Vancouver’s in Nashville tonight,
taking on their second round opponent from last year’s playoffs—game two of a
seven game roadie. Win or lose tonight,
the most interesting thing to watch will be whether the Canucks have snapped
out of their doldrums or if they’re still looking like they’re having their
pre-game meals at the Drake. I’ll let ya
know because here’s Shacks’ Take:
Pre-Game
Pekka Rinne is on fire, winning
20 of 22 starts, including 11 straight. Makes me wonder why I’ve been splitting
time between him and Niemi on my fantasy team.
Rinne also hasn’t managed to finish a game against the Canucks in two
tries this season, so you wonder whether the Canucks have his number or if
they’ve just pissed him off.
These teams are first and
second on the power play this season. I
wonder what the odds in Vegas would have been on Nashville leading the league
this late in the season.
1st Period
Coach V is throwing a
total curve ball at us tonight. Daniel
Sedin starts with Kesler and Burrows.
Hank is with Raymond and Bitz. I guess Vigneault really wants to see
what Bitz can do right away. Either way
he’s sending a message to the rest of the guys in the bottom six, they haven’t
earned a spot in the top six. The other
lines are Hodgson – Booth – Hansen and Malholtra – Lapierre – Weiss.
The over under on how many
games the Canucks play with the Sedins separated is ½.
The answer tonight is Sami
Salo. The question, who make’s the
grievous error 90 seconds into the game, handing the other team a glorious
scoring chance? Sami coughed up the puck in front, Legwand pounced on it and
passed to Hornqvist who was standing right in front of Luongo. Luongo stopped his attempt and made two more
glorious saves on the scramble that ensued shortly after.
When you’re not scoring,
you always try to find other ways to contribute. Henrik, in trying to block like his third
shot of the season, gets in front of a blast from the point. Unfortunately, his inexperience shows through
as he turns away from the shooter, exposing the target on the side of his ankle
to Steve Klein.
His shot fells Hank who is
clearly in a ton of pain— he barely makes it back to the bench. All Canuck fans should have their fingers
crossed right now.
You can see Henrik starts out facing the shooter.
Once Klein shoots the puck, Henrik flinches and turns taking the puck on the ankle
It took only a couple of
minutes and Hank’s back in the game and playing with his brother. Henrik returned right after a Nashville power
play and AV reunited him with Danny and Alex.
I think Coach V is just messing with those betting the over/under because
he splits up the twins again on the next shift.
New power play combo’s,
the Sedins are with Cody, Salo and Bieksa, oddly they’re pulled after only 21
seconds and the other new combo comes on Kes, Burrows, Booth, Edler &
Hamhuis.
Coach must have known
exactly what he was doing because Kesler scores 9 seconds later. Kes continues to own the Preds, taking a nice
feed from Burrows at the face off dot and one-timing it just over Rinne’s left
pad. 1 – 0 Vancouver.
Nashville ties it just
over two minutes later. Rome battles with Hornqvist along the boards at the
Canuck blueline, Wilson swoops in, picks the puck out of their skates and rips
a shot between Luongo’s arm and body that Lui probably should have
stopped. Considering Luongo hasn’t had
to stop any 2 on 1’s or breakaways this period, he probably got a little bored
and disinterested. 1 – 1
Wilson picks up the puck and tees it up at the circle.
Luongo sees the puck all the way, he should have these.
Alex Burrows breaks rule #
2 when killing a penalty: when you have the puck in their end, keep it deep,
don’t pass it back. His ill-timed back
pass led to a 3-on-2 and a goal post from a Nashville lead.
Rule # 1: When you have a chance, GET THE PUCK OUT!
Coach V is painting a
masterpiece through one period. His idea
of putting Bitz with Hank just paid off with a late goal. Henrik takes
advantage of a bad Nashville change, allowing him to come in wide 3-on-2, shoveling
the puck just past Weber’s stick in the slot. Bitz steps into it and hammers it
upstairs, where Dad keeps the little blue pills. Vancouver 2 – Nashville 1
You can see Sedin bringing the puck up and Fisher heading to the bench, Legwand has his leg over the boards waiting to jump on.
Fisher finally gets on the bench but by the time Legwand jumps on Sedin has passed him creating the 3 on 2
Bitz one-times Sedin's pass as he finds the soft spot in the Pred's Defense.
Un-fuc@i*g-believable,
really, I’m having trouble knowing who to compliment the most on this
play. Coach Picasso goes right back to
Hank and Bitz but throws Danny on the left side this time. Bitz plays the cycle to perfection as Henrik
and Daniel pass it back and forth along the boards until Hank dumps it to Bitz
behind the net. Bitz then feeds a
perfect backhand pass to Daniel, breaking to the net and sliding it far side
for a 3 – 1 lead.
Bitz has the puck behind the net and backhands a perfect feed to Daniel.
Byron Bitz will be quite
the topic of conversation on Team1040 tomorrow. An encouraging period but that’s it so
far.
1st Intermission
Ryan Malone was the
subject of the TradeTracker. Way over-paid,
way too long of a term on his contract and he has a no-trade clause, which
makes the conversation totally irrelevant until he waves it. Let’s move on.
2nd period
Suter rings metal less
than a minute into the period. The d-men
back in too far and Suter ripped a snap shot.
Canucks got lucky early.
Nashville makes it 3 – 2
on a sloppy defensive effort from Bieksa and Hamhuis. After the Preds gained the line, the puck
deflected back to Kevin Klein who looked up and saw not one but two Predator teammates
standing in front of Luongo untouched. Bieksa let his man go and Hamhuis stared
at the shooter instead of turning around and finding a man. Klein slapped a hard pass in their general
direction and Kostitsyn deflected the slap pass home.
Notice two Nashville players awaiting the puck with no Canuck close.
Lui lets in an awful
goal. Danny throws the puck blindly up
the boards right to Weber at the point.
Weber throws a soft wrister at the net that hits Fisher out high,
landing between Luongo’s legs. When Lui moves to find it, he kicks it into his
own net. 3 -3.
It’s almost fitting that
Vancouver is playing waaaaaay better than it has in the last three games but
now the goaltending is failing them. I haven’t counted a single 2-on-1 or
breakaway in this entire game, yet Nashville’s scored three already and two
were kind of weak.
Luongo decided he would
like to atone for the last goal, absolutely robbing Wilson while on his keester
during a furious push at the end of a Preds’ power play. After a scramble in front, the puck comes to
Josi who spots Colin Wilson alone at the far faceoff dot. Wilson receives the pass and sees Luongo
lying on the ice in the ‘stacked pad position.
He shoots high and Luongo lifts his right leg to stop the puck. Google this save if you can!!!
Luongo with pads stacked awaiting Wilson's shot.
See Luongo's leg kick up and make the unbelievable save.
2nd Intermission
Another piece on Canuck
prospects, this time featuring Lack and Schroeder. Pure fluff piece with absolutely no educational
value other than they are learning the game.
I hope next time we find out Anton Rodin’s favourite colour.
3rd Period
Nashville starts the
period by failing to capitalize on their fourth power play of the game. Vancouver has only failed once. Hopefully these are refs that believe in
‘evening the score’.
Hodgson’s new line has one
of their best shifts of the game— a sprawling save by Rinne off a Ballard
chance keeps it tied.
The Sedin’s have played
their first two shifts together, however, new scoring sensation Byron Bitz is
riding shotgun right now. You can look
at this as Coach V riding the hot-hand or you can think the likelihood that
Bitz is getting a third point in this game is kind of slim. AV has played Picasso so far so I’ll have to
trust him on this one though I don’t think I’d be betting that pony.
If the games not that exciting at least we can get the obligatory Carrie Underwood in Nashville shot.
He of the Superior Hockey
IQ, Cody Hodgson, comes down the wing open and winds up from the top of the
circle. Is there a Canuck fan out there
that doesn’t believe this is going top corner at least off a bar? Sadly, Cody is human and Canuck fans
everywhere are disappointed to see it hit Rinne in the crest.
Five minutes left and the
universe is aligned again, Burrows is back with the Sedins.
The Canucks have carried
the play to this point in the period, unfortunately it has led to a few B grade
chances, no more.
Now the Sedins play half a
shift with Bitz and half with Weiss. I
don’t know what the hell is going on anymore.
Overtime
Despite getting no points
so far, Cody Hodgson has looked really good tonight. The Canucks as a whole have been excellent
but Cody’s line was noticeable every time out.
Bieksa almost made it a
full game without a boner but I guess he gets overwhelmed by success. He has the puck in the Canucks’ end on the
sideboards and reverses the puck to the ghost man behind the net. When the ghost fails to move the puck,
Halischuk takes the gift and promptly puts it out front to Shea Weber who one
times it— Luongo easily saves it and covers the puck.
Much like the 3rd
period, the flow of the game was good, but other than Lui’s save off Weber,
there is a lack of quality chances. Classic Nashville. Shots on goal were 40 – 31 Nashville but most
of the shots were from outside for both teams.
Shootout
In a twist, Nashville
chooses Vancouver to shoot first on the road.
Mason Raymond starts, goes forehand, backhand then misses the net with a
bit of room upstairs.
Kostitsyn goes next, tries
a couple of fakes then shoots high glove.
Luongo waits him out and blocks the shot with his glove.
Kesler is next for the
Canucks and tries to shoot high glove as well.
Rinne says No!
Martin Erat comes next and
simply shoots high and wide giving himself no chance.
Burrows does his fake shot
backhand shelf move. Rinne bites and
Burrows scores the first goal on Rinne in 14 shootout attempts. 1 - 0 Vancouver.
Legwand comes in on a must-score
and copies Burrows’ move to a tee.
Luongo ends up face down. 1- 1.
Luongo laying prone with the puck behind him is a sight Canuck fans see a little too often.
A Sedin sighting on the
shootout as Daniel snakes in and rips a shot low glove that rings the post
square with Rinne beat.
Fisher tries to impress
his lady friend Carrie with a backhand, forehand shelf move but shoots high.
Cody Hodgson is the 5th
shooter and shoots hard stick side, denting the blocker side post as hard as
Danny hit the other post. Canucks have been very unlucky so far.
Ryan Ellis’ turn and he
makes a couple of nice moves before trying to slide it in stick side. Luongo sprawls like he did on the goal, but
for once this move works and he saves the deke attempt.
Did I mention I love Lui's belly down goaltending style. Works great!
Edler’s turn and he comes
in off his forehand side— just as it seems he’s going to cut across to his
backhand, he snaps a low shot between Rinne’s legs. 2 - 1
Now it’s Wilson’s turn to
keep this thing going. He tries the
Burrows/Legwand fake shot backhand but Luongo doesn’t fall for the fake at all
and stuffs the backhand. Canucks win!!!
Vancouver finally played
60, well 65 minutes without looking like they were still trying to learn the
game. It was a much better effort with
no out-manned chances. The Canucks will
be just fine if they keep playing like this.
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