Canucks Steam Toward Playoffs, Defeat Avalanche 1-0

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 Colorado Avalanche entered Wednesday’s game at Rogers Arena knowing that their playoff dreams likely rested on their ability to run the table and get all possible eight points from their remaining four games, as most of the other teams in playoff chase held two games in hand on them.  The Vancouver Canucks snuffed out those hopes by grinding out their second consecutive 1-0 shutout victory to win their fourth in a row.

Similar to their last game, the Canucks had to score only once and it came early.  Tonight, the goal came courtesy of Chris Higgins, who scored shorthanded at 17:04 of the opening period after Sammy Pahlsson fed him the puck after a turnover in the neutral zone.  Higgins broke in on Avalanche netminder Semyon Varlamov and beat him stick-side to score the game’s only goal.

The balance of the game was typical of what we’ve been seeing from the Canucks of late – extremely solid team defense to go along with limited offense.  The Canucks are continuing to fail to put in the extra work that’s required to dominate the game in shots and scoring chances, as has been their trademark for most of the last three years. 

Colorado, for obvious reasons, was the far more desperate team tonight.  They outshot Vancouver 43-22 on the night, and after the Canucks had come out with a good start to the third period, outshot the Canucks 11-0 in the game’s final 9:24 as they threw absolutely everything they had at the Canucks in their attempt to get some points out of the game. 

Given all that, the Canucks did a good job of keeping the Avalanche to the outside in the game’s final 10 minutes and they game-managed their way to the win.

For the third game in a row, the referees seemed to return to the pre-Christmas standards, as they called eight penalties in the game that resulted in power plays, the Avalanche receiving five to Vancouver’s three.  Some of the calls were bad, while some of the stuff that should have been called wasn’t, but at least we are seeing some penalties called. 

As a result, there was a lot of special teams play in the game.  The Canucks power play continues to struggle, and tonight was unable to score on an extended 5-on-3 man advantage.  However, their penalty kill continued to play very well as it killed all five chances against to remain sixth in the NHL and, as noted, it provided the team’s only offense.

Tonight’s game was the fourth in a row, and tenth in the last 15, that they have played against teams that are “fighting for their playoff lives” (Dallas X 3, Phoenix and Colorado X 2, Buffalo, Winnipeg, Los Angeles).  The entire time, the Canucks have been pretty well locked into second place in the conference and has been frequently noted, they have failed to play many of these games with the same intensity as their opponents.  That, combined with a few ugly losses, has made Canucks Nation very nervous.

During this 15 game stretch, the Canucks have lost their leading goal scorer, but have also cleaned up their team defense and goaltending while collecting 17 of the possible 30 points.  They currently sit only two points in arrears of St. Louis and New York for first place in the NHL, and with any luck will again finish first which would secure home ice advantage throughout the playoffs. 

More importantly, they have used this time to get a few players going a little bit better (Raymond, Higgins, Hansen) and have been able to work a number of their depth defensemen into the lineup to keep the rust off (Alberts, Rome, Gragnani).

It may not be as pretty as we are all used to seeing out of this team, but when you take a step back and look at the big picture of what they have accomplished, they have set themselves up very well for the playoffs. 

The only wild card is whether or not they can turn up the intensity, and I believe they can and they will.  In almost every game, there are flashes of what the team can bring to the table, and motivation will certainly not be a problem in a couple weeks’ time.

GAME OBSERVATIONS

• It goes without saying that when you record a shutout, your goaltender is most likely your team’s best player. This couldn’t have been more true tonight, as Cory Schneider got the start in net and made coach Alain Vigneault look brilliant.  AV looks like he’s getting both goalies some game action and some rest as they head toward the playoffs, as he played Schneider tonight even though Roberto Luongo recorded a shutout last time out.
• Colorado definitely generated the more dangerous scoring chances tonight, but Schneider was equal to the task.  The defense should also be commended for helping negate any second chances on rebounds.
• One concerning point with the team right now is the lack of consistent offense.  Once again tonight, none of the team’s lines looked that great offensively, their best unit probably being the Pahlsson-Higgins-Hansen line – which isn’t a good sign.
• The Kesler-Booth-Burrows line is slumping offensively but they are not hurting the team when they’re on the ice.  They are working hard and give the team quality minutes.
• The second period continues to consistently be the Canucks’ worst.  They generated only five shots in the second tonight but gave up 14.
• Coach Alain Vigneault is continuing to watch his team’s minutes very closely.  No forwards played more than 20 minutes tonight, even with the multitude of power play and penalty killing opportunities (which usually make Kesler’s minutes go through the roof).
• Kevin Bieksa sat out tonight’s game with an undisclosed injury (the team described it as “maintenance”, the same reason he didn’t practice yesterday).  However, GM Mike Gillis, in a second intermission interview, used the terminology “if we get our players back” in relation to his team’s chances in the playoffs, then mentioned Daniel Sedin and Bieksa.  The team hasn’t said anything, but I am hoping that whatever ails Bieksa is not serious.
• Andrew Alberts drew back into the lineup and the player was honestly invisible.  Given Alberts’ game, that is usually a good sign.
• He’s almost never does anything in particular worth mentioning or pointing out, but Chris Tanev continues to play extremely well on the back end, especially for such an inexperienced player.  He still needs to fill out his frame, but he almost always makes the right play with the puck.  He’s not completely mistake-free, but he provides a great option on right defense.
• David Booth surprisingly fought tonight.  Mark Olver, who had hit Tanev up high in the last game, started pushing and punching Booth with his glove, then suddenly dropped his mitts.  Booth, who I’m sure was shocked, dropped his two, and calmly took a couple light punches as he worked to get Olver’s helmet off.  Once he did, he let fly with a number of rights, most of which landed.  Olver was noticeably more quiet after this ill-advised fight.  I wasn’t expecting Booth to do much, but I was impressed with his skills.

IF THIS WERE A PLAYOFF GAME

Low-scoring, tight-checking, great goaltending.  Sounds like another playoff-style game, and the Canucks again won.  They are now 6-3 since I began keeping track of the games in this fashion.

PARTING SHOTS

Broadcast Observation of the Night:  The highlight tonight was the second intermission interview with GM Mike Gillis.  He’s truly a great NHL executive, and stands up to speak to the media on important matters, both hockey-related and not.  Tonight, a prime focus of the conversation was the Canucks’ responsibility campaign, entitled “This Is Our Home”. 

I’m not proud of the fact that the Canucks feel like they have to put together a campaign of this fashion, but the fact they stepped up and did so is commendable.  This organization is first class and do a number of great things in the community.

Gillis touched on a few hockey-related issues in the interview with Dan Murphy, including how he “hates” the way the league has seemed to have gone back to it’s old “clutch, grab, and impede” style.  He made similar comments on Team 1040 the other day, and it’s becoming more clear that the changes he made at the deadline were a result of what he was seeing out on the ice after Christmas.

Looking ahead: The Canucks play the Dallas Stars for the fourth time in three weeks on Friday night.