Thursday, October 25, 2007
Canucks 2 Red Wings 3
First, the good news.
For the second game in a row, Roberto Luongo was in All-World form. Against the Red Wings last night, he faced 39 shots and stopped 36 of them. And thanks to a couple of glaring breakdowns by the Canucks' defense, he didn't have a prayer in two of the three he let in.
Louie kept the score close. When Daniel Sedin scored 1:47 into the third period, he made it a one-goal game despite his team being outshot 29-11 at that point and not having the puck most of the game. The Canucks weren't playing great by any stretch, but thanks to Louie, they actually had a couple of chances to tie up the game.
The bad news, of course, is that it wasn't enough and the Canucks are now 4-6 for the season.
The stats will tell you everything you need to know about last night's game. The Canucks were outshot 39-15 and lost 65% of their faceoffs.
Save for the Kesler-Cooke-Burrows combo, the rest of the forwards didn't generate much. In 17+ minutes of ice-time, Naslund, Morrison and Raymond only had a shot each and were each minus-1. The Sedins and Pyatt were just as invisible with the exception of Danny's goal.
The defense, plus Sami Salo minus Kevin Bieksa and Mike Weaver, gave Detroit a lot of room, and obviously, a lot of scoring chances. On one horrible, horrible play, Mitchell and Miller collided with each other in front of Luongo's net, coughed up the puck and led directly to Tomas Holmstrom's game-winning goal.
The funny thing is, despite being outplayed as much as they have been and all the doom and gloom that's precipitated because of it, the Canucks still have a chance to finish .500 on this road trip. So maybe it shouldn't be all doom and gloom after all. Right?
About the game around the blogosphere:
Friday night against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals
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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, Detroit+Red+Wings
For the second game in a row, Roberto Luongo was in All-World form. Against the Red Wings last night, he faced 39 shots and stopped 36 of them. And thanks to a couple of glaring breakdowns by the Canucks' defense, he didn't have a prayer in two of the three he let in.
Louie kept the score close. When Daniel Sedin scored 1:47 into the third period, he made it a one-goal game despite his team being outshot 29-11 at that point and not having the puck most of the game. The Canucks weren't playing great by any stretch, but thanks to Louie, they actually had a couple of chances to tie up the game.
The bad news, of course, is that it wasn't enough and the Canucks are now 4-6 for the season.
The stats will tell you everything you need to know about last night's game. The Canucks were outshot 39-15 and lost 65% of their faceoffs.
Save for the Kesler-Cooke-Burrows combo, the rest of the forwards didn't generate much. In 17+ minutes of ice-time, Naslund, Morrison and Raymond only had a shot each and were each minus-1. The Sedins and Pyatt were just as invisible with the exception of Danny's goal.
The defense, plus Sami Salo minus Kevin Bieksa and Mike Weaver, gave Detroit a lot of room, and obviously, a lot of scoring chances. On one horrible, horrible play, Mitchell and Miller collided with each other in front of Luongo's net, coughed up the puck and led directly to Tomas Holmstrom's game-winning goal.
The funny thing is, despite being outplayed as much as they have been and all the doom and gloom that's precipitated because of it, the Canucks still have a chance to finish .500 on this road trip. So maybe it shouldn't be all doom and gloom after all. Right?
About the game around the blogosphere:
- Waiting For Stanley is wondering if it's panic time yet.
- Abel to Yzerman liveblogged the game from the Detroit side.
- Keep your eyes peeled on Canucks and Beyond and On The Wings for their recaps as well.
- Canucks break down in Motor City. (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun)
- Naslund tones down criticism. (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun)
- How slow can you go? (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- Naslund not down on dumps. (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- Hot issues. (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- Canucks let Duff down. (Bob Duff, Windsor Star)
- Wings ride wave. (Dave Waddell, Windsor Star)
- Rookie comes back for seconds. (David Goricki, The Detroit News)
- Holmstrom scores pair in win. (Michael Zuidema, MLive)
- Wings continue winning ways. (Bruce MacLeod, Daily Tribune)
Friday night against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals
______________
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, Detroit+Red+Wings
Labels: game recap, Naslund, Red Wings, Vigneault
4 Comments:
Shouldn't be doom and gloom, perhaps, but should certainly be skeptical on this team's chemistry. Other teams have picked up on the fact that the 'Nucks are a dump-and-chase team, and good teams can take that away without a second thought. Yeah, against Edmonton or Columbus it'll work wonders, but against the Ducks you just won't have the puck often enough to generate any offense.
The Canucks can easily salvage this season. But it requires that Vignault think outside the box. He needs to let the Canucks forwards play different styles of offense. Morrison and Naslund, for example, are wheel-and-deal style players, not dump and chase. So why does he keep them in the system? It worked well last year, when no other team was expecting it... but now they've seen it and can stop it at will. Let the forwards play their game; Get the puck more often, and let the players do as they see fit with it. Then they'll salvage the season.
The Canucks' refusal to shoot the puck left me scratching my head until I made a bald spot.
The scoreboard didn't reflect it so much, but with the exception of the 8-2 Philly rout, that was the worst I've seen them play yet.
So many no-look passes, missed passes, dropped pucks....they didn't look like they belonged in the same league as the Wings last night (excepting Luongo).
They just don't have the desire for the puck that they need right now, and I can't understand why.
The Canucks' refusal to shoot the puck left me scratching my head until I made a bald spot.
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