OTTAWA - In the test-case season that followed the lost year under coach John Tortorella, with the Vancouver Canucks under new management and a new head coach, every extended road trip seemed like a referendum on the team.
The Canucks passed so many of those tests last season, finishing with 24 road wins and the National Hockey League’s fifth-best record away from home, that we began to take trips like this one for granted.
A seven-game road trip is never a weekend at the cabin. But starting in Buffalo, New Jersey and Columbus, how hard could it be?