The Lost Art of Scoring First

It’s a lost art for the Canucks anyway.

The last time the Canucks scored first in a game was almost 3 weeks ago. The Olympic Torch was still making its way around the BC Rockies. L’affaire Auger/Burrows was still a hot topic and the Canucks were still boycotting the CBC. The Oilers were still a couple of games away from breaking their longest losing streak in franchise history. Conversely, the Senators were a couple of games away from breaking their franchise record for consecutive wins. Dion Phaneuf was still a Flame and Ilya Kovalchuk was still a Thrasher.

Well, you get the idea.

Maybe it’s (over)confidence in their newly-found offensive prowess – they currently sit 3rd in the league in goals per game – but for whatever reason, the Canucks have been spotting their opponents a goal or two or even three with regularity these days.

Amazingly, the Canucks are 4-3 in the last seven games, though obviously the 3 losses have come during the first five games of this 14-game road trip. Perhaps they were unlucky not to come out with wins in Montreal last Tuesday or in Tampa Bay last night, but they were also lucky to come back and win in Toronto and fortunate that Luongo stole them 2 points in Boston.

From Gordon McIntyre (Vancouver Province):

The Canucks have led all of two minutes, four seconds while falling to 2-3-0 on this eight-game road trip. That would be the final 2:04 of the opening game at Toronto — meaning they haven’t had a lead now for 245 minutes.

In this league, it’s tough enough to play with a lead. What about trying to play without one?