Sunday January 5: Anaheim Ducks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (OT)
I'll have some more uplifting Olympic news in a minute. First, let's look at the highlights from Sunday's gut-punch defeat by the Ducks:
Despite a plateful of adversity, the Canucks got off to a great start on Sunday at Honda Center. It's no small feat that they were able to hang on and grab a point, but the win was so close we could taste it!
The bad news started to swirl before warmup, when it was announced that Roberto Luongo would be sitting out due to his collision with Dustin Brown the night before. Eddie Lack would indeed be starting on his 26th birthday, but he was backed up by 43-year-old Rob Laurie, who was signed to a one-day professional tryout contract to keep the bench warm. Laurie had done the same last year for the Ducks—and for a minute in the second period, it looked like he might have to play! Lack took a hard hit from Kyle Palmieri and stayed down long enough to make it uncomfortable for everyone before getting back into he game.
Ben Kuzma of
The Province spoke to Laurie about the moment:
I've watched those games and wondered what the guy was thinking on the bench. I remember a Canucks game when [Johan] Hedberg got hurt coming out to play the puck and the camera zoomed right in there [on PTO backup Chris Levesque]. But the trainers weren't on the ice here. Maybe if they were, something crazy was going on.
In addition to Luongo's injury, Benn Ferriero was called up from Utica to fill in for Chris Higgins, who was out with the flu. He played just five minutes, recording one hit. Zack Kassian was knocked out of the game early in the second period after being on the receiving end of a spinning roundhouse kick that Tom Sestito intended for Hampus Lindholm, and certainly looked like he'd suffered a concussion. And to cap it all off, Iain MacIntyre
reports that ironman Henrik Sedin visited with the Ducks' team doctors after the game.
Vancouver could be very shorthanded when they face Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Penguins have suffered a long list of injuries of their own this season but are starting to return to health—Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang were back in the lineup for their last game on Sunday.
As for Sunday's game against the Ducks, the script was eerily similar to Saturday. The Canucks got off to a great start, outshooting Anaheim 12-5 in the first period and building a 2-0 lead on a pair of power-play goals. With Higgins out of the lineup, Sestito was skating on the second line with Kesler and Kassian, and providing a terrific net-front presence on the power play. Sestito finished with a season-high 16:16 of ice time but was a minus-1, on the ice for the Ducks' second goal late in the second period.
The momentum shifted completely in the second frame. The Ducks outshot Vancouver 20-2 while tying the game, and the Canucks didn't record those two shots till there were less than three minutes to go in the period.
Remarkably, Vancouver re-took the lead early in the third when Kevin Bieksa wristed a point shot past Hiller, but then the Canucks were hanging on again. In the third, Lack faced another 20 shots—to five by the Canucks—before finally allowing the tying goal from Nick Bonino after a Jason Garrison giveaway with less than 90 seconds to go.
It was clear that the Ducks had no intention of letting their perfect-in-regulation home-ice record fall, and they poured it on until they got what they wanted—pressing right till the end of overtime, when Corey Perry beat Lack with, I believe, officially 1.3 seconds to go.
The Canucks still don't look like they can play with the big boys in the Pacific for 60 minutes. They also look like they're running out of bodies.
Enough of that—let's talk about the Olympics!
Canucks to Sochi:
- Add Yannick Weber to the list of Vancouver Canucks who will be traveling to Sochi to play for their country. Weber will be suiting up for Switzerland. Ryan Kesler was named to Team USA last week, and a few other players should be announced on Tuesday, when the rest of the rosters will be named.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin will certainly be named to Team Sweden. They were part of the gold-medal winning team in Turin in 2006 as well as Vancouver's 2010 squad.
According to The Score, Alex Edler will also get the call—his first as an Olympian. Edler has been sidelined since December 3 with a knee injury, and also has two games remaining on an international suspension he incurred with his knee-on-knee hit on Eric Staal at last spring's World Championships. Perhaps the thinking is that the suspension will give Edler two more games of rehabilitation?
As for Team Canada, Roberto Luongo's new injury casts a good deal of doubt over how they'll proceed.
According to Sportsnet, Luongo will have an MRI today. Hockey Canada will have their final conference call this afternoon:
After everything he's been through, Luongo has played himself into position for another Olympic run. I'm crossing my fingers that today's news is not too bad.
On a happier note, Dan Hamhuis has overcome a rough start to his season and is right back in contention with the announcement just around the corner. Could go either way, but I'm thinking that we will hear his name called tomorrow. Do you agree?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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