Canucks Drop Decision to Phoenix Coyotes in Potential Playoff Preview

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.

After having a couple rest days off, the Vancouver Canucks hosted the also-struggling Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.  In an atypical high-scoring affair for these teams, the Coyotes left Vancouver with a 5-4 win.

The Canucks came out very strong in this game.  Coach Alain Vigneault juggled his lines and defensive pairings after giving the team two full days off, and the new combinations appeared to provide some spark throughout the lineup.  Vancouver jumped out a 2-0 lead in the first on goals by Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler. 

Unfortunately, defensive lapses let Phoenix back into the game, as they tied it up at two after Rusty Klesla and Shane Doan replied for the visitors.  The Canucks probably felt unlucky going into the locker room tied, as they outshot Phoenix 18-13 and were carrying the game physically and possession-wise.

The Canucks scored a power play goal in the middle of the second period when David Booth converted a nice give and go with Chris Higgins.  That goal, however, was bookended by Coyote goals from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Gilbert Brule, which sent the Canucks into the third period down 4-3.  The period was more even as Phoenix was able to create a few odd-man rushes in their favour, but that said, the Canucks carried the play again for large stretches and outshot the Coyotes 15-13.

Early in the third, Kevin Bieksa, who didn’t have a strong game on the stat sheet, took a marginal, but ill-advised, penalty when he slashed the stick out of Daymond Langkow’s hands. 

The Coyotes scored the eventual game-winner just nine seconds into the ensuing power play as Antoine Vermette beat Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo after Luongo kicked a rebound to him in the slot.  Dan Hamhuis scored with just less than eight minutes left to get the Canucks to within striking distance, but they were unable to complete the comeback.

There will be a lot of attention paid to both Bieksa and Luongo after tonight’s game.  Bieksa finished minus-3 and clearly didn’t play the kind of game that he can.  Luongo gave up a couple of poor rebounds and wasn’t overly strong on a couple of the goals. 

That said, the defensive breakdowns tonight were a team effort.  I lost count of the number of odd-man rushes the Canucks gave up throughout the game, and the backchecking by the forwards, as a whole, left a lot to be desired.  This poor backchecking was a culprit on all the Coyotes’ goals at even strength, perhaps the worst being when Doan was allowed to stand at the side of the night jamming at the puck without being hit or moved away.

On the positive front, if the Canucks and Coyotes play this game 10 times, the Canucks are going to win nine of them, based on their superior offensive talent.  The team generated more scoring chances tonight, with more regularity, than in any of their most recent efforts. 

Vigneault’s new line combinations appeared to rejuvenate some of the players.  Daniel and Henrik Sedin, held to one point combined in their last eight games, recorded three points tonight, playing with oft-maligned Mason Raymond.  Alex Burrows, jettisoned to the third line with Sammy Pahlsson and Jannik Hansen, was one of the team’s best forwards on the night, generating a number of scoring chances and recording six shots. 

I don’t believe these moves are permanent, however, Vigneault achieved what he desired – a more consistent effort from some of his top players.

Overall, the Canucks played much better offensively tonight and this was a step in the right direction compared to recent efforts.  They generated a lot of shots and scoring chances, the twins looked like they returned to form, the power play got going, and all lines contributed offensively.  What felled the Canucks tonight was some bad luck and some poor goaltending, those problems not likely to happen frequently.  To channel my inner Alain Vigneault:  “It’s all part of the process.”

GAME OBSERVATIONS

• While Luongo was not helped by his team, in reviewing the five goals allowed, two of them were a direct result of massive rebounds put into the wrong spot while another was a relatively weak goal which fluttered into the net from the blue line.  He also didn't look great on Doan’s goal, as Luongo put himself out of position and Doan out-waited him and was able to jam it into the net.  Luongo will need to find a way to get back to his previous form before the playoffs.
• As I noted, Bieksa was minus-3 tonight.  He was on the ice for all three even-strength goals against, but can’t be faulted on the first or third.  On the first, he fell victim to one of the aforementioned rebounds by Luongo.  The second was the Doan goal, and he didn’t play that one well.  On the third, he had just led a three on one down the ice offensively and was understandably behind the play when it went back up the ice.  That’s a goal where the high forward has to stay back a bit to cover for him.
• It looks like the days off did the team some good.  The passing was much more crisp and they moved the puck a lot faster than they have been recently.
• As good as the new-look third line was, Kesler’s line was again the team’s best and most consistent on the night.  They’re doing a great job of getting the puck into dangerous areas and taking it to the net.  Kesler hit the crossbar again tonight and was stoned by Phoenix goalie Mike Smith on a first-period power play.
• Jannik Hansen actually appeared to play the game tonight, which is a step in the right direction.  Perhaps it was the addition of Burrows to the third line, but Hansen was the Hansen of old, using his speed to get in on the forecheck and deliver hits – he led all skaters with seven on the night.
• The fourth line of Lapierre/Weise/Kassian was pretty good tonight, but again, Vigneault held them to under 10 minutes of icetime.
• Garry Valk at Sportsnet opined after the game that some of the breakdowns were a result of the new D pairings.  While I think that the old pairings were just fine, I think it was a bit of a reach.  None of the goals were really related to any mixups between the defense pairings, they were more the result of bad rebound control and poor forward defensive play.
• Hopefully the Sedins are now “off the schneid”.  Their line was very dangerous tonight, and they looked very much better on the power play.
• I’m not sure anyone noticed, but in the first game back after the recent NHL GM meetings, the referees called a few more obstruction penalties than we have seen recently.  Phoenix took three and at least two of them were the types of calls we haven’t been seeing lately.  The Canucks took only the Bieksa slashing penalty and a too-many-men bench minor.
• Also lost in the shuffle of this loss is the fact that the power play looked very good and finished the night two for three.  This is the first multi-power play goal game for the Canucks since the Boston game on January 7.
• Kevin Woodley, who reports on the Canucks for NHL.com, noted on Twitter that he overheard a Canuck player telling an ex-teammate on the Coyotes (Labarbera, Torres, or Pyatt, presumably) that “they haven’t played a game that mattered in three weeks since the Detroit game”.  That is very telling as to the team’s mindset and lends credence to the view that they will get things going at the right time.

IF THIS WERE A PLAYOFF GAME

If this had been a playoff game, I believe the Canucks would have won.  They seemed to have higher intensity than did the Coyotes at a number of times throughout the game.  If it had been ramped up at all at other times, or another goal went in during the dominant first period, the game could have been over very early. 

The Canucks hit two posts as it was, and too many things went well for Vancouver tonight for them not to be rewarded for a game like this.  There were a couple defensive lapses and some questionable goaltending, but ideally those will not be a concern come playoff time.

PARTING SHOTS

Checking in on the Standings:  The Canucks remain solidly in second place in the Western Conference and are third overall.  In what I believe is the most important metric, only the two teams ahead of them in the standings (New York and St. Louis) have fewer regulation losses than does Vancouver (the Canucks sit with 20 to the others’ 18).  There are a couple other teams within a couple of games of that.

Therefore, while Vancouver is now in the midst of its worst stretch of the year (2-4-2 in their last eight games), they are holding steady in the standings and, for the most part, are not losing ground.  Many of the league’s best teams are struggling at the moment, and Vancouver still ranks quite high when considering regulation losses.

Broadcast Observation of the Night:  Sometimes I just don’t get where Garry Valk is coming from.  Tonight, he chose to throw blame on Bieksa and on the defensive pairings. I just didn’t see that these guys played that poorly.  I don’t think Bieksa would ever say he played “well” when he’s minus-3, but as I pointed out, the goals were far from being his fault.  As for the D pairings – in general, I thought they went pretty well and Edler was much better tonight than he has been of late.  That said – I have to agree with Valk on one point – I see no reason to split up Bieksa and Hamhuis on a long-term basis, they are arguably one of the best pairings in the league.

Looking ahead: The Canucks play host to the scintillating Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.