The Secret to the Comeback Kids

The Vancouver Canucks lead the entire NHL in third period comebacks with 10 this season. 3 of them have come in the 5 games since the Olympic break. Punctuated by Tuesday’s 6-4 win, in which the team trailed twice by 3 goals, everyone is wondering how they’re able to keep doing it. Here are five theories:

1. Now that the players are past the Olympics and the substance testing, the Canucks’ Olympians are taking full advantage, and like BC Bud, BC Sudafed is the most potent stuff you can find.

2. The Canucks are attempting to single handedly reverse the over-referenced stat: “The team that scores the first goal of the game usually wins.”

3. Since the Olympic games, Roberto Luongo has been trying to emulate the thrill he felt in the gold medal game. The following conversation was overheard in the dressing room after Tuesday’s 3 goal comeback:

Henrik Sedin: So is that how the gold medal game felt, Roberto?

Roberto Luongo: Not even close, buddy.

(at the other end of the room Ryan Kesler growls and breaks a hockey stick over his knee)


4. The boys get sh*ts and giggles from seeing Vigneault’s head looking like it’s going to explode, and they keep one upping each other to make it happen. Case in point – the sharp angle goal let in by Luongo from Colorado’s Chris Stewart - he obviously let it in on purpose. Mason Raymond took it too far with the blatant giveaway at his own blueline, though, and he paid for it by only being played for one shift in the entire third period.

5. I went through the Sedins’ contracts and found this interesting tidbit:

“The Player shalt be paid a bonus in the amount of $100 for every point scored in the third period. If thou scores a point in either the first or the second period, nary a bonus shall be paid!”

I also discovered that NHL contracts are written in old Shakespearian English – who knew?