Canucks Taking the Long Road

There's a lot of hockey about to be played in Vancouver over the next couple of months, but very little of it will be done by the resident NHL club.  Once the Canucks play their final game in GM Place before the Olympics on the 27^th of January, they won't return until the13^th of March.

That means the Canucks will play an extraordinary 14 games on the road, and in light of the Canucks markedly worse performance on the road this season, there is cause for concern.

What does the Canucks extended road trip mean for your fantasy team?

How Bad Is It?

So far this season, the Canucks have won 16 of 22 games played at home, but only nine 20 on the road.  They've scored 74 goals at home (third in league), but only 56 on the road (in a three-way tie for 14^th in league).

By simply taking their per-game averages to date, you might reasonably conclude that the Canucks are only going to win six of the 14 road games, and score an average of fewer than three goals per game for a total of 39 goals along the way.

Yet, a closer look reveals that things might not be so bad for any canuckle-heads in the coming months.

Below is a graph showing the Canucks relative win/loss record, where zero equates to playing .500 hockey.  Each data point represents one away game (numbered one through 20); a loss moves the graph downwards, while a win moves it upwards.

The Canucks have been below .500 all season when it comes to their road record, however it has improved of late.  A turning point seems to have occurred after their 12^th away game (played on the 14^th of November), and the recent trend, while still up-and-down, has been remarkably better, especially considering that the 18^th road game (played on 29 December) was a shoot-out loss to Phoenix.