Vancouver Canucks reach midway mark; lead NHL standings

The Vancouver Canucks hit the halfway point of their 2011-12 NHL regular season schedule with a 3-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild Wednesday night (January 4). The win moved the Canucks to 25-13-3 and placed them atop the league standings with 53 points. The stay may be short-lived as Chicago, Boston, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, and San Jose all have games in hand on the Canucks and could pass or catch Vancouver in the near future.

However, for one night at least, the Canucks found themselves in front of all challengers. Their 53 points puts them on pace for a 106 point season. That’s down 11 points from last year when they won 54 times and racked up 117 points en route to the first President’s Trophy in franchise history for finishing with the best record in the league.

Just like last year, the Canucks lead the NHL in goals scored (134) and possess the top power play in the league. Henrik Sedin is atop of the league scoring parade with 48 points, followed by brother Daniel with 46. Unlike last year when Daniel and Ryan Kesler emerged as dominant goal scorers for the team, the Canucks seem to have a more balanced attack now with the likes of Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen providing depth scoring to compliment the usual suspects. At the midway point, the Canucks have six goal-scorers already in double-digits this season with emerging rookie Cody Hodgson sitting with nine.

As the team prepares to launch the second-half of the season with a highly-anticipated Stanley Cup rematch in Boston on Saturday (January 7), the Canucks are well-positioned to make another push for a lengthy playoff run. Injured forward David Booth will soon rejoin the club and his return will, in effect, be like adding a top-six forward ahead of next month’s trade deadline. And defenseman Aaron Rome is also close to rejoining the team after a thumb injury which will add to the Canucks blueline depth.

General Manager Mike Gillis made two acquisitions at last year deadline—Higgins and Max Lapierre—that bolstered the roster for the long post-season push. Gillis is in position this time around to perhaps look for a forward with some size and possibly one more veteran defenseman to add to the mix. But as it stands right now, the Canucks have put themselves right back in the discussion of the top teams in the NHL. And now it’s up to the players themselves to take it from here and figure out how to win one more game in this year’s playoffs than they did last June.