On Thursday night, the Vancouver Canucks showed up to play the Nashville Predators for the first time since Vancouver knocked them out of the playoffs last year; the Preds, on the other hand, didn’t bother. Here’s our review.

Vancouver had more two on ones and three on ones than a gang bang flick, en route to a 5-1 drubbing of the Predators. The Tennessee squad was barely recognizable from the plodding, hard-working, disciplined bunch that gave the Canucks so much trouble last May. While it was refreshing to see a wide open affair when everyone had been predicting a tight game, it was a tad disappointing that the Predators played so poorly. The difference in team speed was so noticeable that I think John Garrett might even have been aware of it.

Such was the difference in speed, that the Preds were assessed ten (10!) minor penalties. They took thirty minutes in penalties, when all was said and done. By comparison, they amassed forty-six PIM in the entire six-game second round SERIES against Vancouver last year. The Canucks special teams finally looked like they could make a team pay for such mistakes, going two for ten on the man advantage, while killing off all four of the penalties they took.

Roberto Luongo utterly failed to silence any of his critics. Sure, he played great, but (to paraphrase @TranscendWebs’tweet of the night) when Luongo stops 25 out of 26 shots on the evening, his critics are focusing on the one he let in. Never mind that he was ridiculously unlucky that the puck bounced off the Rogers Arena boards in a manner nobody’s ever seen before. It was ALL HIS FAULT! Lu buckled down after that and had a fantastic outing, but the mouth-breathers who want him out of here will still be calling for his head.

Speaking of Luongo, he debuted his new mask last night. The Johnny Canuck on the front is reminiscent of the mask he wore in his dominant first season in Vancouver, and looks like it was inspired by the Super Mario Bros. (Luuuuuuuuuigi?) The mask looks bad-ass, and Luongo played great in it. Hopefully that continues.

Ryan Kesler looks great. I’m talking about his play, not making a nude Kesler reference. (Though if I had to look like a Canucks number 17, I’m going with the current one over my current Krutov-like form.) He seems to be fully recovered from his off-season hip surgery, and managed one goal while contributing to at least one other with his solid net presence. It’s such a dramatic difference from Keith Ballard’s return from the same surgery last year that I wonder if Alain Vigneault wasn’t on to something when he put Ballard in the doghouse for much of last year.

The twins had a big game. Daniel potted a goal and two assists and Henrik added one more of each. Henrik’s two points give him 675 for his career, good enough to pass Stan Smyl for third all time in Canucks scoring. if Henrik canmaintain his better than a point per game pace of the last couple of seasons, he should easily pass second-place Trevor Linden (733) this year, and might even challenge Markus Naslund (756) before the playoffs roll around.

As many of you might know by now, Jason and I don’t like fighting. It was disappointing, therefore, to see the game marred by a couple of utterly pointless scraps. The first one I don’t mind so much. Maxim Lapierre hit Colin Wilson close to the end of the first period, Wilson took exception and shoved Lapierre back, and it degenerated into fisticuffs. Que sera, sera; I understand that emotions run high. The second bout, though, is everything that’s wrong with fighting in hockey. Aaron Volpatti, a goon in his rookie year, takes on Jordin Tootoo, a notorious cheap shot artist, immediately after a face-off. Tootoo’s only offence? A legal hit earlier in the game on Manny Malhotra. Was the hit borderline? Maybe, but it was judged legal by the referee, and there’s been nary a whisper regarding discipline after the fact. Even if I conceded that there were times that you have to answer the bell and fight during a hockey game (and I don’t), this was not one of those times. Legal hits should not lead to fights, and if two players stage a fight for no better reason, there should be supplementary punishment for both. Time to get this shit out of the league.{jcomments on}