Friday November 27 - Dallas Stars 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (S/O)
Half empty or half full? The Vancouver Canucks held their own against the best team in the Western Conference but claimed only a single point when they couldn't score in the shootout, ultimately falling 3-2 to the Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Here are your highlights:
Three out of four points against Minnesota and Dallas on the road is probably a better outcome than most people expected for the first two games of this road trip, but it's barely enough for the Canucks to keep their heads above water.
Because Arizona picked up an overtime win against Calgary last night, they've moved ahead of Vancouver into that third playoff spot in the Pacific Division, thanks to two games in hand and a better regulation/overtime record. With all their OT losses, the Canucks' position will be very weak if they find themselves in a tiebreaker situation at the end of the season.
On the other hand—Vancouver now has 25 points and the division-leading Los Angeles Kings have 27. It's an understatement to say the top four teams are tightly packed at the top of the Pacific Division!
The Canucks outshot the Stars 36-25, including 13-5 in the third period, when they wiped out a 2-1 Dallas lead thanks to a power-play goal by Henrik Sedin with 4:10 left in regulation.
But even Henrik couldn't drive straight down his usual path of "We played a good game. The wins will come."
Vancouver went just 1-for-7 with the man advantage, while Dallas scored both of its goals on the power play, going 2-for-5. Given the offense that Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and John Klingberg are generating this season, it's no surprise that the Stars have the second-best power play in the league.
Dallas' top players were the difference makers on Friday, but we also got a look at some of their more human characteristics. Jamie Benn led the Stars forwards with 22:39 of ice time despite spending six minutes of the game in the penalty box, taking a high-sticking double minor on Chris Tanev in the first period (the NHL's game sheet says Derek Dorsett was the victim, but our broadcast showed Tanev getting patched up on the bench when the incident happened.)
Benn also took the third-period tripping penalty on Dan Hamhuis that led to Henrik's tying goal. But—he had seven shots on goal for the Stars and Tyler Seguin had five. The two of them alone accounted for nearly half of Dallas' 25-shot offense. And Benn was credited with the game's opening goal when a Seguin shot went into the net after hitting first Patrick Sharp, then him.
John Klingberg's an even more interesting case. The 23-year-old sophomore picked up the primary assist on the Stars' second power-play goal by Jason Spezza in the second period to move ahead of Erik Karlsson as the NHL's top scoring defenseman. He has 25 points in 23 games and is a plus-10 overall, but his biggest assist of the night came when he set up Jannik Hansen for a perfect pass to Daniel to get the Canucks on the board.
You may drool over the offense, but imagine the kind of heat that Klingberg would take in this market if he made a mistake like that as a Canuck?
So—a shout-out to the Canucks for sticking with the game plan, getting the point AND surviving 3-on-3 against the Stars. Too bad our normally sure thing, Radim Vrbata, whiffed on his shootout chance while Tyler Seguin scored on his, giving the Stars the second point.
Last night was just the second shootout of the year for the Canucks—they beat Anaheim 2-1 way back on October 12—so there's not really much to go by when second-guessing shooters. Still, I'd like to see Jared McCann get a chance next time the opportunity arises. That boy can shoot the puck!
Jason Botchford reminds us that McCann actually did lead off that shootout against Anaheim in his latest edition of
The Provies:
I have no idea how, since then, you watch McCann shoot this year, you watch him move this year, and you watch him score this year, and not think:
“We have to get this guy into the shootout again.”
McCann has been on such a good run lately, I think he earned that spot.
You can also click that Provies link above if you'd like to take a look at how Kevin Bieksa was part of the problem when the Anaheim Ducks coughed up a 2-0 lead with less than two minutes left in the third period against their nemesis, the Chicago Blackhawks, on Friday.
Marian Hossa potted Chicago's first goal of the game at 18:19 of the third period, then Duncan Keith tied it with 27 seconds left before Artem Anisimov picked up the game-winner in OT. They didn't even need Jonny Toews to get it done!
I'm crossing my fingers that the loss will be yet another blow to Anaheim's confidence since they're Vancouver's next opponents on Monday.
It feels weird to be heading into a Saturday night with no Canucks action, though there are 12 games on the docket for hockey fans today.
A couple of quick things to finish off:
• Our old pal AV suffered some nasty flashbacks to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final on Friday when his Rangers dropped a 4-3 decision to Claude Julien's Boston Bruins.
Click here for the complete report from Pat Leonard of the
New York Daily News.
First, he invoked the spirit of Aaron Rome when discussing the Matt Beleskey hit that broke Derek Stepan's ribs on Friday:
“I remember Aaron Rome in this building, 0.6 seconds late (on Nathan Horton), getting suspended four games in the Stanley Cup Final,” Vigneault said. “So it’ll be interesting to see. (Derek Stepan) broke some ribs, so he’ll be out indefinitely.”
The NHL Department of Player Safety, however, apparently is not even looking at supplemental discipline for Beleskey, who was not even penalized in the game.
Then, he made a Freudian slip as he dragged Brad Marchand's name through the mud after Julien accused Henrik Lundqvist of embellishing on a hit from Marchand:
He mistakenly said: “Who would you rather have as a son, Henrik Sedin or Brad Marchand?” The Rangers clarified the obvious minutes later, that Vigneault had meant to say Henrik Lundqvist.
I find it comforting to know that, for all his success since moving to the Big Apple, AV is just as haunted by 2011 as the rest of us.
• Finally,
click here for an excellent feature on Luca Sbisa from Iain MacIntyre of the
Vancouver Sun.
Stories like these remind me of why it's so sad to see experienced sports journalists slowly disappearing from our media landscape. MacIntyre addresses the criticism that has been heaped on Sbisa since his arrival in Vancouver but also humanizes him—talking about the journey he has been on since he left Switzerland to join the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL as a 17-year-old.
“My second game in junior, I hit Tyler Ennis,” he says of the former Medicine Hat Tiger. “I didn’t know who he was, but I got jumped. It was my second game in North America; I had no idea how to fight.
“I’ve just tried to be hard to play against. I embraced that role.”
I may be a blogger, but the level of criticism that Sbisa endured last season—and during the summer—made me cringe. And root for him. I'm glad we're seeing some growth in his game and that he's finding a way to take all the barbs in stride.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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