Give the Sharks a pile of credit.  They have been a different club since the trade deadline and they’ve carried that over into the playoffs where they are on cruise control.

For the Canucks it’s been a combination of poor play and unlucky bounces that have them with their backs against the wall.  If history tells us anything it’s the Canucks chances of seeing round two of the playoffs are slim to none and slim just walked out the door.

Only three clubs have ever come back from being down 3-0 and gone on to win the series in the NHL.  The last club to do so was the Philadelphia Flyers when they stormed back on the Boston Bruins in 2010.  Will the Canucks join that elusive company?  I’m not placing my next pay check on them to do so.

You can argue that the Canucks should have won game two in which they had the lead part way through the third period.  A Patrick Marleau goal with under a minute left to play sent the game to overtime and former Canuck Raffi Torres silenced the home town crowd and put the Sharks up 2-0.

Since then it’s been a lapse here and there for the Canucks or a five minute span in game three where they allowed three goals and chased netminder Corey Schneider in favor of Roberto Luongo.  Inconsistent play will kill a team every year in the playoffs and the Canucks are finding that out again this year.

Yes they have key injuries to players like Ryan Kesler who’s playing through it and their goaltending duo is a daily circus, something that was said to be a distraction for the club ever since the regular season ended.  Now with Schneider playing so poorly it was like throwing gas on the fire for the media.

This is a Canucks team that is fragile and frail since losing in the first round of last year’s playoffs in five games to the hugely underdog Los Angeles Kings.  All throughout this season the Canucks haven’t had that consistent edge that they’ve shown in the past five seasons.  Sure they won the Northwest division for the sixth time in seven years including the last five, but this was a different Canucks club that didn’t have that gunslinging threat that you’d better show up on a nightly basis or they will embarrass you.

With potentially their final game on tap tonight in San Jose the Canucks could be facing major changes this offseason, barring a miraculous comeback.  We’ll wait to dissect the Canucks and the changes we feel are necessary until after they are out of the playoffs, which could be tomorrow morning.

With a loss tonight we could be seeing the last of the Canucks core group of players remain in tact and if you ask the LA Kings marketing department, they’ll remind us all that they are the ones to thank given the crumble started in last year’s first round.

Photo Credit: Bob Stanton

Patrick Marleau leads the NHL in goals right now, and has scored 14 points in just eight games so far this season. But long before he was tearing up the NHL scene, the Aneroid, Saskatchewan native spent two seasons with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds.

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Anderson had a stellar month, there is no denying that.  He went 5-0-1 with a league best .967 save percentage and a second best GAA of 0.99.  All around, terrific numbers and one of the biggest reasons the Senators are first in the Eastern Conference.

But both Marleau and Vanek were better in my opinion.  Now I understand that you’re comparing apples to oranges when you have a goaltender up against two forwards, but just look at the wicked numbers that both the Sharks captain and the Sabres forward put forth in January.

Let’s start with Vanek.  Including last night’s romp over the Boston Bruins that saw him collect 5 points in the game, the second time he’s done that already this year.  Overall he leads the league with 15 points, six of which are goals, proving he can not only score but set up his line mates.  He did all that in just six games which is averaging 2.5 points per game.  That in itself is incredible.

Marleau’s production in San Jose shouldn’t be discounted either.  He leads the league with 9 goals in 7 games and is second in points, only to Vanek with 14 points.  Don’t forget, his club is the only team in the league that hasn’t lost yet as they stand alone at the top with an unblemished record of 7-0.  Marleau has led the charge for this club and is arguably playing some of the best hockey of his career.

Again, all three players deserve to be one of the top 3 stars for the first month of this shortened season.  But the order in which they lie is the part that is surprising.  To me, Vanek should be first, followed by Marleau then Anderson.

The biggest reasoning is that Anderson has faced 184 shots this season which ranks him sixth on the list of netminders.  That’s just over 30 shots per game and while that is a lot of rubber, which bodes well for his save percentage, the Senators are sixth in the league in goals for with an average of 3.43.  Anderson is keeping the goals out, but his team is also scoring at a consistent pace as well.

Marleau’s shooting percentage is an impressive 27.3, meaning nearly just over every fourth shot he takes goes in.  Vanek’s is also an impressive 21.4%.

Tedious argument?  Perhaps, but given the stats that both Vanek and Marleau produced and in the fashion they did so, I believe they deserve to be ahead of Anderson.