Monday, February 19, 2007
Avalanche 4 Canucks 5
For only the fourth time during this 17-3-3 post-Christmas run they're on, the Canucks allowed four or more goals to an opponent. Last night, they were outshot - the 16th time in their last 23 games they've been outshot - and outplayed by a Colorado Avalanche team that played in Calgary the night before. But like everything that is seemingly going right in the Canucks' favor right now, the Canucks won 5-4 anyway and put a pretty big nail to the Avalanche's playoff coffin.
With last night's win, the Avs and the Edmonton Oilers have to play almost perfect hockey the rest of the way to even have a sniff at making the playoffs. Consider this: even if the Canucks play to a .500 record in their remaining 23 games, the Avs and the Oilers have to win 18 of their remaining 23 games to pass them.
Last night, it was the offense to the rescue. More specifically, it was Brendan Morrison, Matty Cooke and Trevor Linden to the rescue.
Now, if they can only find some regular linemates for Naslund.
More from the Mainstream
Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Technorati Tags: NHL, hockey, Vancouver, Canucks, Colorado+Avalanche
With last night's win, the Avs and the Edmonton Oilers have to play almost perfect hockey the rest of the way to even have a sniff at making the playoffs. Consider this: even if the Canucks play to a .500 record in their remaining 23 games, the Avs and the Oilers have to win 18 of their remaining 23 games to pass them.
Last night, it was the offense to the rescue. More specifically, it was Brendan Morrison, Matty Cooke and Trevor Linden to the rescue.
With linemate Trevor Linden hitting the 1,300 plateau for career NHL games -- only six active skaters have logged more -- it was as if Cooke sensed the moment in a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.Morrison, especially, seems to have shaken off any effects from his off-season hip surgery and was again one of the team's better players.
Cooke scored once and set up two goals by linemate Brendan Morrison as the Vancouver Canucks strengthened their grip on the Northwest Division lead. The three-point effort matches a career high for Cooke, who was quick to give a motivational assist to Linden.
Brendan Morrison surely heard the scuttlebutt about how the Vancouver Canucks desperately needed another centre and why they should have sacrificed him in a trade when Peter Forsberg was on the market.Morrison now has 13 points (5G-8A) in 12 games, including seven points in his last four games.
Morrison had an answer for those so-called experts last night when the 31-year-old local product had one of his strongest games of the season, scoring twice and assisting on another goal as the Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 in an old-fashioned shootout.
Now, if they can only find some regular linemates for Naslund.
More from the Mainstream
- Brandon Reid was sent down prior to the game; Tommi Santala was called back up. - Elliott Pap (Vancouver Sun), Ben Kuzma (Vancouver Province)
- Scoring four goals on the road does not always equal a road win. - Elliott Pap (Vancouver Sun)
- Another Hart-to-Hart talk. - Ed Willes (Vancouver Province)
- Some talk from the Colorado side of things. - Terry Frei (Denver Post)
About the game around the blogosphere
- Mike the Yankee Canuck drunk liveblogged the game. Make sure you swing by and check out the damage.
- Waiting For Stanley and Canucks Fangirl also have their respective recaps.
My 3 Stars of the Game
- Brendan Morrison (VAN): One goal, one assist and one of his best overall performances this season.
- Matt Cooke (VAN): Tied his career-high of three points and dished out six (recorded) hits for good measure.
- Andrew Brunette (COL): Two goals in a losing cause.
Official Statistics
Next GameTuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Technorati Tags: NHL, hockey, Vancouver, Canucks, Colorado+Avalanche
Labels: Avalanche, Cooke, game recap, Morrison
1 Comments:
They dwelled on that quite a bit, didn't they?
To be fair, however, I thought it was an interesting scenario - the Avalanche can get a lot for him and speed up their rebuilding efforts.
If anything, I thought it was more annoying that Garrett kept pimping Jose Theodore.
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