Sunday, October 30, 2005
Canucks 3 Avalanche 4
The Vancouver Canucks finished their three-game road trip with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche. They finished this road trip with an even 1-1-1 record. The game recap is here; the score sheet and stat sheet are here and here.
My notes from the game:
My notes from the game:
- Alex Auld replaced Dan Cloutier in the first period after Cloutier was knocked into the post by Nolan Baumgartner. Though he took the loss, Auld was steady for most of the game, rarely caught out of position.
- Apparently, Cloutier won't be able to fly home with the rest of the team - sounds like he has a concussion - and it should be interesting to see how Auld fares with suddenly becoming the team's no. 1 goalie.
- I can't wait to see Bryan Allen back.
- I thought Steve McCarthy looked as comfortable as he has ever looked in a Canucks uniform. He made better decisions with the puck and looked to be communicating a lot more with his teammates. He finished the game with 20:24 minutes of ice-time and four blocked shots.
- Colorado drew nine penalties from the Canucks; the Canucks only drew four from Colorado. Mattias Ohlund was the biggest culprit, taking four minor penalties - two for hooking and two for high-sticking.
- Bertuzzi had his best game of the season. He was aggresive, he skated, and he actually SHOT the puck. Matt Cooke's goal was a direct result of Bertuzzi's beautiful end-to-end rush around all five Colorado players on the ice.
- Bertuzzi is most effective when he is selfish. Without Naslund on his line, he can afford to be. I should note that he spent most of the night with Ryan Kesler and Matt Cooke. If I was Crawford, I'd be tempted to keep that line together.
- Is Anson Carter still on the Sedin line?
3 Comments:
Are you kidding about McCarthy? I thought it was by far his worst game as a Canuck. He was directly responsible for the OT winner!
I agree with J.J here. McCarthy did play better. You can't just look at one mismake (even though it cost the game) and ignore the rest of his shifts. He did handle the puck better, made better passes, and played with more confidence. Does he still have problem handling forwards along the boards, yes? But was that game his best in a Canuck uniform? I say, if it's not, it's pretty close.
I hope the OT boo-boo doesn't set his confidence back. McCarthy is beginning to show some promise, at least as a third pairing guy.
20+ minutes was probably too high for him and it caught up to him in the end. Unfortunately, Crawford didn't have much of a choice with all the PK's, most of them with their no. 1 PK defenseman the one in the box.
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