It's tough to find anything negative to say about the streaking Canucks right now.
The problem with covering a team that has been winning far more than it's been losing is that it's very hard to not sound like a homer.
Face it, I get accused enough of wearing blue and green glasses as it is. And to pen something about the Vancouver Canucks right now would get me crushed more than Mark Spector in the comment section.
That (and the fact that I'm lazy when it comes to writing blogs because it can feel like homework at times) is the reason why I've been a little reluctant to construct a blog recently.
Who wants to write about good things, over and over and over? Do wee need to point out all of the positives surrounding the Canucks over the last month: how they are 15-1-2 in their last 18 games; how they have gone 8-0-1 in their last nine games; How Henrik and Daniel Sedin are both top five in league scoring; how Roberto Luongo was the second star of the league in December and his back-up Corey Schneider has yet to lose a game in regulation. Blah, blah, blah.
(Note: I'm writing this the on the morning of the Canucks-Flames game on Jan. 5. So Vancouver fans everywhere will be cursing me on Jan. 6 after I have officially jinxed the Canucks and Calgary disposes of Vancouver.)
It’s great being a fan of the Canucks right now. However, covering the team at the moment is difficult. Not difficult in the sense that it is tough to talk to the players. They, as you can imagine, are in a pretty good mood these days. It’s difficult because there is no real meat to chew on.
There's an old saying among the ink-stained wretches that the best team to cover is a .500 team. That way, there is a lot of positive things and a lot of negative things to write about. You can praise and be critical. Perfect to keep that balance and journalistic integrity.
Unfortunately, with the way things are right now, us media types are looking for a nugget of negativity. Searching for a story line that doesn't blow sunshine up the Canucks’ behinds.
So you end up hearing things like this:
-- I can't believe head coach Alain Vigneault is starting Aaron Rome against the San Jose Sharks instead of Andrew Alberts. Why would he take the Canucks’ most physical defenceman out of the line-up against a big, physical team?
-- The Canucks are peaking way too soon. An NHL team needs to be at its best in April, not January.
-- Cory Schneider is getting too many minutes right now. The Canucks have to be careful or else Roberto Luongo, who is used to a lot of playing time, will get rusty.
Yes, these are the things that folks are nitpicking at the moment. And that's the way it will be until this torrid Canuck streak ends (probably Wednesday, thanks to me).
So call me a homer if you want. But before you do, let me be the first to point out that 14 PIMs is just not good enough for Alex Burrows. I thought he was supposed to be an agitator for goodness sakes!
