Tuesday April 21 - Calgary Flames 3- Vancouver Canucks 1
Flames lead best-of-seven series 3-1
Tuesday was a messy day where the Vancouver Canucks seemed one step behind the cycle of events all day long.
From Alex Burrows' scary injury at the game-day skate to Nick Bonino's "almost" goal right after the final buzzer, the Canucks couldn't quite get themselves in sync to win a very important hockey game.
Brandon McMillan and Linden Vey played. Sven Baertschi, Brad Richardson and Burrows did not. And Eddie Lack got the hook after giving up three goals on seven shots in the first period—which ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.
Here are your highlights:
The early part of Tuesday's news cycle was dominated by Burrows, who left the ice in obvious pain during the game-day skate and was eventually taken away from the Saddledome in an ambulance.
Word is that Burrows was released from hospital yesterday, but didn't travel back to Vancouver on the team charter last night.
Airline cabin pressure could be the reason for that decision, if Burrows did suffer any sort of lung trauma.
I have seen some speculation that an injury like this will knock Burrows out of action for the rest of the playoffs, no matter how long the Canucks stay alive. There's no official word yet from the team, so let's hang tough and see what they tell us.
The Canucks are holding an optional practice at Rogers Arena Wednesday at 12:15, so more information should be available then.
It's ironic that Burrows ended up unable to play in Game 4 after he ducked the prospect of a suspension. Another sign, in my mind, that the Hockey Gods simply weren't on Vancouver's side on Tuesday—and really haven't been for most of this series so far.
A little luck would help when the Canucks hit the ice for their do-or-die Game 5 on Thursday, but the players and coach are also going to need to step up their game.
If the team had been planning to play Sven Baertschi in Game 5, he should have been called up immediately after Sunday's game. The Utica Comets wrapped their season on Saturday night, so he was available to join the Canucks and practice with them, rather than arriving in Calgary too late to join Tuesday's morning skate.
Though Baertschi spent a week with the Canucks at the end of the regular season, I can understand Willie's reluctance to insert the newcomer straight into a playoff lineup last night, but I still think he could have bitten the bullet under the circumstances.
Brandon McMillan was the low man in ice time at nine minutes on Tuesday. He wasn't terrible—second on the team with three hits, and also got a couple of shots—but he took an unnecessary second-period penalty on (who else) folk hero Michael Ferland and, let's face it, you don't turn to McMillan when you're looking for offense.
I would also have liked to see Willie pull the trigger sooner on moving Radim Vrbata up with the twins. Why wait till the third period *and* disrupt your fourth line by pulling out Jannik Hansen? And I would have liked to see Willie pull the trigger sooner on pulling the goalie in the third period. When you need two goals—the sum-total of your output in the previous 100 minutes of hockey—why wait until there's just two minutes left in the game before you put on the big pressure?
Willie did this well during the regular season, moving to his four-forward deployment and pressing hard late in games when Vancouver needed to score. He used two defensemen all the way through final minutes last night.
Then there's the goaltending question.
The now-deposed Stanley Cup-wining Corey Crawford is the starter below Lack, at just .809, and it'll take a miracle to get him back into these playoffs after Scott Darling's big triple-overtime win last night for Chicago.
Like the rest of the team, Lack seemed discombobulated last night, but the Canucks got their share of chances in the first period and he wasn't able to shut the door early enough to give the team a chance to win.
Ryan Miller faced just 15 shots in the final two periods as Calgary focused primarily on goal prevention. I thought he looked significantly sharper and more confident than he did against the Oilers in the last game of the regular season—especially during that crease-crashing incident early in the second period.
And there's this:
(Never mind that Feb. 14th game was against Calgary)
After the game, Miller sounded genuinely remorseful about taking the net from Lack under these circumstances.
I think Miller will get the call for Game 5. What do you think?
survey services
It's disappointing that the Canucks haven't been able to find a way to consistently generate offense, though at least they were 1-for-2 on the power play last night.
I'm not going to start dismantling the team until we see how this all plays out.
I've give the last word for the day to superfan Brent Butt, who's not joking when he says he still believes:
Best of luck to our fellow embattled Canadian brethren in Winnipeg and Ottawa tonight. Beat Kesler! Beat Dale Wiese!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»