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Downed in Philly, now onto Detroit |
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Last night's game was not a pretty one, but man was it exciting. The officials ruined what could have been a good hockey game if they let the teams play. They seemed to call everything on the Canucks the first half of the game, but were equally as bad towards the Flyers the second half, so I guess it all evened out. As bad as the officiating was, both teams have to accept some of the blame, as neither team was skating that hard, in their bad half. You have to move your feet or you're going to get called for something eventually and that is what happened tonight.
The Canucks are also 3 for 3 now in slow starts and will need to be better in Detroit if they want to come out with the 2 points. At times last night the Canucks resembled a dog chasing their tail, rather than the reigning western conference champions. I don’t know whether it was the lack of a pre-season for the veterans, the travel, or their preparation, but this team needs to start playing better in the first period. If they play catch up all year they will have nothing left for the playoffs.
Overall, I thought the team had long stretches where they looked unmotivated, and unprepared to play last night. On every goal the Canucks just seemed to stand around, and leave Lu hung out to dry, like Sunday's laundry. The D had trouble keeping the net clear all night and will have to do better tonight, as the Wings will try to get traffic to the net.
While Giroux’s goal was a lucky break off the boards that no one could have seen coming, I question why he is left that wide open in the first place? He’s the best player on the Flyers, someone should be in his side pocket at all times and make life hell for him. You have to know where he is at all times and as much of that goal was luck, the goal was also a lack of effort on the Canucks part for not watching him. If any other Flyer gets that goal I can let it slide, but how you can leave a player who will likely be top 10 in the league in scoring alone like that is beyond me. You have to watch him at all times.
The Van Riemsdyk goal was also bad on so many levels. First the clearing attempt by Lu showed a lack of team communication. Lu had no clue where he wanted to put the puck and the team had no clue where it was going. When playing the Puck the D and the goalie must be on the same page. After the bad clearing, things only got worse. No one competed hard on the boards for the puck, no one picked up Van Riemsdyk in front, and no one tried to get to Van Riemsdyk once he was all alone in front. It was a complete "Team" breakdown on this goal.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
I'll keep this brief and just mention a few of the players I thought had a good game.
Hodgson- Strongest game yet
The Sedins- Controlled the puck every time they were on the ice
Burrows- Playing the best hockey I've ever seen him play right now. Every shift he looks like he wants it so bad. If only his effort could rub off on some of the other guys.
Lapierre- won face-offs and was good on the PK
Ballard- played decent and joined the rush a few times. Why he's only getting 12 minutes I don't know.
Bieksa- nothing special but played with a ton of heart tonight.
Edler- lead the team in ice-time, had two points and a team high two hits (what a joke that is).
The Bad
The Canucks had another slow start and ran into penalty trouble. Spending close to eight of the first eleven minutes killing penalties is never a good thing. The team needs to skate and move their feet early and often in order to not give the referee's the chance to make calls against them.
The Ugly
The Canucks work ethic tonight. This team has to come to play and they have to come to play hard. Two key stats I look at to judge work ethic are hits and blocked shots. The Canuck didn't do either last night and that is a main reason why they lost. 14 hits is a joke, and it makes it too easy for the opposition. I had Hansen's hitting and fore-check as a key to last night's game and he was non-existent. Since Hansen got his new contract this offseason he has one hit in three games. For Hansen to be an affective player he has to hit. If he isn't going to do that maybe it's time to sit him and give Ebbett a chance.
Nine blocked shots is a joke as well. Some team's block that many shot's in one PK, and we do it in a whole game. If the team wants the PK to get above 70%, maybe try committing to blocking shots. Tampa and Pittsburgh are one-two in blocking shots and surprise, surprise they are one-two in PK as well. Sacrificing your body, to block shots, will equal a better PK.
Canucks 3 Stars
1-Burrows
2-Edler
3-Hodgson
Before moving on to Detroit, I would like to mention a player on the Flyers who really stood out to me. I had never heard of Matt Read until last night, but he played a hell of a game. He was great in all areas on the game and the Flyer look to have a real useful player in Read. He had a game high 4 hits, and blocked a couple of shots, while being very affective on the PP and PK. His speed, smarts, and work ethic were great last night and it looked to me like there is nothing he can't do. The Flyers looked to have found a real diamond in the rough in Read, and may very well have their own Alex Burrows in a few years.
Now on to the Red Wings, Vancouver will need a complete team effort tonight to beat the Red Wings. The team is likely tired and will need a better start to the game, a big game from the Sedin's, and a strong game from whoever gets the start in net to win this one. I would toss Lu back into the fire tonight because Lu needs to play to find his game. He isn't going to find his game sitting on the bench. We need to get Luongo in to mid-season form as quick as possible and the only way to do that is play him.
Canucks- 1-1-0-1 3pts
Red Wings- 2-0-0-0 4pts
Canucks top scorers
Daniel Sedin- 5 pts
Henrik Sedin- 5pts
Alex Burrows- 3pts
Red Wings top scorers
Pavel Datsyuk- 2pts
Cory Emmerton- 2 pts
3 others tied at 2
3 Players to Watch
Canucks (make that 4)
Daniel and Henrik Sedin
For the Canucks to beat a fresh Red Wings team, the twins will have to out play Detroit's best players. The Sedin's are off to a good start this season with (?) in three games. They will have to keep that going against one of the best defenceman of all-time in Lidstrom. The Sedin's are two of the best conditioned Canucks, so I expect the back to back games will have little affect on them. If the Canucks can stay out of the box earlier I think Danny and Hank will be able to get into the game and show Wings fans why they have won back to back scoring titles.
Marco Sturm
The big off-season edition has yet to do anything as a Canuck. Fans are already calling for his head, as he is scoreless so far this season. I'm not ready to write Sturm off yet. I think Sturm will show some life against the Wings. When you play a team like Detroit, you have to be able to think the game, and that is a strong part of Sturm's game. Call it wishful thinking, call it a hunch, call it whatever you want, but I think Sturm has his best game as a Canuck and gets at least some fans back on his side.
Dan Hamhuis
The Canucks 1A defenceman, will have his work cut out for him this game trying to shutdown Datsyuk and Co. So far this year he's lined up against Malkin, Nash, and Giroux. He has played well so far against all of them,but will face the league best all-around player in Datsyuk. Hamhuis seems to get better and better each game so I expect him to have another good game in Detroit.
Red Wings
Cory Emmerton
A pleasant surprise for the Wings this season, Emmerton grabbed their fourth line centre job and hasn't let it go. Emmerton has used his smarts, and speed to be an affective penalty killer, and chip in on the score sheet (2 points in 2 games). About the only thing Emmerton hasn't done well this year is win face-offs. If Emmerton keeps playing this way he may be in line for a promotion to move up to the third line, see some power play time, and maybe even start to garner Calder talk.
Pavel Datsyuk
Plain and simple, he is the best all-around player in the NHL. He can pick your pocket like a gypsy and then go around you five times and score. His skill level is in a world of its own. Datsyuk is worth the price of admission by himself. The Canucks will have to keep the NHL's version of David Copperfield in check if they want to win this game.
Jakub Kindl
In his sophomore season, Kindl is the NHL's surprise early season plus/minus leader. At +5 Kindl has finally developed into the player the Wings thought he could be when they used the 19th overall pick on him in 2005 draft on him. He's big, mobile, smart, and so far this season is playing lights out hockey. The Canucks will have to get on him with a good fore-check and hopefully he will play like the young defenceman he is and turn the puck over. If the Canucks can make life difficult for Kindl, they should get some scoring chances.
Keys to the Game
There are three things the Canucks have to do to win this game. First, stay out of the box. Vancouver's penalty kill is playing average at best right now and if they give Detroit too many chances they will lose this game. Second, slow the game down. Playing the second game in as many nights the Canucks cannot turn this into a track meet. They need to get the puck and keep the puck. Let Detroit chase them instead of chasing Detroit. To do this they will need to be strong on the face-off circle and play smart hockey. If they can do that the y will have good legs for the third period. Lastly, they need to keep the Wings away from the crease. The Wings score many pretty goals but they also score a ton from two feet in and by getting a lot of traffic. If the Vancouver D can let the goalie see the puck they should be able to stop the puck.
Thanks for reading.
Enjoy the Game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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