Sunday February 2 - Minnesota Wild 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
The Vancouver Canucks scored two goals on 19 shots in one of their strongest third periods of the year. But after falling into a 3-0 hole, they were unable to come all the way back to defeat the Minnesota Wild on Sunday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
The game was Vancouver's only matinee of the season, which could be unfortunate despite the loss. In years past, we've seen some sluggish efforts during day games, but I thought the Canucks looked pretty energized yesterday, especially in the late stages.
Dan Hamhuis spoke in a pregame interview about how he liked the idea of a day game and getting home at a decent hour instead of getting to bed at 2 a.m. That got me thinking that maybe these men and their young families are a lot more energetic in the middle of the afternoon than they are at 9 p.m., when those third-period doldrums set in.
If so, I can see one of two possible solutions. Either schedule more day games, or get that sleep doctor back on the payroll to see if they can't adjust the players' daily routines to make sure they're at their peaks when they're on the ice during games.
I've just been through a topsy-turvy weekend that included two nights of liveblogging the Australian Open in the middle of the night. I'm no finely-tuned athlete, but stretches like that remind me that getting proper rest definitely makes a difference in my general life performance.
What else did we learn from Sunday's game?
• No one appeared to benefit more from the early schedule than Daniel Sedin, who recorded 10 of Vancouver's 37 shots on goal and scored the Canucks' second goal in the third period. It's been a long time since we've seen a buzzy performance like that from Daniel. Here's hoping he can keep it up.
• Despite incurring a head injury just five days previously thanks to Ryan Kesler, Derek Dorsett fearlessly tangled with Ryan Carter in the first period. I was pretty nervous about his health when he left the penalty box right after the fight, but he returned and played 9:25.
I'm surprised to see that the fourth line played less than 10 minutes on Sunday. They started the game, seemed prominent throughout, and Ronalds Kenins scored his first NHL goal to get the Canucks on the board at the 12:20 mark of the third period.
• The game could have been very different if not for a disallowed Canucks goal with the score 2-0 at the 3:05 mark of the third period. Alex Edler's blistering point shot was called a goal on the ice, but was then waved off because it was ruled that goaltender Devan Dubnyk could not play his position. Radim Vrbata was screening, and may have had a foot in the crease, but the call came as a surprise and looked pretty darn arbitrary.
If you thought the fix was in at the Super Bowl, this moment probably gave you pause about the NHL as well.
As I mentioned heading into the game, Dubnyk's arrival has turned around the Wild's fortunes. They're 5-1-1 in their last seven games, just swept their Western Canadian road trip for the first time since March of 2007, and Dubnyk was named the NHL's third star of the week.
The Wild are still in 12th place in the Western Conference, but their last two weeks of wins have moved them to within five points of the last wild card spot. Mathematically,
SportsClubStats says they still have just a 17.8 percent chance of making the playoffs, but that number increased by 5.7 percent with yesterday's win.
Meanwhile, the Canucks dropped by another 6.5 percent. Their latest odds are now 82.5 percent.
Vancouver has a big week ahead, with more crucial inter-conference games against Winnipeg on Tuesday and San Jose on Thursday before hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. They also face the Wild two more times over the next two weeks.
• Adam Clendening made his Canucks debut on Sunday wearing—let's call it Dave Babych's old No. 44, if we want to stick with a defensive theme. He played 19:03—more than we normally see from a third-pairing defenseman, though that number was enhanced by nearly four minutes of power-play time.
Clendening did finish the night with a plus-one, on the ice with Luca Sbisa for Daniel Sedin's goal, which came right off a faceoff. To me, he looked like a guy who still needs to learn the system—frequently out of sync with his mates on the ice. That seems like something that should improve with time.
• Not a good game for Ryan Miller. The first Minnesota goal looked terrible, as Zack Parise scored from almost the goal line, but apparently a deflection off Luca Sbisa in front of the net caused the puck to go five-hole. He wasn't much better on Jared Spurgeon's power-play marker that made the score 2-0, but can't really be faulted for the Thomas Vanek goal that came off a two-on-one caused when the linesman impeded Alex Edler's ability to get off the ice and into the play, leaving poor Frank Corrado to try to defend on his own.
That being said, I thought Corrado's game as a whole is looking more and more confident. And I do like he idea that young players like him, Chris Tanev, Bo Horvat...and maybe Ronalds Kenins...are quietly assuming larger roles on this team. As the tradewinds continue to blow and we wonder how the Canucks will be upgraded over the next few weeks, the organization is shifting some younger bodies into position as building blocks for the Canucks teams of the future.
Here's the lineup at practice today. I'm surprised to see both Alex Edler and Frank Corrado are absent.
Hopefully it's nothing serious.
Four weeks today till the trade deadline. This is where it all gets interesting...
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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