Reasons for Canucks November turnaround.

[Joe Rockhead]

#3 Ryan Keseler's coming out party. He started to show some offensive abilities in addition to his usual hard defensive work. I really didn't think he had it in him but sometimes its nice to be wrong.

#2 Roberto Luongo getting back into form. He started making those amazing saves again. He was still good before returning to form but since his better play started he has become absolutley unbelievable again. I honestly think Bxa and Salo going down was the kind of a kick in the ass the Canucks D-men and Roberto needed to wake up.

#1 The Captian Markus Naslund calls out his Coach and teamates for playing a retardedly pathetic style of Dana Murzyn like " off the glass and out" and " dump it indeep". That had to be so frusturating for a skilled player like him. Thankfully A.V finally got smart enough to put all his eggs in one basket thereby forcing his other eggs to step it up anotch.

A lot of posters here complain about Naslund not being a leader here. Well you gotta admit that slap in the head to his coach and teamates sure did the trick.

[jchockey]

A lot of posters here complain about Naslund not being a leader here. Well you gotta admit that slap in the head to his coach and teamates sure did the trick.

Good thing too, 'cause if I remember correctly Kovalev calling out Carbonneau didn't bode well for either.

[Linden Is God]

A lot of posters here complain about Naslund not being a leader here. Well you gotta admit that slap in the head to his coach and teamates sure did the trick.

Good thing too, 'cause if I remember correctly Kovalev calling out Carbonneau didn't bode well for either.

Actually it did. For a short period at least. Kovalev played some great hockey ( as he has been doing all year) and the Habs went on a mini win streak and plyed solid hockey for a week and a half. Too bad the magic wore off quick.

[levelheaded]

I think you can attribute Edler's phenomenal play as another reason for the turnaround as well. When BXA and Salo went down I thought we were in serious shit. Krajicek had been alright in fill in roles the year before, but after more than 5 or 6 games I felt he got a bit exhausted and out of position. Miller had been BRUTAL playing anything more than #6 minutes and looked to be another Chouinard. We called up two players younger than 21 to fill out our heavily thinned defence and I felt our season was over.

Then out of the blue, a 21 year old kid who had looked alright in previous callups but far from NHL ready, starts playing like a 10 year NHL veteran. It's not unreasonable to suggest he's a calder candidate at this point. Considering noone outside of Vancouver (and Detroit who scouted him as well) had even heard of him prior to this year that's bloody impressive.

Defencemen are supposed to take longer to develop than forwards, and yet against all logic we have a 21 year old 100% NHL ready. Look at all the other top tier defensive prospects in the league. Marc Staal, Eric Johnson, Jack Johnson; none of them are playing as much or as well as Edler, yet some of them are being mentioned in the same breath as current superstars and NHL greats. That speaks volumes to me.

Without Edler we wouldn't be a playoff spot, let alone battling for first in the division again.

We have a real beauty on our hands.

[Joe Rockhead]

I was well into the Christmas cheer when I posted this topic in the completly wrong place. Maybe one of the moderators could move it to Canucks Corner chat.

[Grizzly]

Without Edler we wouldn't be a playoff spot, let alone battling for first in the division again.

We have a real beauty on our hands.

I would agree with you there Levelheaded ... quietly playing an extremely solid game ...

Grizz