GDT: Canucks @ Ducks Of Mighty, 7:30PST RSN

[Calgary_Canuck]

This team is too frustrating to watch right now. They are soo much better than this. I'm tired of it. It's time for me to go back to my old watching habits of watching the score boards after the game, perhaps with some hi-lights when they decide to actually play for the whole 60 min.

It's been wonderful being able to watch more games, because these boys have become more popular, but they are a lot of the time my old team, the Can't Pucks.

[griz]

Cory Perry: the slash on Ballard is IMHO is just as serious as the Rome hit.It should be reviewed as well. I missed the slash/spear on Henrik. Good on Ballard for taking it to Perry who is usually one who runs from fisticuffs. I guess he thought that he could handle the smaller Ballard. Wrong !!!

I don't know why MORE OF YOU AREN'T PISSED AT PERRY. Talk about a dirty Hobbit. Twice in the same game and I kept asking myself why he's allowed to get away with that shit. Is he trying to hurt Henrik to reduce his competition? Who the fuck two hands Henrik Sedin with their stick? Ballard at least will fight back. Is none of that garbage worthy of a suspension? If not, it should be. The focus is on Rome but that's bullshit. It should be on Perry.

[Tiger]

Not a good effort.. A bad time for Rome to do the nut thing.. Luongo should never play back to backs ( record is under .500 on b2b's) WTF were the Sedins doing for 2 periods? Sure wasnt leading the team.. Arrrghhhhh.. Pathetic game in all..
Bright spot .. Schneider in relief.. Ballard giving it ..

[Potatoe1]

Figured it was going to be a tough night when the radio guys started talking about the Ducks holding a team meeting after their last game. Kind of a tough hand to be dealt on the second half of a back to back. Still though, the Canucks were terrible in the second (what else is new) and a motivated Ducks team made them pay.

-Hansen with the Sedins shouldn't work but it does. The benefit of course is that with the top line spot filled by Hansen, Burrows can drop down and play with Kesler who is probably the only players he's shown good chemistry with. The top 2 lines n that configuration basically carried the 3rd period come back and completely dominated Anaheim.

-AV and the coaching staff seem to be in complete denial about Manny Malholtra. He has been simply awful to start the season and he just continues to be fed ice time and used in key defensive situations. AV says he has the "big picture" in mind and that's why he's playing MM, so if that's the case why didn't have have the "big picture" in mind with regards to Keith Ballard. Perhaps if he had coddled Ballard a bit he wouldn't have damaged his confidence to the point where he wasn't playable in the final last year.

-Tough night for Luongo, looked terrible on the belly flop goal and didn't read the play correctly on the 4th goal. That said he shouldn't have been playing anyway. Playing your goalie back to back nights is just dumb.

-4th line has really leveled off. Lappy has been all right but Weise is not playing with the same energy that he was when he fist arrived. Volpatti has lots of energy but mostly just flails around. That line has been giving up more chances then it's been getting for a while now.

I didn't see all the replays but the Rome hit seemed somewhat marginal as far as a major penalty is concerned.

[RoyalDude]

I don't know why some people hate the idea of Hansen playing with the Sedins. Mr. Know-it-all Tony 'skeletor' Gallagher went on and on and on about how its such a bad idea before the L.A. Kings game and that AV should be fired for even considering such a ridiculous notion. I'm so jacked that so far it's been a success cause I can't stand that weasel Gallagher, ol' wise hockey one. Hansen's style of play might open up some more room for the Sedins to work their magic, plus free up the versatile Burrows to help out struggling lines.

[coco_canuck]

A borderline call on Rome and the subsequent 5 minute major decided that game.

I was thinking the Canucks would be in a good spot if they'd only give up one goal over those 5 minutes, but things fell apart in the latter half of the PK.

I didn't think the Canucks played all that bad other than that 10 minute stretch in the 2nd that cost them the game. Obviously consistency is still a bit of an issue, but I wouldn't be too concerned over this game.

Take a breath relax, don't get too worked up. Yes, there's precedent with Cup final teams struggling the following year, but give it some more time.

[Potatoe1]

I don't know why some people hate the idea of Hansen playing with the Sedins. Mr. Know-it-all Tony 'skeletor' Gallagher went on and on and on about how its such a bad idea before the L.A. Kings game and that AV should be fired for even considering such a ridiculous notion. I'm so jacked that so far it's been a success cause I can't stand that weasel Gallagher, ol' wise hockey one. Hansen's style of play might open up some more room for the Sedins to work their magic, plus free up the versatile Burrows to help out struggling lines.

I never said I "hated it" but Hansen is not a natural scorer and has never been a goal scorer at any level. He does a lot of things really well, but scoring goals has never been one of them.

Its seems very odd to put one of your least accomplished goal scoring wingers with the best play making duo in the game.

That said, other then his shot and his touch in front, Hansen is very similar to Burrows as far as his intelligence and all round game is concerned.

[RoyalDude]

I don't know why some people hate the idea of Hansen playing with the Sedins. Mr. Know-it-all Tony 'skeletor' Gallagher went on and on and on about how its such a bad idea before the L.A. Kings game and that AV should be fired for even considering such a ridiculous notion. I'm so jacked that so far it's been a success cause I can't stand that weasel Gallagher, ol' wise hockey one. Hansen's style of play might open up some more room for the Sedins to work their magic, plus free up the versatile Burrows to help out struggling lines.

I never said I "hated it" but Hansen is not a natural scorer and has never been a goal scorer at any level. He does a lot of things really well, but scoring goals has never been one of them.

Its seems very odd to put one of your least accomplished goal scoring wingers with the best play making duo in the game.

That said, other then his shot and his touch in front, Hansen is very similar to Burrows as far as his intelligence and all round game is concerned.

No, sorry Pot, wasn't signaling you out, it's just that I think it's the next best option outside of Burrows and like you said Hansen and Burrows are similar in a lot of ways. I'm still irked by how Gallagher's intellectual hockey mind think it's the worse idea known to mankind. Sort of carrying on from that.

[Topper]

A few comments;

Burrows was not 100% and it showed, if Ebbett had not been hurt, I doubt Alex plays. i understand why Burrows was back with the twins in the first, I just don't think it was the right call given he was obviously still suffering.

Luongo, once again, hung out to dry. Tant's synopsis of the goals pretty much nailed however I have a couple of things to add. The Cogliano goal was the result of a bad line change on the PK, 20/20 hindsight says Luongo should have gone for the poke check. With Holland's goal, Roberta was back in his net in case of a pass. I would say that was the only one he misplayed. defender plays the pass, goaltender plays the shooter. Damn good shot too.

The Manny faceoff centre/Cody playing centre platoon simply does not work. Too often these two are in the same place at the same time.

Last year Cam Fowler was taken to school on each Vancouver-Anaheim encounter. It won't be happening this season. A solid game by the kid.

Fourth line is playing like a fourth line.

Vancouver's defence had no answer for the speed and size of Ryan and Getzlaf or the tenacity of Perry and Selanne. I wish Burrows and Kesler played more like Perry does.

Tough night for Hamhuis.

John Garrett is embarrassingly dumb.

[Topper]

I never said I "hated it" but Hansen is not a natural scorer and has never been a goal scorer at any level. He does a lot of things really well, but scoring goals has never been one of them.

Its seems very odd to put one of your least accomplished goal scoring wingers with the best play making duo in the game.

That said, other then his shot and his touch in front, Hansen is very similar to Burrows as far as his intelligence and all round game is concerned.

The same was said about Burrows when he was split from Kesler to play on the top line.

I don't think Burrows had scored a goal other than on the backhand up until that point. While I'd agree he had better hands than Hansen when either were matched with the twins and I don't think anyone would argue that he has developed a decent pair of hands.

What is does show is just how important a strong fore check is to the Sedin's play.

[Rumsfeld]

If they're going to crack down on high hits they should crack down on two-handed slashes as well. They cause injury and are as cheap as it gets in the game of hockey. Perry should be suspended and the slash on Bieksa's knee against the Sharks last Spring should have been five games.

[Meds]

A few comments;

Burrows was not 100% and it showed, if Ebbett had not been hurt, I doubt Alex plays. i understand why Burrows was back with the twins in the first, I just don't think it was the right call given he was obviously still suffering.

Agreed, he did look a bit tentative out there. I really liked what he brought to the 2nd line while he was out there though. His time with the Sedin's has really paid off as he was instrumental to the way that line controlled the puck and kept the play in the Duck's zone. He was always where he needed to be to bail Kesler out, or fed the puck to the right area when he was being pressured. Our top 6 is a truly fluid group right now that is seeing chemistry with multiple line configurations.

Luongo, once again, hung out to dry. Tant's synopsis of the goals pretty much nailed however I have a couple of things to add. The Cogliano goal was the result of a bad line change on the PK, 20/20 hindsight says Luongo should have gone for the poke check. With Holland's goal, Roberta was back in his net in case of a pass. I would say that was the only one he misplayed. defender plays the pass, goaltender plays the shooter. Damn good shot too.

I'm not sure why he was playing the pass as there wasn't really a passing option available to Holland. He didn't need to go poke check on Cogliano's goal, he needed to stay upright and follow him across to the post. Cogliano was coming in fast, and didn't have a lot of room, his momentum and speed pretty much indicated he wasn't going back glove side.

Vancouver's defence had no answer for the speed and size of Ryan and Getzlaf or the tenacity of Perry and Selanne. I wish Burrows and Kesler played more like Perry does.

Agreed on Ryan and Getzlaf and Selanne. Way off on Perry. Perry is dirty. I'm glad that we don't have anything like that in our game. Unless you mean his compete level, then I agree, Perry does want to win at any cost. But the stick-work has to be addressed by the league.

[LotusBlossom]

Not sure what it is about Anaheim, but the Canucks have always been awful against them.