Washington Capitals vs Canucks || October, 29, 2011

Vancouver just needs to have Ovechkin in the building to fix their scoring woes.  The Washington Capitals are among the top of the standings and are the early benchmark in the league, just like the Canucks are when they go into other teams buildings.  Vancouver exploded for seven goals and, despite letting in 4 goals, I don't think anyone would argue that Luongo had a pretty good game (funny how a win will change everybody's attitude towards him).

Edler looked like the player that everybody expects him to be, while the 4th line is exceeding all expectations.  Don't say you knew that the 4th line was going to be this good because Lapierre might be the most consistent  Canuck this year so far - and nobody predicted that.  Lappy had 2 goals as well as Higgins and Edler with a pair each.

This isn't the best that the Canucks have played this year, they have played this well before.  The difference is, they played this well for a full 60 minutes.  There were no mini-coma's, where everybody just drones around for 10 minutes and then all the sudden they're losing 4-2.  It was a full three periods of hard, fore checking, getting shots through people and on the net, finishing your checks kind of hockey.  After this game, it felt like there were 2 first lines and 2 third lines.  Kesler didn't end up playing 26-minutes because he didn't have to.  The fourth line was on par for ice-time with the third and the defensive pairings were all about the same.  Well, except for Bieksa and Hamhuis, but once Rome comes back into the line up, expect that to change.

Now, there was a moment that all Canuck fans have been waiting for.  Half way through the third, the Canucks lead 6-4, Brooks Laich takes a shot on net, Ovechkin lurking in front.  Rebound bounces off Luongo, landing a couple feet outside of the crease.  Ovi pounces on the puck and gets a quick shot off, but Lou says, "Nay nay!".  The (in)famous quick glove flashes out and snares it out of the air (with a little Hollywood to let everybody know).  In the words of the Jim Hughson, "Grrreat save Luongo!".

The flare Luongo put on that save is going to be the turning point of his game.  That told me that it wasn't a fluke, and he's saying to Ovechkin, "Get that $h!t out of here!".  That's what we, as Canuck fans, want to see.  The swagger, the confidence.  When Luongo thinks he's the best in the NHL, he IS the best in the NHL. Now, you could argue that he did let in 4 goals, but none of them - except maybe the penalty shot - could be blamed on him.  The first one is just bad luck, it bounces up over his head off of his back and in.  The second Ovechkin goal is just a rocket, he's scored about 500 other goals just like that, and there is a reason he has done it that many times.

Scoring seven goals is always a good thing, especially against a team like Washington.  Letting in four isn't really the greatest scenario, but we know that Vancouver is going to tighten up defensively.  If this game was any indication, it's going to take a couple tweaks here and there, but everything should be just fine.

Luongo vs Schneider || The Controversy...

Vancouver Canuck fans seem like they would rather lose with Schneider than win with Luongo in net right now.  So to settle this little debacle, let's take a look at some numbers.

Corey Schneider has played in a total of 40 NHL games, started in even less of those.
Luongo has had 40 or more wins in a SINGLE SEASON twice in his career.

Schneider's professional NHL career numbers are: .920 SV% and a 2.45 GAA.
Luongo's: .919 SV% and 2.53 GAA.  Mind you he played in Florida for half of his career.

Fans are crying for Luongo to be traded or even just flat out benched.  Benching a Luongo would be the same as killing the only trained medical physician during a viral epidemic.  You can tell him that he has played poorly, but I'm sure that he already knows that.  Players like Luongo don't get to where they are now - once regarded as one of the best goalies in the world - by not being hard on themselves, and demanding perfection.

I'm not saying Schneider isn't any good.  Actually, I'm of the belief that you don't even need a high priced goaltender to make it in the NHL.  It helps, but the goalie only has to be good enough.  If you use the money that you saved on your goalie, to buy more firepower up front, then it's hard to stop everything when you have two first lines.  This is probably why I'm not a GM somewhere.

I like Schneider, he is a great goalie and will be a spectacular starting goalie one day...just not for the Canucks.  Luongo is also a GREAT goalie, I think the only problem people have with him is the money he is making.  If he made 20% less than what he signed for, he would be a steal.  As far as goalies go, having a situation where the question is, "Who should start?  Because we have two number one goalies", then it shouldn't be a problem in the first place.

St. Louis Blues vs Canucks || October, 26, 2011

First off, tonight was the Canucks night for Hockey Fights Cancer, so I feel almost obliged to send you their way in case you're feeling generous.  Cancer has affected everybody one way or another, so this is for a great cause.  Go to http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=25343 because it's the human thing to do.

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The St. Louis Blues graced us with their presence tonight. Little known fact, St. Louis is home of the invention of the...wait for it...ice cream cone.  You're welcome.  

First thing that comes to mind when Corey Schneider gets the start is, "I wonder what Luongo thinks about when Schneider plays well?"  You think he feels threatened at all or does he feel pretty secure with his contract.  Either way, despite what EVERYBODY is talking about, Luongo is still a top tier goalie, just not in October.  I don't think any of the Canucks are top tier anything in October.  It is one of those things we have to live with.  Could be worse, St. Louis came out of the gates storming last year and ended up missing the playoffs by quite a bit, so there is that alternative.

I noticed a whole lot of pucks being mishandled at the blue line and when we went to shoot, we fanned on them.  It looked like the ice conditions might have been a little on the Florida side of things, but it only seemed to affect the Canucks.  The Blues don't play a very fancy, skilled game to begin with, so they weren't too worried about it.

Despite the loss, Schneider looked sharp.  Steen's first goal was just a good goal; who seemed to have emerged as a Canuck killer recently.  Every team has a Canuck killer now, where is the Canucks Blues killer?  Or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins killer?  Regardless, Steen was a man on a mission.  He got the second one as well, a bouncer that just had eyes and found its way through Schneider.  Berglund scored the third goal off of a nice pass from Kevin "Shattenkirk-in-my-pants", which left Schneider helpless.  Although, if that was Luongo, I'm sure that it would have been his fault because of his lack of positioning.  Actually, Schneider's positioning in this game was really quite good.

When the Canucks play mediocre teams that are just on the cusp of making the playoffs, they seem to play down to their level.  St. Louis just out worked them as soon as they got the first goal.  They knew that they had to hold onto that lead, so they worked and worked and worked.  The Blues grind so much that they could turn a California sequioa tree into a #2 pencil.  Now, the Canucks did have scoring chances.  I counted three of them.  The only problem is, two if them don't even count as shots on goal because they hit the post.

St. Louis just plain ol' out worked Vancouver when it got down to the corners.  The Canucks were faster, more skilled, but when it came to grinding it out, the Blues came out with the puck.  It doesn't help either that they ran into a hot goaltender, but the most difficult shots he faced were wrist shots 40 feet away, you're making him look better than he is.  Coach V is going to have to have a stern talking to the team after this game.  Losing like they did, like they were just happy to be keeping pace with the Blues, isn't acceptable.  October isn't Vancouver's favorite month.  Elite teams should be able to play well no matter what it says on the calendar, but for whatever reason, that's not the case with the Canucks.

Edmonton Oilers vs Canucks || October, 25th, 2011

He was lights out in the first and then his light went out in the second.  True to October-Luongo form, mental breakdowns and what seems like lack of fight, proved to be the downfall of poor ol' Roberto.  It's still early and I know that he does this all the time, but if you pay top dollar for a product, you expect that product to be worth every penny.  The "Schneid's" came in a salvaged a hockey game for us, which again, makes it tough to keep starting Luongo.  If this continues on well into November or December, then I bet there will be some changes some where.

On the bright side, David Booth's debut as a Canuck was promising.  He was fast, really fast actually.  He almost beat Khabibulin to an iced puck so I think he is a bit of an upgrade over Samuelsson...so far.  Booth should be a whole lot better than what vacated the spot he is occupying now.  I see him as a very similar player to Kesler, just a notch below though.

Aside from the slow first period and the 6 minutes of slumber in the second, the Canucks dominated.  The Oiler's capitalized on Vancouver's mistakes and then hung on to the lead for dear life.  In the third period, Vancouver was the team that they needed to be the entire game.  Maybe it was Schneider being behind them or that the Sedin's finally got into some sort of groove (Burrow's goal was spectacular, he might be the luckiest winger in hockey right now).

So, the goalie controversy continues.  The fickle fans don't help the cause, especially the few thousand that made the flight to Edmonton to boo Luongo on his way to the bench.  Schneider is a more than competent back-up goaltender, but nobody knows about his full-time capabilities...yet.  Edmonton was too fast for only a handful of minutes, and that is all it took to beat the Canucks.  Vancouver is right back at it again tomorrow night though, when St. Louis will pay them a visit hoping to continue their win streak to three.

P.S.  I'm surprised Taylor Hall's head is still connected after Edler just destroyed him - clean hit too.

Minnesota Wild vs Canucks || David Booth acquisition

Mike Gillis was so bored during the Minnesota game, that he decided to give everybody something to talk about by trading Samuelsson and his big off-season pick up Sturm, for David Booth and Steven Reinprecht from Florida.  Wow was that a slow game.  The Wild are notorious for being the worst team in hockey to watch - entertainment wise - but wow.  Every time I get ready to watch a Canucks vs Wild game, I think to myself, "Well it can't be as bad as the last game."  Every time, I'm wrong.

A friend of mine said that it seems like Salo's shot is even harder and more accurate this year, and it's hard to argue with that when he's got goals like that OT winner. He had a little time to set up and rifled it into the top corner past Backstrom.

The Wild are lucky that they play in a city that actually cares about hockey, otherwise they would draw less of a crowd than the Dallas Stars when there is a playoff baseball game the same night.  Anyways, that's all there is to say about that, moving along...

The main components to this trade are the Canucks gaining a top six forward in David Booth and the Panthers dumping salary.  Samuelsson and Sturm both equal to just over what Booth is making alone, plus the Canucks owners - the Aquilini's - are basically eating Reinprecht's salary for dinner by sending him to the minors. Sturm was a bust, at least from the short sample of work we saw, and Samuelsson was getting along in hockey years and was still nursing off season surgery.  Booth is young, fast, can score and has played with both Higgins and Kesler before.  Reinprecht, well, he's old too and we probably won't be seeing him unless we absolutely have to.  Although, Vancouver always seems to dip a little further in the talent pool than they'd like to during the course of the season, but only time will tell.

Nashville Predators vs. Canucks || October, 20th, 2011

Mr. Dale Weise!  Player of the Game, Man of the Match or however you want to tag it.  Every time he was on the ice, he tried to make a difference.  It's times like this that makes you remember why Gillis (or was it Steve Tambellini) won the GM of the Year award.  Well, it was only one game, but it was a good one for Weise.

Along with a number of other Canucks: the Sedins, Higgins, Kesler, Volpatti stepped up and took a couple on the chin from Tootoo.  Now, coming off of a pretty bad loss to New York, Luongo had to step it up.  I guarantee that there were about 234,000 people jumping up and demanding Lou's head on a platter the second Halischuk got that funny bouncer off the boards, past Luongo.  Before you give yourself a hernia because of the table you tried to flip in Hulk like fashion, relax.  That probably would have beat 70% of the other goalies in the league.  Yes, that goal sucked.  Yes, he shouldn't have been out that far to play a puck off the boards.  He did shut the door after that, which is something that the Predators Pekka Rinne couldn't seem to do.

Rinne had four pretty unfortunate bounces.  Daniel Sedin bounces one off of his back, Kline tips it in his own net from a Henrik shot from the point, Weise gets a his first career NHL goal off a phenomenal tip, although I'm not sure if he could do that again if he had 100 tries. Higgins goal was a fluke that his original pass across on a 2-on-1 break out, came right back to him and Rinne already commited to the pass.  The only real legitimate goal was Kesler's, who picked far top corner on a sharp angle one-timer.  Even Sturm should have had a goal, I still don't think it was kicked in, but I've come to expect the call going against us every time the refs make a call to Toronto (you rat bastards).  It just wasn't Rinne's night.  Now if all of this happened to Luongo, we (including me...probably) would be demanding that Luongo be traded, somehow, and we get a restraining order for him to never come back to Vancouver.  Let's not forget, the Canucks got to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals despite only scoring 8 goals in the final round.  There's a reason that happened.

Lindback came in to replace Rinne after 20 minutes and seemed to fair pretty well.  Now Nashville isn't in the same goalie situation Vancouver is in, but it was a promising look for Predator fans to see a decent back up in case their pride jewel gets hurt or something.  Speaking of which!  Shea Weber was in danger of getting a suspension on his hit from behind on Jannik Hansen.  I think his $2500 fine was a little light, considering his massive salary he's making this year.  It was probably his lack of suspension history that saved him, but still, the punishment didn't really seem to fit the crime.  Do you get the feeling that these suspensions are being judged on whether or not the player gets hurt or not?  Shouldn't you punish the action and not the result?  Hypothetically, if I were playing and I got in a fight and decided to take my skate off and use it as a weapon, shouldn't I be suspended on the fact that I took it off and started wielding a CCM knife, rather than it being judged on if I connected or not.  Is that just me?

Canucks started out exactly like they did against the Rangers, except the bounces went their way.  Things are starting to look a little better, game by game, period by period, shift by shift.  Did I miss any of the cliche answers?

New York Rangers vs. Canucks || October, 18, 2011

This game weighed heavily on peoples hearts with the loss of two former Canucks in what will be known as the most tragic off-season in hockey history.  Rick Rypien, who lost a battle against depression earlier this summer, was paid tribute before the game along with his parents.  It was a heart wrenching video tribute, highlighted by Kevin Bieksa - Rypiens closest friend on the team - holding a #37 jersey high above his head before handing it off to the Rypien family. Rick was beloved by teammates and fans alike because of his small stature-big heart.



Gaborik, among others, came into this game remembering long time friend and teammate, Pavol Demitra.  They became friends in their days in Minnesota where they were line mates.  Demitra passed away in the horrific accident in Russia, when the team plane crashed immediately after take off.  All but one of the people on the plane were killed in the tragedy.


Both will be missed by not only Canuck fans, but everybody in the hockey community.

R.I.P Rick Rypien    

R.I.P. Pavol Demitra

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It was a battle to see who would blink first.  Lundqvist and Luongo were both going head-to-head to see who would eventually let the first one in.  There wasn't a goal until early in the third, where Mike Rupp buries the rebound and gives the Rangers the lead, after only a handful of shots.  Luongo wasn't tested nearly as much as Lundqvist, who had to be borderline super human because the entire second period was dominated by the Canucks.  The Rangers were outshot 28-9 after two periods.  Didn't this happen last year against the Blue Shirts as well?  This is where these defensive breakdowns need to be eliminated.  All it takes is just a quick mental lapse and all the hard work goes down the drain.

When the Canucks had the puck, they had the puck.  It was theirs until Lundqvist covered up or it bounced over their stick and the Rangers dumped it down the ice.  This is what Canuck fans are used to seeing, total domination with an unbeatable goaltender to try and score on.  Vancouver looked better in the first two periods than all the previous games combined.  It could be the return of Kesler, it could be that Luongo didn't want to be outplayed by Lundqvist, or maybe it was the emotional boost they got from the Rypien tribute.

The power play looked dangerous and had tons of time to work because of NY's terrible discipline.  There were way too many offensive zone penalties for the Rangers, which I'm sure will be addressed after the game by Mr. Happy, John Tortorella.  Even though we had as many power plays as New York had shots, we still couldn't find a way to solve the riddle that is Henrik Lundqvist.

The third period was incredible, and not in a good way.  There is no reason that the Canucks can play so well and just man-handle the Rangers, while outshooting the Rangers 3-to-1 and still be down 2-0 half way through the third.  Lundqvist is doing what Luongo should be doing, making timely saves and maybe stealing a game or two.  Although, you got the sense that Lundqvist wasn't going to let anything past him, even if you had an empty net.  Lundqvist gave the Rangers the confidence, nay, the WILL TO LIVE, and the hope that they could win.  Once a team has someone holding the fort down like King Henrik did, it's hard not to think you're invincible.

The lone sign of life from Vancouver in the third period was from Bieksa when he kicked the living hell out of Dubinsky.  They did a little wrestling until Bieksa finally broke lose and pretty well laid the smack down, dropping bombs from above Dubinsky. Bieksa just did what every Canuck fan in the building was thinking.

At the end of it all, the Canucks started out strong, then absolutely collapsed.  There was no goal tending when there needed to be, there was no defense before in front of the lack of goal tending, no sustained offense in the third.  It was a typhoon of terrible.  All the Rangers can say is, "Thanks again, Henrik".

PS.  What a move by Edler in the third period.

Edmonton Oilers review || NY Rangers preview

THE NUGE!

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a hatrick*, who also accounts for about 90% of the Oilers scoring this season so far, yet Edmonton still couldn't beat Vancouver.

*RNH's third  goal should have been Taylor Halls, but I think they were just trying to be nice

This season has been a little boring so far.  Boring, predictable...sllooowww.  Aren't we supposed to expect that though?  Over the last 5+ years, the Canucks aren't even a .500 team after the first couple weeks of the season. No need to panic quite yet, although if it doesn't pick up once we hit November, then you can expect to see some people leaping off the band wagon.

There were only a few bright spots I found in the Edmonton game.  The Volpatti fight and the Weise (wee~se) fight were what really stuck out in my mind..  Volpatti won decisively, while Weise and Peckham threw punches-in-bunches but never really landed any.  Dale Weise took a run at Eberle, and if he had connected, oh boy.  The hit probably would have been reviewed by Mr. Shannahan, so it's a good thing Eberle had his head up.  That was a good reason to fight though; it wasn't staged, it wasn't because of a clean check which apparently have become something you have to answer for.  It was a 4th line guy taking a run at one of the star players and then having to pay for his actions.  Just like the good ol' days...

Most topics brought up about the Canucks seem to be, what the kids are calling now a days, Rich People Problems.  We have two extraordinary goaltenders.  Schneider is playing above his worth and, despite what you think, every other team in the league would kill to have Lou minding their net.  Another is, what's going to happen to Hodgson when Kesler comes back, which will be tomorrow against the Rangers.  What are the Canucks going to do with all this talent down the middle?  Sedin, Kesler, Malhotra, Lapierre, Hodgson, "we have too many quality centres, what shall we do?"  I'll tell ya what you do, you play them all!  Samuelsson and Sturm may as well just not show up.  Sturm doesn't want to battle for the puck and Samuelsson seems to be scared of hustle.  Granted, they both are coming off of surgery and are expected to take a bit of warming up, but you should at least see them WARM up.  They are practically invisible and the only reason their line has any sort of pulse is because they have a kid who is battling for a permanent position on the team in Hodgson.

ANYWAYS!  The Rangers, Dale Weise's old club, are in town tomorrow night.  Kesler makes his return (see Rich People Problems above) which will see him centre Hodgson and Higgins.  That line will be like a third line, but all of which have 20+ goal scoring potential.  Well those were the lines during practice anyway, so hopefully they stay that way.

Sturm will be sitting this one out and Tanev was sent down to the minors to make room for the sometimes-clothed Kesler.  The second line went from being deathly slow, to probably the fastest line on the team.

This game should be a battle of the goalies, Lundqvist is a dominant goalie when he is on.  He's often over looked as one of the greats in the league today, which is why he often goes a little later in fantasy hockey pools, as far as goalies go I guess.

There aren't very many scout reports on the Rangers because we just never really see them here.  Most people will regurgitate memories of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final when they think of the Rangers.  I assure you, they aren't that good anymore AND there is no Messier to sucker punch a helpless and battered Trevor Linden (I still haven't forgiven him for that).

My Prediction:

Canucks 4
Rangers 3

Vancouver is going to be bombarded at the end while NY pulls their goalie, but I think were going to hold on to the lead like the Edmonton game.  We should come out a bit faster and stronger than we have so far this season, especially with the (hopefully) revamped 2nd line.

GAME DAY Back-to-back || October, 13, 2011 vs. Detroit Red Wings

Well at least we didn't take first period off this time...just the second period.  It's not so much that we didn't play well in the second, rather the Red Wings were unbelievably good.  Datsyuk looked like, well, Datsyuk.

A great start is a refreshing thing to see but shouldn't be because a team of the Canucks caliber shouldn't be having these slow starts to games.  I know it's still really early in the season - really, REALLY, early - but this is the time when chemistry and patterns are formed.  Long road trips are usually great for teams, especially Vancouver considering our road record last season.  It doesn't really help that much though when you have back-to-back games against two of the better teams in the league.

The second period was a little crazy.  It's exactly what Canuck fans are used to seeing, except the roles were reversed.  The Canucks are usually the ones dominating the play, barely letting the other team touch the puck.  Little known fact - every face-off taking in the second period was in either in the neutral zone or in front of Cory Schneider.  Speaking of which, Cory Schneider was the single reason the Wings scored just two goals.  He is making a very impressive case for a starting position, just saying (again).  The first goal was a little flukey, finding a sliver of light in an otherwise perfectly position Schneider.  The second goal from Filppula was one that Cory should have had, but it seems like we always let in one stinker.

This hasn't really been a hot topic since early in the playoffs last year, but the officiating was pretty terrible in this game.  The first questionable one was against Detroit, where Bertuzzi and Malhotra went after a puck on the half boards, and Bertuzzi just went in stronger and knocked Malhotra over.  It was called interference, which was a little on the dicey side.  Mr. Todd Bertuzzi went in a LITTLE early, but not by much.  The other one was against Ballard, with his now famous hip check.  He lowers the boom on Zetterberg and gets called for tripping? Are you kidding? He tripped him at the waist?  They say that Shanahan wants to take hitting out of the game (which I disagree with), but every time Ballard or Hamhuis throw a hip check, about 75% of those get called for either clipping or tripping.  There is such a thing as a good hip check, it's got a smaller strike zone than a midget batting against Randy Johnson.  There were others, but you get the idea.

The Canucks did have their chances though.  Hodgson on the buzzer beater at the end of the second, which actually went in, just not fast enough.  Burrows had a wiiiiiiide open net, but seemed to find the middle of the crossbar with a slap shot.  It just seems, sometimes, that it simply isn't our night.

A little side note, Joe Louis Arena was 3/4 empty with two minutes left, yet the Red Wings were only ahead by two.  To think of the kind of history Detroit has, and calling themselves a true sports town, it was a little embarrassing. Then again, when people leave early is a huge pet peeve of mine.

GAME DAY || October 12, 2011 vs. Philadelphia Flyers

He's going to have to do better than that.  I know it wasn't really Lou's fault for a couple of them, but the Meszaros game winning goal is one that needs to be stopped.  Granted, he did save our asses on that wide open net Jagr had off of a rebound, which was the kind of Luongo that he needs to be 99% of the time.

The last significant time I can remember these two teams play was a few years ago, when the Canucks still had Matt Cooke and the Flyers' Jesse Boulerice came up and broke his stick on a cross check over Kesler's face. Remember that?  Anyways, I digress...

Vancouver Canucks are in a very interesting situation right now.  A city that used to be known as a goalie graveyard, is now home to possibly the best 1-2 (possibly 3 in Eddie Lack) combination of netminders in the league.

The formula the Canucks seem to be following right now is the ol' Rope-a-Dope, except it only works against terrible/mediocre teams.  It worked against Pittsburgh (kinda) and worked against Columbus, where we play like an AHL team by just high sticking and holding so we can work on our penalty kill.  At the end of the first, I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Bieksa and Hartnell had a little tussle.  It's usually a good thing to see Bieksa fired up like that, he almost always plays better afterwards.  There are the rare occasions though, where he just goes on a rampage and takes charging and roughing penalties, but I think those days are behind him.

After the half way point, it was the Canucks of yesteryear, dominating the half boards, making them pay on the power play.  I don't think that we give the Sedin's enough credit on the power play and not on the scoring end of it.  The zone entry play that they do coming through the middle of the ice, then doing a little drop pass to get over the blue line, then back to the defenseman and then back to the Sedin's...flawless.  You don't really notice it until you have somebody else try to do the same thing.  Hodgson, despite having a pretty strong game even strength, wasn't up to par when he tried his luck at quarterbacking the power play.  Gaining the offensive zone was a struggle, and when he finally did, the only thing left to do was shoot it on net from the blueline and force Bryzgalov to cover up.  Look for it next time, watch how seamless it is.  Not to mention that 90 foot saucer pass from Henrik to Daniel, then Daniel one-times that pass as soon as the puck hits the ice...just lovely.

It's pretty hard to say that the defense played well in a 5-4 game, but I thought they did a decent job at shutting down most of the big guns.  Edler had his hands full with Jagr, who still is a monster on the puck.  He basically just gets the puck and backs himself where ever he wants to go (Shaq would be proud).

This was just one of those back and forth games where the goalies should have been a little sharper at times, where we should have shown up for the first 20-30 minutes (again) and we need a little bit more of a contribution from the 3rd and 4th lines.  It's pretty hard to fault them for anything really, when all they're expected to do is shutdown the first line and rough them up a bit, but a little more shots on net would be stupendous.  There was a sequence there in the first where they had them hemmed in, I think Hodgson was stuck out there with Weise and Volpatti and they had some sustained pressure.

Anyways, Luongo could have been better at times, but the biggest issue is the penalties.  Maybe the Canucks should just scrimmage for about 30 minutes before the game, so they can get all the horrible hockey out of their systems before the actual game starts.

GAME DAY || October 10, 2011 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

I know this one is late and I'd say I'm sorry but I'm really not.

After this game, all I hear about is the hit that had everybody gasping as soon as it happened.  When Methot ran into Henrik Sedin from behind, sending him teeth first into the boards.  Sedin was a little slow to get up, but eventually made his way to the bench.  Turns out that he hurt his knee more than anything, which is better than the alternative in my opinion.  The NHL wouldn't want another Crosby situation on it's hands.  Aside from the hit and the lack of response by the Canucks, Vancouver looked only so-so.

The first period we got spanked.  End of story.  Schneider is the only reason we were even alive after 20 minutes - who by the way, is making a very strong case for a starting position, Schneider is.  About half way through the second is when the Canucks really started to play hockey.  Schneider let in that one stinker, a wrap around which beat him short side between his skate and the post.  You can blame it on the gigantic pads goalies have now, which wouldn't allow him to squeeze his skate against the post, or you can blame it on Bieksa who decided to leave his man and double team Nash in the corner (there's a joke in there somewhere).

Sticking with the goalie theme, Schneider redeemed himself after stopping a penalty shot in the third which resulted because of one of Tanev's rare mistakes.  Turns out he's human after all.

Players who stuck out to me in the game from Vancouver would have to be Hodgson and Ballard.  Hodgson because he was the only person on the second line who had a pulse.  Ballard, because he flashed his patented smooth skating and speed by shooting up the middle with the puck, going around two defenceman and beating them to his rebound.  If he had scored on that play, I'm sure we would be hearing the chants of "Norris, Norris" faintly in the background from the band wagon fans in Vancouver.

Players from Columbus, Methot because of his hit, and Clitsome, because of his ridiculous name.  If you said his name while talking to a woman, you'd probably be slapped.  Not only that, but he was everywhere.  I think he assisted both of the Blue Jackets goals and every time the camera would zoom into a scrum or anything, there he was! Clitsome!  He's just lucky his parents were nice and named him Grant instead of Harry or Rubyer...

We didn't really deserve to win the game, but we are definitely more skilled than Columbus is, despite them adding Jeff Carter.  So I guess the best team won this one, but up until the third period, the Blue Jackets definitely wanted it more.

GAME DAY - Season Opener || October, 6, 2011 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

No Sidney Crosby, no Ryan Kesler.  Those were basically the headlines for me when I watched this game.  That, and I was doing my fantasy hockey draft during the game.  I'll be honest, I didn't even really see the game until the third period and beyond.  Soooo....from what I saw, we looked really good.  I know Luongo let in some stinkers, but other than that he played well.  Fleury let in that one from Lapierre that sucked too (it's hard to find the puck when it's in your feet like that).  Ballard had a nice goal, proving that he is one of the better skating defenseman in the league when he goes from end to end like that.  Now, it wasn't end to end with the puck, but still, it was a great shot on his part.  It's good to see him do well, because if he doesn't, I'm not sure if he'd be in Vancouver to see Christmas.

We juts dominated them in the third period. I especially liked how we played them defensively, one-on-one.  In particular, Hamhuis when Malkin was coming down the right wing and tried a through the legs move.  Malkin is projected to be challenging for the scoring title this year and Hamhuis played him perfectly, taking the body and then actually taking the puck from him.

Overtime was pretty much the same, just dominating them.  Although, whatever chance the Penguins did get, it seemed like they could score at any moment.  It wasn't because they were really good scoring chances or anything, that's just kind of the feeling that I got.  Any shot seemed like it could be deflected or it would get lost in Luongo's feet and find its way in.

Shoot-out...well, let's just say that if you're goalie is on his belly on every shot, you aren't exactly a shoot out team.  This was the Canucks-crux (say that ten times fast) last year as well.  You could practically see the entire crowd cringe as the seconds ticked away signaling a shoot-out.  Samuelsson was an interesting choice for a first shooter, I would have thought Hodgson over him.  Burrows made sense, he would've scored too if it wasn't for Fleury's ridiculous flexibility and reaction time.  Letang and Malkin...dirty, dirty goals.  They left Luongo picking up items of clothing and equipment after each shot.  Letang's goal was amazing, especially considering he's a defenseman.  The big thing I noticed between the two goalies was that Fleury didn't resort to going down.  On Samuelsson's shot, he barely took a knee.  Luongo was on his stomach on the first move, which opens up the entire net if you just wait him out, which is exactly what Malkin did.



All in all, good game, glad to finally get some hockey that matters going.  This upcoming road trip will be a good experience for everybody, getting some chemistry going.  I'm still pulling for Ballard too by the way, I think he's better than people give him credit for.

Hodgson Number Change/New Canuck || October, 4, 2011

Mike Gillis decided that a year was enough for Victor Oreskovich.  It's a shame really because I actually liked him.  I liked him because he hit people and just generally always skated flat out.  Kind of the same reason you like Raffi Torres, he's like a starving pitbull released from his cage for about 45 seconds, then you reel him back in to the bench.  The Canucks put Oreskovich on waivers to claim 6'3" 210-pound ex-Ranger Dale Weise.  From what I've heard, he's just a younger Oreskovich with more hockey sense.  So time will tell I guess...







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Also, Cody Hodgson changed his jersey number from #39 to #9. Hodgson says that he changed his number to #9 because it's what he wore in junior and because it's just an historic number in general.

You can think of a few Hall of Famers off the bat, Yzerman, Sakic, Hull, and even Naslund (even though not of hall of fame caliber, but still good).  All those players had number-9 on their jersey in some form, now Hodgson hopes to continue that trend.  Here's to you Hodgson, finally getting your chance to prove yourself.  No pressure or anything, but if you mess this up you can always go the Grabner route and go to Florida for nothing.  That worked out pretty well for him.

GAME DAY - Pre-season || October, 1st, 2011 - vs. Edmonton Oilers

Alright, first of all, welcome to October.  October means two things to me, the end of baseball is near and the regular season is upon us.  I'm sure you are in the middle of your fantasy pool drafts, deciding if one of the Sedin's go first or if Stamkos is gonna decide to do what he does.  Maybe even pick Crosby in the first round hoping he comes back early and tears it up like he was before he got hurt.  A little word of advice - don't do that.

Our line up tonight looks a lot closer to what would be dressed in a month or two, except for the injuries to Raymond and Kesler, but this should give us a decent idea of what we're going to look like...

Forwards


Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Sturm-Hodgson-Samuelsson
Higgins-Malhotra-Hansen
Volpatti-Lapierre-Oreskovich <---the new L.O.V. line

Blueline


Hamhuis-Bieksa
Salo-Edler
Ballard-Tanev

Luongo should start with Schneider on the bench but at this point, they are both playing about equal.

Despite losing Erhoff to a team that has "the best chance to win the Stanley Cup" - the Sabres, I think that Ballard and Tanev are going to have a surprising year this year.  If they stay paired together that is.  They are both smooth skating, puck moving defenseman.  Ballard showed flashes of it when he would take it end to end and score.  Tanev though, seemed like all he had to do was play mistake free, which he did that and more during the playoffs last year (lets not mention the playoffs though, touchy subject).

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Anybody else see it?!  Luongo tries to catch the Oilers on a change on the powerplay in the first period, by coming OUT of his net and slapping it down the ice.  It wasn't pretty, but it was a hell of an offensive turn around for Lou.

Good to see Hodgson score, if he doesn't have a decent year this year, do we THEN call him a bust draft pick?  It would  be his first full(ish) NHL season, but he has to take advantage of his opportunity while Kesler and Raymond are out.  So far, so good.

With all these big suspensions, I think it's a good thing because it should send the message.  That Edler hit though, I hope he doesn't get suspended for that.  It's coming from a Canuck fan I know, but come on now.  There was no intent or anything, it was Hall trying to be too cute when all he had to do was go in strong.

Why is it that everytime Luongo gets interviewed, he can't seem to look at just one spot.  Even TWO places, but he's looking around like Al Pacino does when he's trying to give a speech.  Anyway, he played well, the lone goal he let in wasn't exactly his fault.  He made a few saves from his ass and then finally Paajarvi roofed it past him.

I'm excited for this year though.  With Volpatti and a regular spot of Oreskovich, we seem to be a lot tougher.  Although the new rules are leaning towards no more hitting ever, we've got to get as many hits in on players like Nugent-Hopkins while we're still allowed to hit.

For our regular season opener, everybody is making a whole lot of assumptions about Crosby even coming on the road trip.  He's not going to play people, he is on light contact right now, he isn't going to jump right into a game situation.  Especially when that game situation is Oreskovich coming at you with Lapierre there to take the punches for us.