Canucks Fall to Lowly Canadiens To Close Out Rough Week
By Nelson Daily Sports
Leigh Ramsden lives in Vancouver and is an avid Canucks fan, having been a partial season ticket holder for over 10 years. He's old enough to have witnessed all three Stanley Cup losses, as such, his prime goal is to remove those scars by seeing a Cup brought to Vancouver. Leigh is Fighting For Stanley's (www.fightingforstanley.ca/vancouver) west coast correspondent, and will also blog after all Canuck games for The Nelson Daily.
The Vancouver Canucks, in second-place overall, entertained the 28th overall Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. In the first period, the two teams played to form. However, it was a case of role reversal in the third period, however, as the Canadiens walked out with a 4-1 victory to win their second straight in western Canada.
In the first period, the Canucks came out like they played their last game against Winnipeg, taking the play to the Habs and outshooting them by a wide margin, 15-5. Carey Price, playing his 59th game for Montreal, played very well to keep his team in the game, as the Canucks had a number of grade A scoring chances. The AMEX line of Kesler-Higgins-Booth led the charge for the second straight game after being reunited by coach Alain Vigneault.
The two teams played more evenly in the second, the Canucks getting on the board first after Ryan Kesler ripped a wrist shot past Price 12 minutes into the period. After that goal, however, the Canucks played like their night was done, as Montreal upped their game and they were unable provide a response. Montreal evened the game at 18:43, when Blake Geoffrion scored his first NHL goal after a nice feed from Louis Leblanc.
While the second period was a step backward for the Canucks, the third period was an unmitigated disaster. Erik Cole scored just 13 seconds into the period after Alex Edler played him way too soft and he was able to slide a weak backhand past Roberto Luongo on a goal the Canuck netminder never should have let in.
The Canucks then took successive penalties for putting the puck over the glass, handing the Habs a 5 on 3 power play. While Vancouver generally did well to kill the penalties, P.K. Subban scored with only one second remaining in the two-man advantage to put the game out of reach for the Canucks.
Cole scored his second six minutes later, after another brutal play by Edler, to round out the scoring and give the visitors their three-goal advantage. After the Canucks dominated the shot clock in the first, Montreal outshot Vancouver 30-18 in the second and third periods.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for this one. Save the Kesler line, none of the forwards played very well, most especially the Sedins and Alex Burrows. Luongo also had an extremely uneven effort – you can’t really blame the first goal on him, the other three all could have been stopped.
The second goal in particular was horrible. Most concerning was their play in the third period, which is typically Vancouver’s strongest. I believe the Canucks are a tired group and since they really have nothing left to play for in this regular season (they are almost assured to finishing first or second in the conference), they really just look like they are coasting.
This is OK, just as long as they get their game together for the playoffs.
Overall, there’s not a whole lot to add on this one. The Canucks played very well for a spell, and then for whatever reason, they just stopped. Montreal kept coming, and the Canucks’ goaltending couldn’t bail them out. In today’s NHL, that always ends up with a loss.
GAME OBSERVATIONS
- Edler was an absolute disaster tonight. He ended up minus-2, but that was kind since he just happened to be on the ice for Kesler’s goal. He played a major role in all three Montreal even-strength goals against. He was outmuscled on the boards on the first one, he allowed Cole far too easy access to the puck on the second, and was beaten along the boards in the offensive zone on the third. I can’t ever remember him playing as poorly as he’s played in the last couple of games.
- The twins continue to struggle mightily, again being held off the scoresheet. They have now combined for one point in the last eight games. As Daniel has that point, Henrik is now in his longest pointless streak since 2003, a point made numerous times on Hockey Night in Canada. Throughout most of this most recent slide, they have been decent, still generating chances. Not tonight – they were invisible and completely ineffective.
- Zach Kassian had his first fight as a Canuck, challenging new Canadien (and ex-Wild) Brad Staubitz. Kassian started out well but ended up losing the fight.
- The trend of the officials refusing to call anything continues. On both sides tonight, it was mind-boggling how many things were left uncalled. At one point, the Canucks even had an obvious too-many-men, and they didn’t call that. The only calls which were consistently applied, unfortunately for Vancouver, were the “puck over the glass” penalties.
- Vigneault spread the minutes out relatively evenly amongst his forwards tonight. This isn’t surprising given how the game went in the third period.
- The fourth line again produced some effective shifts in the first period.
- According to the stat sheet, Montreal outhit Vancouver 26-24. However, watching the game, Montreal won the physical battle by a wider margin than that – the Habs took it to Vancouver physically early in the game. A number of Canucks received hard checks from the Canadiens.
- Before the game the Canucks had planned to give the players a couple of days off, as they don’t play again until Wednesday. It was confirmed by media after the game that that plan is still in place. Great move – the team is playing like it’s exhausted physically and mentally – giving them a break from the rink might be just what’s necessary.
PARTING SHOTS
Broadcast Observation of the Day: The most notable thing on the broadcast tonight was the fact that for a change, the duo of Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson didn’t annoy me terribly. They are usually quite anti-Canuck. Tonight, they let the team do the talking for them on that front – the way they played, it was impossible to think anything positive about them.
After Hours, a show which consistently provides an opportunity to see the players for who they are as people, was great tonight as they had Dan Hamhuis on as guest. The picture of Hamhuis and Shea Weber dressed up as Pooh Bear and Tigger at a children’s hospital was priceless. Canuck fans can only hope that they will have a chance to recreate that scene next Hallowe’en at Canuck Place.
Hamhuis also made some interesting comments about the team’s mindset at the moment, stating that this year feels much different than last year and that the team is really looking forward to the playoffs. This lends credence to the notion that, consciously or subconsciously, they are coasting at the moment, getting ready for the playoffs.
Looking ahead: For potentially the final time, the Canucks will host the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night.