Canucks Rolling in Pre-Season

There’s an adage in sports that the pre-season means nothing in the regular season.

Let’s hope that’s not true this year for the Vancouver Canucks.

Going in to tonight’s game at GM Place, the Canucks are 3-0, and have outscored their opponents 13-3. In last night’s game against the San Jose Sharks, the Sedins (making their pre-season debut) scored a combined 7 points.

Sergei Shirokov has 2G 2A for 4 Pts in 2 games. There has been a lot of buzz about Shirokov so far in this short pre-season because he has been able to find a scoring touch so quickly. Is the Russian sniper the goal scorer for whom the Canucks have been searching for the last decade or more? Based on his pre-season, he is certainly a candidate. He is very quickly earning himself a permanent spot on this team.

Steve Bernier already appears to have improved over last season. The leaner, speedier Bernier looked solid in his first game, potting one goal and had another disallowed.

One of the most important stats though to come out of the pre-season so far is that the defence is also contributing offensively. Ehrhoff, Rome, Bieksa, Mitchell and Evan Oberg have all hit the score sheet.

Let’s hope that this offensive outburst is a sign of things to come for the rest of the season. If nothing else, let’s hope that the can keep this momentum rolling as they begin their campaign to get a good start and take an early lead in their division. With their grueling road trip coming because of the 2010 Olympic Games, the Canucks need to rack up as many points as possible early, so they can ride out any storms that hit their game through that epic roadie.

All these positive signs to kick off the Canucks pre-season campaign, and we still haven’t seen the prodigal son, Cody Hodgson, hit the ice yet. We get the first look at him tonight as he makes his debut at GM Place vs the Oilers. The Canucks have set the bar high so far this pre-season. Let’s hope Hodgson can join in the fun.

Canucks fans all hope the team can keep up this pace and roll into the regular season continuing their winning ways. So far, it looks pretty good.

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Vancouver Canucks pre-season statistics courtesy CBS Sports NHL .