While it very much remains to be seen Saturday afternoon, there may be a silver lining to the Canucks not looking so hot against the Red Wings on Thursday night.

Had they somehow managed to win the shootout, and come through these two games against Chicago and Detroit with the maximum four points, you could almost have predicted a letdown against the Avalanche Saturday in Denver.

After all, that's been the pattern all season. Win a couple of big games, in which all eyes were on the team, and a maximum effort from all was required — and there has promptly been a monstrously lazy reaction.

We've seen it several times this season, most notably after the big win in Boston last month, where the Canucks promptly went to Florida and laid an egg, with commentators everywhere calling it "an inevitable letdown." Why it has to be inevitable, when it wasn't last year, is a mystery here, but that's the way it's been portrayed.

To be sure, the Canucks have absolutely no excuse now for any type of letdown. They got three of the possible four points against Chicago and Detroit, courtesy of miraculous goaltending from Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider, and a chimp can see that this team is playing so far below par it's utterly disturbing.

The players, coaches and management are all keenly aware of it, and if they can use this knowledge and combine it with determination to change the way things are going, perhaps they can turn it into a win over the Avs -- as opposed to what would have been an excused "letdown," and end up with more points overall. Furthermore, had they beaten these two good teams, the players would have continued blithely on about their business, figuring all is well that ended well.

That's one helluva positive spin on what's been going on lately, but over the 40-plus-year history of this team, there's never been more reason for optimism. So what the heck. Besides, watching the likes of the Sedins, Jannik Hansen and Dan Hamhuis struggle, as they have lately, has been so depressing, we here felt Canucks fans were in need of cheering up.

tgallagher@theprovince.com