According to Tony Gallagher this was an embarrassing game for the Canucks (Ya think?).
The Sedins look exhausted, Hansen has regressed terribly (despite his stats), only Ryan Kesler and David Booth were going and it was Cody Hodgson who turned the game around.
I agree with Tony... they just lack the spark they have shown over the last 2 years. Hansen too looks to have no jump at all. They need to regroup and refocus.
JamiesonCanucks Jim Jamieson
#Canucks Also, AV said Luongo will tend the twine Saturday morning vs Colorado.
And the Sedins will be back together:
VanCanucks Luongo will start Saturday against the Avalanche; Daniel and Henrik Sedin will play together, despite being split up Thursday night.
just not mentally sharp right now...I couldn't count the number of odd man rushes and breakaways when you look at the Chicago and Detroit together. Our D especially are not keeping their wits and caught flat footed in respect to opposition's transition attack. If it was not for the solid play of Schneider and Luongo, those would have been lop sided games.
I agree though it is difficult for all teams including the Canucks to play all out through the regular season (look at Chicago, Boston, etc. all struggling). I'd rather them suck now and work out their kinks over the next 20 games and then end the season off with solid play that would carry into the playoffs.
I don't know, I'm just not putting too much stock into practice lines.
Considering he throws Rome out in every situation like he's ****ing Scott Stevens, it wouldn't surprise me if Ballie was starting on the 2nd line tommorow afternoon in place of Higgins...
just not mentally sharp right now...I couldn't count the number of odd man rushes and breakaways when you look at the Chicago and Detroit together. Our D especially are not keeping their wits and caught flat footed in respect to opposition's transition attack. If it was not for the solid play of Schneider and Luongo, those would have been lop sided games.
I agree though it is difficult for all teams including the Canucks to play all out through the regular season (look at Chicago, Boston, etc. all struggling). I'd rather them suck now and work out their kinks over the next 20 games and then end the season off with solid play that would carry into the playoffs.
While the D has looked lost, much of the problem in the neutral zone and at the blue line is poor play and positioning by the forwards.
When the Canucks D is clicking they are stepping up agressively in the neutral zone and holding the defensive blue line forcing the play.
The forwards are not in their proper gaps and as result the D is hesitating and they are being caught flat-footed.
And last night it was apparent the forwards were losing their positioning on breakout plays as well which causes the D to hold onto the puck too long. And then bad things happen.
I only managed to get home in time to catch the 3rd period but Hodgson looked awesome. With the lines juggled, I think Cody saw a big opportunity for him and the effort was sure there to make the most of it. He's got to be fired up after winning rookie of the month as well. He's not looking undersized at all anymore, he's like a little bowling ball down low.
I only managed to get home in time to catch the 3rd period but Hodgson looked awesome. With the lines juggled, I think Cody saw a big opportunity for him and the effort was sure there to make the most of it. He's got to be fired up after winning rookie of the month as well. He's not looking undersized at all anymore, he's like a little bowling ball down low.
Not so good in the first two periods. He was a team worst -2 (along with Malhotra). Mind you there were a lot of forwards who did not look good in that game.
The Canucks have been legitimately bad since the last Detroit game and their record would reflect that if not for good goaltending and a good power play. They've been getting killed at EV.
Canucks also only have something like 3 PP goals since that Bruins game. It's amazing they're, what, 7-2-3 in their last 12 games? The goaltending has been exceptional.
I think we've had 23 PP's since the Boston game. Our opponents have had 23 PP's against us in the same time. Not a very good PP of late, thats for sure.
“The refereeing had nothing to do with how we played the first two periods.”
Kevin Bieksa on the lack of power plays:
“That’s not our fault,” the Canucks defenceman said. “There’s penalties out there to be called. That’s the referees’ job, it’s not the lack of us doing anything, I don’t believe that.
“Kes gets tripped going full-speed … if they don’t want to call it, they don’t want to call it. We’re not going to worry about that, it’s just the way it goes.”
“You get five, six power plays for a few games, other times you don’t get many chances,” Bieksa said.
Who has been the biggest goats in this regard statistically?
Looking at numbers since Jan 1:
Factoring in quality of minutes, it's Raymond-Hodgson-Hansen that are dragging the team down the most. They've gotten soft minutes and have absolutely been killed (~40% Fenwick percentage).
The second line was mediocre until Booth came back (~48% Fenwick percentage). The Sedins are getting good results but not dominating in the minutes they are playing. Higgins and Burrows seem to be dragging their linemates down - both lines are much better without those two.
Lapierre/Malhotra are getting absolutely destroyed but given the difficulty of their minutes, it's understandable.
The entire top-4 on defence have been very underwhelming. It's Ballard/Rome that have had the best results by a fair margin the past month.
Basically the whole team has been bad. At the individual level you've got sample size issues with such little data so it's hard to say how accurate these numbers are, but at the team level the past ~15 games are certainly a strong sample and things do not look good. Before the Christmas break, the Canucks were the second best score tied Fenwick team in the league. Now they are 15th and below 50% on the season. It's very worrying. They've basically been the October/November Minnesota Wild since Christmas.
The 4th line will always flirt with the negatives because of how they are utilized.
The 3rd line kind of surprises me a little. Producing, but the stats don't support their play.
Got to get a winger to make Raymond and Hansen earn their 3rd line ice.
Defensively Hodgson hasn't really looked all that strong, people love to talk about the offense and he's been great in that regard but he still needs to figure out the defensive side of the ice.
