A Regular Season to Remember

Photo credit: canucks.nhl.com

Despite their inconsistent play in the last couple of weeks, it’s hard to deny that the 2009/2010 Vancouver Canucks had a regular season to remember.

The Canucks won 49 games, tying the franchise record set by the 2006/2007 edition. Their 30 home wins is a franchise record.

They scored 268 goals, 2nd in the NHL only to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. It’s their highest goal total since their first season at GM Place.

They ranked 3rd in win percentage (.795) in games in which they scored first; they also led the league with 11 wins after trailing in the third period.

Individually, several players also had career years.

Henrik Sedin finished with a career-high 29 goals, a career-high 83 assists, and a career-high 112 points. His 83 assists bettered his own previous franchise record of 71 assists in one season set in 2006-2007. He passed Trevor Linden for the franchise record in assists in a Canucks uniform (434). He also passed Thomas Gradin and became the highest-scoring center in Canucks history (572).

Henrik’s 112 points broke Pavel Bure’s franchise record of 110 points in one season set in 1992-1993. To put this into perspective, only Joe Thornton, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin have scored at least 112 points in one season in the last ten years. Most importantly, he is the Canucks’ first Art Ross Trophy winner in the team’s 40-year history.

Despite missing 19 games, Daniel Sedin still recorded 29 goals and 85 points; his 85 points are a career-high. He also finished with a plus-36 rating – a franchise record he now shares with Christian Ehrhoff.

Ryan Kesler turned into a legitimate top-six forward and set career-highs in assists (50), points (75), powerplay goals (12) and powerplay assists (14). All this while facing opposing teams’ top lines most nights.

In his first full season playing with the Sedins, Alex Burrows set career-highs in goals (35), assists (32), points (67), plus-minus (+34), powerplay goals (4), powerplay assists (2) and shorthanded goals (5).

In his first season with the Canucks, Mikael Samuelsson hit the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career and scored a career-high 53 points.

Christian Ehrhoff, also playing his first season with the team, set career-highs in goals (14), points (44) and plus-minus (+36).

Mason Raymond more than doubled his previous career-bests in goals (25), assists (28) and points (53). His 8 powerplay goals and 10 powerplay assists are career-highs as well.

Alex Edler set career-highs in assists (37) and points (42). Ditto Jannik Hansen in goals (9, including 3 GWG), and Rick Rypien in goals (4), assists (4), points (8) and penalty minutes (126).

There’s no doubt it’s been a good year – a year for the record books for sure – and we’ll celebrate it for a few days.

At least until the postseason starts.