Canucks Put Preseason Effort On Ice, Lose 2-0 to Minnesota

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 Canucks continued their lackadaisical play on Monday night as they played their first of a four-game, late season road trip in Minnesota.  Vancouver ended up on the losing end of a 2-0 decision to the host Wild at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Canucks continued their trend of starting well, as they dominated possession for large stretches of the opening 10 minutes of the game during which they outshot the Wild 8-2.  Unfortunately for the visitors, they were unable to beat Wild starter Josh Harding. 

Minnesota picked up their game just after the mid-period TV timeout however, and dominated the rest of the period on the shot clock, outshooting the Canucks 10-3 from that point forth.  Their last shot resulted in a power play goal by Erik Christensen, who converted a nice pass from, of all players, Cal Clutterbuck.

Instead of regrouping and coming out with a better effort in the second and third periods, the Canucks lazily navigated their way through the balance of the game.  They did generate 33 shots overall, but ended up being outshot by one by the hosts.  Minnesota’s Kyle Brodziak scored an empty-netter with 2 seconds left to seal the victory.

The game was a typical Minnesota snoozefest and they effectively lulled the Canucks to sleep, or at least it appeared that way.  Vancouver was unable to generate really any memorable grade ‘A’ scoring chances, and generally played with a lack of emotion and urgency. 

Overall, this is just how the team is playing right now.  They aren’t playing hard, they are playing not to get hurt, and aren’t doing the things they need to do to win the majority of their games.  I’ve written about this before, but I think the positives of this outweigh the negatives. 

There’s concern in some corners that they won’t be able to “flip the switch”, but I maintain this team knows what it has to do and will turn up their “care level” at the appropriate time.  With their next game against rival Chicago, look for the Canucks to bring a much better effort.

GAME OBSERVATIONS

• Canuck netminder Cory Schneider was solid in net all night.  He’d probably like to have the goal he let in back as he got over in time, but Christensen was able to sneak the puck past him on the short side.  Other than that, he made a number of top-quality saves to keep his team in the game.
• On a positive note, the Sedins actually had a decent game tonight, reunited with Alex Burrows as Mason Raymond was finally shown the press box by coach Alain Vigneault.  They often had puck possession in Minnesota’s zone and have seemingly returned to their excellent cycle game and are completing a number of nifty passes.
• The Kesler-Higgins-Booth line also had its moments.  They have been the Canucks’ most consistent unit.
• That said, while the top two lines were good, they weren’t able to score.  This will happen from time to time over the course of a season.
• When it does, it’d be nice to get an offensive contribution from the bottom two lines.  Unfortunately, they weren’t very good tonight, barely noticeable offensively.  Even worse is the fact that they were invisible from a physical perspective and didn’t provide the team any energy.
• Zack Kassian had another ineffective game for the Canucks.  After a solid opening three games, he’s been much less effective and while he’s not generating anything offensively, he’s also not hitting anyone.  He recorded only one hit tonight, and that type of effort just won’t cut it come playoff time.  The Canucks have two players in the minors that will hit if they are given the opportunity, and the way things are going, Mike Duco and Byron Bitz will both be back with Vancouver sooner than they might otherwise have been expecting.
• Another factor working against the Canucks tonight was some spotty officiating.  After Dany Heatley cross-checked and then slashed Daniel Sedin for no reason, a scrum ensued and the extra penalty went only to Alex Burrows.  I’m not quite too sure how that works.
• Jannik Hansen took a penalty at another critical moment, late in the third period with six minutes to play.  After he was hauled down in front of the net, he moved back to get in position in front of the net engaging with Wild defenseman Tom Gilbert.  Harding, himself getting back into position, stumbled and fell down without being touched by either skater.  Somehow Hansen got a penalty for goalie interference.  Bad officiating certainly can’t be blamed for the Canucks loss, but it certainly didn’t help.
• Indicative of the lack of intensity the team is currently showing, the forwards recorded zero blocked shots tonight.  That would be difficult to accomplish even if they were trying to.  Few hits, few blocks – they team just isn’t laying it all out on the ice.  I think stand by and believe this is OK, and preferable to going all out now when they don’t need to.  I don’t think this is conscious, rather, I think it’s the natural reaction of a team that’s locked into a particular playoff spot and believes they have a long playoff run ahead of them.
• After being generally good against Columbus, the Canucks were brutal in the face off circle tonight, finishing at only 43%.

IF THIS WERE A PLAYOFF GAME

This kind of effort definitely would result in a loss come playoff time – and not a one-goal loss either.  The Canucks will have to bring a much better effort in a playoff game.  They are now 2-2, “if this game was a playoff game”.

PARTING SHOTS

Broadcast Observation of the Night:  I actually listened to most of tonight’s game live before watching it on replay.  I assume that most people watch the games on TV and perhaps don’t listen to the radio too often – but maybe that assumption is incorrect.

Regardless, Rick Ball calls a very good game on radio for Team 1040.  He’s good at describing the action and giving an honest assessment of his view of what’s going on with the team.  He was signed to do a few games on Hockey Night in Canada this season (covering Jets games when HNIC’s other broadcast teams are otherwise busy), and I wouldn’t be surprised he can parlay this into a more regular TV gig.

The post-game show was a nightmare.  It seems that most of Canucks Nation is hitting the panic button.  While I’m tempted to, I really do just think the team is taking it easy in advance of the playoffs – nothing more, nothing less.  If I’m wrong, it’ll be a short playoff season this spring.

Looking ahead: Vancouver heads to Chicago to visit the rival Blackhawks on Wednesday.  This game should be a much better meter by which to gauge where the Canucks are at.