Follow me on twitter @IanEsplen to chat hockey, sports and life in general anytime
For the second night in a row the Vancouver Canucks lost.
While the team put on a better performance than Saturday night, they played what can be best described and "a good road game" at home. They kept the Oilers to the outside for most of the night and limited their space, room to skate and scoring opportunities
Alex "the Blonde Bomber" Edler kicked off the scoring for Vancouver by stepping across the blueline and blasting one by Dubnyk. This goal showed just why Edler got his huge deal. There are few defencman in the NHL who can go end-to-end and blast away like Edler did on the play. Now if only he could learn how to shutdown the other teams top guys on a consistent basis he will be in the running for the Norris.
Vancouver kept things rolling in the second when the Sedins would draw four Oilers into paying attention to them behind the goal line. Daniel found Kassian with a beautiful no-look pass and Papa Kass did the rest, 2-0 Vancouver. The thing that made me scratch my head a little after this goal is why don't these three play together more often? One shift together and one goal; HMMM, maybe get these three together a little more often AV.
As the second was coming to an end, Jordan Eberle would get the Oilers on the board in the only way he knows how: in spectacular fashion. Eberle completely bulled his way around Edler (how that happens I don't know. Edler has to move his feet and take Eberle's space away) and made a shot that only 10 people in the NHL can make. During the intermission the Oilers Sportsnet team was blasting Lu on this one but that is complete horse shit. Lu took the bottom of the net away like a pro and forced Eberle to make an incredible shot, 2-1 as the second period ends.
In the third, the ho-hum, boring hockey continued. The Canucks had a few Chance and the Oilers got a few as well. With about six minutes to go, Ales Hemsky beats Luongo with a wrist shot. This one was on Bobby Lu all the way. Hemsky is a good player, but there is no way a wrist shot, that a goalie can see, should ever get in from there.
In the shootout it was the same old story; Oilers with two beauties and the Canucks with two head-scratchers. All in all, it was a better game for the Canucks and something to build on going forward. They played a lot better than Saturday night and my guess is that first win in just around the corner.
Luongo
I thought he was solid, not great, but solid. He was big in his net and made 30 saves. His movement looked fine. While the second goal I'm sure he'd like back, I felt he played good enough to win.
Kassian
He played is best game as a Canuck last night, but there is still a lot of room for him to develop. His goal was a beauty and shows that he is capable of playing in the top-6. While I liked the fact he had a go with Ben Eager and he is a kick-ass fighter, I didn't really like the timing of it. In a tie game, when you're playing better than most of the guys in the lineup, there is no need to take yourself out of the game for the remaining five minutes. Kassian for Eager is a trade off the Oiler will willingly take 100% of the time.
The D
The D are still finding their way together. I though Bieksa and Tanev were the two best in their own end. Ballard and Hamhuis had a few hiccups, but they were decent.
The Garrison and Edler duo is one that I'm wondering how much longer they get to gel. I know it's still early, but I'm not seeing the chemistry. They haven't been bad, but I just think they are too much of the same player. Edler seems to be a lot more shoot happy this year, which is great; if you got a shot like his you should be using it. But that seems to be making Garrison's shot pretty much useless.
I've already seen Garrison loading up numerous times for the shot, only to have Edler take it (which is fine). I wonder if splitting them up would give Vancouver more offence form the backend and provide more secondary scoring. What I'd like to see is Edler and Tanev, and Ballard and Garrison for a game or two, to see if Garrison is more affective.
Tanev is a pass first guy so I could see him and Edler paying well together. Garrison is a bit of an offensive rover at times and with Ballard being a stay at home guy, so maybe that works best.
Canucks 3 Stars
1- Kassian
2- H. Sedin
3- Edler
That's a wrap.
Ian
If you are interested in advertising your business to people in the Vancouver area or to hockey fans across North America, you can contact me by clicking the “CONTACT” button at the top of the page.
KINDLE USERS in the United States of America only: Sign up for Canucks Buzz; a one-stop feed for all things Canucks-related on HockeyBuzz. Content is delivered instantly to your Kindle reader whenever a new Canucks-related blog is published. For more information
click here
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»