With win over Senators, Canucks tied for first in the league

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Let me begin with two unlikely things.

One: due to a massive ridge of high pressure in Western Canada rolling down from the Arctic, which has left the prairies frozen, Vancouver is bone dry for a whole week. A stretch of sunshine in almost-always-grey-and-pouring-rain November – the citizenry rejoices.

Two: the Vancouver Canucks, with a 4-3 overtime win at home Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators, are tied for first place in the National Hockey League with the Tampa Bay Lightning at 24 points apiece. The citizenry rejoices.

Sure, yes, on a points-percentage basis, the 12-5 Canucks are in fact sixth in the NHL, at 0.706, and it is 11-3-2 Tampa Bay tied with 10-3-1 Pittsburgh for first with 0.750. But after the implosion of last winter, Vancouver embraces whatever goodness it can clutch, whether it is sweet, sweet sunshine in November, or standing atop the league's points ledger as the evening turns to night on Nov. 11.

"It's been a different year," said Henrik Sedin after the game.

The Canucks captain underlined the immense buoyancy a strong start to the year has provided the team – giving everyone confidence in each other, a host of new faces in the room, coaches and players.

"A lot of doubt would have crept in," said Sedin – had it been otherwise.

It was Sedin, and his brother Daniel, who in overtime smashed the frisson of doubt that had crept in on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena. The Canucks had ceded three one-goal leads, allowing the Senators to tie 1-1 midway through the game, 2-2 late in the second period, and 3-3 in the third. This inability to hold a lead occurred even though the Canucks dominated the Senators through the course of the game, the Sens a weak puck possession team this year and their failings often obvious on Tuesday.

And yet Ottawa scratched back three times, and secured itself a loser's point that keeps the team in eighth in the Eastern Conference. In overtime, however, Ottawa's magic act stopped working. The team failed to register a shot on net against Vancouver in four minutes of extra time – as Vancouver ploughed into Ottawa's zone again and again, a push that started with Alex Edler, on a stellar night, rolling down the length of the ice and trying to steamroll by, almost successfully, Erik Karlsson.

The Sedins ended it. Henrik, on the left side of the net, made a lovely cross ice pass to Daniel, who was open near the goal line with a sharp-angled look at the net. Daniel delivered, putting the puck high and in the open expanse of net. Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson, who had kept his team in the game, wasn't able to get across the crease and never really had much a chance given Daniel's accuracy.

"They create things," said Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller of the Sedins. "It's really fun to watch."

It was Daniel Sedin's second overtime winner in the span of two weeks, Daniel having scored Oct. 30 here against Montreal, again on a beauty pass from his brother and finishing with brilliant popper that went high left on Carey Price.

Even with his overtime winners, Daniel's scoring touch is still not what it used to be. His scoring percentage had sat at a career-worst 6.7 per cent before the Ottawa game. The OT winner, on a night Daniel put six pucks on net, lefts his scoring rate to 7.8 per cent, fractionally better than last year's ugly 7.1.

The Canucks, too, struggle somewhat with injuries, and presently don't really have a fourth line, with only a few minutes allocated to the likes of rookie Bo Horvat. The three principal lines, however, roll well. The Sedins are working with Jannik Hansen in Radim Vrbata's absence. The second line centred by the impressive Nick Bonino is continually strong. The third line, in a sweet finishing move from Shawn Matthias, after he battled by a check at the blue line that looked like interference, opened the night's scoring.

The match, for a while, was tepid. One press box wag, five minutes into the second, before Matthias scored, joked: "This game has been brought to you by Nyquil."

For Ottawa, a team not predicted to do much this year, the one point is something of a win. The Sens' puck possession numbers are near the bottom of the league, and yet they hold on to eighth in the East. Ottawa was lucky to hang on with the Canucks on Tuesday. In one example, the team had only three shots on net in the first 15 minutes of the game, two of those from the dazzling defenceman Karlsson.

"We came out hard, and we were focused," said Henrik Sedin.

"They put us on our heels," said Sens centre Mike Hoffman. The team's resilience was a salve. "Anytime you can get a point out of that – I don't think we played our best game."