Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Any problems the Vancouver Canucks had early in their Round 1 series are about as meaningful now as Roberto Luongo's stats.

Pekka Rinne, Ryan Miller, Pascale Leclaire and Craig Anderson all have better save percentages and goals against averages than Luongo's .893 and 2.92. But two are golfing and two are one loss away from the tee box, while Luongo's Canucks might just be getting started.

There is enough experience here now, enough of a body of work that it's not about a snapshot anymore for this Vancouver team, the only Canadian club that can say it has played in Round 2 in three of the last four seasons.

For instance, we have seen the Sedins mature into a playoff force that can weather a bad game and not allow it to become a skid. The twins felt the sting of failing to deliver against Anaheim a few years back, but now they have grown into true leaders.

This spring, they play every shift against the opponent's top defensive pair and checking line. Yet when you look at the end of the series the Sedins have scored three of four game-winning goals, and share 18 points in a six-game series.

Luongo, too, faced his doubters - as recently as a week ago. All he did against Los Angeles was what the great stoppers have always done, performing absolute larceny at the precise moment when his team simply could not afford another goal against.

As a group, with a sixth defenceman who scarcely plays and a second line that's killing Vancouver fans in their playoff pools, the Canucks have matured into a team that finds a way to win anyhow.

And though many of their fans still wallow in self-pity every time a call or a break doesn't go their way, you hear none of that from inside this team.

"Obviously, they had some bounces early in the series, especially on the power play where it seemed the puck always bounced right to somebody who had an empty net," Daniel Sedin said after the series-clinching win on Sunday. "We talked about it a little bit that if you just keep working hard, eventually they'll go your way, too.

"Over a six- or seven-game series, those things even out."

Top goal scorer Alex Burrows limited to a single, empty net goal in the entire series? No problem - we'll score four a game anyhow.

Their most physical defenceman is so deep in concussion rehab that he isn't even seen at the rink anymore? No trouble. Meet Alex Edler, suddenly the Swedish Scott Stevens.

Where there were once questions the Canucks issued emphatic answers in this gritty series win over the young Kings. They were the better, more playoff-seasoned team to be sure, taking the last three games of this series to win going away.

Precisely, as we recall, what the Chicago Blackhawks did to Vancouver a year ago in Round 2.

And so, with apologies to the Nashville Predators, one gets the sense the Canucks would relish a Blackhawks series win and another crack at the team that left them in the dust last spring.

"For sure, that's what we've been looking forward to," Luongo confirmed. "That's what I told Kane after the gold medal game, that I'd see him in the playoffs."

"We've got such a good team here, we should look forward to anyone," Daniel said.

You can say that the Canucks aren't going anywhere with basically five defenceman they can trust to play in the third period. Or you can point out that Ryan Kesler's line had better contribute more to Round 2, or there will be no Round 3 for Vancouver.

But the Vancouver Canucks weren't far off a year ago, and they'd love to take another run at Chicago.

I'll take that Luongo-Antti Niemi matchup any day if I'm Vancouver, and we're betting the Kesler line is ready for redemption.

They passed the first test on three cylinders. Get everyone going, and the Vancouver Canucks might have something here.