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Vancouver Canucks Game Review: Texas Slaughter, Post Deadline Fallout |
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Thursday March 6: Dallas Stars 6 - Vancouver Canucks 1
How was Thursday night's game in Dallas? Let's give the summary to Jannik Hansen:
If, for some reason, you'd like to watch the highlights from the debacle, be my guest:
Remarkably, the Canucks outshot Dallas 33-22 and were even at 8-8 after one, but the Stars posted a three goal lead before the game was 12 minutes old.
The defensive breakdowns were frequent and lethal. The Stars looked great off the rush. And Eddie Lack does not look like the same confident goalie that was tracking every puck just a week ago. He played all right against Phoenix, but this is not a situation that inspires a lot of confidence about the Canucks' puck-stopping tandem going forward.
If you're wondering if Roberto Luongo has washed his hands of his old team now that he's finally out of Vancouver, the answer appears to be no. Here's his first comment from last night:
Later:
Meanwhile, we had the pleasure of enduring Tim Thomas' smug mug as he sat on the bench watching his new team do plenty of damage against his old nemesis.
Torts insists that the team had "good meetings" before the game, which would imply that they came out ready to play. Sure didn't look that way.
Zac Dalpe scored the Canucks' only goal, a mean-nothing marker with the team already down 5-0. The player of the game was probably new acquisition Shawn Matthias, who put a team-high seven shots on net and went 9-5 in the faceoff circle, but still finished with a minus-2.
Matthias is wearing number 27—the new Sergio Momesso! He was on the ice with Kassian and Sestito for the Stars' third goal—Tyler Seguin's seeing-eye shot from the right boards—and the last one, Seguin's third period hat-trick marker.
By that point, Jacob Markstrom had taken over in net. Dallas got just five shots in the final frame and allowed the one goal, to Seguin. It was no beauty, but when Seguin gets streaky, things really tend to go his way. I'll wait to see more from Markstrom—possibly against the Flames on Saturday?
The attention now turns to John Tortorella, who is leading this team to long-forgotten levels of futility.
Ziemer's numbers do not include the six games that Mike Sullivan coached while Torts was serving his suspension.
If you're not familiar with Bill Laforge, he was a young head coach who was hired out of junior to lead the Canucks in 1984-85. With his unorthodox approach and awful record, he lasted just 20 games before being replaced behind the bench by general manager Harry Neale.
How many more losses would it take for Torts to get his walking papers at the end of the season?
The Stars' win keeps them in eighth place in the Western Conference, with a four-point cushion over the Canucks. The way that game unfolded, it's hard to even believe it had playoff implications for Vancouver.
Sportsclubstats.com now puts the Canucks' chances of getting to the dance at just five percent. They could be out of the running in just a few days, then we can start looking at the summer reboot in earnest.
Kassian To Be Suspended?
One other thing: Zack Kassian has a hearing with the league today after his boneheaded hit on Brendan Dillon near the end of the first period.
Dillon did return to the game, but Kassian was rightly assessed a boarding major and game misconduct for his reckless play. It might not be enough to warrant a suspension normally, but as a repeat offender and with everything else going wrong, I'll expect to see Kassian receive some supplemental discipline.
The Domino Effect:
In the wake of the trade deadline, it sounds like the Canucks' inability to pull the trigger caused a ripple-effect around the league, where teams got handcuffed and weren't able to make the deals they wanted.
Garth Snow might be reaching for excuses, but he's blaming the Kesler deal for the poor return he received for Thomas Vanek on Long Island:
Bob Murray of Anaheim frittered away his deadline opportunity, thinking a deal for Kesler would get done:
And Peter Chiarelli in Boston was also left holding the bag after a secondary deal, likely for Alex Edler, didn't come to pass. The plan was to acquire a young centre from the Bruins, but he wasn't needed with Kesler still in Vancouver:
I daresay Mike Gillis didn't make a whole lot of new friends around the league on Wednesday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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