Stars' Stars Shine While Canucks' Don't; Dallas Wins 5-2

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As the Sedin twins continue to struggle, so does their team as the Vancouver Canucks lost in regulation for a second straight game on Tuesday night - their first back-to-back regulation losses since November - this time to the Dallas Stars by a score of 5-2.

Unlike Vancouver, Dallas' top players led the way as J-Lo's ex Marc Anthony's twin Mike Ribeiro had 2 goals and 1 assist while Loui Eriksson finished with 1+1 and Michael Ryder had 2 assists. Rookie goaltender Richard Bachman made 29 saves for the win. Victoria's Jamie Benn was buzzing all night for the Stars and finished with a goal on five shots. Stephane Robidas hit the empty net to seal the deal for the reeling Stars who now lead the Pacific Division by two points over the Phoenix Coyotes.

Chris Higgins and Alex Edler scored for the Canucks who continue to get very little output from Daniel and Henrik Sedin; both are mired in a slump (at least by their standards). Henrik has been held pointless in six straight games and 10 of his last 13.

Questions arose when the Canucks traded their skilled third line center, Cody Hodgson, to the Sabres at the trade deadline. What if the top six forwards struggle to score? Who will step in if someone in the top six gets hurt?

With both of Vancouver's top centers struggling right now (both Kesler and Henrik Sedin have only one goal each in their last 13 games), the team needs some consistent secondary scoring, and the only player who was doing that in the past was the aforementioned - and newly departed - Hodgson.

Sami Pahlsson, a defensive specialist who was brought in to replace Hodgson, is to offense as what I am to a full head of hair. And his defensive and faceoff skills haven't been overly spectacular thus far either.

Zack Kassian has proven that we should expect very little consistency from him after being the best skater on the ice Saturday night against Buffalo, where he finished with a goal, an assist, three shots and seven hits, he followed that up with a statline of zero's across the board - all after being promoted to the second line.

Roberto Luongo stopped 24 saves in the loss which dropped Vancouver to second place in the Western Conference standings behind the surprising St. Louis Blues.

The Canucks continue their homestand Thursday night as they host the Winnipeg Jets for the first time in 16 years.

Sabres Stuff Canucks 5-3; Kassian Outshines Hodgson

The Buffalo Sabres got off to an early 3-0 lead and were able to stave off a late Canucks attack to earn a 5-3 win Saturday night and put them within two points of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Overshadowing the Sabres' recent surge up the standings was the return of Cody Hodgson to Vancouver less than a week after being shipped off to Buffalo in a trade for Zack Kassian. Kassian, who finished with a goal, an assist, three shots and a game high seven hits in only 10:40 of icetime, was more noticeable than Hodgson in the game, and won the battle of the "tradees" on the night. He was also named the game's first star (although Ryan Miller easily should have been the first star).

Hodgson finished the night with three shots, was a plus one and finished with just under 17 minutes of icetime.

Ville Leino scored two goals in the first four minutes, and Brad Boyes scored only a minute and a half later to give Buffalo an early 3-0 lead and pull Roberto Luongo from the game.

David Booth responded for Vancouver late in the 2nd period to cut the deficit to two goals.

Early in the 3rd, former Canuck Christian Ehrhoff beat Corey Schneider from the point on a shot that deflected off of Aaron Rome's skate to once again give the Sabres a three goal lead. Shortly after, Booth potted his 2nd goal of the game to get Vancouver back within striking difference. Then with under three minutes remaining in the game, Kassian scored his first goal as a Canuck to make the score 4-3. Tyler Ennis scored an empty-netter with just over a minute left to seal the win for Buffalo who have now won three games in a row.

Vancouver outshot Buffalo 35-25 in the game, but shot themselves in the foot early by giving up the 3-0 lead to the Sabres. Daniel and Henrik Sedin were left off the scoresheet. Henrik has now been pointless in 9 of his last 12 games.

Vancouver resumes their season-high seven game homestand Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars.

Canucks Stifle Blues; Remain Atop NHL Standings

The Vancouver Canucks shutout the St. Louis Blues 2-0 Thursday night to earn their 90th point of the season and move three points ahead of St. Louis and Detroit for the Western Conference lead.

Alex Burrows scored his 23rd goal of the season early in the third period and Roberto Luongo made 29 saves to record his third shutout of the year.

Chris Higgins scored an empty-netter with 38 seconds left to seal the victory for the home team.

Vancouver's fourth line of Manny Malhotra, Maxime Lapierre and the newly acquired Zack Kassian were easily the Canucks most affective unit of the night. They generated a few scoring chances and Lapierre and Kassian were hitting everything in sight. Lapierre finished with an unbelievable 10 hits while Kassian finished with four hits and four shots. Kassian showed Vancouver fans what he brings to the table and likely made some people forget about the guy he was traded for - Cody Hodgson.

Speaking of Hodgson, ironically enough Vancouver's next game is Saturday against Hodgson's new team, the Buffalo Sabres. You can see that game at 7:00 pacific time on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada.

Canuck fans should expect low scoring games from here on out as the trade deadline deals have made them a less offensive team. With that said, they have only allowed one goal against in two games since Monday, so if they can continue to allow very few goals, no-one will care if they aren't scoring in abundance.

Marc-Andre Gragnani played in his Canuck's debut and finished with 15:38 of ice time. He had a couple of turnovers but made a few good passes while finishing even on the night.