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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Canucks 5 Oilers 2

The Canucks needed to make up for a less-than-stellar effort on Saturday night, and boy did they do that in spades last night. Against another divisional rival, the Canucks came out hitting, goaded the Oilers into some undisciplined penalties, and then capitalized on them for a huge 5-2 win; the win moved the Canucks to within one point of the Calgary Flames for first place of the Northwest Division and extended their lead over Edmonton to eight points.

Both Sedins had career nights:
To drive home the point that brains will win over brawn in the new NHL, Daniel and Henrik Sedin combined for nine points as the Canucks made it four straight triumphs over the Oilers.

"If you move your feet you're tough to defend. Especially if they're trying to run us it makes it easier," said Henrik, who finished with four assists to set a career high for a game.

Daniel responded with a hat trick and two helpers for the biggest points output of his career.
Everyone else chipped in. Markus Naslund had a goal and an assist and extended his point streak to five games; he now has points in 11 of his last 12 games. Taylor Pyatt also scored his career-high 16th goal of the season.

But what I liked most was how the team responded after Zack Stortini nailed Lukas Krajicek on the first play of the game. First, Rory Fitzpatrick went after Stortini. Then Jeff Cowan, Alex Burrows and Matt Cooke followed it up with some big hits of their own and got under the skin of the Oilers, most notably Raffi Torres. In fact, the guy who never has a bad game against the Canucks played as bad and as undisciplined as I've seen him play. Almost makes me forget about all the big plays he made against us.

Almost.

More from the Mainstream

About the game around the blogosphere

My 3 Stars of the Game

  1. Daniel Sedin (VAN): Hat-trick plus two assists. 'Nuff said.
  2. Henrik Sedin (VAN): Four more assists to move to fourth overall in the NHL.
  3. Markus Naslund (VAN): One goal, one assist and four shots on goal. Honorable mention to Zack Stortini for a terrific effort.

Official Statistics

Next Game

Back on the ice tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.

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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, 4:37 AM

4 Comments:

At February 07, 2007 11:46 AM, Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

When the Sedins get their feet moving like that, they are pretty hard to hit or contain.
Good thing the Nucks matched the Oilers' physicality or we would have been pooched!

 
At February 07, 2007 8:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with Zanstorm. The more you try to hit the Sedins, the more they slip away. The whole thing is compounded by the fact that you typically put yourself out of position to make the big hit, and the Sedins will make you pay for it.

-Mike

 
At February 07, 2007 8:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh, and while I'm here: does anyone else agree that Linden, while potentially useful planted in front of the net, just doesn't have the quickness and puck-handling skills to play the half-boards on the PP? I've noticed this pretty much once a game for the last couple weeks.

-Mike

 
At February 08, 2007 9:00 AM, Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

Well Linden was playing well on the powerplay a couple weeks back. Now he seems to be reverting back to his 4th line ways. He's not getting himself open and he's missing the net alot.
I think his icetime is being taken away again as well.

 

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