Monday, November 26, 2007
Blackhawks 0 Canucks 2
The Vancouver Canucks came home from a 1-1-1 road trip and put together a 2-0 shutout win over the resurgent Chicago Blackhawks. It was an entertaining game and both teams generated their fair share of hits and scoring chances. Ryan Kesler set the tone early in the first period when he checked super rookie Patrick Kane into the Chicago bench. Brendan Morrison scored shortly afterwards and the Canucks rode Roberto Luongo's goaltending the rest of the game.
Speaking of Kane, I have to say it was fun watching him and Jonathan Toews do their thing. These kids are good and almost scored the tying goal on a late third period powerplay. That shift in particular, they had control of the puck for almost two full minutes, but couldn't put it past Louie.
And looking through the Blackhawks lineup, they have a lot of kids that are good. Marty Havlat and Tuomo Ruutu - if they can ever stay healthy - are just as skilled and are only 26 and 24 respectively. On defense, it's hard to believe that Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, the anchor of their defense, are still in their early-20's. (Brent Sopel, at the ripe old age of 30, is the oldest of the group.) In many ways, the make-up of this Blackhawks team actually remind me of the Canucks from the early 2000's.
For the Canucks, I thought Sami Salo played a good game, with full face gear and all, and so did Willie Mitchell. Mattias Ohlund and Lukas Krajicek both returned to the lineup, and for the first time in a while, the team has a (fairly) healthy group in the back end.
Up front, the team outshot Chicago, though admittedly, they were helped by a lot of powerplays. Come to think of it, the Blackhawks were playing their third game in four nights and coming off a shootout lost to Edmonton the night before, so they were probably running on fumes.
Regardless, it was another good win for the good guys and a home win at that. The team, which, at the beginning of November possessed a 1-6 record at home, are a more respectable 5-6-1 now. They'll finish the month with a couple more home games - Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks and Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
More from the mainstream:
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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, Chicago+Blackhawks
Speaking of Kane, I have to say it was fun watching him and Jonathan Toews do their thing. These kids are good and almost scored the tying goal on a late third period powerplay. That shift in particular, they had control of the puck for almost two full minutes, but couldn't put it past Louie.
And looking through the Blackhawks lineup, they have a lot of kids that are good. Marty Havlat and Tuomo Ruutu - if they can ever stay healthy - are just as skilled and are only 26 and 24 respectively. On defense, it's hard to believe that Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, the anchor of their defense, are still in their early-20's. (Brent Sopel, at the ripe old age of 30, is the oldest of the group.) In many ways, the make-up of this Blackhawks team actually remind me of the Canucks from the early 2000's.
For the Canucks, I thought Sami Salo played a good game, with full face gear and all, and so did Willie Mitchell. Mattias Ohlund and Lukas Krajicek both returned to the lineup, and for the first time in a while, the team has a (fairly) healthy group in the back end.
Up front, the team outshot Chicago, though admittedly, they were helped by a lot of powerplays. Come to think of it, the Blackhawks were playing their third game in four nights and coming off a shootout lost to Edmonton the night before, so they were probably running on fumes.
Regardless, it was another good win for the good guys and a home win at that. The team, which, at the beginning of November possessed a 1-6 record at home, are a more respectable 5-6-1 now. They'll finish the month with a couple more home games - Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks and Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
More from the mainstream:
- Luongo bounces right back (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- Hot issues (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- Canucks Nation Weekly (Ben Kuzma, Vancouver Province)
- Stay out of the comfort zone (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun)
- Canucks are made to work (Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun)
- Luongo's shutout gives Canucks a win (CP via Globe and Mail)
- Luongo silences Hawks (Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune)
- Tripped up in finale (Len Ziehm, Chicago Sun-Times)
- Short-handed Hawks fall (Chicago Daily Herald)
- Waiting For Stanley raves Ryan Kesler's play.
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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, Chicago+Blackhawks
Labels: Blackhawks, game recap
2 Comments:
Good to see Luongo stepping it up! I've missed our divine goaltender!
I've kind of settled into the thinking that goalies can only be as good as the team in front of them in a sense. Luongod's numbers tallied off in our first 10 games, but the team hung him out to dry. The same can be said about the great Brodeur, who had the same problem in New Jersey.
Liking Salo right now as well. He played a ton of minutes and looked super.
But yeah, I've got this great thing for Kesler right now. A checking genius. A faceoff genius. His offensive chances are coming too. I don't see why he can't score 30 goals in a season someday, even though he says he loves checking other team's top lines.
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