Over The Last 10 – My Canucks 3 Stars

First things first….

Good bye Roberto Luongo…

Over the last 10 games (excuse me for being a game late and a dollar short), the Vancouver Canucks found themselves to be 2-7-1 (if you want to be picky we can throw in another L from Sunday afternoon and bring that middle column to a nice round 8).

Either way you look at it, being a fan of the local NHL franchise has been something hard to swallow over the past five or so weeks.

Thankfully the Olympic break came in just in time to save us all.

The thing about it all is, in reality the Canucks are pretty much were they should be. Anyone thinking that they should be higher in the standings may have had too many rides on the zamboni.

With the trade deadline mere hours away, the roster makeup of this franchise could see a huge change, one that hopefully, though doubtfully will tell what the future has in store for the club (and possibly the remaining pieces of this article series). Understandably the losses to Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Montreal are something that folks around town are able to deal with considering that they are better teams.

However dropping L’s to Phoenix, Winnipeg and Toronto are completely unacceptable.

Considering that the Canucks scored only one more goal in the month of February than they did in a 5-4 OT victory over the Coyotes, the selections for the three stars are pretty slim pickings, but with that said, lets see what we have on tap for this edition.

1ST STAR – Chris Higgins (3g, 4a, 7p):

The second, or third line right winger has been a great utility man for Torts this season.

He’s been decent eh?

While there is a decent chance that over the course of the remaining twenty games, Higgins will notch another ten points and exceed his Canucks season high, he has been one of the few shining lights since the end of January.

Tallying his only three point night to date this season on January 26th, he, unlike many of his teammates have not hit a lengthy scoring funk, going only two games over the last ten without a point.

2ND STAR – Jason Garrison (2g, 2a, 4p):

The White Rock native has been one of the constants along the blue line this season. Despite averaging less time on the ice than Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis or Alex Edler, Garrison has proved to be a solid defender and offensive contributor from the point.

Another plus for Garrison is (knock on wood) the fact that he has been the only Canucks blueliner to appear in every game on the schedule.

3RD STAR – THE FANS:

This is the second time that the ones that truly pay the bills appear on the list of 3 stars.

While some may say that this is a cop out, the reality is when the team goes 2-7-1 and is hanging onto a playoff spot by less than a thread, the fact is the team needs to be grateful that nearly 20,000 people continue to pass through the gates of Rogers Arena, flip on CBC, Sportsnet or TSN and listen to Team 1040 on a game day basis.

It is also something to note that The Fans have climbed into a tie for third place on the overall 3 Star rankings.