Apparently Ek is running into a snag or two in getting someone to talk Canuck and I know some of you are, at least slightly, feeling a
little creepy hanging out at Ratgen's place, so I'm popping back in with a copy of today's Blog on SportsTalkBuzz.com to give ya a little something, something.
3 Games in 4 nights on the road, playing the closer of a back-to-back minus 33% of your D, with your backup in net against division rival for 1st place, after traveling 1000 miles and 3 hours?
Automatic “oh wells” were going the boy’s way if they come out and lay an egg in Minny last night, but they gutted out a huge win against the Wild that just might be looked back upon as a very significant 1 of the 82 they will play.
There’s always a few. Games that take place amongst the myriad of games that take place that just stand out versus the rest. There could be any number of reasons as to why a particular game becomes a defining turning point within the box scores of an NHL season, but in many cases it boils down to group of guys facing and conquering adversity together; coming out the other side with an us-against-the-world mind-set that “carries” them.
If you saw, and heard, the players celebrating around Curtis Sanford on the ice you know exactly what I’m talking about. This was not even close to the “NHL post game celebration” we’ve all witnessed a gazillion times … they looked and sounded like a bunch of kids who had just won a Pee Wee tourney in a Prairie Outpost over the Christmas Holidays for franking sakes!.
Impossible to say for sure, but all that repeated hoot & hollering and face-washing going on in the pile for an extended time looked like a special moment for a group of guys coming together as a team. These are the types of things that can’t be artificially created. They either happen or they don’t, but when it does and the all-for-one mentality takes over a lot of good things can happen.
No doubt Pundits who like to use the term
Chemistry, a lot, will be pleased, a lot.
“You could probably tell there how we were all celebrating, how we all enjoyed this,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got a lot of passion, a lot of character on the team. That can go a long way and win some important games. That’s kind of what got us a win tonight - we had some character and we dug down.”
Willie, a game-time decision due to the flu, once again was a warrior for this team when they really needed him, and his word afterwards said it all.
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Gotta love how Vigneault kept repeating
“In the New York Area” after the game. Forcing the most western team to travel 1000 miles in a back-to-back, not to mention returning them back over those 1000 miles 24 hours later to get in the east after just having departed from the, uh, east ... Is. Utterly. Ridiculous!
Tony Gallagher’s column in The Province talks about how the Canucks have presented an “in-depth scientific study of the NHL schedule and how it affects many of the western teams.” Gillis & Co also made specific suggestions, and I would assume some of those are in player recuperation needs in relation to performance on the ice. The hope is that eventually some of these things will be a priority when the league is designing future schedules so that screw ups like the Canucks just went through don’t happen to any team.
If that article intrigues ya,
this piece by Matt Sekeres in last weekend’s Globe & Mail will really show you how far Gillis is going as far doing things against the norm … some really cool stuff this team is working on.
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Last night’s 3-2 win would have been big no matter what … all the extra things going against the team just made it that much sweeter. Not to be overlooked in the good signs department is the fact that they came from behind twice to get it done in a building that sees a way more home wins than losses.
The Canucks only have 2 wins when not scoring first (something like 10-1-2 with the opener) and coming back against a team who just so happens to be the best in the league at keeping pucks out of the net, is an accomplishment all on its own, in any rink. They are now 5-0-1 within the division and have beaten both Calgary and Minnesota twice; meaning 1 more win in the last 4 games against those teams would probably lock up the Tiebreakers at the end of the year.
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We saw a bunch of kids on the ice mobbing each other and then we heard the kid in Pavol Demitra. The team’s biggest free agent acquisition was a’spewing after getting the tying goal and setting up Daniel for the game winner in his return to Excel Energy Center.
Excitement is one thing, but him thinking that his recent Triplet status could be part of the league’s next best line? Maybe just a weeeeeeeeeeee bit over the top, but it’s just another example in that team bonding thing, and when you’ve got 7 points in your 4 games since missing 10 of ‘em, well you can say whatever you want Pavol!
“I feel great and I like my line,” said Demitra. “We can be the top line in the league and it’s very easy to play with those two guys. We are passing the puck where I know exactly where they are standing and they can also read me. I’ve definitely enjoyed every single shift I’ve played with those guys.”
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Of course this post-gamer of a Blog wouldn’t be complete without a little spewing of my own about Curtis Sanford. After all, this is a guy who gets prime time action every other solar eclipse and he just recorded his first win in 11 months in a key divisional battle for 1st place.
The Wild still have 3 games in hand on the Canucks so moving that 1 point gap to 3 by not allowing the home team a single point is huge for this team if any aspirations of the 3rd seeding in the west are realistic.
Since Luongo’s arrival there have now been a grand total of 4 division games that #1 hasn’t started, and Sanford is the only one of the subs to get a win in those games, having now done it twice in Minnesota.
His teammates know how tough his job is, never seeing the ice playing behind the best goalie in the game, and that was the root of the post-game celebration as they all genuinely like him and really appreciate how hard he works every day for his oh-so-rare cameo appearances
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The Grades …
A … Sanford, Mitchell
B … Ohlund, Daniel, Demitra, Burrows, Hansen
C+ … O’Brien, Edler, Nycholat, Henrik, Wellwood, Bernier, Kesler
C … Davison, Raymond, Pyatt, Johnson, Hordichuk
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After disposing of the Wild the boys were back on their charter for another 3 hours and 1000 miles or so, heading back east again (just in case you hadn’t heard!), changing time zones like nobody’s bizness to take on the very hot Penguins of Pittsburgh in a Saturday Matinee (11am left coast time).
Coming back home aint no bargain either as the those Detroit guys will be on the ice at GM Place less than 48 hours after the Canucks touch down here in VanCity. The dreaded first-game-home-after-a-road-trip and,
for the second time this young season, they face the defending Cup Champions within 48 hours of returning home?
Will the Canucks ever get a break? lol
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Last post (s) by MarkGage
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Tags: Alain Vigneault, Canucks, Curtis Sanford, Flames, Gage'n The Canucks, Matt Sekeres, Mike Gillis, Pavol Demitra, Penguins, Red Wings, Roberto Luongo, Sedin, Tony Gallagher, Wild, Willie Mitchell
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