"The boys are back in town and going through their checklist.

Kiss wife, pat dog, change diapers, throw dirty underwear in laundry, fall asleep on couch, wake up, stretch arms and say: "Well, as far as 14-game road trips go, that was one of the better ones."

Or maybe it will be the only one. In any case, the Vancouver Canucks emerged from six weeks on the road broken up by that Olympic thing ? sitting atop the Northwest Division and with a playoff spot almost secured.

The Canucks did some interesting work on the 8-5-1 odyssey. Most notably, they began it by coming back from three goals down in the Centre of the Universe to shock the Maple Leafs 5-3 on national TV, outscoring Brian Burke's Buds 4-0 in the final period.

They also came back to win after being down two goals in Boston, Columbus and Columbus again.

In their biggest game of the trip, a first-place showdown with the Colorado Avalanche, they came back from three goals down twice and scored five without a response to take it 6-4.

The good news was the Canucks' finish, the bad news their starts. They outscored their opponents 22-9 in the third periods and overtime but were lit up for a whopping 26 goals in first periods while only scoring seven of their own. (Talk about a miracle on ice.)"