these months I'll actually post these videos in a timely manner. But nonetheless, the Canucks are another month and change into this blissfully surprising season and much like the first month-in-review, this past November was well worth documenting.

Going 9-4-1, the Canucks continued to duke it out with Team Giordano over in Calgary for surprise team of the year. And while the quick start of the first two lines, catalyzed by Vrbata and Bonino, was the story of October, the emergence of the team's bottom six have allowed Willie Desjardins to make good on his promise to roll all four units. It's one thing to do it, but with literally all six current members of the bottom two lines on a 30-plus-point pace, the Canucks have never looked so good in the process.

It makes sense then that in this November's edition of the Top 5 Goals of the Month, all four lines are well-represented. From Hank and Dank's continued dominance in overtime to Bo Horvat's first NHL goal, this one's full of talent, grit and sweet, sweet career milestones:

Derek Roy and the Canucks' March in review [with top five plays of the month]

As seemingly always, the Canucks have been a team of many faces this season – as capable of a six-game win streak as they are of losing to the worst team in their conference.  A 3-4-2 start to the month of March meant losing their divisional cushion on the Minnesota Wild.  Consequently, even an 6-1-0 run to finish the team's busiest month of the campaign (16 games in 28 days) wasn't enough to regain their lead atop the Northwest.  But that has as much to do with the Canucks' early-month struggles as it does Zach Parise and Ryan Suter finally paying dividends for the Wild.  Time will only tell how the respective Sabre-fying (yes, that's a word now) of either team will tip the Northwest scales.

While Derek Roy's capacity to jump start this team into consistency remains to be seen, one can imagine that the mere presence of a healthy, veteran centre in the lineup will do wonders in relieving pressure off the Sedins.  Taking nothing away from the trio of Jannik Hansen, Jordan Schroeder and Mason Raymond – easily the Canucks' most successful second line combination thus far in 2013 – Henrik and Daniel's best years have very neatly corresponded with the legitimate distraction that Ryan Kesler's 70-point pace represented.

Needless to say, a player like Roy has been sorely needed in Kesler's absence, but credit is nonetheless due to several from the supporting cast for filling in the secondary scoring quotient.  Among the most deserving has undoubtedly been Hansen, whose March exploits were summarized in BTD's previous article.  It takes a lot for a Canuck to outscore either of the Sedins, but for a nine-game stretch in which Hansen recorded two goals and five assists, he nearly outscored the two of them combined.  And over the entire 16-game March schedule, his 12 points were second only to Henrik's 13.

But what his aforementioned linemates have lacked in sheer will-power and overall production (Schroeder and Raymond had 4- and 9-point efforts in March), they have made up in far more BTD-friendly dangles and spin-o-ramas.  As such, Hansen's fellow speedsters are featured rather prominently in the latest installment of the top five plays of the month.  Honey Badger may often get what he wants these days, but apparently not if it involves any sort of highlight reel dangle.

See the top five plays of the month for March 2013 below.

Honey Badger weaseling Canucks into the win column

Hansen most likely staring down a pot of honey.

With a pair of 1-0 shutout wins in the Canucks' past three games, buzz words like "the intangibles" and "workmanlike effort" have abounded.  To be fair, the Columbus Blue Jackets' 2.15 goals per game ranks last in the league.  The Los Angeles Kings, however, are seventh in that regard (2.88) and were held to just 20 shots on Saturday.  During that game, Jannik Hansen had an assist and two of the Canucks' 13 shots on goal.

It should come as no surprise then, that the Canucks' workmanlike prototype has been leading the way for the past month with 12 points in March.  The Danish winger of uniquely-pitched fame has enjoyed a much-publicized surge in production this year.  If you had been told in January that the third-line staple would be the Canucks' highest-scoring non-Sedin thirty-three games in, you might have imagined that Burrows, Raymond, Higgins, Edler and probably even Bieksa had all joined Kesler and Booth on the injured reseve.  But with 8 goals and 11 assists, Hansen sits third in team scoring at a pace that would see him approach 50 points over an 82-game season.

The Canucks' February round-up [with top five plays of the month]

My, how a month can change.  The Canucks began February with a six-game winning streak (with one carried over from January), propelling them to nearly the top of the Western Conference.  Then they played Dallas on the 15th and the team went 2-4-2 to finish the month.  It's as if nobody got what they wanted for Valentine's Day and they spent the rest of February moping about it.

Meanwhile, Ryan Kesler's much-anticipated return was supposed to put Vancouver over the edge.  Dare we say Chicago territory?  But that hero's welcome was tempered in threefold.  First, his return seemed to have required the end of Malhotra's career (plug BTD video here).  And rather than bolstering the lineup, the Canucks turned into a .500 team with their number-two centre.  Finally, by the end of the month, he was back on the IR with a broken foot.  So it goes.

If after these past few games then, you need to go to a place where, like Howard Campbell's tombstone, everything was beautiful and nothing hurt, I've got just the thing.  The Canucks' top five plays of the month:

The NHL and Pride Rock: A summary of locked out Canucks in Europe

NHL circles have been abuzz for the past couple of days as the league's highest-profile players competing abroad have either already returned to North America or are planning to do so shortly.  Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza promptly ended their European tours following Canada's Spengler Cup triumph, while Cory Schneider and Matt Duchene have put their team on notice. 

If the NHL were the Lion King, this would be that opening scene where all the animals are flocking to Pride Rock.  In anticipation of something big.  You know... Ahhhh-sabenyaaaa...

Anyways, the implication is clear.  NHL play is nigh.  So with the expectant return of Canucks players competing overseas, their performances abroad can now be guaged with some sense of finality.  Because we can still only speculate the lockout's end, this may, in fact, be jumping the gun, but hakuna matata right?

Not including Mason Raymond, who hasn't yet played for his new Swedish team, the Canucks have had six players compete in Europe.  In order of their signing, they are Nicklas Jensen, Dale Weise, Jannik Hansen and Cory Schneider.  Just in case you haven't been among the more compulsive of us, checking up on our displaced heroes game-by-game, here's what they've been up to all this time:

Nicklas Jensen; AIK (Elitserien)

32 GP, 12 G, 4 A, 16 Pts, 16 PIM

It was asserted early on that the Canucks' youngest Dane is remaining in Sweden regardless of the lockout.  For developmental purposes, it's not the worst idea, but you have to imagine that team brass have to at least be reconsidering the notion several months later.  Jensen quickly took Sweden by storm, scoring eight goals in his first 15 games with AIK.  While his pace has slowed considerably, his 12 goals still accounts for nearly one-sixth of his team's total (AIK sits third-last in Sweden).  The fact that he is also tied for sixth in league goal-scoring as a 19-year-old tells you that he might just be the Canucks' surest thing since Hodgson (yes, I said the H-word). Case in point, 2:25 of this video.

If he's made available for international play, look for him to dominate for Denmark at their Olympic qualifying tournament against such competition as Slovenia and Ukraine in February.

Dale Weise; Tilburg Trappers (Eredivisie)
18 GP, 22 G, 24 A, 46 Pts, 77 PIM

The first Canucks roster player to sign abroad, Weise sent blogs and discussion boards in a tizzy after scoring eight points in his first two games.  The whole tough-guy-turned-Dutch-superstar schtick really was too good to pass up for the few legitimate outlets actually covering his stint with Tilburg.  In reference to having chosen number 88 (his birth year) with Tilburg, Pass it to Bulis declared him "the Eric Lindros of Holland".

For as much comedic relief as Weise's wild success provided, however, some bona fide credit is due to the fourth-liner.  When he first signed, it appeared anyone could have really cared less.  Ultimately, he made people back home actually notice a marginal player competing abroad by leading the league in scoring.  Someone tell Gillis to sign linemate Josh Prudden, pronto! 

But what I really wanna know is what on earth happened when he got 30 penalty minutes for "abuse of officials" last week?

Jannik Hansen; Tappara Tampere (SM-liiga)
18 GP, 6 G, 10 A, 16 Pts, 39 PIM

Not long after the Dutch Lindros signed in Europe, Hansen followed suit.  After collecting a season-high three points in his debut with Tappara on November 1, the Danish winger has been steadily producing at nearly a point-a-game pace.  To put that into context, fellow NHLers Valtteri Filppula, Jussi Jokinen and Mikko Koivu – all of whom enjoy a far higher profile than Hansen – are scoring at similar rates in the competitive SM-liiga.

Currently on a five-game point streak, Hansen was even moved to centre recently after 17-year-old Aleksander Barkov left for the World Juniors.  Looks like the Canucks can end that search for a third-line centre... 'm I right?

Cory Schneider; HC Ambri-Piotta (National League A)
8 GP; 4 W, 4 L, 3.22 GAA, .913 Sv%

While rivals Boston and Chicago had Bergeron, Seguin and Patrick Kane competing in Switzerland early in the season, the Canucks lacked a legitimate star to follow abroad.  Enter Cory Schneider and the dual citizenship unbeknownst to nearly anyone.

In Weise's case, nobody anticipated cared if he would dominate the Dutch league, whereas that was the exact expectation for Schneider in Switzerland.  The only problem was, quite simply, Ambri-Piotta.  Schneider's new team was (and still is) second-last in the league, a fact that is clearly reflected in the netminder's statline.  Despite a respectable .913 save percentage (including four 40-save performances), his GAA is sky-high at 3.22. 

Nonetheless, when he wasn't getting danced by Kane in shootouts, Schneider was lifting his team into respectability.  In eight games, Schneider is .500; by comparison, Ambri-Piotta was 7-19 previously.  Having Matt Duchene defect from Sweden shortly after Schneider's debut certainly didn't hurt either.

Outside of league play, Schneider was also lent out to HC Fribourg-Gotteron for the always bizarrely-formatted Spengler Cup.  Splitting starts with Benjamin Conz (of 2010 World Junior fame), he went 0-2.  After allowing two goals on 17 shots to HC Vitkovice Steel in group play, he was lit up by Duchene and the Team Canada juggernaut in the semifinals.

Hopefully it won't be too long before Schneider has a team to match his calibre playing in front of him.  So here's to Schneids exacting revenge on Kane in NHL play.  And to Weise continuing his 2.5 points-per-game pace with the Canucks.

Vancouver needs its Dutch Lindros.

-HC

Henrik's top five assists from 2011-12

UPDATE: Rather than watch all the plays individually via the links below, I've uploaded a YouTube video with all five plays in one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYiZbDSeml4

To supplement and, I suppose, support my previous article, I took the unnecessary invaluable liberty of sifting through all 67 of Henrik Sedin's assists from the 2011-12 season.  The result?  Five of the best assists you have (or haven't) seen all year.  Ready?  Ok.

Number Five
Nov. 16, 2011; vs. Chicago – 2-on-1 to Hansen
Standard issue 2-on-1 saucer pass.  Sadly, this went on to become another blowout loss in Chicago (the undisputed worst kind of blowout loss).

Number Four
Oct. 25, 2011; vs. Edmonton – Backhand drop to Burrows
If not for the slow motion replay, you really have to be paying attention on this one.  Henrik's pass is that quick in relation to the flow of play.  After Salo's shot rebounds to Henrik, for whatever reason, Khabibulin assumes Henrik's not gonna drop a no-look pass to Burrows at the last second.  The goal brought the Canucks within one in the third period, but they ended up losing this one too.

Number Three
Nov. 6, 2011; vs. Chicago – Cross-ice to Daniel
A powerplay goal from the first half of the season (as if such a goal existed in the second half).  Again, Henrik ends up with the puck off a rebound and Crawford plays the shot.  Silly goalie, Trix are for kids.  Henrik throws it the width of the ice with Crawford swimming.  6-2 win for Vancouver.

Number Two
Dec. 1, 2011; vs. Nashville – Half spin-o-rama to Burrows
Off – what else – the cycle, Henrik skates out from behind the net to challenge Preds D Jack Hillen.  Who?  Exactly.  Burrows redirects it past Rinne.  6-5 shootout loss.

Number One
April 4, 2012; vs. Anaheim – wtf...to Burrows
Inside-out-How's-she-doin-behind-the-back-spin-o-rama-goodness.  Mind you, the whole thing is moot if not for Burrows' equally impressive shot, but this is just silliness from Henrik.  An uncontested number one, in my opinion.


Here's to five even better feeds from Hank in 2012-13...

-HC

*See the discussion regarding this post on the Canucks.com forum here.