Thursday December 1 - Anaheim Ducks 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
In the end, the Vancouver Canucks outshot the Anaheim Ducks 28-24, but they came out on the wrong end of the scoreboard in a lacklustre game at Rogers Arena on Thursday night.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks entertained their fans with a thrilling 5-4 win over Minnesota to open the latest homestand on Tuesday, but the energy in the rink was almost non-existent for Thursday's opening puck drop.
Seems the fans aren't that excited about paying to see Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa come back to town. The attendance was announced at 17,627—lowest of the year at the Rog. Many of the fans that were in attendance took awhile to get into their seats.
Bad traffic night, or just premonitions that there wouldn't be much to see? The Ducks played a great road game, keeping Vancouver to the outside, limiting scoring chances and waiting for their opportunity to pounce.
You may not have been keeping track of shots at home, but that's part of my gig. The first shot of the entire game didn't come until 4:40 into the first period, from the stick of Anaheim's rookie Shea Theodore. And the Ducks were up 7-0 on the shot clock by the time Erik Gudbranson got credit for Vancouver's first shot of the game, more than nine minutes in.
9:30 in, and Gudbranson gets credit for the first Canucks shot, a point shot headed 3 feet wide. Gibson touched it for kicks and giggles.
By the end of the scoreless first period, the shots were 10-5 for the Ducks—and Troy Stecher had already had four shot attempts blocked. Anaheim out-blocked Vancouver 9-8 overall in the opening frame. By the end of the third period, the blocks were 19-18 for Anaheim and Stecher had been blocked a whopping seven times on nine shot attempts.
Maybe that's part of the reason why Henrik was reluctant to pass the puck back to him during Vancouver's 5-on-3 power play when the team was down 1-0 midway through the second period? The rookie would dutifully move the puck to the captain, who then tried to make a down-low play with his brother or Loui Eriksson while Stecher stood back at the blue line with his stick aloft, waiting for the one-timer pass that never came.
It also didn't help that Ryan Kesler was the lone forward defending on the penalty kill for the Ducks. He's a great penalty-killer in any situation, but if there's one guy who knows every Sedin tendency—and has the skill to counteract them all—it'd be their old longtime teammate.
The twins picked up some power-play points against Minnesota on Tuesday, but it felt like they were capitalizing on the opportunities that had been generated at the blue line by Stecher and Hutton. Last night, Henrik and Daniel were back to their maddeningly static tendencies, setting up and seemingly hoping that a puck might slide through on a wing and a prayer.
If the Canucks had scored on that 5-on-3, we could have had a completely different game. Instead, less than a minute after the Ducks got back to full strength, they doubled their lead on a scrambly goal that bounced in off a prone Erik Gudbranson, with Ryan Miller wildly out of position.
The Canucks did start getting more shots through in the second, outshooting Anaheim 12-10, and the trend continued in the third.
Since the players weren't generating any good chances, our old pal The Stanchion took it upon itself to set up Henrik Sedin for his sixth of the year with 7:00 to play in regulation.
That fueled a brief frenzy of enthusiasm by the Vancouver players, which was snuffed with 2:25 left on the clock when Ryan Miller allowed this stinker from Andrew Cogliano to close out the scoring.
Yeah, it caught the tip of Stecher's stick, but still...
Bottom line—though just four points had separated the Canucks from the Ducks heading into Thursday's contest, the chasm between the two teams in terms of talent and compete levels seems like they should be 40 points apart—based on Thursday's game, and the loss in Anaheim earlier this season.
Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry coasted through the game—neither had a single shot on goal, and they didn't face much of a physical challenge. Nikita Tryamkin, bafflingly, finished the game without recording a single hit.
Ryan Kesler wasn't named a star, but he dominated in all zones. Kes was an astounding 17-6 in the faceoff circle and also recorded four shots and three blocks.
The Canucks ended up outshooting Anaheim 28-24 but John Gibson was rarely tested by anything challenging.
Maybe the Canucks are saving their emotional energy for their next game against the Leafs? They'll need to bring a lot more intensity on Saturday if they plan to avoid getting blown out for a second time in front of the nation's biggest TV audience.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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