Fan In Van

The Real Reason…

…Why the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators on Thursday night:

1. They had Luc Bourdon in their lineup. Believe it or not, with Luc the Duke on their blueline, the Vancouver Canucks are a surprising 11-3-4. Now, it could be the air guitar moves he pulled at the Canucks’ Dice and Ice Charity event a few weeks back, but there’s no denying that Bourdon is their newest four-leaf clover.

2. They were missing someone from their top six blueline. So let me get this straight: For the first time since October, the Vancouver Canucks had ALL six of their top defencemen in the lineup (We can nix Krajicek for Edler at this point) with Ohlund, Salo, Mitchell, Bieksa, Miller and Edler. In all four of the games the Canucks played with their healthy defence, they were 0-2-2. And suddenly Mattias Ohlund goes down and they win a critical game? Something’s up.

3. Byron Ritchie misses all four of the Canuck losses with back spasms, returns, and they win? There’s got to be some form of destiny here…

4. A more obvious reason, Mason Raymond came into the lineup after being a healthy scratch and dominated the Predators’ defence with a great second-effort goal. I doubt Raymond will be seeing any more from the press box…

5. The Vancouver Canucks need to hold a charity telethon every game night. When they find out for every goal they score someone will pay $1500, they finally bring out their axes to chop the opponents’ defence down to size.

On a lighter note, it appears Brendan Morrison could be drawing back into the lineup very soon, possibly by Saturday’s must-win game against the Blues. I never thought I’d say this, but the Vancouver Canucks desperately need a capable second-line centre and Morrison fills the void which has been filled with Jason Jaffray, Byron Ritchie and Ryan Kesler. And let’s be honest; no offense to any of the second-line replacements, but Morrison represents a bit more scoring threat and more experience in a scoring role. I will be very happy when Brendan Morrison returns to this lineup.

Like they say, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…