What a brutal start to the game for the Canucks … you have to give credit to the Blue Jackets as they were definitely skating well and dictating the pace which forced the Canucks into taking 4 minors, but the Canucks looked as if they thought the game was starting half an hour later than it actually did.
Both of their goals came with the man up and Roberto Luongo didn’t stand much of a chance on either of them. The first one was through a screen of 3 players and the second came when Sami Salo couldn’t control the puck in his feet and Nikolai Zheredev pounced on it, quickly snapping it by the surprised net minder. Zheredev is being widely lauded for his improved attitude and performance this year and his first period goal and assist now give him 13 points in 12 career games against Vancouver.
As it turned out, the team’s poor start was their downfall once the final whistle blew, but the tide seemed to turn for the visitors in the first after killing off a 5 on 3. Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and, especially Willie Mitchell who was out there for almost 2 minutes straight, were outstanding.
The Canuck’s first scoring chance took 14 minutes to arrive (after Columbus had had 7 of ‘em), but they ended up with the last 7 shots of the period to end it at 10 apiece. Kris Beech got his first as a Canuck in his old rink in front of his old fans on a great feed courtesy of Byron Ritchie from behind the net and the Canucks were very fortunate to come out of the period only down by one.
Taylor Pyatt, after dental work and 25 stitches forced him to go with little food and sleep in the previous 48 hours, actually had 3 shifts in the first 4 minutes of the game. The big winger, not surprisingly, didn’t have his best game but was still the second-most used forward in the game behind Henrik, getting over 21 minutes of ice. Coach AV is really riding this guy, even after what he just went through … I guess with this current line up though he doesn’t really have much of a choice.
The second was a mirror image of the first, this time it was the Canucks coming out strong and drawing penalties. The momentum was started with an excellent shift from Beech, Ritchie, Burrows, Miller and Krajicek who held the puck in long enough to get a full change for Kesler’s line who continued the pressure.
Burrows, having another very strong game, drew a penalty with an excellent fore-check, and after a delay of game penalty put the Jackets two men down, Daniel scored his 22nd of the year after a great set up from brother Henrik and Salo. The secondary assist, on a beautiful fake shot/slap pass, was Salo’s 200th point in the NHL.
Columbus came back when Jason Chimera showed his excellent speed by catching Alex Edler flat-footed, sneaking by the young Dman and converting a very nice pass from Fritchie. Edler, selected to the young-guns 8 on 8 for the All Star Game, quickly made amends as minutes later he showed excellent speed to break up a breakaway without taking a penalty after a brutal give away by Markus Naslund.
Naslund ended up taking a hooking penalty on the play after Silver-plattering the puck to Columbus at the blue line and the Canucks were saved by Mitchell as the Buzzer sounded when he cleared the puck off of the goal line.
So after two Jekyl and Hyde periods by both teams, what else would you expect but a very even third just to for something a little different? Neither team dominated for any length of time, generating very few quality chances. No more goals were scored and the Canucks have yet to win a single game when trailing after two, while Columbus managed to add to their already second-best points at home record.
This grinder dominant lineup that the Canucks are icing theses days is really gonna get on my nerves pretty-quick-like. We’ve battled the “one-line team” moniker for so long and now it’s like we’re celebrating it. Beech definitely had his best game of his 3 for this team, but there’s no way he’s better than what Jaffray was giving us in replacing Brendan Morrison.
If Luongo has an off night, or a couple get by him that he doesn’t have much of a chance on like tonight, then they are facing a severe uphill battle to score enough to win and keep pace in the race in this super tight Division and Conference, not to mention really adding to the lack of entertainment value we’re seeing night after night.
I really like most of Vigneault’s decisions in his year and a half here so it’s difficult for me to criticize, but this current roster makeup with these lines is not what I want to see.
The Grades …
A Mitchell
B Luongo, Salo, Edler, Henrik, Daniel, Kesler, Burrows
C+ Miller, Krajicek, McIver, Pyatt, Naslund, Beech
C Cooke, Ritchie, Rypien, Cowan, Brown
Next up is the best team in the league in Detroit on Thursday. As if that game wouldn’t be hard enough as it is, the Red Wings are losing 4-0 to Atlanta as I write so they’ll be a little peeved heading into that game.
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