For a few brief, merciful days, all the talk of a Roberto Luongo trade in the media had been replaced by talk of a goalie controversy in Vancouver. We complained about the hype, questioned what would actually constitute a goalie controversy, and scoffed at how Alain Vigneault giving a world-class goaltender consecutive starts while he’s on a hot streak could even be called controversial.

But really, it was a relief.

For once, we could stop the endless speculation about potential Luongo trade destinations, returns, and whether he would even get traded at all. Instead, we could focus on a rather pleasant problem: which of the Canucks’ two fantastic goaltenders should start each game?

Unfortunately, it couldn’t last. Eventually the rumour mill would start up again; this time around, it was kicked into gear by a visit by Mike Gillis and Laurence Gilman to the Verizon Center for a game between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. This, of course, immediately led to speculation from every corner of the media landscape that the Canucks were working on a trade with the Capitals, with Luongo the centrepiece. That included Sports Illustrated, who need to pay closer attention to their photo captions.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game for two very simple reasons: a lot of goals were scored and most of them were scored by the Canucks. Really, it’s the simple things in life that matter the most. Four different players recorded 2 goals in this game. One was Alexander Ovechkin, which is not unexpected. The other three were Chris Higgins, Maxim Lapierre, and Alexander Edler, which is a bit more surprising. Even more surprising, Luongo received a healthy dollop of praise, despite giving up four goals on 32 shots. Funny how everyone likes the goaltender when the team plays well in front of him. I watched this game.

The Washington Capitals took a 2-0 lead in their series against the New York Rangers last night thanks to some stellar goaltending by Michael Neuvirth and goals from a pair of Jasons: Arnott and Chimera. But something odd occurred in the dying seconds of the game. With a mere 4.8 seconds remaining and the game clearly over, Bruce Boudreau frantically called a timeout from the bench before a defensive zone faceoff. What possible reason could Boudreau have for calling a timeout at such an inconsequential time?* Here are 10 possible reasons for the oddball call.

Canucks 4 – 2 Capitals Just like their previous two games against the Rangers and Islanders, the Canucks outshot their opponents in the first period. Unlike the last two games, the Canucks continued the trend in the second, and it made all the difference. They came out of the first two periods with a two-goal [...]