With the world back on its proper axis and the Chicken Littles silenced (for the time being) following a pair of impressive Canucks wins, it seems like a good time to relax with a frivolity.

The Hockey News recently released a special edition titled The Best of Everything In Hockey, which includes each franchise’s best player ever along with their all-time first and second teams. The selections were based not only on overall skill, but also on contribution to the organization.

Henrik Sedin got the nod as Vancouver’s top player in history and, despite those who will call out for Markus Naslund or Trevor Linden, I think it’s a very fine choice. The only other player you can make a reasonable argument for is Pavel Bure, thanks to his gaudy numbers.

Bure put up a 1.12 points-per-game average during his seven years in Vancouver, which is far superior to Sedin’s 0.83 pace. Even when you consider that overall scoring in the NHL during Bure’s stretch was 6.29 goals per game compared to 5.59 over Sedin’s 10 full seasons (a 12.5 percent decrease), it doesn’t become apples to apples in terms of comparing their individual on-ice production.

Despite that, it’s hardly an injustice. What is wrong, in my opinion, was the decision to put Bure on the all-time second team behind Naslund at right wing. Naslund is the franchise’s all-time leader in points (756) and goals (254), but he also played 884 games versus Bure’s 428.

Five-star vacation: A lengthy road trip is, as they say, just what the doctor ordered for this club.
Although there hasn’t been a lot of turnover on the roster and all signs point to the dressing room being a cohesive one, it’s never a bad thing to get some early bonding time.

On top of that, the schedule itself is favourable for a couple of reasons.

After a pair of easier games against the Blues and Wild, both of which are on the dark side of the goals-for/goals-against ratio, the Canucks meet up with their old rivals in Chicago. The Blackhawks are red hot and, as is always the case when the two teams meet up, tempers will run high. And nothing creates solidarity like a common enemy.

Secondly, the Canucks will play the remaining five games of the trip over nine nights. That’s a lot of time on the ice, exactly what a team finding its footing needs.