Fisher over the moon about being under the weather

NASHVILLE — Mike Fisher was sick Tuesday night. Sick awesome. The previous couple of days, he was merely sick. The Nashville Predators’ veteran followed the flu with one of his best games this season, scoring one goal and setting up the others in his team’s 3- 1 National Hockey League win against the Vancouver Canucks. “I don’t know what they put in the IV, but I’ll take another one,” Fisher said after a three- point night that included six shots on goal and a plus- two rating. “I felt a lot better than I thought I was going to be. Judging by this morning, I was tired on our short skate. But I felt better tonight. Guys played good, but getting that goal gives you a little bit of a boost, too, and trying to keep shifts as short as you can.” Fisher missed his team’s 3- 2 road win Sunday against the Dallas Stars but was the best player on the ice last night. Surprisingly, two guys near the opposite end of the performance spectrum were Canuck defencemen Sami Salo and Alex Edler, who are often their team’s best tandem but were on for all the Predator goals. Salo drifted out of position on two of the goals and was badly beaten by Fisher on another. “A couple of bad plays by me and the puck ended up in the back of the net,” Salo said. “But overall the team played a solid game. We had a good stretch here.” It was the Canucks’ first outright loss in 14 games. THE INDIE 500: The loss took the luster off Alex Burrows’ 500th NHL game, although it’s a remarkable accomplishment for a player who was never drafted, got within a couple of months of quitting professional hockey and figured he’d made it big when he finally secured a contract to play in the American Hockey League. “Five hundred, obviously it’s a nice number,” he said. “Everybody’s got their story. Maybe people like mine but the great thing about our team is we’re contending for the Stanley Cup again this year and that’s what makes it even more exciting.” “It’s a great story,” Vigneault, who coached Burrows with the Manitoba Moose in 2005- 06, said before the game. “It’s a story about perseverance. It’s a story about not giving up on your dream.” ANOTHER MILESTONE: Henrik Sedin took a pair of penalties Tuesday but otherwise was kept off the scoresheet and remains three points behind Trevor Linden, who is second all- time in franchise scoring with 733 points. Sedin will try to edge closer Thursday in Detroit, where Vancouver will try to end the Red Wings’ new- era home “winning” streak of 23 games. Sedin, who leads his brother Daniel by 18 points, reiterated the Sedins might not have stayed in the NHL were it not for the encouragement of Linden during difficult seasons at the start of their careers. “He was a big supporter of us,” Henrik said. “The way things started here, me and Danny didn’t think we’d be in this spot if you looked back five or six years ago. We’ve come a long way and this team has come a long way. We worked hard together, but we’re missing the big trophy. That’s still ahead of us.”