spliced

Hawks took advantage of an unprepared Oilers team. That's what happens if you aren't ready to go.

Hopefully the boys are watching these games and seeing how intense they are. Don't expect anything less than playoff style hockey.

Fortunately for me I don't put much stock into exhibition scores so I'm not bothered by the loss. I am however glad that the Nucks aren't playing the Jets in their series. Bring on the Wild and their mediocre goalies.

Brock's speed is looking pretty good. Any extra gap he can get from other players is really helpful because his release is pretty slow and it allows the opposition to get sticks on his shots.

I wonder if Canucks Twitter leaked this early because I'm not seeing game times on other official team Twitter pages I looked at.

Now is the time to give the guys some encouragement. They are going through the boring monotonous part of training and following the rules without the satisfying payoff of playing games. Keep it up boys! Just over 3 weeks until the puck drops.

I'm enjoying watching some of this 2011 Chicago series they're playing on Sportsnet but I hate that Craig Simpson was on the broadcast, would have been more enjoyable to listen to a better colour guy.

This is the good stuff, this is the hockey I've been waiting to see. Glorious highly entertaining game and the win to go along with it. I never would have guessed an Islanders game would be one of the best games of the year. Barzal is crazy good.

Canucks are playing better than they were earlier in the year so hopefully they learn this is how you need to play on a regular basis instead of all the coasting by on Markstrom's great goaltending they were doing. Credit to Columbus for having a few key guys missing because of injury but not using that as an excuse.

Never mind leaving the building, I wish Elvis never even entered.

Roussel looked revved up for this one, hope to see that continue. Fun game and took the win gotta love it.

This time has sort of passed to be honest. Trying to find the little things to appreciate has been happening for years, the team is now competitive and it's about getting into the playoffs this year.

This team is learning the hard way that you can't just rely on your goalie to win you games and you need to be consistently good if you want to be a playoff team. You can't just play a good game every 2 or 3 games or play one good period in a game and expect to win. The blame is most definitely not evenly on everyone though, some guys bring it just about every night and others are boat anchors.

I still can't figure out why when Hughes wasn't playing people thought he was benched, why on earth would you bench Hughes. That was the strangest thing I've seen posted this year.

This is crap...BUT it's near the end of the year and it's not like the team has to beat the 80's Oilers 10 times, they play a lot of teams that are battling for a playoff spot so this can be done if the team gets it's act together and plays their best.

Chara is a guy that can't take any of his own medicine. He's the first guy to rush over and give everyone else shots and take advantage of his size to bully anyone he wants, but the odd time someone gets the better of him he throws a fit.

I find it concerning how slow the Canucks have become. The Canucks now have a hard time getting in on teams and forechecking them hard and forcing them into mistakes because of all the old and slow guys. I'm hoping next season they can improve in this area.

I mean the Canucks played pretty well so I can't be too disappointed with their play in this game but you have to factor in that you'll lose a game here or there that you were the better team so make sure you take advantage of winnable games and the Canucks haven't been doing that and so the situation is starting to get desperate. The one good thing is that Markstrom not playing exposes the team for what they are and gives them a chance to improve.

Didn't even take half the game.

3 point night for Petey. Let's GO!

Nicklas Jensen hoping for a call soon.

Not getting enough from Pettersson, the team doesn't have the offensive depth when he's not doing much. Hughes was the Energizer bunny out there, he never stopped generating stuff.

Payback time!

This is what the Canucks have been doing for a while now only Marky isn't there to steal the game.

Canucks have been overly reliant on Markstrom and they're gonna need to step up their game if they want to get in the playoffs.