Away and Away?

- Tonight’s opponent, the Vancouver Canucks, are second in the Northwest Division at 18-9-2; but they are only 5-8-2 on the road (13-1 at home). They’ve lost their last three in a row away from home by a combined margin of 13-6, but they come off a big “win” (shootout) against the league-leading Senators on Friday night. An extremely interesting aspect of their schedule thus far is that on three different occasions, they’ve played consecutive road games against the same team! That gives a whole new meaning to the term “home-and-home” series. Perhaps we need a new phrase for that in the new NHL - "away and away?" The Canucks will return the favor and host consecutive home games against the same teams no less than three times throughout the balance of the season. Let’s hope that this remains strictly a Western Conference phenomenon. Consecutive games in Fish Sticks country, or having to see the Orange Crud in town twice in a row would be too much for this Rangers fan to bear.

- The last time that the Canucks were in town was on Feb 2, 2004, and the circumstances were drastically different. The Blueshirts had lost three in a row and were 1-7-2 in the previous ten games, while the Canucks had won five in a row. The home team stayed true to form in that they blew a two goal third period lead, but they got a late goal by Bobby Holik to get a 4-3 win, prompting him to remark, characteristically, ``We will have to be careful not to get overexcited with one win.'' They dropped four out of their five subsequent games.

- The second place Flyers may have four games in hand on the Rangers, but they’ve played only ten road games and 18 at home. Whatsmore, they face an 11 game road trip that commences later this month, one which will bring them to the Garden for the first of four visits (none back-to-back) on Jan 5.