GDT - Feb 7, 2012 at Nashville 5PM SNET-P

[Reefer2]

Bieksa and his brain farts are strong again this season - wow what is up with this guy.

[Boston Canucker]

I hate the shootout, win or lose, but it is weird to see the Canucks actually starting winning a few of these things.

They were sloppy still, but better and against a good team. They still need to tighten it up a lot, but it's a decent 2 pts to grab on the road.

[porp]

Dude, Salo is white as a ghost even after a week at the beach.

=D , true 'nough.

Nice shootout win for the 'nucks. Kinda feels like another non-deserved yet won game, though. But I'm actually waiting for a Meds recap; you, dude, are an eloquent and insightful connoisseur of the game. I've look forward to your summaries when you make them.

But as for gassed... how old are you/how much experience do you have with "gassed" people? Physical exertion increases capillary dilation (redness in the face) but extraordinary exertion channels oxygenated blood flow to muscles and leaves the face (in primates, especially humans) devoid of enervation. Slightly different than the bar code "if they're red, leave em alone*. If they're pale, kill/pressure them, or you're going to regret not taking drastic actions and successfully fuck you up."

[Blob Mckenzie]

I don't get it....

I figured you would love to add a tough bottom6 type that seems able to play.

Won a fight, made some hits, got some points, whats the problem?

Did you think I was serious ?


Good on Bitz..... what I see from him so far I like. I think he could be part of the solution to the 4th line which actually hasn't been that bad, but could just use some assholishness to it.

I sam not sold on May Ray going forward. He is a little light in the loafers for my liking and if there's a way to bring in a bit of a prick in his spot that can play..... I'm all for it. Five of the top 6 forwards look fine right now with Higgy being a huge question mark. No way in hell Raymond moves up into a top 6 spot and Cody can't play the wing. Something has to give here and for my money i think they could get away with a depth move on the ass end. It will be intersting over the next 20 days.

[Meds]

Luongo has been great the last few weeks. He has certainly stolen the team a handful of points. Tonight he gave up 3 but he still was good enough to beat the Predators and the refs. When the officiating lets as many go as they did tonight after the Canucks score go 1-for-1 on the PP, particularly in the latter half of the final period, you can't help but think they are trying to give the Preds at least a single point and then a chance in the shootout. Tonight Luongo went up against Rinne in the shootout and walked away with the extra point, and he earned it. Rinne needed 2 posts to extend it, and on both of those shots he was beaten badly. Tonight really seemed to indicate that Luongo has been working on shootout reads. He stayed up longer, he only looked bad on the one that beat him, and even there I think alot of that has to do with the fact that he's just not as good a skater as many other goalies and he couldn't recover after commiting to his right. Oh well. We won.

Bitz was solid. If he can consistently bring what he has been bringing, I would LOVE to see what he would look like on CoHo's wing once Higgins is back and healthy. Hodgson would probably have a field day with a guy like Bitz making space and filling the front of the net instead of having to hit a perimeter guy like Raymond and deal with Hansen's game-day hands of stone.

I won't be surprised to see Raymond on the move on, or before, the deadline. Of all our forwards I think he is the most movable. He's fast and he could be the guy that some GM looks at and sees a 25+ goal scorer in a different system. I wonder what a package of Raymond, Malhotra, and Rome would bring back if we threw in a decent player from the Wolves. A #4 dman maybe? I'm really not sure. We need a bigger, meaner, and more versatile guy on the blueline. Alberts and Rome just have too many drawbacks. Rome is slow and makes terrible decisions with the puck. Alberts is slow and not very mobile. Neither of them are someone that opposing forwards are going to be intimidated by after running one of our goalies. Also both are useless on the point.

[Meds]

I hate the shootout, win or lose, but it is weird to see the Canucks actually starting winning a few of these things.

They were sloppy still, but better and against a good team. They still need to tighten it up a lot, but it's a decent 2 pts to grab on the road.

I'm a big fan of watching the shootout, it's fun.

I hate that it's part of the game though. Garbage. Take a team game and make it about 2 guys, a shooter and a goalie. What the hell are we watching? Soccer? (Sorry Per, I mean football). For one thing, unless I'm mistaken the winning goal counts against a goalie's GAA, but not for the shooter's overall total. It piles the pressure up on the guy who is already under the most individual scrutiny. It's a total gimmick. If they want to keep it fine but then they better address the issue I have with the loser point. Take it away from OT. If a team wins in OT then they get 2 and the loser gets none. Let the loser have the point from the shootout because really that doesn't reflect on the team, just the goalie. Afterall, there are plenty of 2nd and 3rd line guys that can dangle and make amazing moves in a shootout where they have all the time in the world and can change up their speed 3 or 4 times before taking a shot. Frig.

[Meds]

Dude, Salo is white as a ghost even after a week at the beach.

=D , true 'nough.

Nice shootout win for the 'nucks. Kinda feels like another non-deserved yet won game, though. But I'm actually waiting for a Meds recap; you, dude, are an eloquent and insightful connoisseur of the game. I've look forward to your summaries when you make them.

But as for gassed... how old are you/how much experience do you have with "gassed" people? Physical exertion increases capillary dilation (redness in the face) but extraordinary exertion channels oxygenated blood flow to muscles and leaves the face (in primates, especially humans) devoid of enervation. Slightly different than the bar code "if they're red, leave em alone*. If they're pale, kill/pressure them, or you're going to regret not taking drastic actions and successfully fuck you up."

Thanks for the prop their porp. <== see wot.

I'll have to disappoint tonight though, I only caught from the last 5 minutes of the 2nd period.

As for gassed, lots of sports. I'm a paramedic, seen lots of "gassed" people, but in my experience the ones who end upreaching that "extraordinary" level of exertion are usually people who are in less than ideal shape or are in a great deal of pain and the body is compensating in crazy ways, your description there is akin to someone in shock, although in that case the blood is to the vital organs rather than the muscles. Your your example of when Salo took that puck in the nuts is a good one. Athletes who train like these guys won't look gassed like that unless they just played a 2 minute shift at the end of which they go levelled and winded by a big hit or something. Even the amateur beer leaguer's I have seen at our local rink don't look gassed to the point of pale after racing hard when they are short guys or going awkwardly into the boards.

[Blob Mckenzie]

I could see Raymond and Alberts being moved, but certainly not Manny. Dude had his eyeball whacked last year and to me he is invaluable even as a 12th or 13th forward. He plays a lot of tough minutes in his own end and wins a lot of draws just so Coho can be eased into this league. No effing way do they move him..... not to mention it's a slap in the yap after all he's been through. He's earned another crack at it through this season at least . Revisit it at the end of the season.

AV would be screaming blue bloody murder if little AV got moved. That said fuck is Rome ever a gong show out there sometimes. KB 4 has played very solid for the last two months now. What is +13 in his last 30 games now ?

I am no fan of Bryan Allen but he would be a substantial upgrade on Alberts and Rome but i don't think he plays the right side. Pick up Aucoin GMMG.

[Meds]

Luongo has been great the last few weeks. He has certainly stolen the team a handful of points. Tonight he gave up 3 but he still was good enough to beat the Predators and the refs. When the officiating lets as many go as they did tonight after the Canucks score go 1-for-1 on the PP, particularly in the latter half of the final period, you can't help but think they are trying to give the Preds at least a single point and then a chance in the shootout. Tonight Luongo went up against Rinne in the shootout and walked away with the extra point, and he earned it. Rinne needed 2 posts to extend it, and on both of those shots he was beaten badly. Tonight really seemed to indicate that Luongo has been working on shootout reads. He stayed up longer, he only looked bad on the one that beat him, and even there I think alot of that has to do with the fact that he's just not as good a skater as many other goalies and he couldn't recover after commiting to his right. Oh well. We won.

Bitz was solid. If he can consistently bring what he has been bringing, I would LOVE to see what he would look like on CoHo's wing once Higgins is back and healthy. Hodgson would probably have a field day with a guy like Bitz making space and filling the front of the net instead of having to hit a perimeter guy like Raymond and deal with Hansen's game-day hands of stone.

I won't be surprised to see Raymond on the move on, or before, the deadline. Of all our forwards I think he is the most movable. He's fast and he could be the guy that some GM looks at and sees a 25+ goal scorer in a different system. I wonder what a package of Raymond, Malhotra, and Rome would bring back if we threw in a decent player from the Wolves. A #4 dman maybe? I'm really not sure. We need a bigger, meaner, and more versatile guy on the blueline. Alberts and Rome just have too many drawbacks. Rome is slow and makes terrible decisions with the puck. Alberts is slow and not very mobile. Neither of them are someone that opposing forwards are going to be intimidated by after running one of our goalies. Also both are useless on the point.

Ok, watched the first part of the game on the re-broadcast by RSN...

Bitz gets another kudos because he was just that good. Great shot, but an even better pass to setup Dank. Consistency from him will make our top 9 MUCH more dangerous. He can even take shifts on the 4th line and not miss a beat.

Hodgson had probably the weakest showing I have seen from him since early November. A bad penalty behind our net and just not clicking with his mates tonight. He didn't seem to hurt the team, but he certainly wasn't a "factor" in this win.

Raymond was invisible to me tonight. I didn't notice him and I didn't hear his name mentioned much at all.

Weise had a good 4th line game. No blunders and worked hard along the wall and skated both ways.

Henrik is a warrior for coming back like that. Obviously just a stinger, but he went down like a rock in a heavy G environment and could barely get off the ice. He is easily the best passer in the game right now. That backhand pass to Bitz right in front of 2 defenders was a beauty, it looked totally ordinary, but few guys are going to put a pass like that right in the wheelhouse of a rushing attacker, especially one that he hasn't played on a line with before (outside of practice at least).

The argument for Malhotra is that he's a great team guy, just coming back from a bad injury, and wins alot of key faceoffs. Well here's the thing. Since Christmas he is a -5 player averaging around 12:00 minutes per game, has contibuted just 4 assists and his faceoff winning percentage is 57.9. Tonight I watched him get out-worked and out-skated. If he's sticking around as a #13 forward, then I don't like that he's eating up over $2M in cap room. If he's playing on the 4th line, I don't like that we have a guy who was brought in to play solid defensive hockey and contribute around 30 points but is a minus player who is making more mistakes than he should and is not physical enough to be a solid contributor in the bottom 6. Tonight he won faceoffs.....and that was it, he still finished a -1.

Despite the number of players that finished with a minus, this was a really good team game. While Nashville is well suited to playing a tight defensive game that gives up little, the Canucks have found a way to pick them apart. I think that the playoffs last year got them thinking and they put together a book on Rinne. Get him backing up and deep in his net and you have him. He's a big goalie who takes up alot of net, but once he's deep in the crease he has some pretty big holes too. Kesler and Bitz both beat him with shots from mid range before he could get out to challenge. Daniel tucked one by him while he was sitting on the goal line. In the shootout Raymond actually got him to backup deep and had him beat stick side, he just missed. He made a really good read on Kesler's shot, but was totally beat by Daniel and Hodgson only to be bailed out by his posts. Burrows tucked one home upstairs after getting him to commit while back in his crease and Edler got him backed in and blitzed it 5-hole. The Preds were simply chasing the Canucks once Vancouver got the puck.

All 3 of Nashville's goals had some luck stapled on the puck. The first one Louie caught a piece of but it snuck in off the bottom of his glove, good shot though. The second one was intentionally redirected by Hornqvists skate, it was initially headed for the boards in the corner. The third goal was pure luck, good for them bad for Louie, like any goaltender in the league he was the victim of his equipment and couldn't feel where the puck was, he knew it was under him and played it right by going the safe route of trying to collapse and bring everything in underneath, unfortunately the puck was sitting where it was and he ended up knocking it in.

Some defensive breakdowns meant that Luongo had to earn that win, and some bad giveaways contributed to several good Predator scoring chances. Our transition through the neutral zone was much better tonight, and going from defense to the attack was almost seamless when the defense didn't screw up the first pass. I'm not going to give the team too much credit for this just yet though because Nashville is more of a trapping team than a forechecking team, and our offense is well suited to moving the puck up through a trap. It has been aggressive forechecks that have given us fits and killing the transition game. Thursday could be a good test in Minnesota because the Wild always play us hard, I won't be surprised to see Schneider get the nod as Louie has struggled in the Excel Energy Center, and with 29 games left to play they will pretty much have to go to a 3:1 game ratio to get Schneider into the 30 games they mentioned at the beginning of the season.

[Sticky]

Out of curiocity...what Is our penalty to powerplay numbers last few games...say 4 games.
No wonder the pp is struggling..we are never on it ffs

Last four games.... The Canucks have been on the power play for 12:05, and on the PK for 26:03.

Pretty nasty spread, probably indicative of their noticeably messy play.

Was surprised to see that since the Boston game, the numbers were much closer... With the Canucks enjoying
51:43 of PP time (avg.4:40 per game), while their opponents had 48:16 over that time. (4:39 per game)

[dbr]

Bitz was solid. If he can consistently bring what he has been bringing, I would LOVE to see what he would look like on CoHo's wing once Higgins is back and healthy. Hodgson would probably have a field day with a guy like Bitz making space and filling the front of the net instead of having to hit a perimeter guy like Raymond and deal with Hansen's game-day hands of stone.

IMO Byron Bitz' Canucks debut was reminiscent of Jeff Cowan's, and unless he's somehow managed to become a better player during his year and a half of rehabbing his various injuries, I expect he'll end up on the fourth line.

The good news is that he might save the team having to go out and get a player like Travis Moen.. if the rest of his Canucks career isn't also reminiscent of Cowan's.

[RoyalDude]

I lost count on how many times Shorty said "a weak pass by Booth".

Malhotra sucks, Blobcat Mackenzie. I'd almost rather Ryan Johnson instead of him, he's that bad.

[Vpete]

Luongo is 13-0-6 since December 2009 when he has seen 40 shots or more.

[dhabums]

I lost count on how many times Shorty said "a weak pass by Booth".

BS you lost count, you masturbate to that stuff.

[Southern_Canuck]

On the Sergei Kostitsyn goal --- as soon as I hear "distinct kicking motion" I immediately get angry at the NHL. And Mike Murphy and Colin Campbell in particular.

The Canucks should stop worrying about getting a power forward for the team, and instead find a way to elevate Harold Snepsts, Cliff Ronning, or Dave Baych to positions of authority in the NHL head office so that we can benefit from the corruption and bias.

Anyway, I guess it'll be a Los Angeles-Boston final.

S_C