We all know the Canucks have lost a lot of games recently, but in the vast majority of those games they were rarely outworked or outplayed, so the rose coloured crowd always had something to hang on to. Last night was a very different story and the beginning, middle and end of that story weren’t very pretty.
In a battle of teams that are suffering injuries coming out the ying-yang, the Avalanche came out the winner in an embarrassing 6-2 loss for the Canucks. No Sakic, no Smyth, no Stastny, no matter! The home side’s medical situation on the back end is well documented, but last night’s effort, or lack there of, was nothing short of a disgrace.
Roberto Luongo, pulled after the 2nd to rest up for today’s game versus Chicago, was none too pleased after the game:
“We’re going to stop talking about injuries. It’s not a crutch, okay? Everybody can play hockey in this dressing room. So we’re going to stop talking about injuries,” he said emphatically. “We know guys can step up and play the game, so there’s no reason to use that as an excuse and use it every time we lose a game.”
Even coach Vigneault, who almost always expresses the positives in his team’s performance in his post game pressers regardless of outcome, couldn’t say anything but the truth on this night:
“We had a poor outing tonight. In my mind, it was the first one in a while, but it was a very poor outing. “Tonight we were out-executed and out-worked, especially in the tough areas in front of our net and in front of their net.”
The Avalanche are well known for their exceptional play down low and behind the net and they definitely showed their wares early, staking themselves to a 3-0 first period lead. All three goals came from within 5 feet of the net and were the result of the guys in blue being outworked. Luongo could have had a better night controlling the loose puck, but his team mates were either standing around doing nothing or doing their best impersonation of the keystone cops running around in circles.
How bad was it? Only 4 players escaped last night’s game with an even ranking in the plus/minus category: Pyatt, Raymond, Shannon and Jaffray. 8 players ended up minus 2, and Matt Cooke managed to chalk up a minus 3. Safe to say the blame for this poor effort is easily shared amongst many versus the few, and to see that in a game that is so important is very discouraging, to say the least.
The Canucks started this year with a 9-0-2 record against Northwest Division opponents, and for a while that was the only thing that they could hang their hat on as it kept them near the top of the standings while they lost games to outsiders.
They are obviously still struggling against the rest of the league, but are now 1-5-1 in their last 7 when playing the teams that they must beat to finish high within the division. Well over half of their remaining 26 games are against NW rivals so they’ll need to rekindle that magic pretty-quick-like if they are going to make any sort of serious run towards post season play.
One can look at injuries and scheduling and come up with legitimate excuses, but excuses won’t get this team into the playoffs. They are still in 9th place only one point out of the playoffs, but that eighth seed only gets you a ticket to Detroit to face the powerhouse Red Wings in the first round, so that’s not much to aspire to.
They now sit 5 points behind first place Minnesota who have a game in hand. It is so difficult to make up ground in the standings in this 3 point era, so falling further behind is not an alternative. This team needs to put a string of wins together now or Uncle Dave will be left with some very serious decisions to make in the next 2 weeks as the deadline approaches.
The Grades …
A LOL!
B Bourdon, McIver (for his 2 fights and wins)
C+ Salo, Edler, Henrik, Raymond, Kesler, Burrows, Pyatt
C Luongo, Weaver, Daniel, Naslund, Jaffray, Ritchie, Linden, Shannon
C- Cooke
The young-gun Hawks, like the Avalanche, in town for a while rested and waiting for the Canucks, present the next most important game of the season tonight at GM Place. The Canucks need about 32-35 points out of their last 26 games to make the show and that needs to start tonight. Back-to-back losses on home ice at this point in the season and with the standings so tight are not an option.
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