GDT Feb 2: Wings @ Vancouver: Sportsnet at 7PM

[Jovocop]

Last night was a mix of a few things.

1) The officiating was horrid. I was in the arena last night and saw enough non-calls to drive me to have more than my usual 2-3 glasses of wine. I can't believe how blatantly bad it was. Not just the refs, but the linesmen and their 'icing' calls. I would have loved to have heard the call on air last night.
2) If you don't shoot, don't expect to score. The Canucks mustered 3 bloody shots in the second period. How the fuck do you expect to score! Second period siesta continues. 3) The boys can thank Luongo and Schneids for bailing them out the last few games. This is ridiculous. They need to start showing up for games for 60 minutes.

Perhaps some time on the road will help the again, but this is something that should be addressed in the locker room. Their lack of effort showed a lot last night, and they were lucky to get a point out of it.

The Wings did not have a shot until 12 minutes mark in the third but scored on the second shot seconds later... Miller should thank Rome for the assist...

[damonberryman]

Terrible effort by Vancouver tonight. Our blueline is a shambles right now. In the last 2 games there have been at least a dozen incidents where an attacking forward has danced right around the Canuck defenseman and gone in for a chance on net. If it was once or twice and Datsuyk or Patrick Kane, well, OK, let it go. But when it is 2nd and 3rd liners, and it's occurring with such frequency, there is a problem.

I am getting more worried as the season gets into the final third about the blueline. Way too much time has been spent on Ballard and not looking at the issues with the others guys on D. Bieksa/Ham/Edler have all looked normal and not to the level needed to win a SC, way too many brain farts and I believe a lot of this has to do with their minutes played.

I think I want to reserve judgment until the post season. We saw a record setting regular season and playoffs last year and I have a bit of a feeling that this group has the ability to crank it up when it matters the most. I agree the zone coverage and man to man has been way shitty but I really feel much has to do with knowing the difference now between regular season and money time.
This group can beat anyone on any given night. Losing in the shootout after a mostly lazily played game to the best record in the NHL isn't so bad at this point in time.

I agree with this post. I think the Canucks are trying not to spend everything before the playoffs so they have something left at the end of a long run. We do not want the President's Trophy this year. We want more and considering this is a better team than last year, I think some of it is simple planning. Not to ose but conserve.

[Reefer2]

I agree with this post. I think the Canucks are trying not to spend everything before the playoffs so they have something left at the end of a long run. We do not want the President's Trophy this year. We want more and considering this is a better team than last year, I think some of it is simple planning. Not to ose but conserve.

I agree this is why minutes played for all need to be managed, when the team is up or down then increase the minutes of 3rd line/pairing should increase. Only playing the top 2 pairing D in OT is wrong, they need to trust all 3 pairings and give the third pairing moer time in critical times of game.

Scary but we are 1 injury away from 3rd pairing playing 20 minutes a night comes the playoffs. Again a lot of the mistakes I see the top 4 are making are because of their minutes played per night every night.

[clem]

I think the Canucks are trying not to spend everything before the playoffs so they have something left at the end of a long run. We do not want the President's Trophy this year. We want more and considering this is a better team than last year, I think some of it is simple planning. Not to ose but conserve.

The western conference looks tougher this year than last. Fewer weak teams will make the play offs in the West. That makes the first seed in the west more important than last year.

[Jovocop]

I agree this is why minutes played for all need to be managed, when the team is up or down then increase the minutes of 3rd line/pairing should increase. Only playing the top 2 pairing D in OT is wrong, they need to trust all 3 pairings and give the third pairing moer time in critical times of game.

Scary but we are 1 injury away from 3rd pairing playing 20 minutes a night comes the playoffs. Again a lot of the mistakes I see the top 4 are making are because of their minutes played per night every night.

The same thing could be said about the forwards. The absence of Higgins was very noticable last night. With Raymond up to the second line, the third line was kind of lost. As for the fourth line, oh well, Alberts was the left winger... With Ebbett and Volpatti out long term, the Canucks should either try some forwards from Chicago or trade for one depth winger. I seriously do not want to see Alberts as a fourth liner any more.

[griz]

What if the officiating was fair?

What if the Canucks showed up to play?

What if we had two number #1 goalies and Detroit looses their #1?

Hey, that last item just happened. A broken finger to Howard apparently. This is one of the fundamental differences between the Canucks and so many other teams. We have the luxury of goaltending DEPTH. I want Roberto and Corey on my team.

[Fred]

Last night was a mix of a few things.

1) The officiating was horrid. I was in the arena last night and saw enough non-calls to drive me to have more than my usual 2-3 glasses of wine. I can't believe how blatantly bad it was. Not just the refs, but the linesmen and their 'icing' calls. I would have loved to have heard the call on air last night.
2) If you don't shoot, don't expect to score. The Canucks mustered 3 bloody shots in the second period. How the fuck do you expect to score! Second period siesta continues.
3) The boys can thank Luongo and Schneids for bailing them out the last few games. This is ridiculous. They need to start showing up for games for 60 minutes.

Perhaps some time on the road will help the again, but this is something that should be addressed in the locker room. Their lack of effort showed a lot last night, and they were lucky to get a point out of it.

Great summation of what happened last night. general malaise seems to have struck the team and i was glad to see AV changed up the lines and it did produce more energy. There's no crisp clean passes few attempts on goal just going through the motions.
The officiating was dreadful there was i believe one PP and they had to call that because the Red Wing was left holding 2 sticks. Even the icings were BS but the missed calls!! Back to the old theme hey Ref there's two teams out there ! How you keep your cool I don't know, it was blatant. One ref I believe was a hold over from the Chicago game and in that game we got NO PP's

Not a good night all in all. I wish the Ref's would take their animosity away from the rink

What makes every thing look worse is Howard playing with broken finger for the 3rd period onward

[Meds]

Terrible effort by Vancouver tonight. Our blueline is a shambles right now. In the last 2 games there have been at least a dozen incidents where an attacking forward has danced right around the Canuck defenseman and gone in for a chance on net. If it was once or twice and Datsuyk or Patrick Kane, well, OK, let it go. But when it is 2nd and 3rd liners, and it's occurring with such frequency, there is a problem.

I am getting more worried as the season gets into the final third about the blueline. Way too much time has been spent on Ballard and not looking at the issues with the others guys on D. Bieksa/Ham/Edler have all looked normal and not to the level needed to win a SC, way too many brain farts and I believe a lot of this has to do with their minutes played.

I think this has a lot to do with Rome, Ballard, and Alberts, primarily the former. Ballard is actually capable of playing 18+ minutes a game without being seen as a weakness, but he needs the right partner to do it. For some reason unknown to everyone but Vigneault, Rome is getting 2+ more minutes per game than Ballard. I can't figure it out. Every time Rome gets the puck in our end under pressure he tries to skate with it and make a move with his stick before passing it, he then screws it up. His coverage down low is often suspect, and his play in the offensive zone is beyond poor. He reads badly off the point, is useless on the pinch, and is not a fast enough skater to get back against an odd man rush. Ballard, on the other side of the ice, can skate the puck out under pressure, can rush both ways, is better at rubbing attacking forwards out along the boards with a hip check, makes better passes, and reads offensive zone movement much better. I grant that Ballard does screw up a bit when he tries to skate it out, but no more than anyone else does. Ballard has shown that he plays better when paired with Alberts. Rome has been useless regardless of his defensive partner.

The issue with our 3rd pairing is having a negative effect on our 1st and 2nd duos. Minutes go up and the top 4 get fatigued. Eliminating Rome, giving Ballard (and a different partner) more than 13-14 minutes per game, would probably benefit the entire blueline core.

I would also like to see Ballard get some PP time. Edler is good on the point, but of late I have noticed him struggling to settle the puck at the line, and it often gets by him when it shouldn't. Again, this is likely due to the number of minutes he has been playing.

[Jovocop]

I think this has a lot to do with Rome, Ballard, and Alberts, primarily the former. Ballard is actually capable of playing 18+ minutes a game without being seen as a weakness, but he needs the right partner to do it. For some reason unknown to everyone but Vigneault, Rome is getting 2+ more minutes per game than Ballard. I can't figure it out. Every time Rome gets the puck in our end under pressure he tries to skate with it and make a move with his stick before passing it, he then screws it up. His coverage down low is often suspect, and his play in the offensive zone is beyond poor. He reads badly off the point, is useless on the pinch, and is not a fast enough skater to get back against an odd man rush. Ballard, on the other side of the ice, can skate the puck out under pressure, can rush both ways, is better at rubbing attacking forwards out along the boards with a hip check, makes better passes, and reads offensive zone movement much better. I grant that Ballard does screw up a bit when he tries to skate it out, but no more than anyone else does. Ballard has shown that he plays better when paired with Alberts. Rome has been useless regardless of his defensive partner.

The issue with our 3rd pairing is having a negative effect on our 1st and 2nd duos. Minutes go up and the top 4 get fatigued. Eliminating Rome, giving Ballard (and a different partner) more than 13-14 minutes per game, would probably benefit the entire blueline core.

I would also like to see Ballard get some PP time. Edler is good on the point, but of late I have noticed him struggling to settle the puck at the line, and it often gets by him when it shouldn't. Again, this is likely due to the number of minutes he has been playing.

Unfortunately, I can't see Ballard getting any significant minutes with AV being the coach and Rome being a Canuck. When Salo was out, even Burrows was ahead of Ballard to man the point. Go figure!

[ukcanuck]

If you are thinking that the Canucks went balls to the wall last season in order to finish first overall and gain the momentum and homeice only to see key injuries at the worst times and physical exhaustion two games too soon, and you think the Canucks subconsciously at least are holding something back for when it really matters, then you and me are thinking along the same lines,
all season there has been this lack of panic to win everything all the time, to win every battle every time, no matter what.
To me it looks like they learned that there are times to leave it all out there and time to wait for another chance when the odds are better.
Obviously we don't want them to think that it can be turned on and off at will, but a seasoned pro knows when to pick their spots...

[Meds]

If you are thinking that the Canucks went balls to the wall last season in order to finish first overall and gain the momentum and homeice only to see key injuries at the worst times and physical exhaustion two games too soon, and you think the Canucks subconsciously at least are holding something back for when it really matters, then you and me are thinking along the same lines,
all season there has been this lack of panic to win everything all the time, to win every battle every time, no matter what.
To me it looks like they learned that there are times to leave it all out there and time to wait for another chance when the odds are better.
Obviously we don't want them to think that it can be turned on and off at will, but a seasoned pro knows when to pick their spots...

Agreed.

Hopefully we can get rid of Rome before we hit those times when "it really matters".....

[Cookie La Rue]

OMG the Canucks are 3-0-1 in their last four. OMG.

The Canucks were outplayed badly in the last few games. If Luongo and Scheider did not play well, the result could be easily 1-3-0 instead.

But it isn't. That's how good teams manage to get the points. I think it's overstressed to say "badly", maybe they're outplayed a little bit (just saw the game in full lenghts and not measuring with the pure stats mainly the shots on goal) but at least they're playing against very good teams and not some victims. The whole team for sure had their share on this game to deserve this point and for the goalies, it's their job to play well and that doesn't mean free of mistakes. It's a game of mistakes and i don't expect everybody (skaters included) to play without otherwise every score would be 0-0.

[griz]

What if the officiating was fair?

What if the Canucks showed up to play?

What if we had two number #1 goalies and Detroit looses their #1?

Hey, that last item just happened. A broken finger to Howard apparently. This is one of the fundamental differences between the Canucks and so many other teams. We have the luxury of goaltending DEPTH. I want Roberto and Corey on my team.

The wings just lost the last two games to Edmonton and Phoenix ...