Friday, October 21, 2005
Canucks 3 Coyotes 2
The Vancouver Canucks remained unbeaten at home, beating the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2. The Canucks outshot the Coyotes by a 38-24 margin and Matt Cooke's controversial third-period goal turned out to be the game-winner. 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:
- The score was extremely flattering for the Coyotes. The game would have been over in the first 6 minutes if not for the play of Curtis Joseph. The Canucks - especially Markus Naslund - have had his number the last couple of years, but he was great tonight. I was surprised that he wasn't the first star of the game.
- The game itself was choppy - there were a lot of penalties - though I think both teams played sloppy hockey for most of the game.
- Bertuzzi was a force again tonight. Every time he was on the ice, it just felt like he was going to do something, like he was going to skate by or ward off his check and create a scoring chance. And he usually did. Think he knew Team Canada GM Wayne Gretzky was watching the game?
- Ditto for Jovanovski.
- For the second game in a row, another high-stick to one of the Canucks' d-men went undetected by the refs. Behind the Canucks goal, Ladislav Nagy got his stick up on Steve McCarthy and cut him on the lip. I know the refs have a billion rules to enforce now (well, they always have, it's just they decided not to call half of them in recent years), but they just cannot miss high-sticks. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but linesmen are allowed to call stick infractions, are they not?
- Trevor Linden is struggling, but you can't discount what he means to this team. He was a key reason the Coyotes, down 3-2, didn't score on two late 5-on-3's. He blocked shots and was always in good position to prevent those diagonal, cross-ice passes. On those 5-on-3's, the Coyotes couldn't do much more than pass the puck around the point or along the side boards.
- With Jovanovski's and Baumgartner's goals (both their firsts of the season), the Canucks six defensemen now account for just under 30% of the team's goals this season. As a group, they have scored 8 goals and 28 points. I haven't looked at other teams' d-stats, but I think it's a safe bet that as a group, the Canucks have the highest scoring defensemen in the league.
3 Comments:
I left a similar comment on Tom Benjamin's blog. I didn't see McCarthy's incident, but as for Jovo, there was no penalty. The follow through of a shot, even if it hits a player, cannot be a penalty.
I agree with you that the follow-through on a shot cannot be a penalty... and maybe I remember the play wrong but I don't think Barnaby was attempting a shot when he clipped Jovo? I saw it more of a desperate swing at the puck.
Right, it was a desperate swing at the puck, but that's the point, no? A swing at the puck = shot. It doesn't have to be a shot on goal. When Berard got blinded in Ottawa, it was a clearing attempt. Same thing here...Barnaby was trying to clear, swung at the puck, and his stick rose up and clipped Jovo. It's the price of doing business in hockey...
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