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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Canucks 1 Avalanche 2

The good news is, the Canucks seem to have found their secondary scoring. The bad news is, their primary scorers are nowhere to be found.

After a 2-1 loss to the Avalanche last night, the Canucks extended their losing streak to four games and dropped to ninth place in the Western Conference. In those four games, they've scored a grand total of six goals and Sedin-Sedin-Naslund contributed a grand total of one assist.

In fact, Sedin-Sedin-Naslund have been quite quiet for six games now. The team scored 13 goals in span; none were scored by those three. So who's been doing the scoring? These guys:

  • Shannon - 2 goals, 3 assists
  • Kesler - 3 goals
  • Raymond, Salo, Edler - 2 goals, 1 assist
  • Burrows - 1 goal, 1 assist
  • Pyatt, Ohlund, Mitchell - 2 assists
Obviously, much, much more is expected from Sedin-Sedin-Naslund. What is disappointing is that three of the last four games were one-goal games and even getting just one timely goal from them could have been the difference between four losses in a row and three wins in four games. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Vigneault took Naslund off the Sedin line four games ago.

Ed Willes (Vancouver Province) offers two trains of thought. The more optimistic one says:

Depending on how you looked at things, in fact, the Vancouver Canucks were sitting in an enviable position before they skated into Denver to meet the Colorado Avalanche, and they're still not that badly off. They're in a three-way cluster around the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference and hold games in hand over both the Nashville Predators and the Avs.

They're still 6-3-5 over their last 14 games and they're very much alive in the Northwest Division pennant race.
The other one, not so much:

I mean, it almost seems pointless to go over it all again but if you wondered why so few still believe in the Canucks the evidence was on display again Tuesday night. Watching this team trying to score goals is like watching someone trying to pass a kidney stone.

Their best players seem to be incapable of changing the momentum of a game. That lack of offence puts too much pressure on Roberto Luongo to play like Superman every night and even Luongo isn't good enough to get this team in the playoffs the way they're playing.

If that wasn't enough, it now seems the Canucks' defensive corps, which was supposed to be the strength of the team, has been vastly overrated. They're not supplying offence. The Canucks still surrendered 31 shots Tuesday night.
I agree that it's too early to jump off the bandwagon. I just wish the team wouldn't make it so hard to stay on it.

More from the MSM:

About the game around the blogosphere:

Next game:

Tomorrow 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, 6:08 AM

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