Sunday, October 09, 2005
Paging The Second Line
The Vancouver Canucks lost their first game of the season, falling 4-3 in a shootout to the Edmonton Oilers. The game was tied 3-3 after overtime, before Raffi Torres and Ales Hemsky beat Dan Cloutier in the shootout; Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi were unable to beat Jussi Markannen. 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:
- For the second game in a row, Markus Naslund scored two goals. His season total of four goals ties him for the league lead. Unfortunately, he is the only Canucks forward to score so far. The other Canucks goals have been scored by Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund.
- The second line of Sedin, Sedin and Carter have been invisible in two games - a departure from their strong preseason showing - and have yet to score a point between them. In fact, the line has been unable to generate anything offensively that in two games, they only have two shots between them. Both from Daniel.
- Hard to blame Cloutier on the first three Oilers goals. Especially on the last one, the defense has to do a better job of clearing that area out from in front of Cloutier. The Canucks need a crease-clearing defenseman. But we haven't heard that before, have we?
- Speaking of the defense, I don't know how much longer the Canucks can rely on their top 3 (Ohlund, Jovanovski and Salo) to log 30 minutes per game.
- Full credit to the Oilers' defense. They blocked shots and forced a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone. The Canucks had a hard time setting up their offense.
1 Comments:
Boy am I ever glad I drafted the Sedins & Carter :p
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