“If my Aunt had balls she’d be my uncle”
That is the answer I was expecting at the end of Coach Vigneault’s post game presser, which was by far his most testy performance of the season talking to the media, when he was asked if the Canuck’s would have won the game against Dallas if Roberto Luongo had been in net.
Luongo wasn’t in net. He was in Florida, and his team badly missed his services last night.
After a fantastic start to the Vancouver chapter of his career that saw his record begin at 3-0, Curtis Sanford has now lost 4 of his last 5 starts. His last two starts have come at home and in both games one could easily say that he gave up at leas two bad goals.
The Canuck’s backup was not the only reason they lost to the Pacific division leading Dallas Stars 4-3 last night, but it’s pretty easy to assume that if Luongo had been in net, even as his recent “slumping” self, that there is a very good chance that they would have won that game.
In what has all-of-a-sudden-like become an alarming trend, the Canucks once again outplayed, out-shot and out-chanced their opposition only to see the other team’s goalie stone them. To compound matters, the other team is now seemingly able to convert whatever scoring chances they get into goals while the Canuck skaters continue to bang their heads against the wall.
So is the glass half full or half empty?
We all know that this team needs at least another “top 6” guy and that they have had more than their fair share of injuries, but their lack of offensive production and finishing is really quite alarming in the last 5 games.
Ironically, they have scored 14 goals in those last 5 games, which is above their season average, but when you look at the amount of scoring chances for and against generated in those games you really start to shake your head.
Last night I had the chances at 24 to 10 in favour of the home-side. The Canucks can’t hit the side of a barn right now and the other guys seemingly couldn’t miss converting their chances if they had one hand tied behind their backs.
Once again the Canucks came out strong and were rewarded for their dictating the pace of the game with two early power plays. It was like we already knew the ending of the story before we even opened up the book. The man-up units have struggled all year and last night’s 0 for 6 performance was nothing but the norm.
The glass half full part here is that they continued to have great chances to score. The glass half empty part is, of course, their pop-gun offence is showing an astounding lack of finishing capabilities and one has to wonder if what production we have seen from this group has been a mirage.
Marty Turco deserves a ton of credit for, once again, playing a phenomenal game against us. If he played the Canucks every game he would be the best goalie in the league. I believe his career record is now something like 14-3 in the regular season. Add in his 3 shutouts in last year’s first round and you can begin to see a little bit of a trend going on.
There’s lots of blame to be spread around here for this team’s recent woes and last night’s repeat performance, but a few stuck out to me.
The Sandman gave up 3 goals in 11 shots and was replaced by call-up Drew McIntyre who played the night before in Binghampton in the AHL All Start game and had just completed a nightmare day of travel to get here. Being Luongo’s backup is not the easiest job in the world, but Sanford has to be better than that.
The lack of finish, especially by the Sedins, Taylor Pyatt and Alex Burrows was on display for everyone to see. It’s hard to criticize players when they play well and don’t produce, but it’s getting to the point where you almost have no choice.
It may be hard to criticize some players, but I’m finding it very difficult to not be critical of Markus Naslund’s play. Last night was easily one of his worst games of the year and some will tell you that is something that is not easily accomplished.
The $6 Million dollar captain, to me, looked like he didn’t even care. It’s not the lack of skating, shots on goal and the poor decisions he seemed to make almost every time he was on the ice that really really bothers me, although obviously no one can be happy with that, but his lack of effort to get off the ice on line changes summed up everything for me.
I wasn’t at the game, so watching on TV you’re only going to see so much of what happens as players head back to the bench during a game, but on 4 occasions I saw Naslund literally just gliding as he headed off the ice, and I’m not talking about the last 15 feet near the bench here. While the play is going on it is your job to get to the bench as fast as you can so your replacement can get on the ice. When your Captain is barely even making any strides from 60 feet away while the opposition is heading up the ice in front of him is clearly unacceptable.
This loss was by no means Naslund’s fault, not even close. However, his total lack of effort was shocking to me. Is he sulking because he’s got no one to play with and hates the defensive system? I dunno, but if he’s going to show what looked to me as complete disdain for putting forth his best, then I’d rather he wasn’t even in the lineup.
Last night was a great opportunity for him, with the the team’s new best player some 4500 miles away, to show that he can be relied upon to help this team win. He failed miserably. Failing at producing is one thing … failing at even trying to produce is a whole different story.
Having said all of that, this is a game that could easily have been won by the home team so I’m still solidly in the glass half full group, just like the public persona that Alain Vigneault is trying to portray under more and more trying circumstances.
There’s no doubt that the coach is starting to show his edgy side while trying his darndest to support his players. His answer to the “if Luongo was in net” question last night said it all. His reply was very simple and very terse as he stormed away from the podium when he said “If, If, If … we didn’t win, and that’s the bottom line” .
The Grades …
A nada
B Ohlund, Edler, McIver, Henrik, Daniel, Pyatt
C+ McIntyre, Salo, Miller, Weaver, Raymond, Kesler, Burrows, Cooke
C Ritchie, Cowan, Linden
C- Sanford, Isbister, Naslund
Next up is Tampa on Thursday and Florida on Friday before the team has 3 days off in sunny climes where they have their Rookie Dinner and a Superbowl party planned as part of team-bonding activities.
Let’s hope there’s lots of Bondo available because if this team doesn’t turn this around pretty-quick-like they will be facing a severe uphill battle just to qualify for the post season party in the uber competitive Western Conference.
Here’s to the glass half full crowd … may your patience and loyalty be rewarded!
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