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.