The Canucks came out hot, scoring 5 in the first before taking their foot off the gas and coasting to a 6-3 win over the Sens. One great period, two lackluster ones. Here are your highlights:
Coming off a long break after another long break, the Canucks will take the 2 points and the learning lesson. Sitting atop the West before they embark on their longest road trip of the season is a good place to be. However, getting there after the first period against the Sens wasn’t the prettiest. Some lucky bounces in the first gave the Canucks a sizable cushion, and let them take their foot off the gas for the last two periods… which let some bad habits creep back into their structure. The players weren’t happy about it, and neither was Tocchet (obviously), which is a good sign for them to take forward.
“We'll take those every day,” Pettersson said of the bounces that went their way. “Obviously, a great first period. We come out and play it the way we want. Very easy to get sloppy and not play the right way, (and) I don't think we did in the second and third. We got to win. We'll be happy with the first period and move on.”
Cole, who seems to be the voice to steady the ship, added, “To score that many goals that quickly that early, it's a mental challenge. It's a unique mental challenge, I guess, to try to be diligent defensively through that. They're freewheeling. It doesn't matter to them if they get scored on again (because) they're just trying to score goals at that point. We can handle it better; we know that.”
Tocchet, however, didn’t agree with that take.
“I don’t think it’s challenging,” he said. “We didn’t play the right way. Take the two points, but it’s a learning lesson for us. I did not like the (final) 40. I hope the guys didn’t. Loved our first period. That’s my assessment.”
Good 20 minutes. Bad 40 minutes. Tocchet continued: “We had a great first period, probably one of our best in a month. That was awesome. Aggressive, tracking and we connected. We’ll take the two points but it was a learning lesson for us.
“The last two periods we lost our staples and didn’t go through people. We were backing up and skating backward through the neutral zone and pinching when we shouldn’t. Those are things I don’t like because they can become contagious and we’ve got to stop them.”
Miller agreed with the overall assessment, enjoying the first but realizing it won’t be good enough against better opponents down the stretch.
“I just liked our start,” Miller explained. “No matter if you score those goals or not, it's good for (our) game, good for the pace. That being said, I feel like we just totally sat on a five-goal lead after the first period. If we're going to take steps as a team, we need to play the second and third like it's (0-0). Nice to enjoy the win. But… we're going to evaluate ourselves honestly and we didn't play very well after the first period.”
The Canucks have a few days to get their mental game sharpened: they start a 7-in-11 game road trip this Thursday in St. Louis. They’ll be playing without Phil Di Giuseppe, who left in the first period and Tocc said would be out “a while”.
But, at the end of the day, a win’s a win and this train keeps rolling down those PDO tracks.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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