Exclusive - Rick Rypien out partying in the Lower Mainland

• Rick Rypien, the son of Golden Gloves boxer Wes Rypien, was spotted out January 11, 2011 partying like the proverbial rockstar at Baseline's Pub in Langley!  Sources say he started a tab and paid for everything and they stayed at the pub drinking and carousing well after the establishment closed.  While I have been guilty a time or two having fun when I've called in sick to work, I, as a supremely loyal and avid Canucks fan, would like to see our mobile, rarely disputed pound-for-pound best fighter in the NHL back on skates...  Take your time Rick (I guess), by all accounts you're a good man...
• Roberto Luongo, fresh off his All-Star snub, takes sole possession of the Canucks all-time wins without a regulation loss streak record at 11 games.  A mere week after Cory Schneider, he of the incredible unbeaten season, tied the record, he now he stands alone atop the Canucks goalie hierarchy... Verrrrry niiiiiice...
• Our boys keep rolling along and have taken a strangle hold on first place in the league with a 3 point lead over Philly and Detroit with a game in hand over the latter.  We also enjoy a 12 point cushion over Colorado for first in the Northwest Division which all but ensures us of finishing no worse than 3rd in the Western Conference.  aka the Canucks are winning and doing it in a myriad of different ways: come from behind, dominating, battling, in cruise control, seemingly effortlessly...  let's just hope they can tighten up for the playoffs and the man-to-man match ups that dominate each series.  Something tells me Raffi Torres isn't going to get bounced around as much as Kyle Wellwood (who just might be a St. Louis Blue by that time) and Manny Malholtra will have the edge on intimidation over nice guy Ryan Johnson (who we may meet this summer wearing the hideous Blackhawks red)