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.
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