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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Capitals 2 Canucks 3 (SO)

The Vancouver Canucks needed 44 shots on goal plus a shootout to score three and beat Olaf Kolzig and the Washington Capitals. Kolzig stole the spotlight from Alexander Ovechkin, but it wasn't enough and the Canucks won 3-2 in a shootout.

Without their top defensive defenseman, Willie Mitchell, for the third game in a row, the Canucks held one of the league's best players in check. Save perhaps for a two-minute brain fart in the second period when they took consecutive penalties, they didn't give Ovechkin a lot of room to work with and limited him to just two shots on goal. For the game, the Canucks held the Capitals to 21 shots on goal, 16 of them in the second period.

The two Canucks goals came from Taylor Pyatt - his team-leading sixth of the season - and Jan Bulis. Bulis' line with Morrison and Naslund combined for nine shots, and it looks like now, the Canucks have some semblance of secondary scoring (Iain McIntyre, Vancouver Sun).

My 3 Stars of the Game

  1. Olaf Kolzig (WAS): Stopped 42 Canucks shots (not including the shootout) and gave the Capitals an opportunity to steal a win.
  2. Brendan Morrison (VAN): Playing probably his best games of the season, Mo was dangerous on every shift and assisted on Jan Bulis' goal. He also scored on the shootout to seal the Canucks' win.
  3. Daniel Sedin (VAN): Daniel didn't record a point, but he caused the Capitals defense fits all night. He won a lot of battles in the corners, set-up Henrik and Taylor Pyatt for good scoring chances, and himself, threw five shots on Olaf Kolzig.
Other Things on my Notepad

  • GM Place is 11 years old, but with the new energy bar and the new scoreboard, it suddenly looks and feels like a brand-new stadium. The new scoreboard especially is freakin' amazing. I managed to take a brief video of it (and Mo's shootout goal) from my seats - click here to see it.
  • Kevin Bieksa logged a career-high 26:22 minutes of ice-time last night. And that was despite spending seven minutes in the penalty box for fighting Chris Clark. Bieksa really is one of those feel-good stories this year.
  • On the drive home, I caught a brief bit of the post-game show. Jeff Patterson (?) actually suggested that with the Canucks already down a defenseman (Fitzpatrick briefly left the bench after being hit hard against the boards), Bieksa shouldn't have fought Chris Clark. I disagree. Clark almost ran over Roberto Luongo - by my count, the third time the Caps tried to do so - and I applaud Bieksa for putting an end to it. And before we ask him to pick out our 6/49 numbers for tonight, he had absolutely no way of knowing beforehand the Canucks would give up a long 5-on-3 with Fitzpatrick out and three other defensemen in the penalty box.
  • Loo-kash Krajicek also played a great game. He was more positionally-sound and took away a lot of the Caps' passing lanes. When he had the puck, he looked smooth in skating it out of the zone or throwing out that first pass. His 28:16 minutes of ice-time was second-highest only to Mattias Ohlund.
  • I think we pretty much saw the best and worst of Jan Bulis tonight. He was determined to make up for a lousy game on Wednesday night and came out flying at the start of the game. Then he came out in the second period and took a lazy hooking penalty.
  • I know I'll get flamed for saying this, but Markus Naslund looked like he was playing hurt near the end of the game. He looked uncomfortable skating and had problems handling the puck and getting his shot off. I hope the three days off cures whatever it is that ails him.
About the game around the blogosphere

Fun With Numbers

The Canucks don't play their next game until Halloween night against the Nashville Predators.

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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

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posted by J.J. Guerrero, 9:15 AM

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