GDT: Canucks vs. Red Wings, 10 pm EST, 7 pm Pacific......

[Linden Is God]

on CBC's HNIC!

A third straight HNIC late game. Us eastern fans are getting quite the treat. Couple that along with TSN showing Wednesday's game, the world must coming to an end because the eastern "powers that be" are giving some attention to my pacific coast hockey.

So the Wings are badly hurting right now. Cleary, Kronwall, Lidstrom, Hasek, and Rafalski are all hurt. From my drunken view last night, it looked like Chelios also got hurt in the hightlights. Does anyone have an update on his status? Amidst the Wings being the top team in the league and aside from the Wings injury woes they've been on a horrible losing skid. They are 3-6-1 in their last 10, and 1-6 in their last 7. They played hard against the Flamers last night losing 1-0 and surely will be tired for tonights game. Who do the Canucks face in net? (N)Osgood of Jimmy Howard? I really don't care. Despite all the injuries, losing streak and lack of goaltending at the moment, the Wings still have one of the most electrifying duos in the league in Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

The Canucks on the other hand are starting get healthy, namely the D corps. Kevin Bieksa surprisingly came back last game against Nashville (at least it was a surprise for me as I thought he would be another week away). Les boys have won 3 of their last 4 and are 5-2-3 in their last ten. They currently hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western conference. A win tonight and a loss by Nashville (GO STARS!) would put the Canucks tied for 5th in the Western Conference along with San Jose, Calgary, and Nashville. A win tonight would be a HUGE confidence booster and I believe set the Canucks on a hot streak. My prediction tonight?

3-1 Canucks. Daniel, Linden, and Naslund the scorers. Hank gets 2 assists (only because it burn me in my hockey pool). Samuelsson for the Wings.

GO CANUCKS GO!!!


p.s. Matty, I had the advantage of being on the east today so I got to beat you to doing the thread.

[mattola]

lol np LIG thanks for putting it up. Im going to the game with Cookie La Rue so I wont be around for it anyway

GO CANUCKS GO

[Linden Is God]

As per CBC during the Sens/Pens game this afternoon, no Naslund tonight (groin injury) and Jimmy Howard gets the start for the Wings. Jimmy who??

[WpgJets]

Prediction: 3-0 Canucks, as Luongo is due for a shutout. Raymond, D. Sedin and Salo.

[antro]

i was hoping the flames would lose last night, as i'm sure most canucks fans were. but i hope the wings are tired...

bobby lou is starting to get into major butt-kicking form, and let's hope the wings woes continue

4-1 nucks, raymond, bieksa, d sedin and kesler with the empty-netter; zetterberg spoils luongo's shut out after one of us accidentally jinxes him by stating the word in the 3rd period.

[GB CANUCK]

No Naslund tonight so will be interesting to see how the Nucks fare without their Captain.

[sk8er]

As per CBC during the Sens/Pens game this afternoon, no Naslund tonight (groin injury) and Jimmy Howard gets the start for the Wings. Jimmy who??

Oh No!! an unknown. We will probably make him look like a world beater!!!

[Jyrki21]

L_I_G, you never answered me: were you the caller from Timmins on TEAM 1040 after last game??

Jimmy Howard isn't an unknown -- he's been one of the top goalie prospects around for a couple of years now. Losing to him would be no embarrassment, though the blue line the Wings are rolling looks eerily familiar to Canuck fans.

For all Vancouver outshout them in the first period, I didn't find that they looked particularly in control. Detroit's puck movement was, unsurprisingly, better than the Canucks'.

And you just knew that when they incorrectly put that faceoff in Vancouver's zone that the puck wouldn't leave until it was in the back of the net.

It's too bad וויניפג ג'טס's prediction can no longer come true, as for all I think the shutout is an utterly meaningless stat (it is, all arguments to the contrary are truly lame), it's been a while since he had one, and it seems weird that Pascal Leclaire got yet another tonight.

[WpgJets]

Well, I'll believe it was a technical shutout. Blown call by the refs to have the faceoff in the Canucks zone.

Great game, all in all. Kesler rocked.

[Lancer]

WAY TO GO BOYS!!!

It looked a little iffy after the first period, and the reffing was absolutely brutal, but the guys hung in there and put it away.

Hughson and Simpson were all talking about Vancouver exploiting the inexperienced Detroit D by dumping it deep and getting turnovers on the forecheck, but Kesler's two goals showed that you can exploit them at your own blueline. I don't know if it was Red Wing arrogance or what, but for guys like Lebda to pinch standing still at the opposition blueline is like an open invitation to get burned. Nice of Kes to shove it down their throats not once, but twice! Funny how both his goals seemed like carbon copies of each other. Wonder how well he knows Howard from their AHL days playing against each other.

Like I said, BS reffing by two no-name zebras. Some pushing and shoving happens in the warm-up, so they try and pour cold water on the whole game? 7-2 ratio in penalties? What gives? The Bieksa call was totally blown. If those two guys don't spend next week in reffing tutorials, something's got to give.

Keep'er coming boys, 1 point back from Minny. GO CANUCKS GO!!!

[UpYerKilt]

The Bieksa hit was a pure joke ... the ref will carry that one with him for a while. Calling a roughing penalty on a player who hit his own player?

The best part of surviving all the injuries on the blueline was finding out who was ready to play. Edler has made amazing strides and we might never of known that had the D been healthy.

Keslers name comes up in every trade... tonight he proved he can be one of the best 2 way players in the game.

now if only the Sedins would get going...lol kidding.

Guts

[Jyrki21]

One thing to note about Kesler's two-goal effort is that it is his hometown team. While I'm sure this is purely coincidence, I also remember Mason Raymond scoring against the Flames, and Alex Burrows scoring against the Habs last year (and probably Isbister has had a decent game against the Oilers), and will therefore conclude that there is a 100% correlation between players coming from a place, and scoring against that place's team.

[antro]

ahem...4-1, hey that sounds like my prediction...alright, i didn't get the scorers right, or the scenario, but i did predict that kesler would score...

great game, and raymond, shannon, and cooke continue to be a force, and cooke would have scored if not for a quick whistle. shannon got close a couple of times, and raymond is starting to show that he's just an awesome set up man. this guy'll get 40-50 assists in a season once he fills out some. i've said it before, but a speed game changes things for defenders. if all the canucks lines try to do the same kind of cycling that the sedin line do, then it makes it simpler to shut them down defensively.

anyway, this was a good game b/c the canucks were able to withstand good puck control by the wings, killed off a dangerous 5-3 (and just terrible reffing), got a pp goal, and a couple of goals on the counterattack...and of course brilliant goal keeping.

about the reffing: am i just being a homer or do the refs never call interference on canucks' opponents? the wings and wild run all kinds of interference, esp against the sedin line, and it never gets called.

[the Cunning Linguist]

Well, I wouldn't be so confident about that... The Wings were without Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall and Chelios on their d. I think Ohlund had more NHL experience than their entire defence combined. And Vancouver made it a point to put a lot of forechecking pressure on their young defence and it showed; the Wings couldn't mount a decent attack with their d. It could very easily have been 6- or 7-1 if hadn't been for Howard. The few scoring chances they did get came from their big line generating an attack on their own. The difference in this game was the inexperience of their d. Thank goodness the ice was tilted in our favor on that...

[Jovorock]

The best part of surviving all the injuries on the blueline was finding out who was ready to play. Edler has made amazing strides and we might never of known that had the D been healthy.

Keslers name comes up in every trade... tonight he proved he can be one of the best 2 way players in the game.

I watched Alex all 36 games and playoff's in his only junior year and he got better every game. I don't know if he is that smart or good coaching, but he is still getting better every game.

When Kesler was signed to the offer sheet by Booby Clark, I said let him go he's not worth it. I was very wrong, he is worth it! Right now he is on the 3rd line checking, he could go on the 2nd line wing with Richards and make a even bigger impact IMO.