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Canucks first to clinch playoff berth, beat Avs 4-2

Dan Hamhuis, Troy Brouwer, Roberto Luongo

Vancouver Canucks’ Henrik Sedin, upper right, of Sweden, celebrates his goal with teammates Ryan Kesler, from left, Mikael Samuelsson, of Sweden, Daniel Sedin, of Sweden, and Christian Ehrhoff, of Germany, during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

The majority of Western Conference teams may be fighting for one of the eight playoff spots, but the Vancouver Canucks are not one of them. By beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 at Rogers Place on Wednesday night, the Canucks became the first team to clinch a spot in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.

On Wednesday, the Canucks fell behind early to the freefalling Avs 2-0. Four unanswered goals and the Canucks were celebrating before Colorado even knew what hit them. Henrik Sedin confirmed what most hockey fans thought when the Canucks started slowly against the lowly Avs:

“I guess we want to test ourselves to see if we can come back. It’s tough to get up for games when you are where we are. It crept in again tonight. . It’s not good, but we stuck with it and weren’t panicking.”

The NHL has been championing parity this season, but it didn’t slow the Canucks from wrapping up their playoff spot a month before the end of the season. Their 47-16-9 record has earned them an NHL best 103 points through 72 games. Their +68 goal differential (one of the best measures of a team’s performance) is far and away the best in the league; the next best is the Boston Bruins at +42. Their 25-7-5 record is the best home mark in the league; and their 22-9-4 record on the road is near the top of the league as well.

They’re tied for the highest scoring team in the league scoring 3.24 goals per game. Their 2.28 goals against per game is also tops in the league. Their power play is the best in the league and the weak spot in their game, the penalty kill, is the 2nd best in the league. Thankfully for Canucks fans, they have a month to figure out how to improve the PK unit.

As if all that wasn’t enough, they’re on top of their game as they’ve won 7 straight including an undefeated 6-game road trip. The scary part for opponents is they are doing it without a full roster. Both Alexander Edler and Kevin Bieksa were filling huge roles for the Canucks from the backend, yet both are out of the lineup with injuries. Nevertheless, Vancouver just keeps on winning no matter who they put in the lineup. Just imagine how dangerous they’ll be when they finally have all of their pieces in place.

The 103 points put the Canucks in very good position to win this year’s President’s Trophy. Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing probably depends on how superstitious a fan is—but it would mean the road to the Cup would have to go through Vancouver. The team with the best home record is in line to have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.