Canucks 1 Stars 3

Game Recaps: canucks.com . Vancouver Sun . ESPN
Statistics: Score Sheet . Stat Sheet

• Markus Naslund apparently called a players only meeting after the loss to St. Louis, asking teammates to play with more desperation. It didn't work. Even with a 1-0 lead, the Canucks sat back and almost begged the Stars to get back into the game.
• Was Crawford saving Naslund for tomorrow night's game or was he trying to send a message? Or maybe Naslund's groin is bothering him again? I like looking at ice-time as an indicator of how specific players perform and Naslund played a season-low 14:36 minutes last night.
• For what it's worth, Matt Cooke logged 15:17 minutes of ice-time.
• Bryan Allen struggled in the last few shifts of his 24:31 minutes of ice-time. Hopefully Jovanovski comes back soon - Allen can't play those minutes on a regular basis.
• Alex Auld tried to fend off the Stars and ended with 34 saves. The first Stars goal was off a Bryan Allen turnover; the second one was a result of some horrible defensive coverage (H. Sedin picked off his own defenseman, Kevin Bieksa); and the third was courtesy of a Sami Salo giveaway.
• I liked the competitiveness of the role players tonight - besides Cookie, I thought Kesler and rookie Alexander Burrows really stood out. To be honest, in the latter parts of the game when the Canucks were trying to claw back in, I thought the grinders were more prominent.