GDT: Canucks @ Detroit 10/13 - 5pm - Snet

[mathonwy]

Ballard Ballard Ballard...

[Listercat]

Canucks forwards are vacating the zone forcing the D to try long passes.

Piss poor puck support by the Canucks thus far

[Blob Mckenzie]

Glad I'm wathcing the ball game. I can't wait to hear the chicken littles chanting tomorrow.

where is Mr asshat errrrr Mr Juggalo with his 5 game introspective?

I think I will give it ten to fifteen games or at least until mid November before I start going nuts.

[dbr]

Ballard has pretty much the opposite of Pronger physics going on. Guy can't throw a clean hip check, apparently. At least, not on a Red Wing at the Joe.

That said I am watching the Wings feed and they are very critical of the call as well so there you go.

[rats19]

I hate nhl officiating...didnt always.....do now

[darren]

I think we need Kesler back.

[Meds]

My take.....

Hodgson continues to impress in every area, it would be great if his linemates could be consistent with him. Liked his speed and hustle, and he's just driving the slot and carrying the puck with more and more confidence every game it seems.

Samuelsson continues to march to the beat of his own drum. That PP in the 3rd where he was carrying the puck in and turned it over, his linemates looked totally frozen like they weren't sure where he was going with it.

Sturm is more and more a waste of skates, if there was any doubt about that he removed it in the opening period when he had loads of room coming in on Howard with a delayed penalty coming to Detroit, he changed up on the shot fake and then just put a weak slap shot straight into Howard's chest. Torres would have been a bargain at $1.75M compared to this guy.

Malhotra must be having trouble with his eye, multiple times on the PK he went to clear the puck and put it softly into a Detroit point man.

We need a scrapper. The game's energy and momentum were all ours up until Lapierre turtled as Abdelkader had his way with him, ironically enough it was Abdelkader who potted the first goal. (Speaking of scrappers, anyone see Asham 2-punch Beagle in the Penguins/Caps game?)

Schneider was ver good tonight in the loss, at first I was about to throw him under the bus after the second period.....then I saw the SOG total in that frame and digressed. I don't know why, but as poor as the team looked tonight, they actually appeared more calm and collected in our end out there in front of Schneider than they did against Philly and Pittsburgh. As a fan I was much more relaxed and not worrying about every shot through traffic or from a weak angle. At the other end, Howard was lights out for 20 minutes and then relatively untested.

Edler needs different sticks.

Hodgson's "goal" at the end of 2 and Burrows' crossbar in the dying minutes pretty much summed up our night on offense, if Howard wasn't going to pull a horseshoe or make a crazy save the hockey gods were going to do it for him.

The officiating was abysmal, and several calls stand out.

Holmstrom should have a reputation for selling calls by now, refs should know this. Hamhuis stood him up, and may have been a tad late, but Holmstrom's headlocking of our dman and then pulling him down onto the ice as he fell should have resulted in coincidentals, Hamhuis could not disengage from that play even if he wanted to.

Samuelsson's hit on Stuart was a joke, at full speed there is no way for him to avoid contact when Stuart spins like that at the last second, and in Samuelsson's favor, he let up and didn't even look to try and finish that hit.

Bertuzzi on Tanev was also weak, certainly not boarding.

Ballard's penalty for "tripping" was an embarassment to the NHL, how the hell is a hip check tripping unless the player in question is the size of tie domi and coming in on his knees to take out at the ankles? When the attacking forward tries to jump over the hip check and gets his legs clipped that's not a trip, it's a stupid move by the forward in question.

Hansen had a chance to go for a loose puck behind/beside the net on a shoot in in the 2nd period and was dumped in the middle of the ice by the Detroit defenseman, this apparently does not warrant a call.

Our PK was excellent tonight, perfect in fact. When was the last time Detroit started out a season 0-16 on the PP?

Things to re-evaluate, things to build on, things out of the control of players and coaches. After 4 games I'm missing Kesler and wishing that Gillis had done something else during the off-season other than sign Marco Sturm.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

Damn, was hoping Baltard would score more goals than Grabner this year.

On a bad note, Ballard and Grabner are now tied for goals.

[Cornuck]

Not a great game, but considering it's our 3rd in 4 nights against a well rested and good team, I'll accept the loss. Could have been a different ending if Hodgson's shot was a second earlier.

We're losing a lot of board battles so far - only glaring weakness so far to me.

[Meds]

Not a great game, but considering it's our 3rd in 4 nights against a well rested and good team, I'll accept the loss. Could have been a different ending if Hodgson's shot was a second earlier.

We're losing a lot of board battles so far - only glaring weakness so far to me.

Starting goaltending not withstanding right Corn?

[BCReefer]

Just WOW, not the greatest first 4 games, maybe a few more preseason games should of been played.

[Topper]

From what I heard li on the radio.

A few comments:

Came out with piss and vinegar for a change. Not a surprise, 3rd in 4 nights, 2nd of a back to back, pushed to the end last night trying for at least point, the strategy has to e to get a lead early and then go into shut down road game mode. Howard was not co-operating with the script.

Without Kesler, the team is a one line wonder. Emphasis on wonder.

2010/2011, AV rests the regs in the preseason, team comes out flat, can't score because they being too cute, make opposition 'tenders look all world. - any similarities to this year?

Raymond's speed threat keeping defenders honest is sorely missed and will be even after Kesler returns.

[Mr.Miyagi]

I actually thought the team played pretty good in the 1st and 3rd period. The 2nd absolutely killed us. The "full 60 minutes" cliche is probably the most used by our team, and rightfully so.

I am not going to assess our performance this early but it is very clear we are missing Kesler in a big way. I just about crapped my pants when the 2nd line came out. Samuelsson/Ebbet/Sturm ... really?


I'd really like to see how our guys play at home next week with Kesler in the lineup. I've got a feeling it will look a lot closer to how we looked last year, not this one line team we are sporting right now.

Schneider = hasn't missed a beat IMO. Save for the weak goal against CBJ, he has looked damn good so far.

[ODB]

Bieksa looked really ordinary last night. When he's on his game he looks great. When he's off he looks lazy!

Sometimes you wonder if he really gives a shit?

Hodgson looked good again. Two games in a row. It's amazing how one night he looks like he's skating in sand and the next night he's one of the quicker guys on the ice. Hell sometimes it's shift too shift!

[Carlyee]

Does anyone else feel like we were getting bullied by a pretty soft Wings squad?

Our second line sucks! I think they need a banger on that line because Sturm and Sammy are too similar of players, in all the bad ways.