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Game 6 Recap – Hawks Too Much For Canucks

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:45:32 +0000

The better team won. Face it. I have heard lots of whispers from the Canucks players and from fans that somehow the Hawks aren’t the better team, which boggles my mind. They were the better team during the last two regular seasons, they were the better team the last two playoffs. Sure there were some mitigating factors. Willie Mitchell’s injury sure hurt. Playing game 6 with a less than 100% Sami Salo and losing Alex Edler made things difficult. Lots of the Canucks forwards were banged up. Injuries ARE excuses, legitimate excuses. Injuries don’t mean you automatically lose, but they make things more difficult. These injuries meant that the Canucks had to be extra good, seeing as how they were underdogs to begin with. In the next few days I’ll take a retrospective look back at the Canucks season that was, but for now, lets concentrate on what happened in the deciding game, game 6 versus Chicago.

The Start

The Canucks got off to a terrible start in game 6. The shots on goal and the score were very misleading stats after the first period. The Blackhawks got probably the best five chances to score, but were stonewalled by Roberto Luongo. Luongo was positively in vintage form in the first period and gave his teammates a mulligan for a terrible start. Despite the bad start, his big saves got the crowd really involved, who were much more into the game than they were at the start of game 3 and 4 of this series.

‘Balls of Steel’

Canucks fans are normally known for unimaginative, lame cheers. You know the ones, “Turrrrrrrrrrrcoooooo!” and “Calgary Sucks!”. Well, we took a giant step forward with the “Balls of Steel!” chant for Sami Salo in game 6. Salo did indeed play, and was clearly under distress. He showed great courage, and should have provided a boost for his teammates.

Edler gets Byfuglien’d

The beginning of the end came in the first period when Alex Edler got hit into the boards by Dustin Byfuglien. Edler fell awkwardly on his leg and suffered an injury, which knocked him out of the game. Edler was the Canucks’ best defenceman in the playoffs, and given the depth on defence, he was probably the player they could most ill afford to lose.

Bad Bieksa

In the game preview yesterday, I asked the question of whether we would see the good Bieksa or the bad Bieksa. In game 5, we saw the good Bieksa. In game 6, not surprisingly, we saw the bad Bieksa. His unbelievable misplaying of the puck in the neutral zone which lead to Chicago’s second goal was a huge moment in the game. It kind of summed up his season: too casual.

Demitra’s Grand Finale

Demitra decided to roll the dice on a play at the blueline and he crapped out. His giveaway which lead to David Bolland’s breakaway goal made it 3-0 going into the second intermission. It was an absolute dagger. Alain Vigneault wasn’t impressed and benched him the rest of the game. That play will be Demitra’s last as a Canuck.

The Comeback

Could they? Would they? They didn’t. Shane O’Brien’s goal early in the third made things interesting, but only for a moment.

The Nail in the Coffin

Patrick Kane’s goal to make it 4-1 all but sealed it up. Another Canuck blunder, the Blackhawks made it look easy. Despite the fact that the Canucks stayed almost completely out of penalty trouble, the Hawks waltzed into GM Place and had their way. Nevermind the home ice advantage, the crowd, having last change. None of it mattered because the Blackhawks were too fast, too strong, too mean, too skilled, too good. There’s no shame in losing to the Blackhawks, they were the better team, but to lose in that fashion, was an embarrassing way to end the season.

Game 4 Preview – Vigneault Shakes up the Lineup, Burish Calls Canucks ‘Clowns’

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:19:57 +0000

Skate and go to the net, presumably that’s the message from Coach V to his troops tonight. Alain Vigneault has a few lineup shuffles in mind for tonight’s contest. Pavol Demitra and Rick Rypien will sit out tonight’s contest in favour of Michael Grabner and Tanner Glass. Here’s what the Canucks lines are expected to look like:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Raymond-Kesler-Grabner

Hansen-Wellwood-Samuelsson

Glass-Johnson-Bernier

I like the idea of them shaking it up. You’ve got to give the Hawks a different look, make your team unpredictable.

Power Play

The Canucks power play clearly needs to be better and Alain Vigneault has decided to shake that up also:

1st PP Unit:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Bieksa-Salo

2nd PP Unit:

Wellwood/Bernier-Kesler-Samuelsson

Ehrhoff-Edler

Once again, I like the sounds of this. The mandate sounds like they want more point shots with a net presence. If they do that, it’ll open things up for the Sedins down low. It’s no different than having a three point threat helping your post players in basketball.

Burish Bullsh*t

Adam Burish had a few choice words for a few members of the Canucks. Here are a few excerpts:

“The thing that upsets me about O’Brien and Burrows is they go and target [Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews],” Burish said Friday morning. “The clown Burrows goes after [Brian] Campbell in the middle of the ice.

“Give me a break. If you want to target someone, come find me or [Ben Eager]. You guys want to pretend you’re so tough, and yet you go and try to pick a fight with those guys. If you want to hit them and play hard, fine. But those clowns are pushing them after the whistle and punching them.”

“We call O’Brien a ‘spot picker,’ ” Burish said. “He picks his spots pretty nice. He knows who’s on the ice and when he can be a tough guy and when he kind of has to shut up.”

To me this is nothing more than Burish trying to throw the Canucks off their game. I don’t know if it will work or if it will just motivate the Canucks, but I do know that those are tough words for a guy who got his clock cleaned by O’Brien last season:

Game 5 Recap – Not So Quick

Tonyz Tanti — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:23:52 +0000

Game 5 was the first one sided game of this entertaining series. For the first time in the series, Roberto Luongo clearly outplayed Jonathan Quick, who was chased in the second period. For the second game in a row, the Canucks power play equaled the Kings power play, perhaps indicating that this penalty killing jinx is at least close to ending.

While the Kings have silenced Alex Burrows in this series (I believe he must be injured, he hasn’t looked himself at all), they haven’t found an answer for Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson had two goals in game 5 and is red hot, netting seven goals already in this series. That ties him with none other than Pavel Bure for the franchise record of most goals in a playoff series.

Encouraging for the Canucks was the play of their defense. Alex Edler continues to be a beast on the back end, with Ehrhoff and Sami Salo also leading the way. The problem in recent weeks has been the play of their bottom three d-men: Kevin Bieksa, Shane O’Brien and Andrew Alberts. While the three of them weren’t superstars by any means, Bieksa looked steady, O’Brien got in a fight and the fans were chanting “Lets Go Alberts!” late in the game. Alberts looked steady defensively, but is still incapable of making an outlet pass, which reminded me of possibly the best tweet in the history of twitter: “Saw Alberts play a bit in Carolina. Hits like a truck. Handles the puck like a truck, too”.

Speaking of O’Brien, he appears to have not learned his lesson yet. I think he’s an underrated player, but giving the #1 motion with his finger after his fight was not the brightest move. If you’re in a one-off game in the regular season I don’t have much of a problem with it, but doing it in a playoff series is showing up the other team and essentially works the same as giving the other team “bulletin board material”. Kings head coach Terry Murray called him a “clown” which was probably a little bit harsh, to which Alain Vigneault responded with “I don’t care” (you got to love Vigneault).

Here’s another example of why you’ve got to love Vigneault:

Now the bad news. The Canucks ran away with game 5 and looked good doing it. I believe a lot of Canuck nation is getting a little cocky after it though and we shouldn’t be surprised if the Kings take game 6 to set-up a dramatic seventh game at GM Place. Teams often rebound from blowouts to win the next game, presumably because the losing team makes a lot of adjustments while the winning team gets a little overconfident. Game 6 will also be played at the Staples Center where the Kings have looked great and the Canucks (save for the 1st period in game 3 and the 3rd period in game 4) have looked overwhelmed. Once again, special teams will be of the utmost importance. If you stop the Kings power play you should win the game.

And now something to keep you entertained until game 6, one of the better Canucks songs I’ve heard in a while (with apologies to Ivan Hrvatska and Ink Operated) :

Demitra to Play Saturday

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:39:45 +0000

Team 1040 is reporting that Pavol Demitra will likely make his season debut Saturday versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Great news, now all they have to decide is where to put him. Has the second line of Samuelsson, Kesler, and Raymond shown enough to not get broken up? I’m not sure it has.

It appears Alain Vigneault isn’t ready to shake up his top two lines. Here’s what the lines looked like at practice today:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Raymond-Kesler-Samuelsson

Demitra-Wellwood-Bernier

Hordichuk-Rypien-Glass

Jannik Hansen looks to be a healthy scratch, Ryan Johnson is still injured and Alex Bolduc is injured because he’s crazy.

*Update: It looks like Bernier re-aggravated his groin injury, so look for Jannik Hansen to take his spot on the third line.

Canucks Shopping Demitra and O’Brien?

Tonyz Tanti — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:58:14 +0000

Interesting stuff from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. Among other things, Garrioch is reporting that the New York Rangers are interested in acquiring Pavol Demitra and that the Canucks are shopping Shane O’Brien. Interesting news on both fronts.

Apparently the Rangers are interested in reuniting Slovak buddies Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra (no word on Demitra buying a house in Manhattan yet). This makes some sense when you think about it, as Glen Sather has been prone to reuniting countrymen, just as he did with Jaromir Jagr, Robert Lang and the rest of the Czech National Team.

Just who the Canucks could get in return is another story. Sure, the Rangers would love to have Demitra, but he also makes $4 million per season and the blue shirts are at the cap. Looking at the Rangers roster/cap situation, I don’t see a fit.

So what about O’Brien? Vigneault dressed him in three straight games which has sparked rumours that he’s shopping him. While on the surface this may make some sense, they had better get a defenceman in return if they trade him. The Canucks have been remarkably lucky with their injury prone defense corps this season, but lets not forget that Sami Salo and/or Mathieu Schneider are VERY prone to injuries. They need to have extra d-men waiting in the wings.

This is not to say that Mike Gillis isn’t or shouldn’t be working the phone lines. The Canucks have not been good enough this season and could still use a proven scorer. Let me be the first to beat the Alex Tanguay and Ray Whitney drums. Both guys are pending unrestricted free agents that are having disappointing seasons thus far. Might be worth a shot.

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What’s Wrong With this Team?

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:28:24 +0000

They’re 0-3 and in less than one week have gone from cup contenders to talentless bums (according to the bandwagon douchebags anyways). Well, the fact of the matter is that this team isn’t as good as those early season predictions (loyal Canuckz.com readers already knew this after reading this post) and they’re not as bad as their 0-3 record suggests. I think what’s wrong with the Canucks is a combination of them getting cocky, believing their own preseason hype, and being out of sync. Being out of sync can be attributed to them not icing a single game in the preseason with their full line-up. I believe they kept too many prospects right to the final game of the preseason. So that’s the bad news.

The good news is, they’ve actually played pretty well in large portions of all three games. The Canucks have outplayed their opponents in about 70% of their games, but haven’t been able to score. Conversely, their opponents have capitalized on their chances, putting Luongo and company in a big hole.

Random Thoughts

More good news: Luongo won’t be this bad for long and the Canucks won’t be this snake-bit for long.

When the Canucks have played with urgency, they’ve been very good. The problem is that by the time they decided to play with urgency on Monday night, they were down by three goals. Same thing against Calgary.

The Canucks penalty kill needs to get better. Their opponents have absolutely lit them up on the man advantage: Columbus was 1-3, Colorado was 2-6, and Calgary was 2-3. You can’t expect to win with penalty killing like that.

Ryan Johnson has been on the ice for all six goals against while shorthanded! Not good for someone who is supposed to be a penalty killing specialist. Rick Rypien has been on for three of them. Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows haven’t been on for a goal against while on the penalty kill.

Five of the six power play goals against have been scored by the other team’s second unit.

Maybe they ought to keep one of Burrows or Kesler on the ice at all times while on the penalty kill.

The Sergei Shirokov experiment may be over. Alain Vigneault juggled his lines after they were down 4-1 against Columbus and Shirokov ended up on the 4th line with Ryan Johnson and Rick Rypien. Shirokov’s old linemates, Ryan Kesler and Mikael Samuelsson, were much more effective playing with Mason Raymond in the 3rd period. Look for Tanner Glass to be inserted into the lineup against Montreal.

What are the game presentation people doing at GM Place? The Canucks are now hitting the ice to some mellow song by Cold Play after a sappy intro on the big screen. Not surprisingly, this put the home crowd a bit to sleep to start the game. I know it was Columbus on a Monday night, but I have never seen a quieter home opener to start the game, and the game presentation certainly contributed to it.

Anybody notice that there were an awful lot of tickets available for the home opener? It’s become abundantly clear that the sellout streak has ended (unless you count giving away hundreds of tickets) and it’s not because of a lack of fan support. Simply put, the Aquilinis have now priced people right out of the building. Seriously, how many people can afford to spend over $200 on a mediocre corner seat in the lower bowl, for Columbus on a Monday night no less? The entire city of Vancouver is crazy about this team right now and for the Canucks to price tickets so high that they can’t sell them is just plain greedy.

And now, something to help cheer us cheer up…

Vigneault Signs Extension

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:46:50 +0000

The Canucks have just announced that Alain Vigneault has signed a three year contract extension. The contract takes him through the 2012-13 season. While most everyone agrees that re-signing Vigneault is a good thing (except those bandwagon douchebags, of course), what are the odds of a coach lasting seven years with one team? That’s what Vigneault will have done if he coaches to the end of this contract. Seeing as how the Aquilini family is footing the bill, so long as this contract doesn’t make Gillis more hesitant to make a decision with his coach, this will prove to be a positive move.

In other news, the Canucks trimmed their roster today, with no major surprises. Dave Scatchard was released and may have played his last NHL game. Yann Sauve is on his way back to junior while most of the others will play in Manitoba. Interestingly, Mark Parrish was not on the list of cuts (although still a long shot in my opinion).

Update: so long Mark Parrish

What To Do About Hodgson?

Tonyz Tanti — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:09:49 +0000

Will we be seeing Cody Hodgson in Canuck blue this season or will the people of Brampton be seeing him back in one of those snazzy green Brampton Battalion jerseys? That’s the decision that Mike Gillis and Alain Vigneault are trying to make and fans of the Canucks are debating. Yesterday I theorized that Hodgson would be sent back to junior.

I thought that until I read this from Vigneault: “One thing I firmly believe is talent has no age,” Vigneault said. “Talent helps a player improve and improve quicker. If we start with a player that might be 10 or 15 per cent behind somebody else at this time, but because his skill set is better … he might become by Christmas a better player than what we have here, we’d have to consider that in the equation.”

To me, this is an indication that they will make excuses for Hodgson’s play. Look for them to insert Hodgson for at least the 9 games (the cut-off point for junior players able to return to junior and not count towards the cap). They will do this with the thought that as Hodgson’s back gets better and he gets more comfortable, he’ll be full marks for his NHL job. While this may be a perfectly legitimate viewpoint to have, I don’t think they should give Hodgson a job unless he really deserves 15 minutes of ice time a night. To do that, he’ll have to supplant himself into the top 9 forwards on the team. That list currently includes: both Sedins, Kesler, Burrows, Samuelsson, Wellwood, Bernier, Raymond and the injured Pavol Demitra. So then it becomes a case of who deserves the spot more, Shirokov or Hodgson. If you want to keep both (even with Demitra’s injury), then you will have to put one of your defencemen or Jannik Hansen on waivers, for which they will likely be lost. The other scenario is that Gillis pulls the trigger on a trade to open up space.

Hodgson will get a great chance to show what he’s got tonight against the Sharks when he lines up with Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler. If he doesn’t show he really belongs, then I think he should spend another year in junior.

Hodgson Injury, Vigneault’s Contract, Cloutier’s Comeback and More!

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:02:52 +0000

Nice to see Cody Hodgson back on the ice this week at Canucks prospect camp. Hodgson injured his back from the 120+ games he played at the NHL exhibition/OHL regular season and playoffs/AHL playoffs and had surgery on it over the summer. Everyone is praying that this isn’t going to be a chronic problem that plagues him (that would be just the Canucks luck wouldn’t it?). He’s not participating in any contact drills, so it’s not 100% yet. Here’s hoping that the Canucks don’t rush him at all and allow him to get to 100%. You know a young guy like that with all sorts of expectations will probably want to rush it.

Speaking of prospects camp, anyone else notice that they’re practicing on the old UBC rink (Father Bauer Arena) and not the brand new Thunderbird Arena built for the Olympics? I’ve skated on both and the ice is a lot better in the old rink. Thunderbird Arena is just too warm. They might want to think about that before, say, the world comes to visit.

Seems like Alain Vigneault is a lame duck coach… for now at least. That shouldn’t last long though, Mike Gillis has said that he wants to extend the entire coaching staff. The question is, when? Gillis said that he wanted to do that in May, so you’d wonder why it would take until September for it to happen. That said, that seems to be Gillis’ style, so expect Vigneault to get an extension soon.

Nice to see Dan Cloutier is at least on the NHL radar again. Cloutier is trying out for the Detroit Red Wings. There’s no guaranteed money for him, but if he impresses, he could be Chris Osgood’s backup (which is interesting as they are both known for giving up goals from centre ice, but I digress). I hope Cloutier finds a way back to the NHL. He’s been criticized heavily, often warranted, but often unwarranted as well. Most of his poor play was injury-based. He was a middle of the road starting goalie when healthy.

Keeping the theme of former Canucks going, nice to see Taylor Pyatt finally found a new team. Pyatt signed a one-year deal with the Hamilton Phoenix Coyotes last week. It would have been sad to see him lose his job/lifestyle in the NHL after all he has already had to deal with.

How good has Sergei Shirokov looked so far at prospect’s camp? Well, he’s being compared to Austin Powers. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure, but video clips like the one below are nice to see: