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Tuesday December 17: Minnesota Wild 3 Vancouver Canucks 2 (S/O)
Here are your highlights from Vancouver's 3-2 shootout loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night:
True to form, the Wild literally put me to sleep for a couple of minutes early in the third period. Not a good look when I'm supposed to be doing stats! Thankfully, the super-loud commercial brought me back to life.
The Canucks may have been under the same spell as Charlie Coyle scored Minnesota's tying goal shortly afterwards, forcing extra time and eventually grabbing the shootout win.
Even Torts agrees that, until the wide-open overtime, the game was "boring."
It would be hard to blame Vancouver if they had come out flat after the emotional win against Boston on Saturday night, but they put out a pretty good effort through 40 minutes. Vancouver outshot Minnesota in each of the first two periods and torched Norris Trophy-finalist Ryan Suter for two goals to take a lead into the third period. The Wild's only goal to that point came on a lucky play with the man advantage, when a shot-block by Ryan Kesler bounced right onto the stick of Mikko Koivu, who made no mistake in feeding Zach Parise.
I'd say the turning point of the game came at 3:16 of the second period. With the game tied 1-1, Zenon Konopka took Ryan Stanton feet first into the end boards, and Stanton's left ankle took an ugly bend. After being helped off the ice by the Sedins, he did return to the ice, but took just six seconds to determine that he was not fit to play on. Sounds like he's headed back to Vancouver for evaluation:
It's bad enough that the Canucks have lost a key top-six guy for what could be an extended period of time. What was worse on Tuesday was the fact that it forced the remaining blueliners to pick up the slack.
I think that's why we saw the Canucks' play drop off in the third period. They got a couple of early chances, but Josh Harding lived up to his billing long enough to allow his team to score the tying goal and Vancouver couldn't push back from there.
Yannick Weber finished the game with 12 minutes of ice time. He played just two shifts in the third period after the tying goal was scored and one in overtime, so the whole load was basically carried by the top four. Dan Hamhuis finished the night with 30:46, while Jason Garrison had 27:53, Kevin Bieksa 26:28 and Chris Tanev 26:01.
Torts said after the game that he doesn't plan to call up another defenseman, so it sounds like Andrew Alberts will draw back in. Back-to-back games against Dallas and Chicago with only four healthy regular defensemen—could be trouble.
Picking up the single point meant that Vancouver stays ahead of Minnesota in the standings for now, but when it came down to the shootout, the chance of grabbing that second point shrunk almost to zero. Instead of having a three-point cushion, the Canucks now sit just one point up in what could be a crucial race for a playoff spot.
Torts has noticed that the shootouts are not going well:
As for Roberto Luongo, he may have taken the loss in this game but his play was not the issue. For all the heat he takes for giving up early goals, on this night he made a huge save off Zach Parise on Minnesota's first shot, just 54 seconds into the game, then stopped Jason Pominville a minute later. He kept the Canucks in it early and can't be blamed for the shootout loss when the Canucks didn't score. I'd say he vanquished his demons at Xcel Energy Center.
Gillis Speaks:
Joey Kenward sat down with a casual sweater-clad Mike Gills to get his thoughts on the current state of the franchise. Here's the video:
He reminds us once again that trades are hard to make in today's environment, but is enthusiastic about the current collection of prospects. Nick Jensen gets some praise for the development of his game, but Brendan Gaunce doesn't even get name-checked. Hmmm.
Quick Hits:
- Centre Zach Hamill has been placed on unconditional waivers. The 25-year-old was drafted eighth overall by the Boston Bruins in 2007 was signed by Vancouver as a free agent this summer for the league minimum. Hamill was 3-6-9 and a minus-4 in 21 games with Utica.
- The holiday trade freeze comes into effect on Friday, so quite a few rumours are swirling. Eklund suggests that Tuomo Ruutu would be a possibility for the Canucks. With 8 points so far this season, a career high of 57 and a cap hit of $4.75 million for two more years after this, I don't think he fits Vancouver's budget requirements. Tuomo seems like he has good tools but has never lived up to his potential in the NHL.
- The Green Men have become a quaint relic of days gone by here in Vancouver, but it's not too late to jump on the bandwagon in Minnesota:
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