Prior to puck drop I wasn’t even remotely looking forward to the game and the way it started, with the guys in red looking more like the Red Wings than the Coyotes, it didn’t look like I was going to be pleasantly surprised either. Phoenix completely dominated the early going forcing the Canucks to continually chase them around in the defensive zone and Luongo was forced to keep his team in the game.
Much like the game against Dallas, the Canucks seemed to find their energy in the latter half of the first period and from then on in I thought it was a pretty exciting game to watch, even though Phoenix continued to be the better team on the night. Phoenix definitely seems to be a team that is on the rise with a good mix of talent throughout the roster.
Roberto Luongo and Ilja Bryzgalov both played exceptional games making numerous big-time saves keeping the red lights behind them turned off. This was the type of goaltending duel that we expected to see on Tuesday when Marty Brodeur came to town earlier this week. That of course, didn’t come to fruition, but Bryzgalov definitely filled the bill tonight.
There was a lot of “hit and miss” throughout the Canucks lineup on the evening with some excellent performances. And some efforts that, lets just say, weren’t nearly up to par.
Notably on the plus side of the ledger was Trevor Linden who once again scored a huge shootout goal that he had to in order to keep the game alive. The clutch goal was only the icing on the cake as I thought he was excellent throughout the entire game, especially in the first period when most of his team mates were no where to be found.
Mason Raymond also had a very good game building on his strong performance against Dallas on Thursday and was rewarded with 11 ½ minutes of ice, more than twice the amount he got against the Stars.
Taylor Pyatt also continued where he left off in the last game with his strong play in both ends of the ice. I was glad to see AV go back to him in the shootout, even though he was 0-4 lifetime coming in, he’s got a good shot and his winning goal should keep him as one of the top choices.
On the negative side of things, I thought Markus Naslund really struggled passing up numerous shooting opportunities and continually giving the puck away in all zones of the ice. The Sedin twins, while combining on the one regulation goal, didn’t have their best game either although they were very good in the second period.
Alexander Edler really struggled in this game as did his partner Willie Mitchell, whose weak pass up the boards led directly to the tying goal. Mattias Ohlund also had his moments where he was passing to the wrong team.
On the Phoenix side, I thought Shane Doan, Peter Mueller and Ed Jovanovski played inspired games. Jovo was obviously jacked for this game and had his “happy feet” going all night.
After Zybnek Michalek scored the tying goal, Jovo leaped into his arms with an ear-to-ear grin on his face. The guy has always worn his emotions on his sleeves and that look on his face, to me, was reminiscent of him jumping up and down in the penalty box after Matt Cooke scored in the dying seconds of game 7 against Calgary. I’m happy that he his not only starting to play well again, but is having fun doing it.
The Canuck’s power play is definitely in a funk these days with tonight’s 0-4 effort putting them at 1 for their last 20. I’m not liking the current make-ups of the two units at all. I think there’s too much mixing of players from different lines which, is not only not clicking with the man advantage, but it throws the entire mix out of whack when they are back at full strength.
I also think that the absence of Brendan Morrison is also really hurting as he was playing the “rover” role extremely well on the first unit. I’d like to see Lucas Krajicek get more of an opportunity on the point as he has shown in the past that he has good judgment on when to move up off the blue line, a la Morrison. And as much as I love Ryan Kesler, I don’t think he has enough pure offensive instinct to play with the twins on the first unit.
The game was not the greatest we’ve seen, but all in all, the entertainment level wasn’t too bad. Looking at the entire 65 minutes you’d definitely give the edge to Phoenix who continued their very good play of late that had them undefeated in their last 4, and 5-1 on their just completed road trip.
Once the Canucks woke up they ended up playing well enough to get the game to overtime. From there, it was another ice-in-the-veins performance by Linden and Luongo that finally got them their first shootout win of the season after losing their first four, and puts them in sole possession of first place.
The Grades …
A Luongo, Raymond, Linden
B Kesler, Pyatt
C+ Salo, Miller, Krajicek, Henrik, Daniel, Cooke, Burrows, Ritchie, Isbister
C Ohlund, Mitchell, Edler, Jaffray
C- Naslund
Canucks have another late night on their hands as they travel to Denver after the game, probably not hitting the sack until after 3am before facing the Avalanche in an early start at 5pm tomorrow.
The last time we faced the AV’s it was immediately after the Nashville debacle at the start of November and the team came through with a character win that started their turn around. Now it’s a battle for first place in the division as Colorado is only 2 points back of the Canucks with a game in hand. With the travel and late night/early start, some more of that character will definitely be needed to keep the Avalanche from tying the Canucks atop the division.
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