from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

Some people keep waiting for the bottom to fall out on the Vancouver Canucks, and and it certainly hasn't been pretty every single night this season. However, Sunday night's full-value, 4-1 win over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks improved Vancouver's record to 14-6-1.

This was a team rival GMs pointed to most during my preseason conversations as a potential surprise. The new Trevor Linden-Jim Benning-Willie Desjardins regime has not disappointed, that is for sure. An important theme from the outset has been whether they could get enough secondary scoring to contend for a playoff spot.

Jannik Hanen's hat trick Sunday night was yet another example of that kind of secondary scoring the Canucks have got so far this season. If that continues, the Canucks should be playoff-bound.

read on for Burnside on Tikhonov for the HHOF, Custance on the Rangers and Strang on the Blues...